Fabric & Finance
We had our first full Fabric & Finance meeting last night since January 2020. We bid a fond farewell to some members thanking them for their many years of faithful service in this area of parish life, and we were delighted to welcome new members.
Youth
Tonight, St Joseph’s and St Andrew’s Youth Ministry Team will meet planning the year ahead for our young people. We'll be getting retreats and various other events arranged. We continue to work closely with St Nicholas’ and we're looking forward to inviting NET Ministry and the Archdiocesan Youth Team back to the parish.
On the horizon are the P7 leavers’ Masses (they’ll be live streamed) and the Pope Francis Faith Award presentation, plus we’ll be getting a Caritas presentation arranged soon.
Servers & Sacristans
We’re working on getting the altar servers (junior and senior) plus sacristans up and running again, and as soon as we move into level 1, we’ll get congregational singing back at Mass, albeit still with some restrictions.
Baptisms and Weddings
A good number of baptisms are due to be celebrated in the coming months, and the sound of wedding bells will be ringing out once again in our parish for many couples.
First Holy Communion and Confirmation
These past weeks have been a great joy for our parish community welcoming over 160 young people and their families for the First Holy Communion & Confirmation Masses. A huge thanks to all who were involved in the organisation, the preparations and the participation of the Masses, and we pray that the blessings of the mystery of the Eucharist and Confirmation will stay with the boys and girls for a long time to come.
Groups and Organisations
Our Parish Pastoral Council and our Liturgy Group will be reconvened soon. I’m very grateful to all who served on the interim group for the past eighteen months, meeting regularly and faithfully and helping attend to a huge amount of business in such very challenging times.
Our Halls Committee, the cluster's Justice and Peace Group, the Embroidery Group and SPRED have had regular meetings via zoom throughout the past year and a half.
Our Piety Stall, thankfully, has remained open throughout with an online facility to purchase via our website.
We'll be inviting soon for anyone who would like to become a member of the Catholic Church and we'll be looking at how best to arrange RCIA, given the current restrictions.
There was a good response to the appeal for new volunteers for the parish's Mother & Toddler Group, which will be starting back in the new school term.
Thank You
A huge thank you to all for the way in which you support your parish.
A huge thanks, too, to all who volunteer and minister in the life and mission of St Andrew's, and to all who, especially in these times, ensure that our church is safe so that it can be open for Mass to be celebrated daily.
We're always looking for more volunteers, so if you would like to help in any way, please do get in touch.
Booking for Mass
Just a reminder, if you haven't registered yet for the booking process for Mass, it's easy to do.
Go here to register just once, and book each time you would like to come to Mass.
For those who aren't able to attend, Mass will continue to be live streamed on our YouTube channel 10am Sunday to Friday.
The Rosary is now live streamed every Monday at 9.30am.
Have a good week, and here's hoping for more of this fine weather.