NEWSLETTER
Pentecost Sunday (Year C)
Sunday 8th June, 2025
Please contact the parish to receive the newsletter by email each week.
Message from Canon Kristian
Dear brothers and sisters
We have arrived at the final weekend of the Easter Season, concluding with the wonderful Solemnity of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit “gives life to all things”, as the Third Eucharistic Prayer of the Mass tells us, and is the Power in whom we live and move and have our being.
Pentecost is often called the “Birthday of the Church”, since it was after the transforming experience of receiving the gift of the Holy Spirit that the apostles and first Christians started, with great courage and enthusiasm, to proclaim the message of the Gospel to all peoples. Still today, it is under the guidance and impulse of the same Spirit of God that the Church across the world, which includes our parish community of St James and St Boniface, continues that same mission – different times, different places, different challenges, but always the same message of love and unity in the Body of Christ. So, we celebrate this Sunday as the day on which the Church came to birth, as well as the day on which our parish community – the local Church in Tiverton and Cullompton – celebrates its continual rebirth in the Spirit. All of us, without exception, are endowed with gifts of the Holy Spirit, gifts that are given in order to be used to further the mission of the Church to reach out to, and embrace, all peoples.
This weekend you will be asked to take a new census form with you to complete and return next weekend if possible. I do understand that this is a chore, especially for those who have completed one recently, but it is vitally important that, as a parish, the information that we keep about our parishioners on our parish database is as up-to-date as possible. Not only does this ensure that I can contact you using your most recent telephone number and email, or have your correct address should I need to visit in case of sickness, emergency or simply as a part of normal parish visiting, but it also fulfills the requirement of UK Data Protection law that the information which we hold is correct and held with your consent. I know that there are some parishioners who, for a variety of reasons, are not frequent attenders at church, but who feel themselves to be part of our parish community (and they are!) and who therefore wish to be registered as parishioners and receive the Newsletter and other parish information. If you are someone who falls into this category and cannot collect a new census form from church, please do email the parish office using this email address and we can get a copy to you either by hand or by mail, alternatively you can always ask a friend who comes to church to pick one up for you. Inevitably, there will be people on our existing database from whom we don’t receive an updated census form. After a few weeks have passed, we will do our best to make contact with them using the details we presently hold to clarify the situation. Thank you all in advance for your co-operation in this task, a necessity of the modern era!
I did have some difficulties sending out the parish newsletter last week due to one or two email providers seemingly randomly identifying the email as spam, entailing some of you receiving it multiple times under different headings! I apologise for this. This is due to the amount of email addresses the newsletter is sent to at one time from the same parish email address. Once the parish database has been updated, I will be investigating the use of a bulk email provider, such as Mailchimp, in order to avoid this issue. Until then, I will try my hardest to get Outlook to cooperate.
Along with this weekend’s newsletter, I attach Monika Manser’s weekly guide to a contemplative read of the Sunday Gospel and the latest edition of Inspire from Deacon Peter.
May the breath of the Holy Spirit fan the flame of life and love into a blazing bright fire within each of us personally and within our parish community collectively, and may that fire spread into the hearts and minds of all those we meet!
May God bless you all, especially those who are sick and in particular need at this time.
Canon Kristian
Canon Kristian Paver
Parish Priest
Parish of St Boniface and St James Mid Devon
40 Old Road Tiverton EX16 4HJ
Updating the Parish Database
Under the General Data Protection Regulation, it is necessary for us to ensure that the data the parish holds on our parishioners is up to date. We therefore need to ask each person/family to fill out a new census form at regular intervals. It has been some years since the parish database was last updated, so new census forms are available this weekend and parishioners are asked to complete them and return them back to church as soon as possible. If you know of anyone who does not attend church regularly, but who would still like to be included on the database, please take a form for them to complete and return.
Coffee Morning and Tabletop Sale
This Saturday 7 June, 10.00am-12noon, in St Andrew’s Hall, the Friends of St James and St Boniface will be hosting a Coffee Morning and Tabletop Sale. Tea, coffee and delicious cakes will be served, and there will be
a parish table with goods for sale. Please come and support us as we raise funds for the interior church refurbishment of the rebuilt St James.
Sacramental Preparation Programmes
The next session to prepare for First Holy Communion takes place this Saturday, 7 June, at 10.00am in St John’s School Hall, Melbourne Street, Tiverton. Our young people who are preparing for the Sacrament of Confirmation will be meeting this coming Thursday, 12 June, at 7.00pm in St Boniface’s Hall, Cullompton.
Day for Life
Every year, the Church in England, Wales, Scotland and Ireland, jointly marks the Day for Life, as a reminder of the need to respect and protect the inherent value and dignity of each human life. This year, it will be celebrated next weekend on Trinity Sunday, 15 June. The faithful are invited to join in prayer and promotion of the Day.
