The Parishioner - Edition 22

More documents

Recommendations

Info

S T F R A N C I S ’ C H U R C H Parishioner THE PARISH OF ST. FRANCIS GROVE HOUSE, 126 WEEK STREET, MAIDSTONE , KENT ME14 1RH. TEL: (01622) 756217 FAX: (01622) 690549 E-mail: stfrancis_parish@yahoo.co.uk Web site: www.stfrancisparish.org.uk Parish Priest: Canon John S Clark MA. Assistant Priests: Fr. Bartlomiej Dudek, Fr.Peter Kucharski Deacon: Rev’d Tom Coyle KSG E D I T O R I A L Once again we welcome a new edition of the Parishioner. I am so grateful to Denis and Ross for all the hard work they put into in preparing the current edition. We lead with the forthcoming retirement of Bishop John. We hope he will be around with us until the end of the year. He has served the people of Kent and of the diocese for over 50 years as both priest and Bishop. He will be sadly missed. He has always been a great support and help to anyone who has turned to him when in need of support. No doubt we will have the opportunity of thanking him formerly in the coming months. Canon John Fr Piotr Kucharski I was born on May 1983 in Sanok, a city in southeastern Poland and grew up in a small town called Zagórz. After my school-leaving exams in June 2003 I entered the Seminary in Przemysl. In May 2008 I was ordained a deacon, and after a year I was ordained a priest by Archbishop Józef Michalik in the cathedral in Przemysl. Over the next three years I was assistant priest in the Sacred Heart of Jesus parish in Biaobrzegi, then I was sent by my Archbishop to Maidstone. I enjoy England very much, especially in this parish, particularly my friendships with the clergy team and parishioners. Everyone is very nice and kind. I think that this is the real spirit of St Francis’ - from a simple smile, kindness and prayer to real community of Christ. I hope that my ministry in the parish will be useful and fruitful. Fr J Victor Emmanuel I am from India and belong to the diocese of Tiruchirappally in Tamilnadu. I was ordained a priest on April17th.1996 and have completed 17years as a priest. For thirteen years I worked as a parish priest in different parishes in my diocese and for the last three years as financial administrator in our regional major seminary. I always enjoy coming to St.Francis’ Parish in Maidstone. This is my third time here and it has become like a second home for me. I was previously here in 2004 and 2007. Canon John has always been kind, cordial, hospitable and generous and I have found all the parishioners to be very friendly and welcoming. I am really grateful to Canon John, Fr.Bartlomiej, Fr.Peter and all the parishioners for their cordiality and hospitality. Thank you very much. Phoenix Youth Club- Ablaze with Love and Light If, on Friday, you’re thinking...it’s been a long week, it’s time for a laugh and a chill out, then, you should be thinking… it’s time...for youth club!!! Let’s kick off with the important stuff. Firstly a point of gratitude, the youth club is run by some very cheerful people, Lydia Burchell, Fr Bartholomew, Fr Peter and other helpers. We are lucky to have these wonderfully dedicated people who help to make our experiences even more enjoyable. When the youth club was first set up, with the initiative of Jackie Iffie, we obtained a KCC grant for £708.54 to help with redecoration and equipment and this was the money Lydia used to purchase the air hockey table (just one example of the awesome work they do). On Fridays we meet from 6.30 - 9.00 pm, and very much enjoy going head first and challenging each other (overcome with competitive spirit) to a game of pool, table tennis, table football, AIR HOCKEY! and Wii games. Sometimes though the most simple games please us most and one of the most popular games that we all play together is “Spoons”, which is a card game where there are not quite enough spoons to go round, so you can imagine what happens! Every Friday we have sweets, crisps and fizzy drinks to enjoy but our favourite evenings are those when we have pizza or ice cream! :D We also go on trips (everyone likes trips :D), we’ve been ice skating, bowling and we have been on a midnight hike to Aylesford Priory (with hot chocolate and marshmallows...yum!) and also attended the Rosary at Aylesford during October. We have led a couple of 6 pm Masses and really enjoy the food evenings we have after the Masses, let’s be honest who doesn’t like food?! We had a Mass followed by KFC in January and on Mother’s Day we led the evening Mass and afterwards we had pizza with our families in the Parish Hall. Unfortunately there does seem to be a recurring theme of snow at every Mass we have led so far. Let us hope next time we lead a Mass in the Kathleen Dalton was born in Tinahely. Co. Wicklow in Ireland on the 24th January, 1938 into a deeply religious Catholic family. She was the fifth of six children, She saw her sister Stephanie leave home at the age of 17 to go to England to join the Sisters of Providence in Lincoln and two years later, aged 17, she joined her sister in Lincoln on the 15th January 1955 to begin her formation, taking the name of Sister Mary Lawrence in honour of her father. She made her first Profession on the 5th October 1957 and remained in Lincoln assisting with the youngest children in the Infant School. In 1964 she went to Belfast in Northern Ireland