Catholic community plans two-week mission

Eighteen months of planning have gone into a two-week parish mission designed to address 21st Century spiritual needs.

Acting as the catalyst for a venture in which it is hoped all Catholics in the town will be involved is the Scion Community, from Brentwood in Essex.

Doug Robertson, parish coordinator for the mission, explained this week: "Eighteen months ago we were looking ahead to the centenary celebrations of the church, which was very much about what had gone on and what the church had achieved in the past, so we decided that we would turn ourselves to the 21st Century.

"The Sion Community is a mixed community - young and old, male and female plus one priest.

"It was set up in 1984.

"The various things they have done have included work in schools, parishes and churches.

"They have been to St Richard's Catholic College on a couple of occasions.

"Their work is to do with people re-discovering their faith and evangelism."

A party of 10 will be coming for the first week of the St Mary Magdalene's Mission from February 9 to 17. The community is sending a party of five for the following week.

They will be accommodated in parishoners' homes. A parish hospitality team will supply lunch and dinner for them daily at the presbytery.

Mr Robertson said: "The first week will be preparing the ground and during the week there will be various services.

"A lot of time will be spent visiting as many Roman Catholic families in the town as possible. They hope to do as many as 400 home visits.

"I spoke at every parish mass at the weekend to encourage people to come forward as volunteers with the visiting. This could push the figure up to around 600 homes.

"In the first week, some of the team will be spending a couple of days at St Mary Magdalene's Primary School, doing a 'mini-mission' with the youngsters, staff and parents.

"On Tuesday, February 12, there will be a celebration presentation in St Mary Magdalene's Church at 6.30pm for the whole community."

Daily masses at St Mary Magdalene's during the first week are being held at 7.45am so St Richard's College students arriving by train can go to church on their way to school. They will be offered croissants and fruit juice following the services.

"The second week will follow straight on from the first but there will be two distinct teams coming.

The celebration team arrives on Saturday, February 16. We will have a whole variety of different services in the church in the mornings and the evenings and we want to encourage a whole cross-section of the community - young people, married people, families, older people - to take part.

"We are trying to meet the spiritual needs of the community.

"We are working at present on forms to take around to the homes we want to visit. The illustration on them shows someone looking out to sea with the caption 'Be still and know that I am God.'"