|
Thank you for your offerings last week of £1,573. Mass attendance 801. |
|
|
31st March (Easter Vigil) |
Easter Sunday of The Resurrection of The Lord 8.00pm People of The Parish |
|
Sunday 1st April |
9.15am Francesca Sio RIP (Sio Family) 11am Joseph Deasy RIP (Deasy Family) |
|
Monday 2nd April |
Monday within the Octave of Easter 9.30am Ron & Margaret
Thompson RIP
(K&D Woolston) |
|
Tuesday 3rd April |
Tuesday within the Octave of Easter 9.30am Trevor Lyons RIP (G Waitley & Family) |
|
Wednesday 4th April |
Wednesday within the Octave of Easter 9.30am Angela Brennan RIP (Wharton Family) |
|
|
10.45am Eucharistic Adoration |
|
Thursday 5th April |
Thursday within the Octave of Easter |
|
|
9.30am Sarah Bown RIP (S Jagger) |
|
Friday 6th April |
Friday within the Octave of Easter 9.30am Hugh Forde to
celebrate his 80th Birthday 7.30pm Eucharistic Adoration |
|
7th April (Saturday Vigil) |
Second Sunday Of Easter 6pmPeople of The Parish |
|
Sunday 8th April |
9.15am Tom & Joan Brosnan RIP (G Carter) 11am Terence Quinlan RIP (E Quinlan) |
|
|
|
|
Monday 9th April |
The Annunciation of The Lord 9.30am Eileen Dinan RIP (Wharton Family) |
|
Tuesday 10th April Please note change of time. |
Feria 11am Requiem Mass for Christopher
Haynes |
|
Wednesday 11th April |
Saint Stanislaus 9.30 Anthony Olivelle RIP (M Olivelle) |
|
Thursday 12th April |
Feria 9.30 Ann Moore-Martin
RIP (Mrs A English) |
|
Friday 13th April |
Feria 9.30am Joseph Pereira RIP (N Pereira) |
|
14th April (Saturday Vigil) Sunday 15th April |
Third Sunday of Easter 6pm Dermot Gray RIP (Scott Family) 9.15am People of The Parish 11am Terence Quinlan RIP (E Quinlan) |
Confessions heard Saturday
5.00-5.45pm or by appointment.
Morning Prayer: Takes place Monday –
Friday at 9.10am. All are welcome to
attend.
Pondering the Word (Lectio Divina)
A quiet reflective look
at the following Sunday’s Gospel. Mondays
11am - 12 noon, except for Bank Holidays, here in the church. All welcome.
Sunday Mornings in the Community Centre
Every Sunday coffee and tea
are served after the 9.15am and 11am Masses.
Please join us for a while and get to know each other over a cuppa!
Offertory collection
The collection at the
Masses over the Easter weekend are your personal offerings for your Parish
Priest.
Second
Collection
The Second Collection on
Sunday 15th April will be for the maintenance fund.
Fr David writes…
When the world looked
at the face of Teresa of Calcutta, it saw pure, simple joy. Then in 2017, 10 years after her death, a
collection of her private letters were published. Suddenly, the joy that the small sister from
Albania once radiated, seemed anything but simple. As the letters revealed, for the entirety of
her public ministry, the founder of the Missionaries of Charity endured
unceasing feelings of desolation and abandonment by God. In 1957, she writes “I am told God lives in
me and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that
nothing touches my soul”. For some, the
letters became a source of scandal. But
for those familiar with the spiritual life, they served as a profound testimony
of Mother Teresa’s sanctity that despite her own dark night of the soul, she
had the inner resilience, with the help of God, to become such a bright light
of hope and life, to those who were experiencing the darkness of poverty,
abandonment and aloneness. She became
the voice for the voiceless.
We are living in a
world riddled with darkness. On social
media we are reminded constantly of the myriad reality of pain and suffering
around us. We cannot escape the reality
of darkness. Life throws at us instances
which can overwhelm us. Most of the time
very much unexpected. We are never
prepared for bad news.
