Happy New Year! January is a time both to look back and to look forward, to reflect on what went well in 2023 and what didn’t, and to anticipate the potential of a new year and the good things that it will bring. Many of us make resolutions for the
Continue readingHave you ever started the year resolving to read through the whole bible – or resolving to increase your knowledge and understanding of the bible? I’ve tried many times and failed! This year I discovered a plan that worked!! Not only will I have read (with 18 days to go)
Continue readingWhat a fantastic SVP Christmas lunch we all enjoyed in the church hall last Monday. We welcomed 77 of our parishioners and friends to a delicious three course traditional Christmas lunch cooked that morning. A quartet of cellists played for the first half of the lunch and then a choir
Continue readingWhy is it important to have a dedicated ‘Family Mass’? The answer is simple: children are the future of the Church. For that reason we need to give children a positive experience of Mass, welcoming them and showing them with their families how they can all play an active part
Continue readingIt seems an age since I last wrote the parish newsletter’s front page and I do so now at a time of flux and adjustment. Since my accident on 25th October when I damaged the tendons in my right leg, and the subsequent operation less than a week later, I
Continue readingIt has been announced today that Father Ray Brennan is retiring as Parish Priest of our neighbouring parish of West Wickham after many years of faithful service. He has been on our prayer list – please pray for him as he begins his retirement. The archbishop has asked me to become
Continue readingChristmas is the best time of the year for many, but the worst time of the year from an environmental perspective. On Christmas Day last year, BBC Radio 4 broadcast a programme, “Christmas Recycled”, which looked at how we could make Christmas more sustainable and less wasteful in the UK. They looked
Continue readingDear brothers and sisters in Christ I returned recently from the month-long Synod on Synodality in Rome, convened by our Holy Father Pope Francis to reflect on communion, participation, and mission in the Church’s life. It was a remarkable journey, both engaging and exhausting, that led us forward on the
Continue readingAs you know the week before last Father Steve had a bad fall at Aylesford Priory; he has had surgery and is recovering well but is on sick leave; and Father John goes back to Nigeria this weekend for his mother’s funeral. Our prayers are with Fr Steve; and we
Continue readingThis weekend we have a collection of items for asylum seekers and refugees living at the London Catholic Worker community in north London. They are most in need of: tinned tomatoes, nuts, raisins, cheese, tuna, chilli sauce, rice, couscous, pulses, olive oil, cooking oil, vinegar, mayo, spices, sugar, sunflower seeds,
Continue reading