Notices and Bulletin

Ordinary Time Before Lent – After Sunday we enter the period of Ordinary Time when no particular aspect of the mystery of Christ is celebrated, but rather the mystery of Christ itself is honoured in its fullness, especially on Sundays. “On the first day of each week, which is known as the Day of the Lord or the Lord’s Day, the Church, by an apostolic tradition that draws its origin from the very day of the Resurrection of Christ, celebrates the Paschal Mystery. Hence Sunday must be considered the primordial feast day.” Ordinary Time begins Monday 11th January, 2021 (the Monday occurring after 6th January) and extends up to and including the Tuesday before the beginning of Lent; it begins again on the Monday after Pentecost Sunday and ends before first Vespers of the First Sunday of Advent.

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VOLUNTEERS NEEDED – despite many appeals for volunteers for Mass during the week at Our Lady, Help of Christians, we still have very few people willing to help out at the moment. We urgently need volunteers to be stewards and to clean the church afterwards on Mondays, Thursday, Fridays, Saturday evenings for the Vigil Mass and as reserves for Sunday mornings, particularly at the 11am Mass. It requires you to attend around 30-45 minutes before Mass to ensure that visitors and attendees are abiding by social distancing advice and to assist with Track and Trace, to remind people to sanitise their hands and wear a mask and answer any questions. Cleaning is a much more physical activity and involves training in the use of the machines used to sanitise and disinfect the church after Mass and therefore you will need to stay up to 45 minutes after Mass or until the church is empty, if Confessions are taking place, before cleaning can commence. 

If you are an adult, and fit and well, we urgently need your help. The situation will continue to be reviewed and we do hope to avoid having to close the church on certain days and go back to online services only whilst the current Diocesan restrictions apply during Covid-19. 

If you can help in any way, contact the Parish Office by email on folkestone@rcaos.org.uk but please do remember that the Parish Office is only partially open as our Parish Secretary is on flexi-furlough and only currently employed for two hours per week.

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CONFESSIONS – Please note that there is no prohibition on hearing the Sacrament of Reconciliation at this time. Confessions will be heard in the Sacristy at Our Lady, Help of Christians, between the penitent and the priest in what is a suitably confidential and Covid safe environment. Times are after weekday Mass or by appointment. 

If you need to urgently see a priest outside of this time, please see Fr Alex Saba or Fr Capener immediately after Mass, when the church is open or call 01303 252823 or email folkestone@rcaos.org.uk to arrange an appointment.

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THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROTECTION OF UNBORN CHILDREN (SPUC) ‘WHITE FLOWER APPEAL’.

Why is the SPUC Annual Appeal called the "White Flower" Appeal?

The name was originally inspired by the work of the Weiße Rose (White Rose) movement, a non-violent, intellectual resistance to the Nazis in Germany at the height of the Second World War. They became known for an anonymous leafleting and graffiti campaign that lasted 8 months between 1942 and 1943.

In February 1943 Hans and Sophie Scholl, two of the group's core active members, were caught and arrested. Following interrogation, they were tried by the Gestapo and beheaded along with four others. The Weiße Rose and Sophie Scholl have been the subject of a number of films retelling the story of their bravery to new generations.

The White Rose still serves as an example to us of what can be achieved by standing up for what is right.

SPUC today is currently campaigning to stop the decriminalisation of abortion, which means taking abortion outside the law.  This is the most dangerous threat to unborn children and their mothers in decades. This has been made worse during the current Covid pandemic as DIY home abortions have increased the use of chemical abortion drugs following a phone or video call. Women are left to perform their own abortion at home without medical supervision or support. Women do not have the opportunity to meet a doctor in person, and the abortion drugs are delivered through the post.

There is also a fear that the increase in DIY abortions leads to increased doemestic abuse. SPUC’s Dorectror of Communications, Michael Robinson, said: “Home abortions facilitate a serious form of domestic violence by giving abusive men the opportunity to coerce women into abortion and to cover their tracks. This process is handing vicious men the power to abuse women in one of the worst possible ways. A WHO multi-country study of women’s health and domestic violence found that women with a history of intimate partner violence had increased odds of unintended pregnancy and almost three times the risk of abortion. The UK government’s permission for DIY home abortions throws women at risk to the wolves.”

We need to protect women from abuse and campaign to protect women from the increasing use of abortion pills. These pills are never safe for the unborn baby, who they are designed to kill, and they are harmful for women. There is also a hugely increased risk to women away from a medical setting if there are medical complications. Please be as generous as you can to help us defeat this latest attack on unborn babies and their mothers, and to stop abortion getting even worse in this country by decriminalisation. 

Please also respond to the Department of Health consultation to stop home abortions! 

The Department of Health is holding a public consultation on whether to continue the practice of allowing abortion providers to send abortion pills to women so that they can perform their own abortion at home. We need as many pro-life people as possible to complete the Department of Health’s questionnaire in order to help stop dangerous DIY abortions becoming permanent. SPUC has prepared a briefing which gives a step by step guide to completing the consultation questionnaire. Please go to https://www.spuc.org.uk/Get-Involved/Campaigns/England-DIY-Abortion-Consultation 

The consultation ends on 26th February, 2021. 

There are also postcards at the back of the church to take away and send calling on the Prime Minister to please protect women and unborn babies by making sure home abortion is not made permanent in our country.

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PEACE SUNDAY will take place next weekend on Sunday 17th January. There will be a retiring collection for Pax Christi.

