Dear friends,
Fr Joseph Barnes, who is on placement with us for the next two-and-a-half weeks writes,
‘Hello! My name is Fr Joseph, and I am very pleased to be joining you on placement. I thought I’d write a few brief notes about myself, to help us get to know one another.
I was born and brought up in Stevenage. Before and after university, I was involved in local politics, campaign management and community activism. While at university, I discerned that my deep desire to help and minister among people was better reflected in the work of the Church, and I felt God calling me to ordination.
After university, I was a pastoral assistant at St John, Hatfield and a chaplaincy assistant at the University of Hertfordshire. My academic interests are in liturgical studies, mission- and sacramental theology.
Outside of church, I have a number of other passions, including running, playing cricket and squash. I enjoy cooking, and pairing meals with the perfect wine. To relax, I like to listen to classical music, especially Bach, Handel and Pachelbel. My family is very important to me – my Dad, my two brothers and my sisters-in-law, as well as my four exuberant nephews and two nieces!‘
We welcome Fr Joseph, and assure him of our prayers! He will preach again this weekend, when he will also be the principal celebrant at both Masses.
Please return last year’s palm crosses to church no later than this Sunday, in order for them to be burned to generate the ash for Ash Wednesday next week, when there will be Masses (with the Imposition of Ashes) at 9.30am and 6pm. Ash Wednesday is also a day of fasting and abstinence, when those who are not physically incapacitated should attempt both to refrain from eating meat, and to limit what is eaten strictly to no more than one main meal, and two smaller snacks (which together do no equal more than one main meal). In this way, we commit ourselves to the programme of self-restraint which characterises the coming Lenten season.
Another ancient custom which we will revive after Mass this Sunday – the final Sunday before Lent – is the burial of the alleluia: at the end of Mass, we will process into the memorial garden, and there read an abbreviated burial service over a card on which is written the word “alleluia”: during Lent, we do not utter alleluia, a shout of joy which reappears again only at the Easter Vigil. Gospel readings will, throughout Lent, instead be greeted with proper Lenten acclamations. The hymns at Mass this Sunday feature alleluias in abundance, exhausting our supply of them before the acclamation is hidden. Alleluia is the Latinised form of the Hebrew word hallelujah, which simply means, Praise the Lord. Although this burial is likewise an act of penitence and self-restraint, yet as with every Christian burial, it is undertaken in the hope of the resurrection, for alleluia shall indeed appear again, with the Lord at Easter.
There will be a PCC meeting after Mass this Sunday.
Every six years, the parish’s Electoral Roll (an ecclesiastical register, not to be confused with the electoral register held by the local Council) is completely renewed. The Electoral Roll is the closest we have to a membership database for St Mary’s, and anyone aged 16 years or older, who worships regularly with us (or who regularly receives Communion at home), or indeed who lives within the parish boundaries, is eligible for registration. Application forms will be available this Sunday, and should be completed even by those who have previously signed up. These forms should be returned before 25 April. The Electoral Roll does not imply any special commitments, and the information on it is not shared beyond the Church. But it is an important pastoral resource for us, to stay in touch with our congregation, especially those we may not have seen for a while. Do likewise encourage others to sign up, if they satisfy the aforementioned criteria. (An electronic copy of the application form is attached to this mailing.)
Likewise on Sunday (and likewise herewith attached), copies of this year’s stewardship campaign letter will be distributed. These will also be sent by post to current members of the congregation for whom we have up-to-date contact details. As you will read about, the primary aim of this year’s campaign is to ensure efficientgiving, by moving regular givers from cash donations to electronic means, as well as signing up as many people as possible to HMRC’s Gift Aid tax reclaim scheme. Gift Aid forms will be available in church.
Similarly on Sunday, Additional Curates Society donations boxes will be available, as part of our Lent Appeal throughout March and April. Please give generously, and return these at Easter. The activities of the Additional Curates Society include vocations promotion; funding pastoral assistants such as our own Ryan, and paying and praying for priests in poor and populous parishes across the country. Thank you likewise for donations this past month, in aid of London’s Community Kitchen, totalling £480.
So much of what is written about in this mailing concerns our hope in God’s good purposes: as this Sunday’s second reading reminds us, ‘death is swallowed up in victory‘ – for, by his Resurrection at Easter, Christ has given us new life and lasting hope.
With my best wishes and every blessing for a holy Lent,
Fr Richard