where the Sisters worked with the Redemptorists in their retreat house. In 1966 she moved to Maidstone where she was to spend the rest of her life, firstly at the Sacred Heart Convent School and from 1975-2005 in Fintonagh House. From 1970-1973 she did her teacher training in Nottingham. In 1973 she began work in St. Francis’ Primary School and remained there, becoming Head of Infants until her retirement in July 2000. In 1981 she had a serious, life changing heart operation and she lived with its consequences for the rest of her life, always having to be closely monitored. This did not stop her building up the Infant department of the school, creating a truly unique place to work and study. She worked with a committed and loyal group of teachers and helpers. The children were at the heart of everything that Kathleen did and only the best was good enough for them. She had a particular place in her heart for her “naughty boys”. The school was definitely at the heart of the parish community. Sister Kathleen got to know generations of families, which stood her in good stead for the next chapter of her life. In 2001 with the prospective closure of Fintonagh House by Jennie Kemps summer that it’s not snowing!! Many of you may remember that just before Christmas the youth club performed a Nativity for the Parish. This was written and directed by Jade Nelson one of our members. Jade’s script was so well done that we were able to act out a teenage Nativity with a little bit of humour but the Nativity did not lose the true meaning of Christmas. We had our ups and downs during the rehearsals but we were so proud of our final performance and the feedback we received from the families, friends and parishioners who came to see it was really positive. So, to all those that came along...Thank You! It was really amazing to experience so much support! On Friday 15 March 2013 we also performed the Stations of the Cross. We understood that the Stations are an emotional and moving prayer and we wanted to express this in our performance. Most of the youth club were able to take part and this was directed by members of the youth club; Rachel Williams (readers) and Georgina Burchell (actors). The reflections were written so that they were very thought provoking and emotional and the actors led the congregation through Jesus’ last moments to his death. Many of the congregation attending said that the Stations of the Cross performed by the youth club brought them to tears because it was so moving and prayerful. We also regularly take part in Parish activities like the Parish Quiz Night and we have helped at the summer and Christmas Fairs. We think it is important that we take an active role in Parish life. Over the next few months we hope to have many more food evenings, trips and activities and just chill out in the youth room (and play spoons!). Come and join us! We meet every Friday during term time from 6.30 pm to 9.00 pm. Looking forward to seeing you there! :) Sister Kathleen Dalton 1938-2012 and the dispersal of the community of Sisters, Kathleen asked to continue the 100 year mission of the Sisters in Maidstone by remaining there alone in a sheltered flat and becoming the Parish Sister for St. Francis’ Parish. Her new responsibilities were for the sick and elderly of the parish. Every week she would visit many people in the parish, the hospital and the psychiatric hospital. She initiated many of the Indian and Polish priests into the parish by taking them on her weekly visits. These were very fruitful years of Kathleen’s life as she lived alone, developing so many skills and becoming independent. She often said that these years were a gift as she became more aware of who she was and what she had to give. She also found a new attachment to the Congregation and the Region, too. She enjoyed visiting all the communities in England and even made visits to communities in Europe. She loved her family and was immensely proud of them and she was deeply loyal to her Irish roots. Kathleen felt blessed to be able to look after her sister Mary in her last months. She loved her trips “home” and the regular phone calls, emails and photos. We know she was always grateful to Canon John Clark and all her friends in Maidstone, without whom she would not have been able to live alone. She always felt part of the community of the parish and she knew she had friends who supported and appreciated her. Sister Kathleen’s sudden death has left a big gap in the lives of so many people, but she lived her life to the end doing what she felt called to do as a Sister of Providence, being “providence especially for the weak and the poor” (Const 1) in “hope, complete trust, simplicity and joy” (Const 8). May she rest in peace. Have you visited your parish web site? www.stfrancisparish.org.uk
