The Holy Father has announced an Extraordinary Month of Mission (EMM) this October, with “the aim of fostering an increased awareness of the Missio Ad Gentes and taking up again with renewed fervour the missionary transformation of the Church’s life and pastoral activity, and to help their communities grow in missionary and evangelising zeal”. More information can be found on the Missio website - click here.
St. Mary Magdalen's Parish has, for many years, supported the national Missio overseas charity - parishioners having the famous 'Red Box' in their homes in which to place their donations of small or not so small change - the annual collection raising approx £1000. For a small parish this is a significant sum of money to help others.
The Red Boxes are collected, emptied and counted once a year, usually in early November, by a 'Promoter'. The money is then handed over to the local secretary to complete paperwork etc. before being transferred to the Central Office, Mill Hill for distribution where needed around the world.
The Promoter also distributes a quarterly magazine to the 4-7 people on their round. The work is not difficult but does take up a little bit of time four times a year.
If you would like more information to become involved with supporting this very worthwhile charity as a promoter or indeed having a Red Box in your home please contact Chris Codd 01449 761707 or email by clicking here
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.
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.
Fr Mathew's recent illness highlighted a problem we have in contacting people who normally attend Mass at St Mary Magdalens on Sundays. To try to improve on contact arrangements in the event of any future emergency situations we are going to prepare an email list of people who normally attend 8:00, 10:00 and 6:00 pm masses so that we can quickly get a message to these persons if something has to be changed due to unforeseen circumstances.
In order to comply with GDPR, if you would like to have your name on this distribution list, you will need to specifically request it to ensure we have your consent to use your data for this purpose.
If you would like to receive such email notifications, please send an email to contact@marymagdalens.org giving your name, your email address and requesting that you be added to the contact list for the mass you normally attend. Alternatively you can submit the same request using the web site contact form.
We also have a Facebook page @marymagdalens which is used to publish any emergency arrangements, so it is recommended you follow St Mary Magdalens in order to receive any such news posts this way too
FIND is a Christian-based registered charity that was founded in 1990 to provide emergency assistance to families or individuals affected by poverty or dispossession. It helps those that are deprived of a minimum standard of living, whether they are single, families, lone parents, children, elderly, sick, disabled or homeless. The FIND tub in the narthex could be your opportunity to reach out to those who have fallen on hard times locally. Gifts of food, particularly non-perishables, especially welcome. Did you know FIND also supplies free of charge household items? If you have any usable appliances or furniture to dispose of, why not contact FIND to see if someone else can benefit. You can learn more about the work of FIND by visiting its web site
"Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me."(Matthew 25: 40)
Churches hold a lot of data about their worshippers, like Baptism, Confirmation, First Holy communion, marriage and death records. They also hold some financial data regarding standing orders and to satisfy Gift Aid requirements. Most importantly churches have their worshippers address and contact details. Diocesan guidance on the new GDPR regulations, which came into force in May, mean that parishioners need to explicitly authorise the church to allow the use of this data for contact purposes, and to define the manner of that contact. Forms are available in the narthex or can be downloaded here - if you have not completed a GDPR form, please do so this week and give it to Fr Mathew.
If you have any items of news, publicity, celebration or anything else that you would like to share with our community, please pass details to the web master by using the contact form.
