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Easter 2022
After a break, away at his 2nd love (the snooker), Fr Frank has been reflecting on how wonderful the Holy Week and Easter celebrations were.

Covid tried to spoil it, of course, but the various parish team members were lucky to have gotten through the virus with mild to moderate symptoms and were able to change plans around, as and when needed, to keep things running as smoothly as we could.

There were great numbers attending the Holy Week services and the music provided beautifully enhanced the liturgies. Thank you to our talented volunteers!



On Good Friday morning it was lovely to see people of all ages at the Children's Stations of the cross. There were children helping to lead the people from the congregation by reading and bringing up symbolic items as part of the interactive retelling of Jesus' passion. Thanks go out to all those involved in the planning and running of this special service for kids ~ the future of the church.

And on Easter Sunday morning Fr Frank invited the children up to have an Easter Egg - the little ones first and then a stampede by the older kids!


Thank you to everyone involved over Easter who helped make it as special as possible for those who were able to come to church, some for the 1st time in over 2 years.
Everyone, as ever, is always welcome when they are ready.
Fr Frank couldn't have wished Easter to have gone any better.

God bless you all.


CHILDREN’S LITURGY OF THE WORD ~ "CLOW"


CLOW starts back this weekend after a long time away!
So, if your child would like to join our trained & DBS cleared team to learn about the Gospel message in children’s language during Sunday morning Mass, please come up when invited to do so by Fr Frank at the start of Mass.
Then we will come back into church together for the Eucharistic prayers.
All children are welcome to come along to listen, join in, have fun & show respect for everyone there.
If your child would like to come & try it, or if you would like to see what we do, please feel free to come out with them to start with. For children who are not of school-age or not yet settled in at school, they are very welcome indeed - we just ask for a grown-up to accompany them to join in the fun. Then, when you feel they are ready, they can start to come out with the leaders.
We look forward to sharing this time and God's messages with the children.
With love from the CLOW Team.


Thank you Deacon Vincent for your Reflections for 3rd Sunday of Easter Year C.

1st Reading from the Acts of the Apostles 5: 27-32, 40-41.
This is a very short section of a much larger setting with Luke detailing the irresistible work of the Spirit. The Apostles have been imprisoned but released by an Angel of the Lord, and they went into the Temple preaching in the name of Jesus, so the High priest came, and the Temple guards brought them before the Sanhedrin. This is where we commence our reading, as they demand an explanation of why the Apostles continue to defy their ruling to stop talking about Jesus and blaming them for having Jesus killed. Peter and the Apostles state they must obey God over human jurisdiction. Our reading leaves the part where a Pharisee, Gamaliel, advises the Sanhedrin to leave the Apostles alone stating if their teaching is man made it will fail, but if it is God’s work then they could find themselves fighting against God himself, so the Sanhedrin listens, has them flogged and released. We then take up the final part where they leave full of joy at having suffered for the Word. Luke has presented this as a comparison with how Pharaoh opposed God and became demonised and failed; with the irrational opposition of the Sanhedrin; in order to remove any sympathy for their position. It is something to remember that God, is the one really in charge of the outcome of events.

Psalm 29: 2, 4-6, 11-13.
A song of thanksgiving and was used at the service of Hanukkah, after the Maccabean restoration, but the psalm is much older than 165BC.

2nd Reading from the book of the Apocalypse 5: 11-14.
This passage has the Angels and thousands of Elders singing, using language that would normally be addressed to God, except the Lamb is obviously Jesus, these people are going to be a challenge for the Roman imperial powers. The whole setting ends with the massed choirs of Angels praising both the Lamb and God, and with the great “Amen”; the elders bow down in silent worship. This is a picture for us to ponder in wonder. Jesus and God are awesome, and we need to remember this when we come into this presence.

The Holy Gospel according to John 21: 1-19.
This episode is about Peter, who right from the beginning has always been very outspoken, since the moment when his brother Andrew brought him to the Lord. We begin with Peter again exercising leadership and says he is going fishing and the others follow him. He is effectively returning to his previous profession. However, they work all night and catch nothing, and somehow, we are not surprised. Jesus shouts from the shore enquiring how they had got on, but they do not recognise him. Then when he hears they have caught nothing he shouts out to cast their nets out on the starboard, and they have a huge catch. It is John who recognises the Lord. They arrive at the shore and Jesus is cooking breakfast for them. This is a wonderful picture of how caring Jesus really is. Later after the meal, he sits quietly and talks with Peter and we are faced with a triple enquiry as to whether Peter really loves the Lord, and we are taken back to Jesus’ arrest and Peter’s denial three times at the house of Annas, the High Priest’s father-in-law. After each question and answer he is given his task by the Lord to feed his lambs and his sheep. There is an important point to note here that Jesus commissions Peter whilst a sinner, challenging him to follow him closely, so closely that Jesus warns him of his future execution. His final request is to, “Follow me”. It is also a request for us to follow Jesus. There is so much in this Gospel for us to really study over the coming week and beyond.

God Bless you ALL. Deacon Vincent.
Jesus Christ is truly Risen. Alleluia, alleluia!

