NEWSLETTER

22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

Sunday 30 August 2020

Please contact the parish to receive the newsletter by email each week.

Message from Canon Kristian

Dear Parishioners

I hope you are enjoying the Bank Holiday weekend.  For many of you it will be the start of a week which marks the return to school and to work after the summer break, with all the anxieties that surround the continuing presence of COVID-19.  There was a short article in the online Aleteia Newsletter of Catholic Spirituality and World News this week which provides a spiritual viewpoint to this time of the year, which is available to view here, and which you may find of interest.

For the all Christian Churches around the world this week also marks the start of the Season of Creation, with the annual world day of prayer for the care of creation this coming Tuesday.  There is a wealth of information and resources online to help us live this season spiritually and actively, some of which I have provided hyperlinks for in the Newsletter.  An important Joint Statement about the Season of Creation on behalf of all the Catholic, Orthodox and Protestant Churches of Europe is also available to read here.  If you haven’t yet managed to read Pope Francis’ encyclical Laudato Si’ on Care for our Common Home, perhaps this Season might be the time when you might do this.  The Encyclical sets out the programmatic vision of the Holy Father for Catholics and for all people of goodwill with regards to the Gospel imperatives to us as the guardians and stewards of God’s gift of creation.

As usual, Monika Manser has produced a very help handout to help with our engagement with this Sunday’s gospel by means of imaginative contemplation.  I am really grateful to her for the time and commitment that she gives to this ministry, which I know is appreciated by many parishioners and by others further afield.  If anyone else in the parish has training or experience in other forms of spirituality that might be shared more widely in the parish, please do not hesitate to come to talk to me about it. It is extremely important to use whatever gifts God has given for the enrichment of our community.

There will be a Coffee Morning via Zoom this coming Thursday at 11.00am. Please contact the parish for joining instructions.

I hope you are all keeping as fit and well as possible.  If you would like a visit from me or for Holy Communion to be brought to you by one of our Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, please feel free to get in contact with Rosie in the Parish Office. The opening hours of the Parish Office and contact details are in the newsletter.

With the assurance of my prayers for you all.

Blessings

Fr Kristian

Parish Office Hours

  • Monday to Thursday from 10.00am-1.00pm
  • Friday from 10.00am-2.00pm

The Parish Office is open at the above times for all routine parish administrative matters, as well as to help with any other pastoral enquiries. During these hours it is possible to visit the Office, next door to the Presbytery, or by telephone or email. Emails will normally only be answered during office hours.  Contact details on the front of the Newsletter.

Masses at St James

Mass is celebrated at St James on:

  • Tuesday at 10.00am
  • Wednesday at 12noon
  • Thursday at 6.30pm
  • Friday at 12noon
  • Saturday at 6.00pm
  • Sunday at 10.00am and 11.30am.

It is important that you let the Parish Office know that you would like to come to a particular Mass.  At the moment there are sometimes spare seats at some of the Masses so you can chance turning up without booking, but there is no guarantee that there will be a seat available as some Masses are busier than others.

You may now make a “rolling booking” if you wish to come to a particular Mass on a regular basis, but if you do this, please let the office know if you are not able to come so that the place may be released for someone else. The wearing of face coverings is now obligatory in places of worship unless you fall into one of the exemption categories.

Annual Appeal for the Catholic Children’s Society

Bishop Mark writes: “The year’s Catholic Children’s Society Annual Appeal –Stretch our Your Hands: Putting All Children First – is being launched in a time when great economic hardship has fallen on many families due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The Society has been responding to a significant increase in the number of families in our Diocese who find themselves in difficulty and who lack essential basic needs.  This has meant that the Society’s limited resources available to support such families have been significantly depleted.  May God bless you for responding as generously as you can to this Annual Appeal”.

Donations can be made using the envelopes distributed last weekend, contactlessly using our new “tap and donate” system or by using the various options available online by going to: https://www.ccsplymouth.org.uk/how-you-can-help/donate/.  Thank you so much and please remember to gift aid your donation if you can.

Face Coverings

Christine Pickford is delighted with the response to her request for spare cotton material and will be working away making more face coverings for us as soon as her time permits. Thank you to everyone who has kindly donated material.

Parish Website

Graham Parton has been doing a sterling job with the website, but would appreciate someone to share the task and help with website content. Graham has set things up to make it as easy as possible and is happy to show you the ropes.  Please be in touch with the Parish Office if you can offer to serve the parish community in this essential ministry.

World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation: the Season of Creation

September 1 is the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation and marks the start of the Season of Creation, which runs until 4 October, the Feast Day of St Francis of Assisi.

In his message for Laudato Si’ Week, Bishop Mark said:

“Our earth is the home for the human family.  It is in severe danger and needs immediate protection and healing at a global, national and local level… The threatened state of the environment is a universal challenge affecting us all, those most in danger at present, and in the future, those who are already poor and vulnerable …Laudato Si’ is permeated by a sense of human, moral and religious urgency, but the Pope recognizes the complexity of the joining of the environment and poverty.  ‘We are not faced’, he says, ‘with two separate crises, one environmental and the other social, but rather with one complex crisis which is both social and environmental’ (art 139)”.

We invite everyone to reflect, to pray and to act, so that we achieve that ecological conversion that the Holy Father calls us to. In a short video the Pope and the Vatican Department for Integral Human Development invite us all to celebrate the Season of Creation, and the Joint Statement of the Conference of European Churches and of the Council of the Bishops’ Conferences of Europe is also available to read. You can find more resources to use during the Season on the Diocesan Website and Facebook pages.

Parish Giving

We are truly grateful for those who have continued to give their parish offerings over these last difficult months. Your offerings are important to sustain the life of the parish. For those who do not give by Standing Order, there are baskets at the entry and exit to the church.

You may now make any donations – for the weekly collection, for special collections or for items from the Repository – by debit or credit card using our new “contactless” machine at the entrance to the church. If you wish, you can also gift-aid your collection donations at the same time.  The Stewards will be happy to help you with using the new machine.

Repository Table and Fundraising Items

From this weekend in the hall there will be a table with items from the Repository, quality Keyring Torches embossed with the name of our parish and other fundraising items.  Please take a look and the Stewards will help you if you would like to purchase anything.

Diocesan Job Vacancies

The Diocese of Plymouth has vacancies for the posts of two Property Mentors who will be home-based and for a Project Support Worker for Caritas Plymouth, who will be based at St Boniface House near Ashburton.  Adverts giving more details about the posts are available via the diocesan website: https://www.plymouth-diocese.org.uk/the-diocese/careers/.

Wedding Anniversaries

Congratulations to John and Margaret Parton who will be celebrating their 50th Wedding Anniversary on Saturday 29 August and to George and Jean Fitz-Costa who will be celebrating their 60th Wedding Anniversary on Friday 4 September!

Masses and Events this week

Saturday 29 August – The Passion of St John the Baptist

  • Vigil Mass of Sunday at 6.00pm (Pro Populo)

Sunday 30 August – 22nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (A)

  • Holy Mass at 10.00am and at 11.30am

Tuesday 1 September – World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation

  • Holy Mass at 10.00am

Wednesday 2 September

  • Holy Mass at 12noon

Thursday 3 September – St Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor

  • Coffee Morning on Zoom at 11.00am
  • Holy Mass at 6.30pm

Friday 4 September – St Cuthbert, Bishop

  • Holy Mass at 12noon

Saturday 5 September – St Teresa of Kolkata (Mother Teresa)

  • Vigil Mass of Sunday at 6.00pm