1. Please tell us something about the brief history of your Parish, its territory, and jurisdiction

      In the year 1976, Archbishop Angelo Fernandes had invited the Dominican Fathers to start a parish in the Archdiocese of Delhi. Fr. Thomas Ryan, OP and Fr. Paul Mondoth, OP had come as pioneers to look for a place and to start a parish. Initially they stayed in different places, and then they stayed in the Rosary School and in St. Thomas Church, R. K Puram. They looked for a place in Vasant Vihar because of their apostolate in the Jawaharlal Nehru University. After a couple of years, they came to stay in a garage in E Block of Vasant Vihar, where they celebrated mass and began the parish. After a few months they moved to a rented house at B 8/25 where they stayed for three years, during which the parish church was built. It was blessed on the 8^th of August 1983. At present we are four priests, Fr. Amirtha Raj, OP, the parish priest, Fr. Malachy O’ Dwyer, OP, who is a canon lawyer and had carried out his apostolate in different capacity in different places and countries. Fr. Paul Kuruvilla, OP, is a professor of Canon law, and Fr. Raja Sudhakar Reddy, OP, a newly ordained priest, who is involved in many different ministry in the parish and is keenly involved in a number of apostolate in the diocese, particularly with the youth and SCC.

      The parish is comprised of Vasant Vihar, Vasant Gaon; the colonies: Nepali Camp, Bhanwar Singh Camp, Kusumpur Pahadi; the Indian Airlines and the Air India Colony and the JNU.

2. Please tell us something about your church premises, area and facilities available.

      The Church is situated in a very small area about 50 feet by 100 feet. But the Church building is a land mark, as it is in the approach road to Vasant Vihar which leads to the main shopping center Priya Complex. The church is very simple, artistic, tranquil and conducive for prayer; it is approachable, has parking place, and the church is open every day from 5.30 in the morning till almost 10.00 P.M.

      The best facility is the warmth experienced and expressed by almost all the people who come to the church on Sundays. They interact with all the priests as they move out after the Holy Mass. There is a personal interaction between the people and the priests. 

3. Please describe your parishiones, such as the number of families, from where do they hail, their background and participation in parish affairs.

      There are about 500 families in the parish. About 25 families have their own residence. The rest of the families are not permanent. About 30 families work in the Airlines, about 5 families in the JNU, either as professors or as staff. About 25 families are Diplomats from different countries, of whom many go to the Vatican Embassy for Mass; about 15 families are well placed; the rest of the families are employed as helpers and domestic workers.

      Most of them hail from Chota Nagpur, Tamil Nadu and the rest from different parts of India. They all feel part of the parish. There is great cooperation, collaboration, commitment, belonging, generosity, fellowship, etc among all. Above all they participate and function as one family. 

4. What are the liturgical activities, such as Sunday Masses, languages and rites, Mass centers?

      On Sundays we have six masses and on the last Sunday of the month we have seven masses. One mass in Hindi and one mass for children. We do not have any mass centers, but surely we have neighbourhood masses and on First Fridays, there is holy hour. Week days there is mass in the morning and in the evening. 

5. What are the main feasts celebrated such as any particular celebration at Christmas, community lunch/dinner, Patron Saints feast et al where the entire community participates?

      The main fellowship is during the feast of St. Dominic, the parish feast during which we have a (Preeti Bhoj) lunch for about 4000 people: it is for parishioners and for anyone who comes. Then every now and then we have coming together for sharing and for fellowship of small groups of different organizations.

6. Describe various parish bodies such as Parish council, Finance committee, Youth, Choir, Society of St. Vincent de Paul etc

The parish has six choirs; two prayer groups; about 60 altar servers both young and not so young; the Sodality of Our Lady for adolescents; the Dominican Youth Movement; the Group of Catechism Teachers; the Women’s Desk; Society of Vincent de Paul; the Eucharistic Ministers; the Alpha Group; about 16 SCC Groups; the Think Tank and the Parish Council members of 55 members. The parish council members are divided into 10 committees; and these committees manage all the activities in the parish, including the finance.

7. What in your opinion is the key to fostering good pastor-people relations for the spiritual, social and financial growth of the Parish?

      The people would flock to a Church where there is good Sunday service. The Mass and the other services must be prayerful, with a good homily, a good choir, solemn yet simple and meaningful; the service must be punctual, the announcements are to be brief, clear and read out; the volunteers are cordial and cheerful, a spiritual atmosphere, etc.

      The priests are pastors and so they must relate to the people after the heart of Jesus, the Good Shepherd. The priests are to be spiritual, prayerful, pastoral, loving, caring, friendly, reaching out, generous, service minded, sacrificing, sensitive, listening; and must not be one who is angry, scolding, fault finding, gossiping, accusing, critical, over powering, domineering, etc. 

8. What is your experience of being a Parish Priest from a Religious background and tell us something about your congregation, its mission and activities in Delhi?

This is the fourth parish where I am working as a parish priest. The other parishes had been in a hill station, in a city, in a very poor rural village and now in Vasant Vihar. The parish is looked after by the Dominican fathers and not an individual’s parish and the entire Dominican community takes care of the parish.

      Dominicans are preachers; so coming from the background of teaching and preaching, importance is given to organizing, preaching and uplifting. Many people come to St. Dominic’s Church for the sake of the homily.

9. What are the various religious houses/ congregations/ institutions functioning in your parish and their activities?

      The Salesian Sisters are in the parish and they have a school: the Holy Child Auxilium School. They work with the school children, youth and with the families.