More celebrations . . .

Ingredients for a successful parish celebration:

Something to celebrate - The 75th Anniversary of our parish

The presence of a daughter of one of the founding families of the parish

A Bishop - Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Bishop Kieran Conry,

pictured here with Barbara Flaxman

A church full of smiling parishioners

A choir in splendid voice

A groaning table full of tasty food

A well-stocked bar

A delicious cake

Plenty of helping hands

Put them all together and you have the perfect fool-proof recipe for our parish celebration today.

And just for good measure, add in a parishioner who is also celebrating a 'special birthday' today. Happy Birthday Freda!

Here are a few photos taken this morning . . .

Our newly confirmed . . . !

Congratulations to all our young people who were confirmed by Bishop Kieran at St Joseph's, Epsom a few weeks ago along with many others from our deanery.

Many thanks to Sam Carr for organising the photo which was taken outside St Ann's on Sunday.

* 'Double-click' on the photos to see an enlarged version.

40 Hours and 75 years . . . !

Well, what a wonderful time we had in the parish yesterday.

Before we began our 40 Hours Devotion we celebrated a Mass in thanksgiving for all the blessings received during the 75 years since the foundation of the parish of St Ann's.

I am very pleased that several priests who have connections with the parish were able to attend. Fr Stephen Dingley, who was ordained at St Ann's, kindly agreed to preside and Fr Seán Finnegan who was also ordained at St Ann's delivered a very fitting homily. You can see some of the concelebrants pictured below.

They were joined by some former parish priests and assistant priests. I was also delighted to welcome some of the Community of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal who have become welcome visitors to St Ann's ever since they preached a parish mission here a few years ago.

Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed after Mass; the lights were lowered and those who were able to stay knelt in Adoration and Prayer . . . and so began our 40 Hours Devotion.

Fish on Fridays . . .

Have you heard the news?

Meat's out . . . !

And . . . fish is in!

Following the recent plenary meeting of the Catholic Bishops of England and Wales, it has been decided 'to re-establish the practice of Friday penance in the lives of the faithful as a clear and distinctive mark of their own Catholic identity.'

Hooray, I say!

You can read the full press release on the Bishops' Conference website here

The 'Feminisation of the Church . . ."

I saw this video on the Internet recently. The speaker, Michael Voris, makes some very interesting comments about the 'Feminisation of the Church'.

Looking at our regular Sunday Mass attendance, I don't think anyone would disagree with the suggestion that there are far more women than men in church, not just 'in the pews' but also amongst the Ministers of the Word, Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, sacristans, musicians etc.

I wonder if, as suggested, this does have an effect on the men in our congregation and on Catholic men in the Church in general. I'd be interested to hear what other people think.

Update.

Regarding the blog on Feminization of the Church by Michael Voris, parishioners might be interested to know that they can receive daily broadcasts by Michael Voris by clicking onto RealCatholicTV.com Although they are free, you can make donations or, if you can afford it, you can sunscribe £10 per month for a much fuller coverage of all things Catholic. (Thanks to a parishioner for this information)