The multimedia photo releases that link directly to the news report submitted. These photos (and introduction voice audio) highlight the points raised in the article. Each photos is captioned and referenced to the part of the article it relates to.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
An introduction to the back story and relevance that the following photographs have in relation to what will happen after the church merger - and the changes that have already occurred over the past years.
Each of the Primary Schools in Ivanhoe are an approximate 9 minute drive from point A to point B.
It [The Amalgamation] could cause problems for older parishioners that lived walking distance from the church, which could result in loss of numbers at the new location. If there aren’t Parishioner families in the church, it would seem that Mother of God will also lose numbers.
Lauren Thom, Former Student and Parishioner.
A notification placed on the window of Mother of God discussing the people who have become distance from the church in the past year and the overall decline of Parishes losing numbers throughout Melbourne and Australia.
Mother of God Parish’s upstairs level once held space for the Mother of God students to indulge in activities such as Music and Performing arts. However, Performing Arts and Music has not been a part of the Mother of God Curriculum since 2010.
St Bernadette’s Church - Although the smallest building in the Ivanhoe Parishes, St Bernadette’s student enrolment is higher than both Mother of God and Mary Immaculate Primary School.
A banner promoting the source to find information on the three standing Parishes placed on Mary Immaculate Parish. This banner insinuates that “Ivanhoe Catholics” is well and truly beginning.
Mary Immaculate Parish is located on Upper Heidelberg Road, Ivanhoe. Though it is the biggest church of the three, once the merge is official, Upper Heidelberg Road will become host to 3 Parishes for Sunday Church and create chaos amongst residents.
It will be a loss not to be able to take my possible family back to the church I grew up in. It feels as if it is the end of an era, I will miss the church.
Parishioner and Former Student, Lauren Thom.
An original stone highlighting the length of the Church’s impact on the East Ivanhoe Community. 10 years after the opening of the Church, Mother of God Primary School opened in 1963 across the street.
The state of the art new facilities that Mother of God provides still may not be enough to increase enrolments in the upcoming years without its own Parish.
Mother of God Primary School has promotional banners for enrolment that have been hanging since the beginning of the school year. One in which reads “places still available for the current school year.”
