Parish Newsletter

Sunday Morning Mass – Numbers Plateauing Out!

• Week One: Sunday 19th July: 147
• Week Two: Sunday 26th July: 198
• Week Three: Sunday 2nd August: 201
• Week Four: Sunday 9th August: 215
• Week Five: Sunday 16th August: 232
• Week Six: Sunday 23rd August: 243
• Week Seven: Sunday 30th August: 257
• Week Eight: Sunday 6th September: 270
• Week Nine: Sunday 13th September: 270
• Week Ten: Sunday 20th September: 257
• Week Eleven: Sunday 27th September: 253

This is about 65% 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!

Caritas Boxes Autumn Collection

Due to Covid-19 the Caritas Boxes collection will not be able to take place in the usual way this autumn and Caritas are due to provide suggestions in the coming weeks about getting our donations to them. As you know most charities have suffered financially as a consequence of the pandemic so it will be important to try and support Caritas as best we can within the limitations of the current situation. Please look out for an update in the coming weeks. Thank you for your continued support.

Chester CAFOD - Sunday 4th October

Pope Francis has called for the period from 1st September - 4th October to be a season of prayer for Creation, and with this in mind members of the Chester CAFOD Support Group are pleased to invite you to join them at St Theresa's Church, Blacon on Sunday 4th October (The Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi) at 3.00 pm for a Novena of Prayer to Saint Francis to pray "for a world under threat", comprising nine brief reflections asking St Francis of Assisi to pray for us and our world, based on his beautiful Canticle of the Sun. This novena is a song of penitence and praise, guiding us to care for the earth and for our most vulnerable sisters and brothers, especially the Amazon peoples. Due to the current restrictions re social distancing etc numbers allowed in church are limited so please contact Sue Bownas on 01244 679270 if you plan to join us, we do hope that you will be able to do so, but if not prayers and images from the Novena can be found on the following link to CAFOD's website so you can make your own Novena at home. https://cafod.org.uk/Pray/Prayer-resources/Novena-to-St-Francis

Chester Catholic High: Virtual Open Days

This last week saw The Catholic High School’s first Virtual Open Week. Videos were uploaded daily to give an insight to the unique school for future students and their families. The videos can be seen on the school website https://www.christofidelis.org.uk/Virtual-Open-Evening-2020/. Please spread the word to any families with children currently in Year 5 and 6.

Baptisms - "Rule of Six”

Clarification from Bishop Mark that Baptisms DO fall under the "Rule of Six” restrictions. Sorry, folks!

Message from our SVP

SVP ‘Just Giving’ page - for all of the obvious reasons the Chester and Ellesmere Port District SVP, which includes the St Werburgh’s team, have had to cancel all of their annual fund raising events that would normally raise money to help maintain their Holiday Home in Talacre. As an alternative approach they have decided to set up a ‘Just Giving’ page for a limited period so that donations can be made at https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/chesterellesmereportholidayhome. More details of the Holiday Home that we provide to local families in need can be seen on the SVP page of the Parish website.

Messages from Bishop Mark This Week

As ever, Bishop Mark has been working overtime this week keeping us all up to date with the latest news and initiatives on Covid-19 Restrictions. He has sent us five important documents, and a thousand thanks as ever to our superb Taskforce Team, led by His Eminence the Rottweiler, who share this burden with me and not only read all the documents carefully but advise me at our regular Monday Morning meetings on what we as a Parish need to do next. One of the documents concerns First Holy Communions, another Music in Church. So, watch this space for development when we’ve all had time to digest their contents.

Chester Retreat House - October 10th

A Zoom Meeting with Fr Laurence Freeman OSB, monk, teacher and Director for the World Community for Christian Meditation. A global inclusive contemplative community. The theme is "Why Contemplation Matters”. To find out more and to book, please go to www.retreathousechester.co.uk

Students Arriving in Chester!

Welcome to Chester and welcome to St Werburgh’s! Obviously we can’t have the normal Freshers Fair and Events that we would love to have - but if you have arrived in Chester and found your way to St Werburgh’s this morning, please stop on after Mass for a brief chat and a chance to get your contact details. The Werbies and CathSoc do need you!! Although we can’t have our traditional large CathSoc get-togethers, we will be meeting in smaller groups and having as much of a programme as is consistent with the lockdown!

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.

Photo of the Week: Cologne Cathedral Sarcophagus

The magnificent "Shrine of the Three Kings", brought to Cologne in 1164 from the conquered city of Milan. It is a large gilded Triple Sarcophagus (i.e. space for three sets of bones) and the legend is that it held the remains of the Three Kings. It is one of the largest medieval Reliquaries in the world, and one of the proudest treasures of Cologne today. If you want to find out more about it, google "Shrine of the Three Kings" on Wikipedia. Thanks to Lockdown Les and Catalogue Katie for sending it in!