Welcome to Pope Francis Following the resignation of Pope Benedict XVI on February 28th this year, the world waited with bated breath to see who would be his successor. Would he be, like Benedict, conservative and intellectual or be a pope more open to change and less formal, from Europe or from further afield? The answer came on March 13th when the Cardinals in conclave in Rome elected Pope Francis. Born Jorge Mario Bergoglio on December 13th 1936 in Buenos Aires to Italian parents, Pope Francis worked briefly as a chemical technician before entering seminary school. He was ordained priest for the Jesuits in 1969 during his theological studies at the Theological Faculty of San Miguel. From 1973 to 1979 he was Argentina’s Provincial superior of the Society of Jesus and became Archbishop of Buenos Aires in 1989 and a cardinal in 2001. After his election as Pope he chose the name Francis in honour of St. Francis of Assisi. Francis is the first Jesuit pope, and the first pope from the Americas and the southern hemisphere. He is known, both as an individual and religious leader, for his humility, his concern for the poor and his committment to dialogue as a way to build bridges between people of all backgrounds, beliefs and faiths. Since his election to the papacy he has displayed a simpler and less formal approach to the office. What the Pope does. by David Willey After Pope Francis’ solemn inauguration Mass, attended by six reigning monarchs, 31 heads of state and representatives of 132 governments, he became head of state of the world’s smallest sovereign enclave, Vatican City, as well as spiritual leader of an estimated 1.2 billion Catholics scattered over every continent. The duties of the 266th successor to the throne of Saint Peter are wideranging.His regular Vatican appointments are a weekly blessing for tourists and pilgrims every Sunday from the window of his private study overlooking Saint Peter’s Square and a weekly general audience for some 5,000 pilgrims in a modern audience hall in winter and in the open air in Saint Peter’s Square in summer. The Pope normally presides over religious celebrations of all the major church festivals of the year inside Saint Peter’s, including Christmas and Easter, when he also appears on the same balcony where he was proclaimed pope after his election to deliver his “Urbi Et Orbi” message to the city of Rome and to the world. Past popes have celebrated Mass every morning in their private chapel before settling down at their desk to deal with correspondence. The Pope has a small personal staff of nuns to run his household, to cook and clean, and a personal valet or butler. Pope Benedict and Pope John Paul both had two personal secretaries. He also has a team of speechwriters. While Pope Emeritus Benedict lived a secluded life inside the Vatican (and plans to live an even more secluded existence in the former convent which is being prepared as his new home in a corner of the Vatican Gardens), Pope John Paul II lived a more gregarious existence, often inviting personal guests to attend his early morning mass and to share his breakfast. He also gave frequent lunch and dinner parties for visiting clergy Early in November 2012, we visited the BBC TV Centre at White City in West London, just a few months before it closed in March 2013 for redevelopment. Some of the best-known programmes on British television were recorded within its walls: Dad’s Army, I Claudius, Fawlty Towers, Top of the Pops, Monty Python’s Flying Circus, The Two Ronnies, Blue Peter, classic era Doctor Who and Absolutely Fabulous. The façade to this iconic 1960 building features a central circular block affectionately referred to by BBC staff as the “doughnut”, around which were built studios, offices, engineering areas and the News Centre. The architect, Graham Dawbarn, literally drew a question mark on the back of an envelope as the original concept for the shape of the building, since he only had a triangular piece of land to work with. The BBC TV Centre was the first in Britain specifically designed for television. We were lucky enough to have a sunny day in London, and we were treated to a wonderful view of the Palace of Westminster as we went over Lambeth Bridge. It was quite a cold day, but on arrival to the BBC TV Centre, we were fortunate not to be in the queue for ‘Strictly Come Dancing’, which already trailed quite a long way. We divided up into different groups to have a tour of the some of the studios and other parts of TV Centre. Our group had fun and games with weather forecasting, news reading and a mini TV quiz, and we saw inside different studios including the old News 24 Studio, which had already relocated to Media City in Salford at the time of our visit. and friends. One of the duties of a pope is to meet at least once every five years with his more than 5,000 bishops from around the world - roughly 1,000 a year, or 20 a week. Under church law they are obliged to visit Rome to report to the Pope on the state of their dioceses in what is called an “ad limina” (on the threshold of Saint Peter) visit. Benedict XVI had just finished this exhaustive series of interviews with every Catholic bishop in the world, and was embarking on a second round just before his retirement. Foreign travel is also, these days, among the Pope’s duties.In contrast to the 19th Century Pope Pius IX and his immediate successors, Pope Francis is unlikely ever voluntarily to confine himself to his micro-state. Pius’ pontificate lasted for 32 years, the longest of all time. Although he was forced to leave Rome and seek temporary refuge at nearby Gaeta when revolution broke out in Rome in 1848, he angrily declared himself a “prisoner in the Vatican” when forced militarily to forfeit his temporal rule over the former papal states of central Italy after