Parish News

JANUARY 2026 4/5 : 5pm Margaret; 9am Simone; 11am Mary 11/12 : 5pm Lisa; 9am Carolyn; 11am John 18/19: 5pm Jim; 9am Angela; 11am Marian 25/26 : 5pm Gabrielle; 9am Giannina; 11am Lesley 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.

31 December: Lizzie 1 January: Paul  2 January: Giannina

The Crib Offerings this year will be for ‘The Manna Society’, an organisation working in Central London which provides food, clothes, medical care and much more to homeless people living on the streets of our capital city.

4/5: 5pm Lisa; 9am David; 11am Paul 11/12: 5pm Phil; 9am Mike Guckian; 11am Chinwe 18/19: 5pm Patricia; 9am Gerry; 11am Mutsa  25/26: 5pm Claire; 9am Chris Mallows; 11am Lorenza

Our First Reconciliation and First Holy Communion preparation programme for children and their parents, begins on Friday 16th January , at 5.00pm in the Parish Room. Our programme to help parents to prepare their children for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist will begin early in the New Year. Meetings for Parents and meetings for their children will be on Friday evenings at 5.00pm. The parents will meet with Fr Malachy in the Parish Room and the children will meet with our Catechists in the Sacristy of the church, at the same time. Each meeting will last just 30 minutes.  The dates of the meetings are flexible but we are planning to have the first six meetings on: 16th, 23rd, and 30th January 2026, then the 6th, 13th and 20th of February 2026. First Reconciliation for Children and their parents will be during the Season of Lent 2026 and First Holy Communion during the month of June 2026. If you have a child who you think is ready to receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion in 2026, please let me have details as soon as possible so that we can begin our planning.

Thank you for all the lovely cards and gifts that you very kindly gave me for Christmas. Thank you also for your generosity in the Offertory Collections of Christmas Days. I feel honoured to be your Parish Priest.  Thank you to the children, parents and grandparents who came and built an inspiring crib and decorated our tree so beautifully. Congratulations and very well done to the children who designed the crib to represent the type of structure in which the people of Gaza are forced to live.

Our first Holy Mass of the New Year will be on Thursday 1st January at 9.30am , preceded by Morning Prayer at 9.00am and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament at 9.10am. There could not possibly be a better way to begin 2026 than to come to Holy Mass on the first day of the New Year and to allow the Lord to draw close to you, as he promises you his wonderful, all healing, all-powerful love throughout the coming year.

We can be truly proud of the fact that we have been fully following the teaching of the Second Vatican Council by making it possible for everyone to receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion exactly as he gave himself to us, under the forms of bread and wine. To receive Our Blessed Lord under just one kind is to receive him fully, but to receive him under both kinds is much more faithful to the way he gave himself to his friends at the Last Supper. There are warning signs that a very serious strain of ‘flu is around. With this in mind, I think it would be wise if we suspend receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion under the form of wine, during these winter months. If you feel you can receive Our Lord in the sacred host, in your hand, please do so. That way is more hygienic than receiving the sacred host on your tongue. However, if you feel it is best for you to receive on the tongue, please do continue to do so. It would also be sensible to simply bow to each other at the Sign of Peace in holy Mass rather than shake hands. So too, it’s probably best not to hold hands during the Our Father in the holy Mass.  I feel sad that we have to suspend these aspects of our celebration of holy Mass for a little while. We will reinstate them as soon as possible in the Spring when the threat of this very serious strain of the ‘flu has diminished.

Thank you to the thousands of people who took part in the Called to Bear Fruit consultation. We are grateful to you all for sharing so openly your hopes for the life of the Church in our Archdiocese. The consultation response, which includes 15 actions points for renewal, is available at https://rcaos.org.uk/calledtobearfruit and hardcopies will be sent to every parish. The consultation revealed a burning desire within our parishes to be missionary and evangelising disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who work together to help people encounter His love. So, as we move forward on the next steps together, let’s build up the Body of Christ in Southwark with faith and confidence, becoming ever more a community of missionary disciples filled with joy and hope for the future. As an Archdiocese, we will continue to discern the process of renewal, and further updates will be provided in due course. There are hard copies of the ‘Report on the Consultation’, in the porch of the church. I’m afraid they are rain-damaged but hopefully still readable.