If you are leaving school or university soon, in between jobs or would like to do something 'different', then the Diocesan Youth Service is looking for people age 18-30 to join the Ignite Team, sharing the Gospel Message with young people in a way they can relate to. These are full-time positions, ideal as a gap year activity, with food, accommodation and a monthly allowance provided. For more information visit the Diocesan web site.
The Diocesan Youth Service is holding its annual Ignite Festival on the weekend May 4th/5th at the Sacred Heart School, Swaffham, Norfolk. All young people in year 8 upwards are invited to attend. Come and experience your faith in a new and dynamic way at the Ignite Festival. The weekend will include inspiring talks, passionate prayer, live music, and lots of fun stuff including sumo suit wrestling! For further information, visit the festival web site. by clicking here.
Town Pastors have been working on the streets of Ipswich on Friday and Saturday nights between 10 pm and 4 am since June 2006. At the moment there are over 50 town pastors and over 50 on its prayer team. The organisation has 3 main streams of volunteer roles:
Training for potential new town pastors will commence on Saturday April 27th 2019 and they are looking for new recruits from all the local churches. Town Pastors have to be Christian and an active member within their home churches. There is an expected commitment of one shift per month. Anyone interested in getting involved in this work or finding out more information about the roles, can find further information and application forms on the organisation’s web site.
Will Eucharistic Ministers please note a change in practice for the 10:00 Mass on Sundays. We will be reverting to the previous practice of using three ministers, one to assist with the distribution of the Body of Christ and two to administer the Precious Blood. The rota for Eucharistic Ministers has been rearranged accordingly, with the first named minister at 10:00 Mass each Sunday distributing the Body of Christ. Please review the revised rota in the narthex, or download a copy here.
An Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion, often referred to as a Eucharistic Minister, may be required at Mass to assist the celebrating priest with the distribution of Holy Communion. Outside of Mass, an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion may be required to assist the priest to minister Holy Communion to the sick or housebound, to expose and repose the Blessed Sacrament or to assist at a Celebration of Word and Holy Communion in the absence of a priest to celebrate Mass. We are in need of additional persons to join this ministry. If you feel you would like to become a minister, please speak in the first instance to Fr Mathias.
Fr Mathias writes: “I want to encourage members of the parish to take advantage of the pastoral support in the parishes by calling the attention of the priest to anyone or family that might need the services of a priest. Also formal opportunities for further faith formation for the faithful in the shape of weekly courses are to be started in the parish soon.” Watch out for further announcements soon.
Children’s Liturgy continues each week during the 10:00 Mass on Sundays, aimed primarily at pre First Holy communion children. Younger children are welcome, but very young children should be accompanied by a parent as our catechists are not able to manage, for example, toilet requirements.
This is a story about four people named Everybody, Somebody, Anybody, and Nobody. There was an important job to be done and Everybody was sure that Somebody would do it. Anybody could have done it, but Nobody did it. Somebody got angry about that because it was Everybody's job. Everybody thought that Anybody could do it, but Nobody realized that Everybody wouldn't do it. It ended up that Everybody blamed Somebody when Nobody did what Anybody could have done.
There are a number of lists in the narthex asking for names of volunteers for various things – to help with church and hall cleaning, to help with food for the proposed parish Christmas party next week, readers and Eucharistic minsters for the Christmas services, vacancy for the position of parish treasurer etc. At the last check these were all woefully blank! Don’t be a Nobody.
The family of the late Noel Andrews are making a donation of new altar ware to St Mary Magdalens church in memory of deceased members of the Andrews family.
The presentation will be made by family members at the 10:00 Mass on Sunday 23rd December, which will be said for the intention of deceased members of the Andrews family, and these items - two chalices, a ciborium and a paten - are being donated in memory of Ambrose, Noel, Doreen and Pamela Andrews.
Unfortunately, due to ill health, our parish treasurer, John Anderson-Hurst, has been forced to retire, stepping down at the end of the financial year, and we are seeking to appoint a new parish treasurer. If you have some finance / accounting experience and are happy to give generously some of your time for the parish, please let Fr Mathew know. The treasurer will be a de facto appointment to the parish Finance Committee.
The minutes of the meeting of the parish finance committee which took place on July 12th have been issued for publication. These can be found on the finance pages of the parish web site and there is a copy pinned to the notice board in the narthex.