Italy became a unified state in 1870. He remained inside the walls of the Vatican until he died. Pope Francis has already made several sorties into Rome in an unmarked car and is likely to continue the regular worldwide and Italian travels of his immediate predecessors. His first foreign visit is expected to be to his home country Argentina, and also to Brazil for a Catholic youth festival in Rio de Janeiro in July. His first visit inside Italy could be to Assisi, the birthplace of the much loved patron saint of Italy, Saint Francis, by whose name the new Pope chose to be called. The Pope also receives many visitors. Traditional papal protocol is complicated and serves to isolate the Pope except when he officiates at these public ceremonies. The Apostolic Palace, a fine Renaissance building next to Saint Peter’s Basilica, has suites of official reception rooms on its second floor, below the papal apartments. Here the Pope receives heads of state and official guests in his private library - groups of visitors range in size from four or five, to several hundred at a time. Popes traditionally live in the spacious apartment reserved for their use on the top floor of the Apostolic Palace. This may not suit the new Pope who, as absolute monarch, is free to live where he will. When appointed archbishop of Buenos Aires, Pope Francis refused to live in the archbishop’s palace, preferring more simple accommodation. Up to now he has chosen to work from a hotel room inside Vatican City, rather than move directly into his palatial official quarters, which he finds excessively large. A GREAT DAY AT BBC TV CENTRE Olga D’Silva No room for the Daleks! Parishioners queueing up for a trip in the Tardis? As we walked along one of the circular corridors, our group brushed shoulders with Michael Vaughan, the former England Cricket Captain who described himself as ‘A Dad from Sheffield’ in his incarnation as a Strictly Come Dancing contestant. Well, at least we’d seen a ‘Strictly’ contestant without having to queue for hours in the cold. After our BBC tour, we were free to go to the Westfield Shopping Centre in Hammersmith, for lunch and a spot of early Christmas shopping. Our next Parish Trip will be to another British icon, but quite a contrast, in the form of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew on Saturday 22nd June 2013. All parishioners are welcome to join, and I am confident that our BBC weather forecasters will give us a wonderful summer’s day! The following exasperated notice was placed in a Northern parish newsletter by an angry parish priest: “To make it possible for everyone to attend church next Sunday we are going to have a special ‘No Excuse Sunday”. Beds will be placed in the foyer for those who say, “Sunday is my only day to sleep.” We will have steel helmets for those who say, “The roof will cave in if ever I come to church.” Blankets will be furnished for those who think the church is too cold and fans for those who think the church is too hot. We will have hearing aids for those who think the priest speaks too softly and cotton wool for those who think he preaches too loudly. Scorecards will be available for those who wish to list the hypocrites present. Some relatives will be in attendance for those who like to go visiting on Sunday. There will be TV dinners for those who can’t go to church and also cook dinner. One section will be devoted to trees and grass for those who prefer to see God in nature. Finally, the sanctuary will be decorated with both Christmas poinsettias and Easter lilies for those who have never seen the church without them.” Knocking on the Tabernacle Door Do you hear my gentle knocking Lord? Are you listening to my prayer? This sinner asks in whispers Knowing that you care. Thoughtful though I try to be But failing all the while, I ask your pardon humbly Aware my soul could be on trial. Tell me you are listening Lord And your holy words are true, That gracious mercy flows On sinners old and new. And that Heaven is attainable With hope and love for you. Oh yes indeed I hear you Lord, Your answer within my heart. Binds penance with redemption Confirming faith and love to start The journey to your glory And never more to be apart. Len Watson NEWS IN PICTURES Len and Viv Watson’s son, Steve, seen on the TV quiz show ‘The Chase’ this year, narrowly missed winning a half share of £30,001. Steve contributed £30,000 to the prize fund, his fellow competitor just £1. Unfortunately, the Chaser matched their score with just 6 seconds to spare! Congratulations to the winning team at the Quiz Evening last October, seen here with the coveted ‘gold cup’ and prize bottles of wine. The Quiz was a great success (as usual) and made over £500 The winners of the Quiz evening, organised by the Watson family and held on Saturday, May 4th, raised over £600 for Parish funds. The Hall was full to bursting and a great time was had by all. Apologies to Len and Viv Watson. In the last Parishioner the article “Two Golden Weddings” showed the wrong ‘Just married’ picture. Here is the correct one.
Page 1: Parishioner S T F R A N C I S ’ C
Page 5 and 6: 1 Have you always lived in Maidston
Page 7 and 8: A Real World War 1 Romance By Pauli

The Parishioner - Edition 22

Create successful ePaper yourself

Delete template?

Save as template?