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Please pray for the repose of the souls of Claire Ingelbrecht, Kitty Hart, Peter Devanney, Velia Grilli, Helen Rigby, Fr George Webster, Fr Michael Boland, Deacon Jim Hayes  and Gareth Davies who all recently died.

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STELLA MARIS SCHOOL - Admissions for Reception places at Stella Maris for September 2021 are now open for your children to receive an education with a Catholic context at our local good Catholic primary school.  You need to apply to KCC by 15th January 2021 and also submit a Supplementary Information Form to Stella Maris School.  Most important at this stage is the KCC application – without this being submitted, the school will not be told about potential applications.  The link below should answer any parental questions – but if anyone would like to book a telephone appointment to discuss the school in more detail, please contact Office@stellamaris.kent.sch.uk or telephone

01303 252127 Option 2 

https://www.stellamaris.kent.sch.uk/admissions-1/

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FIRST RECONCILLIATION AND FIRST HOLY COMMUNION – First Holy Communion and First Reconciliation programs invite children, their families, and the Parish community to enter into the mysteries of faith more deeply, to pray more often, and to experience the sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist as an encounter with Jesus Christ.  Please put children’s names down for their FIRST HOLY COMMUNION by no later than Friday 15th January 2021. Classes will start on Saturday mornings shortly after this, Covid restrictions allowing. All children who attended Fist Holy Communion classes in earlier in 2020 will be required to attend, and there will be Welcome and Introductory meetings for both CHILDREN AND PARENTS! 

At the back of both churches you will find a registration form for parents to complete and hand in to Fr Alex Saba at the Parish Office based in the Presbytery in Guildhall Street. THEY DO HAVE TO BE IN YEAR 3 or YEAR 4.  Please note that a baptism certificate is necessary if your child HAS BEEN BAPTIZED: and if he or she hasn’t, then they will have to be baptized before First Holy Communion at a date to be decided in the summer of 2021.

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OUR LADY AND ST JOSEPH’S RENOVATION APPEAL - Thank you to all who have donated to the Renovation Appeal. To date we have received £5,395. The roof has been patched up at St Joseph and we will be putting up scaffolding shortly at Our Lady to begin the process of repairing the roof and installing new guttering.  You can donate via cheque payable to “The Parish of Our Lady and St Joseph, Folkestone” and placed an envelope marked ‘Renovation Appeal’ and posted through the Parish Office door at the Presbytery at 41 Guildhall Street on any day or via bank transfer to The Parish of Our Lady and St Joseph Folkestone, Sort Code 52-41-42 and Account Number 08605556 with the reference ‘Renovation’. Alternatively, you can use our Just Giving page online, a link is on our parish website, which allows for payments to be made by credit and debit card or by PayPal with no fees at

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/olsj-folkestone

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RCIA - We are looking at setting up classes for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults (RCIA), or Ordo Initiationis Christianae Adultorum, utilising small physical meetings and possibly via zoom. The RCIA is a process developed by the Catholic Church for prospective converts to Catholicism who are above the age of infant baptism. Candidates are gradually introduced to aspects of Catholic beliefs and practices.

If you or anyone you know is interested in finding out more, please contact the Parish Office on 01303 252823 email folkestone@rcaos.org.uk or speak to Fr Alex after Mass.

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HOLY COMMUNION FOR THOSE SICK OR ISOLATED AT HOME -The parish has a team of Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, who are all commissioned by the Archbishop and DBS checked, and organised in concert with your parish priest.

 

Their ministry is to take the Sacrament of Holy Communion to people who are long-term sick or disabled, and who are thus unable to get to Mass in normal circumstances. Fr Alex is also available for those that urgently need him to visit them in their homes, which will be done following Diocesan advice and Government guidelines.

 

If you know of anyone in this category who is not currently receiving the Sacrament at home (or where they are living), please inform Fr Alex Saba via the Parish Office on 01303 252823 or email folkestone@rcaos.org.uk.

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HOLY COMMUNION FOR THOSE IN HOSPITAL - People who are seriously ill or undergoing operations may ask for one of the priests to administer the Anointing of the Sick. Those who are going into hospital should remember to ask for a visit from the hospital’s Chaplain: he or she will arrange for a Catholic minister to bring them Holy Communion, or - if anointing is required - for a priest to visit (but, hopefully, you will have already asked for anointing before you go in). Catholic chaplains are often clergy or laypeople from the hospital’s local parish and our own parish deacon, the Rev Dr Gehad Homsey, is a volunteer chaplain and ordained deacon available for visits at all East Kent hospital sites, too. 

Contact the parish office 01303 252823 or email folkestone@rcaos.org.uk or call Rev Dr Gehad Homsey on 01303 253601 / 07917 134250

SINGING IN CHURCH – Just a reminder that due to current Government restrictions, there is no congregational singing in the Church. This means, sadly this year, that there will be no communal singing of Advent or Christmas Carols.

Please do control your urge to join in any well-known hymns or carols, although you may hum with your lips sealed or mouth the words without sound and enjoy the recordings, instrumental or solo singing that takes place.

Just a reminder, the church continues to be sanitised after every Mass and your co-operation in keeping everyone safe is appreciated.

PARISH INFORMATION

 Presbytery and Parish Office:

41 Guildhall Street, Folkestone, Kent CT20 1EF

Tel: 01303 252823    e-mail: folkestone@rcaos.org.uk

Parish Secretary: Mr Dylan Jeffrey BA, MSc

Clergy:

Fr Alex Saba MA, MSLR, MCL, JCL

Fr Francis Capener MA

Rev. Dr Gehad Homsey MB, BCh (01303-253601 / 07917 134250; gehadhomsey@yahoo.co.uk)