News...

First Communion preparation

Continues at St. Andrew’ on Thursday at 3.30pm

Confessions

Saturdays from 10.25 - 11am and after Thursday evening mass in St. Cuthbert’s.

PLANNED GIVING BOXES 

Are at the back of church for the coming year. Could you let Ann Trumble or Fr Quinn know if you have changed your address or ceased to pay tax for Gift Aid purposes. Thanks.

Community Bus

It looks ever more likely that this bus will be withdrawn. We hope to advise you of a meeting shortly to make representations and seek a solution.

Lenten Lunch

Lenten lunches continue at St. Mary’s (CofE) in the square on Fridays from 11.15am till 1.15pm. Soup lunch. Entry £2.50. Thanks to all who helped with St. Wilfrid’s turn last week, which raised £274.

OUR EASTER PENETENTIAL SERVICE

Will take place on Tuesday 30th March at 7.00pm. Please do try to make a special effort to attend this service during Lent.

Stations of the Cross

Will be at 9.30am on Wednesday and 6.30pm on Friday at St. Wilfrid’s and at 2.30pm on Sunday at St. Cuthbert’s Cowpen throughout Lent.

Please Note

Mass on Thursday at St. Wilfrid’s will be at 9.30am as I have to go to the Council of Priests.

Many thanks for your Family Fast contributions which so far total £701.16

St. Patrick’s Night Social

This takes place on Saturday 20th March at 7pm. Pie & peas, entertainer Brodie Michaels, licensed bar, raffles etc. and singer. Tickets available from Elsie Jones.

CRB CHECKS AT COWPEN

Lawrie Wise will endorse CRB renewals after evening Mass on Thursday 18th March. Photocopies needed of your ID documents please.

Age Concern

Age Concern are having a Health and Diet event in the hall on Friday 16th April from 10am till 2pm. All welcome.

Bereavement Group

Meets again on Thursday 25th March at 7pm in the Presbytery.

OFFSTED

St Andrews School have their OFFSTED inspection this week so please say a little prayer for their success, after all the staff’s hard work.

Singers Wanted

Singers are wanted for our choir practices for Easter. Meet in the choir loft on Sundays at 4pm. All welcome.

Please pray for the sick and the housebound and all who have asked for our prayers, especially for:-

Margaret George, Anne Coxon, Eddie Clark, Ellen Nelson, Marie Chicken, Susan Buckham, Mary Henderson, Harry Dearie, Elisa Collins, Margaret Stoker,, Rhona Stead, Rosaleen Short Kathy Beard, Ruby Lackenby and Catherine Danielson.

 

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US Anglicans to convert to Rome en masse

They will worship according to Anglican rubrics but they will be in communion with the Pope.

The decision was taken by the House of Bishops of the ACA during a meeting in Orlando, Florida, last week, which was attended by the primate of the Traditional Anglican Communion, Archbishop John Hepworth.

The bishops said in a brief statement on their website afterwards that they had agreed to formally “request the implementation of the provisions of the Apostolic Constitution Anglicanorum coetibus in the United States of America by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith”.

The ACA belongs to the Traditional Anglican Communion, which broke from the Anglican Communion in 1991 because of its drift from orthodox Christian doctrines. It has about 400,000 members around the world. Unlike 77 million Anglicans worldwide, it is not in communion with the much larger US Episcopal church nor does it recognise Dr Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, as its leader.

Its decision to rejoin the Catholic Church some 450 years after Queen Elizabeth I created the Church of England in the 1570s represents the third group of Anglican churches to take up the Pope’s offer.

The first was the British branch of the TAC, which constitutes about 20 small parishes and which last October, about two weeks before the apostolic constitution was published, resolved to “take the steps necessary to implement this constitution”.

The second was the Australian branch of Forward in Faith, a traditionalist group which is in communion with mainstream Anglican churches, which last month directed its governing council also to take the steps needed for the conversion of 16 parishes to Catholicism.

It has formed a working group with Catholic Auxiliary Bishop Peter Elliott of Melbourne along with the Anglican Church of Australia, a member of the Traditional Anglican Communion, to “set in train the processes necessary for establishing an Australian Ordinariate”.

