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'Christ has no body now but yours' St Theresa of Avila
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Parish News
Our very latest news updates and information about Parish activities.
Thank you very much to Antonia who has very kindly agreed to look after the flowers which decorate our church. Church flowers are a beautiful prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God. We are always very grateful for any flowers you may wish to donate which will be used in the church to give honour to the Lord.
It is wise to write a Will so that the resources you have when the time comes for you to leave this world, goes to the people and organisations you wish. May I suggest that you might consider leaving a Bequest in your will to our parish or to our diocese or to our priest as well as to other causes. A gift in your will can enable us to continue to help people to know the Lord Jesus and his saving love. What a wonderful legacy you would be leaving behind.
To Clare and everyone who brought the beautiful plants and flowers that adorn our church giving praise to God. To everyone for your generosity in the Easter Sunday collection and for all your gifts and cards. To Jim for cutting the grass.
Dear Parents, please note that the Children’s own reflection of the Liturgy of God’s Word, takes place during School Term times. Please, of course, continue to bring the children to holy Mass, come early and sit near the front of the church so that children can see and better understand the holy Mass. The children’s own Liturgy of the Word begins again on Sunday 26th April. Dear Parents, please bring the children to the Holy Week Services especially on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and the Easter Vigil/First holy Mass of Easter on Saturday evening. During this week, the Lord speaks powerfully of his saving love, through the Liturgy, to all our hearts.
Please could you bring flowers and plants to our church that we could then place them on the sanctuary for Easter, as signs of the joy we feel at the Lord’s Resurrection from the Dead. Please bring them any time next Saturday before about 5.00pm and leave them in the porch of the church. Thank you.
PARISH CELEBRATION - THANK YOU, WITH ALL MY HEART What an amazing, quite wonderful Celebration we all enjoyed, last Sunday. It was an occasion full of joy and happiness, as we thanked the good Lord for all his loving kindness. It reminded me of the description, in the Acts of the Apostles, of how the first Christians lived - sharing and caring, as they rejoiced in their awareness of the risen Lord alive in their midst, by the power of the Holy Spirit. There isn’t enough space on this Newsletter to thank so many people by name, who in so many ways, made the Parish Celebration a huge success. Thank you, with all my heart, to everyone for everything you did. The memory of my Golden Anniversary of Priesthood will remain with me for ever. Please send me, digitally, your photographs. Unless you instruct me otherwise, I would like to publish some of them on our parish website, as a permanent reminder of a quite wonderful moment in the life our parish. Thank you for all your gifts and cards and best wishes. I am deeply honoured to be your priest. Thank you for your generous Collection for me which raised £1,596.00.
Parish Priest Notices
Important notices and items. These will contain news elements & important requests and parish notices
In ordinary jobs, people swop roles and swop arrangements for their jobs with each other. That is good and necessary. A Vocation is something very different than a Job! A Vocation is a Calling from the Lord to a particular person, to fulfil a sacred and a specific role on specific occasions. Our Eucharistic Ministers and our Lectors have a Vocation to sacred roles. They have been called and chosen by the Lord, through his Church, to exercise specific, sacred Callings for specific moments. Dear Eucharistic Ministers and Lectors, if it is impossible for you, at any time, to fulfil your sacred role on a specific occasion, please let me know as soon as you can so that I can appoint someone else to exercise their Calling on that specific occasion. I would be very grateful if you could please advise me rather than swop with someone else, for the above reason. Many thanks.
May 2/3: 5pm Angela; 9am Phil; 11am Margaret, Simone, Mary(H) 9/10: 5pm Lisa; 9am Carolyn; 11am Jim, Giannina, Gaberielle(H) 16/17: 5pm Linda; 9am Paul; 11am Lizzie, Patricia, Lorenza(H) 23/24 : 5pm Maggie; 9am Ross; 11am David, Marian, Angela(H) 30/31: 5pm Phil; 9am Margaret; 11am Mary, Lisa, Simone(H) Thank you to our wonderful Ministers of the Eucharist who have accepted the Lord’s invitation to this awesome, sacred ministry, by their willingness to give up their own plans and convenience in order to do God’s will rather than their own. Let us pray for them because they too fight the same personal weaknesses we all have to fight against and they too have to fight the same temptations we all have to fight. God be with them.
Tue: Lisa Wed: Lorenza Fri: Claire
Please do your best to bring members of your family, your friends, neighbours and colleagues who normally have little, if any contact with our Catholic parish, to the Olde Forge Cafe. Please remember that those you bring with you DO NOT give a donation for their coffee and cake. Only us, who are regular members of our parish, are asked to give a donation, each time, to cover the cost of the Coffee machine, coffee beans, heat, light etc. Dear Bakers and those who provide milk, please remember to take your expenses from the donations received.
Please note that the Cafe is only licensed to provide hot drinks and cakes. We are not insured for the cooking or provision of hot food. There are regulations around hygiene and food safety which we would have to meet, before we would be able to offer cooked or heated food to Visitors to the Cafe. Also, only someone with the required Health and Safety certification is permitted by Law, to prepare food for public consumption. We can, of course, apply for permission to provide cooked or heated food in our Cafe and as long as we can satisfy all the requirements, we would receive permission to do so. This is what we have done in the past for special occasions. If we were to use the cooking facilities and equipment in our Cafe and provide food, without the required permissions, we could be in difficulty. If an accident occurred in the kitchen or someone became unwell after consuming food, we could well face a very large fine or even the compulsory closure of the Cafe. Please speak with me, well in advance, if you would like to suggest an occasion when we could provide cooked or heated food. We would need to satisfy all requirements and seek the approvals needed, which we could do. Many thanks.
Thank you so much to all the wonderful people who act as Hosts in our Olde Forge Cafe. If you are not yet a Host, please speak with me. It would be great to increase the team of Hosts. All training to operate the Coffee Machine, will be given.
Parish /
Diocesan Events
Deep in the human heart is a longing to be connected to others, to love and to be loved. I am leading this Workshop from 10.00am until 2.00pm on Saturday 11th July . The Workshop will help us to understand the reasons why we sometimes feel lonely and what a devastating effect Loneliness can have on us. I’ll suggest effective ways to ensure that your experience of Loneliness can actually become the means of finding deep, satisfying ways of being close to the Lord and to other people. The workshop will take place at the London Jesuit Centre. If you would like to attend this Workshop, please book now on the London Jesuit Centre website.
Anxiety and Worry often make life difficult for many people. I am leading this Workshop, from the evening of Friday 22nd May ( 6.30pm to 8.30pm) then continuing on Saturday 23rd May (11.00am TO 1.00pm). This Workshop will explain how Anxiety begins, how it can take hold of us and then spoil so much of our lives. I’ll also offer some very good, tried and tested ways in which people can escape from Worry or at the very least reduce it and begin to live much happier lives, feeling and monk . The Workshop will take place at the London Jesuit Centre. If you would like to attend this Workshop, please book now on the London Jesuit Centre website.
May I invite you to join me for a short ‘Walk of Witness’ along our High Street on the morning of Good Friday. We will walk from our church, at 11.00am, to the ‘Gruffy’, stopping occasionally to meditate and pray. One of our parishioners, dressed in similar clothes to Jesus, will carry a large cross. We will be finished by 11.45am. Please bring the children too. I’m hoping that some of our friends from other Christian Churches will join us.
PLEASE CLICK ON THE ABOVE ICON FOR A GUIDED MEDITATION
PRAY FOR OUR ARCHBISHOP - JOHN WILSON
As a parish we encourage our community to pray for our shepherd