It always takes us by surprise and leaves us in a state of shock. Our lives sometimes are turned upside down in
one moment. From moving along happily
from one day to the next, oblivious of what might happen, we are plunged into
darkness. We need time to find our
balance again. Relationships must be
re-negotiated. We are awakened to life. We become highly attuned to the here and now. Crises in our lives have the power to destroy
us or paradoxically, have the power to build our inner resources up. Somehow, Mother Teresa’s inner turmoil
instead of paralysing and throwing her into resentfulness and bitterness, it
fuelled her energy to live in hope and provided hope to others. For me her story is extraordinary. Not many people can live in such darkness for
that amount of time she endured and remain not only functional but fruitful.
Easter begins in the
dark and began in the tomb. The story
begins with someone whom many had written off as a lost cause, Mary Magdalene. When she reaches the tomb she sees that the
stone is rolled away and she interprets this to mean that Jesus’ body must have
been stolen. She finds it easier to
believe that the robbers had come to steal the body than to believe that this
was God’s doing – that God refuses to let death have the last word. When Peter and the beloved disciple hear her
story they immediately start running for the tomb. The beloved disciple runs faster than Peter,
reaches the tomb first, looks in to see the cloths lying on the ground and then
waits for Peter. Peter reaches the tomb,
goes into the tomb and sees the cloths. The
climax of the story is when the beloved disciple goes in and sees the evidence. In contrast to Peter, he believes. He sees more than discarded cloths – he sees
with the eyes of faith what this means. He
is the love that sees through the darkness.
One of the marks of John’s gospel is the love between
Jesus and one of the disciples. The
beloved disciple is depicted as the ideal follower of Jesus. He was with Jesus in all the big moments from
the Transfiguration to Calvary. He is
depicted as the most loyal in his love for Jesus of all the disciples. Now in running to the tomb on Easter morning,
the urgency of his love gets him there first and the sensitivity of his love
makes him the first to believe in the resurrection. I truly believe that it is because of love we
suffer sometimes and it is because of love that we pull through the darkness
into the light. Easter reminds us that
there is no other way to experience the light except by entering the darkness. We just cannot keep on taking short cuts or
trying to escape the tomb. Eventually
the pain will catch up with us and it will overwhelm us. Somehow Easter is reminding us that it is
only through entering the tomb of our lives can we be transformed into a
beautiful butterfly. Life is a process and
the more we resist it, the more we suffer.
Somehow wisdom has shown us that in honouring the process it has the
power to allow us to experience new life.
These days have been filled with intense emotions and imagery. The narrative and drama which we have lived
together in these last few days, have maybe touched us deeply. They also might have left us feeling raw and
vulnerable because of what we are going through in our own personal lives at the moment. Let us
now be gentle with ourselves. Let us receive
the good news of Jesus’ resurrection. May
with God by our side, we will never lose hope.
Easter is all about hope! Let us
risk to allow Easter to inform us and heal us.
Have a blessed Easter!
“Drop-In”
Evening Surgeries
Please note that the
next surgery will be on Wednesday the 11th April 2018. Fr David will be available at 281A Crescent
Drive from 5.00-7.00pm and no appointment is necessary.
Website administrator needed
After 10+ years the parish webmaster is retiring, and
we are looking for someone to take over, but with a slightly different role. The existing website is also being retired
and a new design introduced over the coming months. The person should have a working knowledge of
WordPress and ideally some IT systems administration experience. The role is primarily to coordinate and
moderate contributions from various members of the parish who will update the
pages for which they are responsible. It
will also include email address maintenance and domain administration. Full assistance will be given from developers
of the new website (Matthew Hansford), and the existing webmaster (Roger
Wright).
The next meeting of the Parish Pastoral Council will
take place on Monday 9th April at 7.30pm in the Community Centre. You may raise any relevant
issue using the PPC mailbox which is ppc@stjamespettswood.org or place a note in the suggestion box in the church porch.
