SUNDAY 31st December 2023
HOLY FAMILY, Year B
Readings: Genesis 15:1-5, 21:1-3, Psalm 104, Hebrews 11:8, 11-12, 17-19, Luke 2:22-40
Sat 30th Dec 17.30 Confessions
18.00 For the Parish
Sun 31st Dec HOLY FAMILY of JESUS, MARY and JOSEPH
08.30 In Thanksgiving (Li/Sparkes)
10.30 The Choir
Mon 1st Jan 09.15 Mary, Mother of God Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
10.00 Harrington Family & Relatives RIP (Sheehan)
Tues 2nd Jan 09.15 Ss Basil & Gregory Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
10.00 Anita Rowland RIP (Connolly)
Wed 3rd Jan 09.15 Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
10.00 Eilish Melen RIP
Fri 5th Jan 09.15 Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament
10.00 Sue Johnson RIP (Kilcullen)
Sat 6th Jan 17.30 Confessions
18.00 For the Parish
Sun 7th Jan THE EPIPHANY OF THE LORD
08.30 Victor Jeyaseelan (Jeyaseelan)
10.30 David Brailsford RIP (Brailsford)
LIVE STREAMING OF MASSES ON THE WEBSITE
All masses are streamed live and can be viewed via the link:
Recordings are available. The Sunday sermon is also on the website in printed form.
FINANCES
Many thanks for your offertory collection last week: Incl. S.O.s £995.67
Direct Bank Payments to RCAS Bexley, Sort code 51 70 14, Account 01831763
Please put your name and if you use envelopes, your envelope number, as the code.
Card Payment Machine – located in the porch, is easy to use.
Gift Aid Please join the GIFT AID scheme – Forms are at the back of the Church. For every £1.00 donated the Parish receives 25p from the Tax Office. Standing Orders are best for us. Thank you.
Please join us in the Hall for refreshments after the 10.30 mass
Newsletter: Please copy notices to Fr Doug by the previous Wednesday
Dear Parishioners,
More of a letter than a newsletter this week!! As we begin this New Year, let me look forward and wish you and your families every blessing but also look back to the year past and thank everyone who has given so much to the parish:
To the parish council, and to all the groups and activity that they lead or coordinate – including our AIC, our M.C. and altar servers, the teams for baptism, first holy communion, confirmation, and children’s liturgies, our finance team, our gift aid organiser, our premises committee; our offertory collection counters, our welcome teams at masses, our coffee morning organisers, our events committee, the mass intention organizer, the SVP team, the liturgy committee, our newsletter team, the representatives for diocesan and national charities, our hall manager, our meeting point helpers, the church care team, the flower arrangers, the Christmas Crib and Easter garden builders, the Christmas tree team, the organists, the choir and their leader, our Eucharistic ministers, shop staff and sacristans, the parish secretary, our readers, the safeguarding team and the person who runs our website and offers other technical support, and indeed everyone who has taken part in our parish activity and helped to carry our mission forward. On behalf of the whole parish, I say a big THANK YOU to you all.
At this time, I also want to say a huge THANK YOU to you all, for all your cards and gifts and your wonderfully generous Christmas offering. I am humbled by your sincerity.
Fr Peter has also asked me to thank you for all your kindness to him. I am sure it means a lot, when you are retired, to know that you are still valued.
Our Parish Finance Committee carries a big workload that continues to grow in complexity. At its heart has been Brian Fernandes who has been Chairman as well as covering a number of other tasks, and Edna Fernandes who has been dealing with all the gift-aided contributors. I, and we, should be so grateful to them for all that they have done over many years. They have recently been gifted with a grandchild… and also gifted with the weekday responsibility for childcare. Wonderful (?!) for them but not so good for our finance team, as they can no longer spend time during the week in our office! Again, thank you, so very much, Brian and Edna, for everything.
I am very pleased though to inform you, that new team members have stepped forward, so now the committee is as follows:
Chair: Shane Howie; Accountant: Sandeep Monteiro; Gift Aid: Richard Gillespie;
Financial Secretary: Errol Colaco; Counters Organiser: Patricia McQuaid
Data Managers: Madeline Grainger, Amyas Mascarenhas, Errol Colaco
In this coming year we hope to give our parish hall a makeover, and in particular we want to renovate the toilet facilities – in the church too. A first class parish should have a first class hall.
So, I wouldn’t be doing the new finance committee justice if I didn’t ask at the beginning of a new year, that you examine your financial contribution to the church and see if you can’t afford a little more to match our increasing challenges caused by fuel inflation in particular.
I for one, found the Parish celebration of Christmas quite moving. There were many beautiful touches, but none more than the improvements to our crib. (Thank you Peter.) How ironic that this sign of peace and goodwill should be in such contrast to the situation in the Holy Lands. As you know the crib offerings this year will be going out to the Holy Lands to try to keep people alive. Your offerings so far have been remarkable. Christmas continues till the feast of The Baptism Of The Lord, so the Crib Offerings Basket will remain in place till then.
God Bless, Fr Doug
stjohnfisherbexley.org 
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