PLEASE PRAY FOR THE REPOSE OF SOUL OF: Walter Sargent RIP. Funeral Service on Monday 28th September 2020 Matt Tunney RIP. Funeral Mass to be arranged. Fr Albert Van der Most RIP - retired priest of this diocese. Please remember them and their families in your prayers.
Telephone support for the bereaved. If you have been recently bereaved and you would like to talk to someone, we have members of our bereavement team who are able to offer you the time and space to reflect on your loss. In the current circumstances face to face visiting may prove difficult, however, until that becomes easier, we can chat on the phone. If you would like to talk to someone then please contact the Parish office who will arrange this for you.
Offertory Collection and Second Collections. There have been a number of National and Diocesan second collections that have not been taken due to the Covid-19 Lockdown. The Conference of Bishops has issued a revised schedule and invite us as best we can to make offerings to the variety of good causes whose income has been severely effected. There will be a separate bucket at the back of the Churches over the coming weeks for these collections next to the baskets for our parish offertory collection. Should you wish to support the parish collection or any of the retiring collections online please email the parish office for details.
This Weekend: the retiring collection is for the Holy Places of Jerusalem - normally taken on Good Friday.
Next Weekend the retiring collection will be Peter’s Pence for the work the Apostolic Sea - normally taken on the Solemnity of Sts Peter and Paul in June.
OPENING THE DOORS OF OUR THREE CHURCHES
This week the Church will be open for the public celebration of Mass:
(please note that social distancing of 1m plus a face covering must be maintained and the instructions for seating and movement within the church given by Stewards must be followed)
- Sunday 27th September - 9.00am Holy Family
- Sunday 27th September - 11.00am St Joseph’s
- Sunday 27th September - 5.30pm St Teresa’s
- Friday 2nd Oct - 10.00am St Joseph’s
- Saturday 3rd Oct - 5.30pm St Joseph's
- Sunday 4th Oct - 9.00am Holy Family
- Sunday 4th Oct - 11.00am St Joseph’s
- Sunday 4th Oct - 5.30pm St Teresa’s
This week each Church will open for private prayer
Wednesday 30th September 5pm-7pm
Those entering are asked not to touch or physically venerate statues or other sacred objects.
Toilets and washing/baby changing facilities are to remain closed
Volunteers are needed - the more the better! We need stewards for the Masses and cleaners for the equally important cleaning teams. You must not be from those instructed to shield themselves, nor from those under 18 or over 70 years old, or from groups considered more vulnerable to coronavirus. We need minsters of word and Eucharist, again those considerable vulnerable should abstain from offering at this time. We also need volunteers to help around the grounds with general maintenance. If you feel you can help in any way please email the parish office with the subject line ‘Volunteer’. Pass the word around and encourage others to come forward as well. Thank you.
Ministers of Word and Eucharist at Mass - we need to draw up a rota from those who feel able to come to Mass and are able to assist with the new ’timetable’ that we are able to offer, given some of the limitations that are in place concerning age and shielding. Please email the parish office to indicate your availability so that we can build up a varied ‘pool’ of ministers.
Celebration of the Sacraments and Space at Mass during the month of October Although the Government rules guiding the celebration of Marriage have changed again to restrict numbers to 15 attendees, other life-cycle events such as the sacrament of baptism and the occasion of a funeral can still be celebrated with a limit of 30 people. There is no fixed limit to the number of people we can have at mass provided the guidance is kept which we are be-coming familiar with: face coverings, social distancing, stewards, sanitizing, controlled movement etc. We are intending, subject to any further restrictions announced by the Government, to use the weekend Masses during the month of October to celebrate our children’s First Communions, and the 11am Mass at St Joseph’s on 11th & 18th October to celebrate our teen-ager’s Confirmations. As you may know we have roughly 100 children for First Communion and about 25 teenagers for Confirmation this year.
We will have a limited number of youngsters at each Mass and the families are very limited in the number of guests they can invite. Also, conforming with government regulations the families cannot gather afterwards in a group of more than 6 people for any party. All this will be very strange and challenging for the families and for the parish but it does mean that our young people who have all been waiting to receive these wonderful gifts from God can now do so.
These celebrations will mean that our Masses, which have been growing in attendance, will be fuller and we may be close to capacity as directed by social distancing. Indeed, there may come a point when no more can enter the Church on that occasion. Please follow the stewards guidance on this with understanding. The obligation to attend Sunday Mass remains suspended during the pandemic and during this coming month you may prefer to come to Mass on Fridays if you want to be more certain of a place. Please pray for our young people and their families.
School Admissions Forms If you are applying for your child to attend St Bede’s or St Joseph’s, or another Faith School, in September 2020, in the relevant form please fill in ‘Parish of the Nativity of the Lord’ as your parish and ‘Fr Tony Bridson’ as Parish Priest. We will have to make different arrangements to sign the supplementary forms this year so keep an eye on the newsletter.
Parish Walk for CAFOD Our three parish churches were visited last Sunday by two groups of four parishioners walking to raise funds for CAFOD. The distance between Holy Family, St Teresa's and St Joseph's is 8.5 miles, but it was a beautiful sunny autumn day and the walkers achieved the walk in just over three hours. The final sum raised for CAFOD is not yet confirmed, but thanks to all who contributed. There will be another opportunity to donate to CAFOD next month, when the annual Harvest Fast Day collection takes place on the weekend of 10/11 October.
Confirmation Catechists The Diocese is hosting a Webinar to help Confirmation Catechists explore what some of the options are as we move forward in the ‘new normal’ that Covid 19 has created. It will be taking place online via Zoom on 7th October at 7.30pm. but if you cannot attend at this time, please still register your interest and we will send you a recording of the session. To register please complete this form:
https://forms.gle/96kHpayQarneZiJV9
The Catechism of the Catholic Church How can you deepen your Catholic faith without going on a course or sitting down and reading the whole book from cover to cover? The answer is that each week we are publishing short extract summaries from the Catechism of the Catholic Church which have been thematically arranged in bite-size chunks that take no more than 10 minutes to read. Teach yourself and deepen your faith: click here to take you to our feature page.
Pilgrimage to the Holy Land From 19th -28th April 2021, for 10 days based in Jerusalem and Galilee. The cost is £2,125 full board. For further details or to register your interest please email Fr Stephen in Oxted at [email protected]
ST MATTHEWS FOODBANK Please take food to St Matthews Mon/Wed/Fri between 12noon and 2pm. See their website for more information
NOTICE OF INTENTION TO MARRY Congratulations! For those of you considering marriage please be aware that Bishop Richard asks that you contact the parish at least 12 months beforehand, in order to begin the appropriate preparation and complete the required paperwork. Thank you.
DO YOU SHOP ONLINE? AND WISH TO HELP PNL? If you shop online at no cost to you a small donation can be made to the parish for each purchase you make! All you need do is enter your details by going to www.easyfundraising.org.uk/causes/pnl and clicking ‘Support us for free’. Then, when shopping online, you will be asked if you want to claim a donation for PNL. Click ‘Claim Donation’ and a small percentage of what you spend will be sent to our Parish Development Fund. So, please get clicking. Thank you.
VINCENTIAN VOLUNTEER Aged 18-35 with a year to spare to live in a faith-filled community and make a difference serving the needy in our society? Then visit www.vincentianvolunteers.org.uk
