Feast Commission of
"Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus" Parish
Sliema

The Feast Commission of “Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus” Parish was founded in 1993, and started to function on a regular basis on Wednesday 22nd September 1993.
On that date the first meeting was held at the Convent of the Franciscan Fathers in Sliema under the guidance of Rev. Fr. Julian Sammut OFM S.Th.D.

Present during this meeting were : Alfred Simler (Chairperson) ; Winston Zammit (Secretary) ; John Bugeja (Treasurer) ; Stephen Buhagiar ; Mario Fenech ; Raymond Gauci and Brian Vella.

First task for this commission was to organise the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, celebrated in this parish on the first week of October. After this Feast passed, work on the preparations for the Titular Feast started immediately. Since all members of the Feast Commission were already confident about the Oraganisation of the Feast, for them this was something ongoing to proceed for these preparations.

Up to the year 2001 members on this Commission used to be chosen by the Reverend Father responsible for the Feast. But in 2001 the need for a statute approved by the Reverand Provincial Minister was felt and so members serving on the Feast Commission were chosen by an election which took place during the General Meeting.

Today the Feast Commission organises the Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which together with the “Sliema” Philharmonic Society (Societa’ Filarmonica “Sliema”) without any doubts organise the best feast to be celebrated in Sliema.

The Feast Commission is responsible for the outdoor decorations of the Titular Feast, decoration of the Church, fund raising towards the Feast, organisation of the Procession with participation of bands, and also for Church activities during the days of the Feast, such as orchestra, security, cleaning and many other things.

As time passed the street decorations owned by the Commission increased and so there became the need of building a new store for storing the light decoration of the parish. In 2002 another store was built to store other street decorations. The construction of these stores could not have been possibble without the generosity and aid of various members.

One here must say that during the Feast all streets of our parish are decorated with lamps, tinsle and decorative banners.

From all this one can immediately notice that the members of the Feast Commission are all people that work hard all year round making the Feast of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, Mother of all Sliema the best.