Please see the PPC meeting (14/03/18) summary at the
end of this Briefly.
Pastoral Pillar
Helplines and Counselling
Services
As part of our care for the community a list of helplines and counselling
services has now been added to the parish website and also, placed in the
porch. The purpose of this is to give
contact details of various organisations which can provide help in difficult
times thereby enabling people to seek privately the information and support
they may need.
Liturgy Pillar
Eucharist Adoration
This takes place for an
hour each Wednesday shortly after the
morning Mass starting at 10.45 am and finishing at 11.45 am. This Devotion to the Eucharist is a time
of silent prayer and quiet music. Everyone
is welcome for all or part of this time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
First Friday of Month
- Eucharist Adoration also takes place on the 1st Friday of each month from 7.30–9.00pm and concludes
with Benediction. The next one will take
place on 6th April. Everyone is welcome
for all or part of this time of prayer before the Blessed Sacrament.
Mass in celebration of
the Sacrament of Marriage
St George’s Cathedral 16th June 2018. If you are celebrating your 1st, 10th,
25th, 40th, 50th or 60th+ wedding
anniversary this year and would like to attend the Mass then please give your
names as soon as possible. Forms can be
found at the back of the church.
Social Pillar
Confirmandi
Event
The Confirmandi would like to thank everyone who
supported their event on Saturday. A
wonderful £650.00 was raised and will be going to support St Catherine’s in the
Philippines. Thank you to everyone who
donated raffle prizes and cakes and again a special thank you to people who couldn’t
attend the event but gave donations of money and/or raffle prizes. Your support of the Confirmandi is much
appreciated.
Community Centre
The St James’ Social Club is responsible
for the running and licensing of the bar in the Community Centre. The AGM will be held on Sunday 22 April at
12.30 pm after the 11.00 am Mass in the Community Centre. The items on the agenda will be as follows:
1. Minutes
of the last AGM
2. Election
of Committee for 2018/2019
3. Financial
Report
4. Any
Other Business
All are welcome to attend.
Parent and Toddler Group
The Parent & Toddler Group will be starting back
up from Friday 27th April. They will
meet every Friday during term time in the Community Centre from 1.30 – 3.00pm. Parents with babies from 0 up to age 5 are
welcome to attend. Do come along and
enjoy the companionship and the fun. Refreshments
provided.
Youth Pillar
St
James’ Youth Group
The next Junior Youth Group will be held on Saturday
14th April in the Community centre from Noon to 2pm. £1.50 per session - which includes lunch.
CYM Careers Fair: Saturday 21st April 2018
As part of the CYM programme for 2018, we will be
holding a Careers Fair for young people on Saturday 21st April
from 12.30-2.30pm (please note the change to original times listed) at St
James the Great Church, Petts Wood. The
aim of this event is to assist and equip young people in making decisions
regarding their future and to provide information and guidance on a range of
opportunities available to them, such as pathways into teaching, Metropolitan
police, civil service, engineering, GAP year opportunities and many more. We will also be offering one-to-one career
guidance, interview training and help with writing CV’s. You can register for your free ticket by
visiting: https://cymcareerfair.eventbrite.co.uk,
for more details please visit: www.bromleydeanery.org. If you would like to become involved in this
event by sharing skills and experience, please email susan.longhurst@bromleydeanery.org. We
look forward to seeing you there!
200
Club
Subscriptions for the 200 Club are now due. Please forward cheques or standing order
forms to the Parish Office or Ken Evans
The Knights of St Columba
The Knights will be holding
a recruitment drive after Mass on the weekend of 7th / 8th
April. Any male Parishioner interested
to find out more in regard to The Knights’ work please speak to Frank Simon or Llew Thomas.
