Our engagement with the Darwin community is not limited to providing Sunday services and rites of passage. Opportunities for ministry start quite literally on our doorstep. Each Sunday morning the parish provides breakfast to the homeless in our community—this now provides support to more than 100 individuals each week. Apart from “feeding the 5,000” we have a weekly children’s ministry, including a children’s message and Sunday school involving parents and grandparents with the children.

Our clergy provide a variety of services in the wider community, including ministries at the hospital, the prison and local nursing homes. The parish also supports a newly-established Mission to Seafarers at Darwin Port, providing vital services for seafarers far from home.

Darwin’s often challenging social dynamics mean that there are always community members in need, and further opportunities for the cathedral parish to serve the community. Our current Diocesan Strategic Plan intends parishes to be ‘ministering communities which provide dynamic worship, pastoral care and Christian education’ and also looks for us to reach out to the community and engage with environmental and social justice concerns.