MUMBAI: St Anthony’s Church in Malwani, Malad, which lost part of its premises to the BMC‘s road widening project in February, is planning to build a bigger church and parish house to accommodate its growing flock. To this end, the church is organising a fundraiser concert by Australian musician Fr Rob Galea on November 30 and December 1.
“Fr Rob Galea and his band will be travelling to India to perform in Mumbai, Goa, and Bengaluru. The concert in Mumbai is on November 30 and December 1, and we are expecting 6,000-8,000 people to attend over the two days,” said parishioner Carl Sequeira.
Parish Priest Fr Cajetan Menezes said, “St Anthony’s Church is a parish that is over 400 years old. It is the fastest-growing parish in Mumbai. The current church was built in 1835. Recently, we lost the residence of our priests due to the BMC road widening project in February 2024. To create new space for our growing number of parishioners, we have launched a mission to create a bigger and better campus for the future and are in the process of raising funds for our new buildings. We plan to build a new parish house for the priests, a new church, and a meeting hall building.”
St Anthony’s is organising a fundraiser prayer festival, ‘Soul Strings’, from November 27 to December 1 at its church ground. Prayers and performances are being held in different languages in keeping with the profile of the parishioners. Fr Rob Galea’s concerts are scheduled for November 30 and December 1.
Fr Cajetan said the church is sorting out the land title issue of the plot on which the new church will be built. “Once we sort out this issue, the application for construction will be filed,” he said.