The new parish of St Mary and St Catherine Labouré - a message from Fr Simon

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Well, it is now official - as of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception last Monday! We are all now one parish - consisting of three main areas: Farington, Euxton and Buckshaw. We have two churches within the parish and two Primary Schools.

 

It will now be necessary to alter our signage and try to unite and share as much as possible what goes on in the two churches. But what is more of a challenge is to alter our mindset and for us all to embrace one another; to find new ways of representing Christ to our now enlarged parish. I can talk about that at great length but only you, as parishioners, can make it happen.

 

Part of achieving that will be the re-founding of the Parish Council, so that it can include members to represent all parts of our new parish. The two communities both have differing gifts can enrich the whole, so long as we are open to them. Liturgical experience is also an area in which both communities will need to have their expectations taken into account over time. In that area, we might note an existing link between the two churches - when American soldiers based at Euxton in WWII donated a new set of altar rails for St Mary’s, the old ones were given to St Catherine’s at it’s opening in 1949 (sadly, both sets of these are no longer in place). So, if anyone from THE parish, whichever area, would like to serve on the parish Council, please do come and speak to me.

 

I will ask one of the bishops to visit us for my installation as Parish Priest of our new larger parish in the New Year. This can be an opportunity to mark not just my appointment but also as an occasion to celebrate this great opportunity to strengthen our parish community, to show that it is vibrant, active and ready to give witness the Faith of centuries rooted so strongly here in Lancashire. Not least, following the example of Blessed Robert Anderton, one of the English Martyrs, whose family built the present church of St Mary.

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In line with Fr Simon's message, we will be making changes to this website to reflect the practicalities of the new, larger, Parish.  Please bear with us while this work takes place,

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For the time being, Fr Simon continues to reside at Farington, awaiting renovation work at the presbytery at St Mary's. Consequently Fr Simon will be present in Euxton when he is celebrating Services at St Mary's (the weekly newsletter gives the times and locations of Services for the upcoming week) and otherwise by arrangement. Please contact Fr Simon via the Parish email to make any arrangements,

 

​Given the recent major changes quite a few of the parish contact points mentioned on the website are now out of date,  If you need to contact the parish and are unsure of who you need, please send an email to the Parish email address.

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​​​​​​​​Communicating with you

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We circulate the Parish Newsletter and Deanery and Archdiocesan news on a weekly basis to our email subscribers in addition to ad-hoc Parish news as required. If you want to subscribe to the Parish mailing list please enter your contact details by following THIS LINK. 

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