Parish Newsletter

Holy Week and Easter Thanks

As Easter week draws to a close, and before Holy Week and Easter become just a happy memory, a huge thanks to everyone who worked so hard to make our celebration so beautiful. Like many churches, we welcomed record crowds over the Triduum Services, and had folk standing at the back for Easter Sunday morning. Creating these splendid Liturgies was such a joint effort, and I do want to thank the army of wolunteers who made it possible: readers, welcomers, florists, cleaners, stewards, choir, musicians, altar servers, those who had their feet washed, the offertory collectors, leaflet producers… I reckon close on a hundred people gave of their services, for which we are all truly grateful. Singling out individuals is always dangerous, as we have so many wonderful parishioners and families here: but special thanks to Val for looking after the Easter Vigil fire once again, and for Samanta and Kris for serving the Easter Vigil Mass and then coming back to serve at Midnight. An amazing family.

Church Cleaning on Wednesday Mornings

Many thanks to everyone who turned up on the Wednesday before Easter to give the church a Spring Clean for Easter. Now we want to establish a regular rota for an hour and a half on a Wednesday morning. We hope that if enough people sign up, each individual would only need to come along every four or five weeks. Many thanks to everyone who signed up before Christmas: another list is at the back of church if you’d like to be a Mrs Mopp!

The End of Communion Stewarding

As announced, we are no longer going to use stewards for communion, except on High Days and Holy Days, but… Fire Marshals are needed: we are required to have 3 Fire Marshals on duty at Sunday Mass, a role that our communion stewards previously fulfilled. The duty is simply about getting people out of the church safely, in the event of a fire alarms sounding. In addition, we would ask the Fire Marshals looking after the exits at the front of church to start the side aisles moving to communion at the appropriate point, to avoid congestion at the back of church. No stewarding is required! If you could volunteer for this role please let FP or Marian (marian.mccarthy@btinternet.com) by Easter Monday, 10th April. Training sessions will be organised.

House-Share in Hoole Available

A room available for rent in Hoole. Lovely 2 bed house only a 10-minute walk away from City centre. £550 pcm. All bills included. See FP if interested.

Christian Aid Lent Lunches

Huge thanks to everyone who supported and all those who cooked/served! A magnificent total of £2,303.64 was raised over the six weeks, including gift Aid, so a thousand thanks to everyone who cooked and served, and everyone who consumed!

SVP Celebration Mass

You are all cordially invited to the Celebration Mass that will take place on Sunday 30th April at 2.30 pm in the Catholic Primary School. Please get in touch with Fran fran.waldie@gmail.com if you need a lift to get there. All warmly welcome!

Organ Tuning and Repairs

Thursday morning first thing, the scaffolding tower arrived on time, 8.00 am, closely followed by Patrick and his fantastic team of workmen to put it up, all ready for the Organ Tuners at 9.00 am, coming over from Liverpool. As you probably know, access to the organ loft has been problematical for years, via a little door fifteen feet up in the side of the screen. As Health and Safety rightly vetoed use of ladders, a Scaffolding Tower was the answer to give safe access for the tuners, taken down again on the Friday. Big thanks to Patrick and his team for supervising putting it up and taking it down again, and to Philip and his team for the work on the organ, a thorough tuning and a few basic maintenance jobs. Postscript: the organ loft also houses the fly trap. It hasn’t been emptied for over three years. Don’t ask! Believe me, you wouldn’t want to know. I’ll just say it would put you off Garibaldi Biscuits for life…

Parish Renewal

Time now after Easter to pick up this exciting programme that we launched last Autumn.
Watch this space, everyone! Much has been achieved in the first stage, but there’s a lot more to do, as we work through each and every aspect of our life together. Restoration of the Chalice at Mass and, with it, the work of our Eucharistic Ministers, is high on the list, as is also the work of our Parish Council. The small group running the Renewal Programme will be meeting again soon, so watch this space for developments!

Confirmation Coming Up on Wednesday 10th May

The Classes have been going great guns for the last seven weeks, youngsters on a Wednesday evening and adults on a Monday. Now we are into our last few weeks, so do please keep everyone in your prayers as the great day approaches. Huge thanks to a very new-look Catechists Team. We hope there’ll be room in St Francis on the day for all parishioners to join us who’d like to come along.

Anyone Help One of our CathSoc Students?

An excellent young Mechanical Engineering Masters student writes: “Dear Parishioners. I Am a student currently pursuing my engineering degree at the University of Chester. I am currently in need of a mentor to help guide me in the design or manufacturing domain, since I am new to this field and I am in need for someone to point me in the right direction and better explain the aspects of this field. If anyone could take me on as an apprentice I would greatly appreciate it. Please do contact FP if you feel you could help me out. Thank you and God bless.”

Photo of the Week: St Patrick’s Day 2023

A lovely family photo sent in by Bill Sweeney, showing himself and Maggie enjoying a family celebration of March 17th this year. As you all know, Maggie hasn’t been in the best of health recently, and we all take our hat off to Bill for how amazingly he’s been looking after her. Here they are with children and grandchildren. Don’t know what was in that big bowl in the centre of the table, but it looked delicious!