The British branch of Forward in Faith is also considering requesting an ordinariate but has delayed a decision until July at the earliest so that it can consider the response by the General Synod to requests for provisions such as “flying bishops” that would allow traditionalist Anglicans opposed to such innovations as women priests to remain in the Church of England.

Its leaders are known to be holding secretive meeting with high-ranking Vatican officials.

Forward in Faith in Britain has set up a “Friends of the Ordinariate” group to help to gauge the level of support for conversion among rank-and-file worshippers.

If they decide to take the path to Rome Britain may see unprecedented numbers of conversions, possibly involving in the region of 200 Anglican congregations, which would amount to thousands of converts.

Anglican Bishop John Broadhurst of Fulham, chairman of Forward in Faith, said mass conversion was a real prospect.

“We have a thousand priest members in my organisation and there are many others who agree with us,” he said last year.

“The main issue for many Anglican priests is now the ownership of parish churches.”

In preparation for an influx of converts the Catholic bishops of England and Wales have established a commission which is expected to look at such issues as the possibility of church-sharing and also the chances of taking out 100-year leases of some Anglican parishes.

It emerged last month that former assistant Anglican Bishop Paul Robinson of Newcastle converted just weeks after stepping down from his post.

He is now a worshipper at St George’s Cathedral in Southwark, London.

Pope Benedict will in September attend the beatification of Cardinal John Henry Newman, an esteemed Anglican cleric who shocked Victorian society by converting to the Catholic faith. -

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Mothers Day Appeal

To celebrate International Women's Day and Mother's Day, please spare a thought for vulnerable mothers in Thailand.

In Pattaya, a small centre is dedicated to empowering vulnerable women through education and retraining. Many of these destitute and desperate women have children, who are particularly at risk - often living in slums, attending school erratically, or neglected and abused.The Fountain of Life, run by the Good Shepherd Sisters in Pattaya, aims to empower vulnerable women through education and vocational training.

The Fountain of Life seeks to help these women change their lives, which in turn transforms the lives of their children. It offers training in hairdressing, languages, cooking, computing, typing and courses in health and personal development. It teaches the women self-reliance and self-esteem, and offers them a safe, non-judgmental haven. It enables them to rebuild their lives, and to give their children the security and care that they need.

This Mother's Day, can you help the women and children of the Fountain of Life? You can buy a special virtual gift at: shop.thaichildrenstrust.org.uk/virtual-gifts/cat_3.html Gifts include: an eye test; dental checkup; sewing kit; swimming lessons; sack of rice, or a meal.

If you are a teacher, you can download a Fountain of Life Lesson Plan. www.thaichildrenstrust.org.uk/school/fountain-of-life-lesson-plan

The Trust has also prepared a special Fountain of Life reading for church services which you can download here: www.thaichildrenstrust.org.uk/getinvolved/helping-us-through-your-church

For more information on the Fountain of Life see: www.thaichildrenstrust.org.uk/projects/Fountain?tab=details

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Chrism Mass

The Diocesan Chrism Mass on Holy Thursday, 1st April, will this year be at St Benet’s, Sunderland, owing to the ongoing redevelopment work at the Cathedral.

About 100 traditionalist Anglican parishes across the United States have decided to convert en masse to the Catholic Church.

They have voted to take up the offer made by Pope Benedict XVI in November that permits vicars and their entire congregations to defect to Rome while keeping many of their Anglican traditions, including married priests.

By issuing the apostolic constitution Anglicanorum coetibus (on groups of Anglicans) the Pope was accused of attempting to poach Anglicans unhappy about decisions taken in their Church to ordain women and sexually active gay people as priests and bishops.

But the Vatican insisted that the move to create self-governing Personal Ordinariates”, which resemble dioceses in structure, came as a result of requests from at least 30 disaffected Anglican bishopsaround the world for “corporate reunion” with the Catholic Church.

The Anglican Church in America (ACA) – a member of the Traditional Anglican Communion – will now enter the Catholic Church as a block, bringing in an estimated 5,200 converts along with their own bishops, clergy, buildings and even a cathedral.