After eleven and a half years of service as Canon Precentor of St Paul’s Cathedral, the Revd Canon Heather Patacca will step down from Cathedral duties to take a ministry break. She will conclude her service at St Paul’s on 6 December 2024. Canon Heather said: ‘I plan to have a break for refreshment and enjoy time with family and friends, and then see where I head on the next adventure’.
Dean Andreas Loewe expressed his gratitude for Canon Heather Patacca’s ministry: ‘I give thanks for Heather’s long service and outstanding contribution to St Paul’s. During her time as Precentor, she has significantly helped enable the growth of our congregations both in number and maturity in faith. She has been instrumental in helping the Cathedral to shape, and live out, our vision to be a home church for Anglicans, by being a place of hospitality and welcome’.
Dean Andreas highlighted Canon Heather’s crucial role during the COVID-19 pandemic: ‘Her leadership of our liturgical life, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, was essential in maintaining a meaningful connection with our congregants and Anglicans across the globe. It was exactly this connection that led to the steady growth of our numbers as we reopened’.
Canon Heather has left an indelible mark on the Cathedral community. ‘Her many creative ideas remain a continued source of joy,’ Dean Andreas remarked. ‘I never expected to handle a flamethrower in church to illustrate the flames of Pentecost, as we did when we recorded one of our lockdown kids’ Bible talks’.
‘Her leadership in the Australian church, whether as Archdeacon of Melbourne or as chair of General Synod’s Liturgy Commission, are only some examples of her unstinting service over the years’
In thanking Canon Heather, the Dean also gave thanks for her leadership in the wider church: ‘Her leadership in the Australian church, whether as Archdeacon of Melbourne or as chair of General Synod’s Liturgy Commission, are only some examples of her unstinting service over the years’. Canon Heather said: ‘I have truly enjoyed my time working at the Cathedral and relished the many opportunities for ministry it afforded me. It has been a privilege to be Canon Precentor and I loved working with my colleagues, our congregations and volunteers at the Cathedral’.