Parish Newsletter

Open for Sunday Morning Mass - Now with Bubbles!

Numbers continuing to rise every week, which is so encouraging:

• Week One: 147
• Week Two: 198
• Week Three: 201
• Week Four: 215
• Week Five: 232
• Week Six: 243
• Week Seven: 257
• Week Eight: 270 (Last Week)

This is about 67.5% of our "normal” Sunday Morning Mass congregation, so people are obviously feeling more confident about coming back to Mass reassured by all our safety measures put in place. Thanks, everyone - and thanks Taskforce, Cleaners and Stewards especially, We couldn’t do it without you!

Redemptorist Newsletters Back Again Today!

Delighted we are able to start using our popular Redemptorist Newsletters again this weekend which give you all the Readings and Prayers and some useful devotional reading on the front page. But please take them away with you at the end, as nothing can be left in church between Masses.

Masks and Receiving Holy Communion

Our advice to you is that you either remove the mask or slip it beneath your chin while you are in the queue coming up to Communion. Then, after you have reverently received Communion, you can replace the mask. We hope our advice helps you not to juggle too much at the same time!

Six New Stewards/Cleaners Have Wolunteered!

Six good’uns have indeed come forward - Pat and Ann Quinn, Ben Preston, Meg Ahmad, Gillian Roe and Madeleine Morrin. Thanks, everyone, and welcome on to the Sunday Morning Rota!

Car Parking Sunday Mornings: Priority for Stewards

Please DON’T try to park at church if you are coming for one of the four Sunday Morning Masses. Blue Badges: you can park on the main road, as usual.

SVP Autumn Mass for Elderly and Housebound

Sunday 4th October 2.30 pm - the SVP will be holding a special Mass in St Werburgh’s Church for anyone requiring extra assistance and reassurance in these challenging times. For many previous years similar Masses have been held at the Primary School and have been known as the ‘Housebound Mass’. This is a special event to which the SVP cordially invite anyone requiring a little extra assistance or support to come along and enjoy Mass and a cup of tea. If you or some you know would like to join this event please contact Stephen on 07775781204 or via svpchester@gmail.com. Suggestions for a new name for this event will be gratefully received.

Looking for a Good Home

Wooden table and six chairs looking for a new home - the SVP has been offered a solid wood extending table and six chairs, in good condition. Photo can be provided if required. We also have been offered 2 sets of double bedding and quilts. If interested please contact Stephen Perry on 07775781204 or email svpchester@gmail.com

New Name for "Elderly and Housebound”?

Just picking up Steve’s point from his Newsletter Item this week: is there a better name for our Masses and Penitential Services than "Elderly and Housebound”? No, before you start shouting, we are not getting desperately PC in our old age. Just wondering if "elderly and housebound” really is our target audience, and is there a better way of phrasing it? All suggestions gratefully received! Only sensible suggestions, please...

First Holy Communions: This Year and Next

Louise and I do want to stress you haven’t been forgotten. If you are the 19/20 cohort, you certainly don’t need to do the programme again. We will hold your First Holy Communion Ceremonies just as soon as it’s practicable, given that many of you have families wanting to come from abroad for these wonderful days in our youngsters’ lives. For the 20/21 cohort, we are already discussing the right time to start gathering names for May 2021. It’s under active discussion, so please watch this space if you have a child in Year 3 or above in September not in our Catholic Primary School. All information will be posted both here and on FP’s Daily blog.

Turning Up for Sunday Mass at Five To the Hour!

Please don’t come at the last minute if you can avoid it: with essential social distancing, hand sanitizing and Trace and Tracking, you will probably end up being late going in... Just saying.

Mass Intentions for 2021: Thanks!

Ten of you have already sent in your Mass Intentions for next year. Delighted to say there are no clashes, and all your names are safely entered for your dates.

Chester University and CathSoc and "Max Six”

What the Government’s new "Six Max” restrictions will mean for our students returning to Chester, many coming for the first time, will have to be worked out. We want to give them as authentic a student experience as current Covid-19 regulations allow. We normally meet on a Sunday Evening after 6.00 pm Mass; no 6.00 pm Mass at present, so we’ll need to work round that one. They start coming back on the weekend of 19/20 September, so we’ve drawn up an outline Programme for Sundays in the first half of term:

• 20th Sept: Walk to 12.00 Mass from the Uni, and Lunch
• 27th September: Prayer and Praise, and Icebreaker Session
• 4th October: Walls Walk and Psalm Singing in the Boathouse
• 11th October: Debate Night
• 18th October: Joint Meeting with the Islamic Society
• 25th October: Meet the Wrinklies
• 1st November: Start of Half-Term - Cake and Catch-Up
• 8th November: End of Half-Term - Cake and Catch-Up

Can ALL of us give them a tremendous welcome a fortnight today? If you see someone who’s obviously a student and looking a bit lost, SAY HELLO!!!!

Photo of the Week: San Petronio, Bologna

Right in the centre of Bologna, the Piazza Maggiore. What’s fascinating about this Basilica is that its main façade was never finished, and so you can see what all churches of this period (Fourteenth Century) would have looked like before the Seventeenth Century "Baroqued” them by slapping a big ornate Christmas Cake façade on the front. (By the way, did I ever mention that I should have been in Bologna myself this summer for my hols? I did? Oh, just checking...) Thanks, Duch!