STORY - "Meet Kate Nesbitt"
By Angela Maley.

Kate Nesbitt has become the Executive and Pastoral Assistant in Raymond Terrace parish, working with Fr Des Harrigan.

Many in Newcastle will remember Kate, or Kathy, from childhood in Waratah, at San Clemente and St Anne’s High School. Many experiences have taken her to different parts of Australia. Kate calls her life “a mosaic”. The new piece being added in Raymond Terrace is enhancing the theme of the picture, enthusiastic service.

Kate says her youthful ambition was to combine love of animals and a way to help people. The job of Guide Dog trainer seemed to be ideal, but very hard to achieve.

After trying an Arts Degree but realising that was not the way, Kate started work as a vet nurse. Still interested in helping others, she worked as a mobility instructor, teaching people with sight problems to use their long canes successfully.

These skills were rewarded when Kate won a cadetship to become a Guide Dog trainer in Melbourne. She worked there and in Brisbane, and took up the running of Guide Dog training in Newcastle.

Unfortunately, injured ankles made walking trainee dogs very difficult, and Kate was reluctantly forced to give up. But then, in what she calls “an Abraham experience” the giving up was followed by the getting back. Puppy training was the new opportunity offered her by the Brisbane Guide Dog Association.

Her return to Brisbane became an unexpectedly new and different piece in the mosaic. Kate says she was aware of a call to serve God in some more immediate way, even though her work was certainly in God’s service. While doing the Adult Faith Education Foundations of Theology course, Kate recognised that she was passionate about theology.

So after 15 years, she resigned from the Guide Dog Association and, having sold her house in Newcastle to support herself, launched into the deep with a full time theology degree at the Brisbane Theological College.

Along the way, part time jobs as parish housekeeper and office worker gave Kate valuable insight into grass roots parish life. Together with her theology studies, these pieces of the mosaic were assembling another part of the picture.

After graduation, Kate successfully applied for the position of Parish Leader in the Townsville Diocese. She became the Parish Leader in Bowen, responsible for the administration and pastoral life of the parish. A resident priest was on hand for Mass and the Sacraments, while Kate was called upon to be Funeral Minister. It was a challenging three years, made even more so when the church burned down, and a new building had to be planned.

Just as her contract was coming to an end, bereavement and health problems in her Newcastle family called Kate to come back here.

Bishop Michael, aware of her qualifications and experience, offered her the opportunity to pioneer joint leadership in Raymond Terrace Parish. Here she shares responsibility with Father Des, instead of going it alone, as in Bowen. This is a new initiative for our diocese.

So today the mosaic of Kate’s life is acquiring more pieces. But at least two big elements of the picture come together in one aspect. Kate’s German Shepherd (well trained, of course) is named after the German theologian, Karl Rahner.

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