We will also hold a retiring collection for the Day for Life Fund. Every year, the fund allocates over £200,000 in grants, to organisations which promote the Christian respect for life from conception to natural death, in various ways. This has made a significant impact in local communities of England and Wales, by, for example, providing mothers and children with necessary means. This would not be possible if it were not for your yearly support to the fund. You are invited to be as generous as possible and encourage others to do the same. You can also donate online via the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales website, where you will find out more on the Fund.
Understanding Modern Slavery and How to Prevent it
You are invited to join the parishioners of the Parish of Sidmouth for this special Pilgrims of Hope Jubilee Year event with Caritas, looking at modern slavery and ways it can be prevented, which will take place on Saturday 21 June, 10.00-11.30am, at St Teresa’s Hall, Connaught Road, Sidmouth. All welcome, and coffee and cake will be provided.
200 Club
Canon Kristian will make the draw for June after the 6.00pm Mass this Saturday. If you would like one or more numbers in this parish fund raiser for as little as £1 a month, please let Simon Coombs or Sheelagh Bourdon know at St Andrews or Siobhan Gilroy at St Boniface.
Refugee Week 16-22 June
Each year around World Refugee Day on 20 June, there is a UK-wide festival to celebrate the contributions, creativity and resilience of refugees and people seeking sanctuary. For more information and how to get involved, visit https://refugeeweek.org.uk/. The Jesuit Refugee Service One Shared Humanity manifesto has five simple messages about how we can show our faith in action through our welcome and support for refugees.
In a recent address to the Diplomatic Corps to the Holy See, Pope Leo XIV said: “…no one is exempted from striving to ensure respect for the dignity of every person, especially the most frail and vulnerable, from the unborn to the elderly, from the sick to the unemployed, citizens and immigrants alike… All of us, in the course of our lives, can find ourselves healthy or sick, employed or unemployed, living in our native land or in a foreign country, yet our dignity always remains unchanged. It is the dignity of a creature willed and loved by God.”
Volunteer for Stella Maris Needed
Stella Maris (formerly called Apostleship of the Sea) is seeking one volunteer from our parish to help with Sea Sunday (which falls on 12/13 July this year) in this parish. This is the day when the Church comes together to pray for seafarers, fishers and their families, and takes a second collection to support the work of Stella Maris. The volunteer will read out the appeal (which Stella Maris will provide) at the end of Masses that weekend. If you can kindly do this, please contact roland.hayes@stellamarismail.org or call 07887 893 763.
All parishioners are warmly invited to an online webinar being run by Stella Maris on Thursday 19 June from 7.30 to 9.00pm. You will hear about the work that Stella Maris has been doing with seafarers and fishers over the past year or so, including the use of the funds kindly donated on Sea Sunday last year. Please sign up at: www.stellamaris.org.uk/thankyouwebinar
Trekking for Life Charity
Deacon Nick Johnson, a deacon in St Mary’s Parish, Poole, is committed to walking the 100km Via Francigena into Rome in September this year in favour of Life Charity. He would be grateful for any support that you could give. His JustGiving page can be found here.
Masses and Events this week
Sunday 8th June – Pentecost Sunday
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Saturday 7 June – Easter Weekday after Ascension
- First Communion Preparation, 10.00am in St John’s School Hall
- Tabletop Sale and Coffee Morning, 10.00am-12noon, St Andrew’s Hall
- Youth Club, 11.00am-12.30pm, in St Boniface’s Hall
- Laudato Si’ Group at 4.00pm in St Andrew’s Hall
- Vigil Mass at 6.00pm Pro Populo
Sunday 8 June – Pentecost Sunday
- Holy Mass at 9.30am (St Boniface)
- Holy Mass at 11.30am Sara Żielinska (birthday ints)
10th Week in Ordinary Time
Monday 9 June – The Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of the Church
- Singing to Remember at 2.00pm in St Andrew’s Hall
Tuesday 10 June – Weekday
- Holy Mass at 9.00am
Wednesday 11 June – St Barnabas, Apostle
- Holy Mass at 12noon (St Boniface)
Thursday 12 June – Our Lord Jesus Christ, Eternal High Priest
- Holy Mass at 9.00am
- Confirmation Preparation, 7.00pm, in St Boniface’s Hall
Friday 13 June – St Anthony of Padua, Priest and Doctor
- Holy Mass at 9.00am
- SVP Meeting at 9.30am in St Andrew’s Hall
- Wedding of Lisa Bisset and Ben Samuel at 12noon
- Vigil Mass at 6.00pm
Sunday 15 June – The Most Holy Trinity
- Holy Mass at 9.30am (St Boniface)
- Holy Mass at 11.30am Pro Populo