Canon Frank's Easter Message

Canon Frank's Easter Message:

"Dear Friends in Christ.
Greetings & Peace to all people of goodwill.
The last 2 years have been difficult for many people & the virus is still with us (a fact I know all too well having recovered from it myself recently.) We continue to pray for all those affected by the pandemic in our parish and all over the world.
We must be optimistic about the future as we celebrate, once again, the Easter Mystery of our Lord’s Passion, Death & Resurrection.
This is Good News, indeed it is Great News!
Without the gift of faith our lives would be empty.
As we celebrate Easter, we thank God the Father for sending His Son into the world to redeem mankind from the slavery of sin and we remember that to be a good Christian we need to love Jesus Christ and we need to love our ‘neighbour’. There is no shortcut to the Kingdom of God.
I hope you all have a great Easter as we continue our journey in faith together.
Happy Easter to all God’s people!
God bless you all - Canon Frank"


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A Reminder of the service times for this Holy Week.

~Thurs 14th April – 8pm – Maundy Thursday Mass


~Good Friday 15th April
11am - Children’s Stations of the Cross
with cuppa & hot cross buns after, in the hall
3pm – Celebration of the Passion of the Lord

~Easter Saturday – 8.30pm – Easter Vigil Mass

~Easter Sunday – 9.30am – Mass of Easter Day Celebrating the Resurrection of Our Lord.
You are all very welcome to attend all/any of the services, celebrating the mysteries of Holy Week and the Celebration of The Risen Christ at Easter!
May God bless you all.
Canon Frank

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Thank you Deacon Vincent for your Reflections for Easter - Year C

1st Reading from St. Paul to the Romans 6: 3-11.
This letter to the Romans is one of the longest and most influential of his letters but it is exceptionally difficult for us, to be able to draw what God is saying to us today. This particular passage follows Paul’s comparison of Christ’s success, compared to Adam’s failure. It focuses on our baptism and how through our baptism we die with Christ and sin, following Christ’s death which destroyed our slavery to sin, and rise with him from death to life and away from sin. Paul asserts the absolute centrality of Jesus, and the Resurrection from death to life. He is contrasting, in this chapter the movement from sin and death to life and resurrection, expressing in another the contrast between what Adam did and what Jesus did in the previous chapter. Paul is emphasising exactly what Jesus did for us at this Festival of His Death and Resurrection. Jesus has enabled the gates of heaven to be thrown open for all of those who wish to join him in giving due honour and glory to the Father. The choice is ours; he is hoping we will join him. How can we refuse?

Psalm 117: 1-2, 16-17, 22-23.
A song celebrating God in the Temple. It is a summary of how Israel understands their relationship with God, and God’s relationship with all humanity.

The Holy Gospel according to Luke 24: 1-12.

Luke uses part of Mark’s account of the women coming to the tomb, but he omits the conversation about moving the stone away from the opening, they find the tomb already open, but no dead body, then they encounter two men who are clearly angels, who rebuke them for looking for Jesus in the wrong place. They tell the women that he had already predicted his Resurrection. It has similarities to the Transfiguration. There are no instructions for the disciples, they say nothing for they are afraid. But Luke reports Peter going to the tomb, bending down and peering inside and finding everything as the women had said; Peter marvels at what has happened and the translation then says he went off home or went off on his own.
Peter and the women obviously take time out to ponder this amazing event, and that is not a bad idea for us today, to now take time out to ponder these things. We have been with Jesus in his gift of the Eucharist, and followed him in his crucifixion, and just been astounded by his Resurrection. Now let us absorb what this all means for us today and how we can respond to God’s wonderful gift to us of Jesus and examine our lives from now onwards following in His Footsteps, for he has truly Risen.
Alleluia, Alleluia!!

God Bless you All on this Holy Feast of our Redemption.
Deacon Vincent.

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The sun shone on Canon Frank at Mass on Sunday...
and it also shone on our Parish Community this weekend as we invited parishioners to come along and talk about our collective findings from the recent Synod questionnaires.

Approx 35 people came into the hall on Sunday for refreshments and a chance to talk, in groups, about the findings which have been submitted to the Diocese recently.

We also heard how the re-starting of a Parish Pastoral Council (PPC) soon will help to be the eyes and ears of the wider community, in helping shape our parish into the future on matters of liturgy and evangelisation etc.


Fr Frank was delighted with the turnout of people
"... the laity will have a more and more important role to work alongside the clergy in the future of the Catholic Church and so this amount of interest in our Synod response was very encouraging."









Pastoral Ministry for the laity - Would you like to find out more....?


"As far back as 2012, Pope Benedict XVI was advocating the need for greater involvement of the laity in the life of the Church.
The Synodal Process has already shown that there is a desire by the laity to be more involved and a need for solid formation to give people the confidence to respond.

Clifton Diocese offers two in-depth courses in support of this need: The Loyola Certificate in Pastoral Ministry and The Clifton Ministry Skills Programme.

If you are interested or intrigued to find out more, then do join us for one of two online information sessions taking place on 26 April and 28 April at 7pm (Microsoft Teams).
The information sessions will outline the purpose of the courses, introduce you to current students and provide the opportunity for asking questions and gaining sufficient information about how to apply. Sign up via the Eventbrite links for the session you wish to attend by going to the Clifton diocese website: https://cliftondiocese.com/news/pastoral-ministry-information-evenings/