St James The Great
Primary School
St
James' RC Primary School are looking for volunteers to read with the children. If you are interested, please contact the
school office on 0208 467 8167. To
facilitate this, the school will arrange for your DBS certificate which is a
government requirement when working with young people. Many thanks.
Job Vacancy – KS1
teacher from September 2018
St
James’ RC Primary School are looking to appoint an outstanding KS1 teacher that
wishes to make a difference and strives to ensure the children achieve
excellence. Please see more information
on the School vacancy notice board at the back of the church. Closing date for applications is 12noon
Monday 23rd April 2018.
Message from Stella Delf
I’m getting
ready to run the Brighton Marathon on the 15th April (my first marathon!). I'm going to be running for Cancer Research
UK and I'm looking for sponsors and cake eaters to help me raise money for this
amazing cause. If you would like to give
your support, I'll be at the back of the church with a sponsorship form on the
24th and 25th March and will be hosting a cake sale at
the end of the masses on the 7th and 8th April. You can also donate via my giving page: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/stellas-giving-page
Thank you,
Stella
Message
from Matthew Delamain
This Summer (August 2018), I will be going on an
expedition to Kenya with my Explorer group.
Whilst we are out there, we are going to be working with a charity
called Harambee for Kenya. This charity
takes in young boys who are homeless off the street and gives them a better
life including an education and friendships.
We will be spending a lot of time at one of the safehouses owned by the
charity and doing things such as playing with the boys and building them new
facilities. Another way in which we will
help is by bringing some donations with us from the UK. If you can help by donating any of the
following and leaving in the box at the back of the porch that would be much
appreciated:
·
Black
school shoes – Any size
·
Shorts
and T-Shirts
·
Underwear
and socks
·
Black
or grey smart trousers
·
Waterproof
lightweight jackets
·
Single
bed sheets -Flat type
·
Towels
·
Footballs
·
Hand
Tools
Many thanks, Matthew
GIFT
AID
Some Gift Aid boxes have not
yet been collected from the table at the back of the church. If you haven’t already, please take yours
this weekend, even if you have a Standing Order because the boxes contain
special envelopes for Diocesan collections
Justice & Peace
Foodbank
The current list of items needed is: tinned potatoes,
tinned soup, long life milk and fruit juice, rice, pulses, shampoo and
toothbrushes. Thank you for continuing
to donate these much needed supplies.
Manna Centre
Collection
The
parish has once again shown great generosity in collecting a mountain of items
including men’s clothes, blankets and duvets, and toilet rolls and kitchen
rolls, last weekend in support for the tireless work of the Manna Centre. On behalf of Paddy Boyle from the Manna
Society, the Justice and Peace Group would like to thank all parishioners who
donated items.
Our next collection is the weekend of 14/15 October – please
start putting aside items that can be donated and look out for a list of items in particular need a bit nearer to the time! Don’t forget to
take a look at the display in the porch of the church
or for more details contact nick.babb@stjamespettswood.org
Polite Reminder
The Parish
disabled parking spaces are for Blue Badge holders only.
Seeing a Chaplain if
You Are Admitted to Hospital
·
Protecting personal information (data protection) is really
important when you become an inpatient in hospital.
·
So please specifically ask hospital
staff to pass on your details
to the hospital’s Roman Catholic chaplain as soon as you are admitted if you
would like a Chaplain to visit you.
·
Fr David would always be very happy to visit you too, so please ask a
relative or friend to let him know about your admission. You, or they, can email Fr David on father.david@stjamespettswood.org, or phone the parish office on 01689
827100.
