Local Vocations
Over the last 125 years there has been to date only three lasting vocations to the Religious life.
Pam Embleton received her Dominican habit with the name Sr. Monica Mary on the 17th August 1965. Sr. Monica is currently working in England.
Fr. Derrick Butt (left) & Deacon Malcolm Wright (right)
Father Derrick Butt O.M.I.
Fr. Derrick Butt O.M.I. gives communion to his parents Fred and Olive Butt.
Father Derrick was born on the 16th August 1946. He attended St. Henry’s Marist Brothers College Durban. After leaving school he joined the Oblates of Mary Immaculate. After studying, firstly at the Oblate Noviate in Germiston, and at St. Joseph’s Oblate Scholasticate in Cedara, he was ordained to the Priesthood by Archbishop Denis Hurley O.M.I. on the 10 December 1971.
Fr. Derrick served as parish priest at the Bluff from 1986 to 1992. He is currently Parish Priest at the Our Lady of the Assumption, Umbilo.
Deacon Malcolm Wright
Deacon Malcolm’s ordination to the Diaconate on the 22 July 1990 was the first ordination to take place in the parish church. Born in Malvern (now Queensburgh), Durban on the 14 June 1954, Deacon Malcolm moved to the Bluff in 1956 at the age of two years old. He attended the local schools, Bushlands Primary School and Grosvenor Boys High School. In 1981 he met Sharon Lelong and on the 5th May 1984 they were married in the Parish Church. They have two sons Bradley and Stephen. In 1984 Fr. Joseph Theobald put Deacon Malcolm’s name forward to the Archdiocese to be admitted to the Diaconate training program. After six years study, Firstly under Father Joseph Theobald O.M.I and then Father Derrick Butt O.M.I., he was ordained to the Married Permanent Diaconate by Archbishop Denis Hurley O.M.I.. Deacon Malcolm has represented the Deacons on the Diocesan Pastoral Council as well as been a member of the Diocesan Diaconate Board.
Deacon Malcolm’s Ordination in Pictures
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Message from Cardinal Napier | Message from Fr Stuart Bate OMI | Forward: Professor Joy Brain | Introduction | A history of the St Francis Mission | Establishment of the Church at Fynnland | The Church at Wentworth | Centralisation of St Francis Xavier and Building of the New Church | The Building of the Parish Hall | The Building of the New Presbytery | The Building of the Wall of Remembrance | The Architectural meaning of the New Church | Your Church in Rhyme by Fr Andy Slowey | The Human Contribution to the Growth of the Parish | Groups and Organisations that have contributed to the Parish | Current Groups within the Parish | Local Vocations | Awards and Recognition | An Armchair tour of the Parish | The Shrine to Our Lady of Natal | Landholdings of the Catholic Church on the Bluff | A Portrait of the Life and Times of St Francis Xavier | Picture Gallery | Timeline of incidents of the Bluff Parish
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