Outside the Parish
Alpha
course at Holy Innocents', Orpington
Alpha is a chance to explore the meaning
of life and the basics of Christianity in a welcoming and relaxed environment. "It helped me to 'join the dots' in my
head about my faith," is how someone who came on our autumn 2017 Alpha
course put it. Want to find out what she
meant? Then come along to an introductory session for our next Alpha at 1.30
pm, repeated 8 pm, on Friday 20 April. Feel
free to bring a friend who might like to hear about our faith. More details from Stephen Walsh (07778
6120500) or email alphaholyinnocents@hotmail.com
Weekend Rotas: Thank you for helping.
|
Saturday 7th April 2018 |
|
|
Cleaning the Church |
O Clutton, M Mathews, R Blanco, R Mwansa, D Delf |
|
Wednesday Coffee 4th April |
Volunteers Needed |
|
8th April 2018 |
|||
|
Mass |
Saturday 6pm (Vigil) |
Sunday 9.15am |
Sunday 11am |
|
Welcomers |
A
Deamain L
Delamain |
F
Mace M
Howell |
Uniformed
Groups |
|
Readers |
L
Rusmini A
Prifti |
B
Cotta C
D’Souza |
Parade
Mass |
|
Ministers of Holy Communion |
T
Babb B
Babb R
Wright A
Guyton P
Cantopher |
D
Hairs B
Cotta W
David B
D’Arcy T
Forde |
K
Chan P
May S
Ingle Z
Bajorek T
Troy |
|
Bar |
|
|
P
Benson M
Wright |
|
Coffee |
|
G
Brookes D
Brookes |
C
D’Arcy T
Lowe |
|
Altar Servers |
P
Kukula R&F
Norman Brown P
Marshall |
J
MacFadyen L
Delamain A
Lynch |
F
Ikenye |
|
Tellers |
A
Barradell, S Barradell |
Rotas
for NEXT week: Thank you for helping
|
Saturday 14th April 2018 |
|
|
Cleaning the Church |
A Haylock, A Crosland, G MacManus, K Evans |
|
Wednesday Coffee 11th April |
M Howell, and a volunteer needed |
|
15th April 2018 |
|||
|
Mass |
Saturday 6pm (Vigil) |
Sunday 9.15am |
Sunday 11am |
|
Welcomers |
M
Sands |
B
Guyton A
Guyton |
M
Cooper K
Edwards |
|
Readers |
C
Kiely D
Woolston |
C
Hairs H
Denham |
R
Del Guercio D
Ducat |
|
Ministers of Holy Communion |
J
Gribben J
Bajorek H
Rothon M
Cahill C
Cahill |
A
Guyton M
Smith M
Howell S
Cotta A
Ward |
R
Del Guercio A
Bunnage P
Murray V
Terry N
Longhurst |
|
Bar |
|
|
A
Barradell M
Horner |
|
Coffee |
|
L
Lynch S
Barradell |
T
Troy J
Cosgrave |
|
Altar Servers |
O&J
McCabe P
Kukula D&A
Poulton N
Cracknell |
L
Delamain A
Lynch P
Marshall |
J
Monaghan V
Marcolina |
|
Tellers |
L
Lynch, M Ardron |
PPC Meeting 14.03.18 – Summary
The PPC held a meeting on Wednesday 14th
March and the following items were discussed:
·
The
PPC are investigating the possibility of ‘live streaming’ of services from St
James’ so that parishioners who for one reason or another cannot attend Mass
would be able to watch it via the internet
·
The
layout of the car park will be looked at when the car park is next resurfaced
·
A
list of 2nd collections for the year to be made available on the
parish Facebook page [they are already on the website at http://stjamespettswood.org/diary.html under Other events/services]
·
The
PPC are looking at revamping the parish website
·
Work
has now been commissioned on reducing the noise in the Community Centre at a
cost of £7500 and is expected to be completed in the near
future
·
Handrails
to the steps leading to both entrances to the Church are to be provided at a
cost of £2100 and should be installed after Easter
·
The
Memory Café has been incredibly successful with 25 – 30 people attending the 4
dates so far
·
There
is a list available on the parish website and in the porch of charities and
organisations that provide counselling services and support for addictions,
bereavement and various other needs.
Upcoming events:
Easter
Egg hunt
Garden
Party
Christmas
Fair
New
Year’s Eve party (in conjunction with the Knights of St Columba)