2nd Sunday of the Year (b)
2nd Sunday of the Year. (b)
Times of Mass and Confession:
Sundays: Vigil Mass (Saturday) 6.00 p.m. & 10.00 a.m.
Weekday: 9.00 a.m. (Monday – Friday)
10.00 a.m. (Saturday)
Confessions: After 10.00 a.m. Mass on Saturdays or by arrangement
Please remember the following parishioners, relatives and friends in your prayers:
Sick: John McPartland, Annie O’Donnell, Veronica Allan, Margaret Christie, Irene Callan, Assunta Santangeli, Madison Mulligan
Died: James Kopsch
Anniv: Mary Murray, Richard Gaughan, Patrick Duffy.
Today there is a very important letter for you to take home with you after Mass. It is a copy of a letter from Archbishop Cushley to the Deans of the Archdiocese in which he outlines the process by which he hopes to restructure and reorganize the Parishes within the Archdiocese to cope with the current situation. There will be meetings here in due course to discuss the impact this will have on St. Cuthbert’s and Our Lady’s. The first step is that there is to be a meeting of the priests of the City on June 27th so that they can be given more information to share with you. At the moment please make sure you take a copy of the letter today so that you are aware of what is going to be happening and how the Archbishop sees the process developing.
Sunday: The Coffee Morning resumes after 10.00 a.m. in the Hall with teas, coffees, bacon rolls etc on sale. The Vocations Group will be in charge of it this weekend.
Sunday: The first monthly draw of the 200 Club will take place. The Subscriptions for 2015 are now due. If you are an existing member please put your money in an envelope with your number and name on it. The subscription is £12.00 per annum. If paying by cheque please make it payable to ‘St. Cuthbert’s Church.’ If you are a new member please put your name and ‘new member’ on the envelope. There are three £10 prizes for ten months of the year and in June and December prizes of £200 and £50. At this point it is not really a 200 Club since there are many unallocated numbers due to various circumstances. We need to keep numbers up if the prizes are to remain at the existing level. Even if everyone who had numbers last year renewed their subscriptions there would still be 83 unallocated numbers.
Sunday: Mass for Migrants and Refugees at 3.00 p.m. in the Cathedral, celebrated by Archbishop Cushley, to celebrate the contribution of migrants and refugees to our archdiocese, on the Church’s annual World Day for Migrants and Refugees. This year Pope Francis’ theme is: Church without frontiers, Mother to all.’ All are very welcome. If you would like to be involved, or to attend the reception afterwards, please email miriam.mchardy@staned.org.uk for further information.
Wednesday: There will be an Ecumenical Service, to mark the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, at 7.30 p.m. in St. Margaret’s Chapel in the Gillis Centre. The theme is “Give me to Drink” chosen by the Christian Churches of Brazil The guest preacher will be the Very Reverend Sheilagh Kesting, former Moderator of the Church of Scotland and the Ecumenical Officer for the Church of Scotland. All are welcome to the service and to the reception afterwards.
Diary Dates:
27th January: An information evening on an initiative called ‘Safe Families for Children’ is being held in the Hall from 7.30 p.m. – 8.30 p.m. Volunteers are needed to help in this initiative which is being launched in Wester Hailes. It aims to provide some degree of support for children whose parents are facing a difficult time. More information is available from Alan Gray the coordinator on 603.8430 or by email at alangray@safefamiliesforchildren.com. Fuller details are also on the poster in the porch.
27th January: The Sacred Heart Justice and Peace group will lead a reflection at 7.30 p.m. in the Sacred Heart entitled ‘Keep the Memory Alive.’ Holocaust Memorial Day takes place on 27 January each year as this date marks the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest Nazi death camp. It’s a time for everyone to pause and remember the millions of people who have been murdered or whose lives have been changed beyond recognition during the Holocaust, Nazi Persecution and in subsequent genocides in Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia and Darfur. On this day we can honour the survivors of these regimes and challenge ourselves to use the lessons of their experience to inform our lives today.
30th January: Get your Ceilidh shoes ready for a fund raiser organized by 4 young people from Our Lady’s going to Lourdes to help. It will take place in St. Cuthbert’s Hall from 7.30 p.m. – 11.30 p.m. Tickets are now on sale after Mass priced £5.00 for adults or £3.00 for children. There is also a family ticket available covering 2 adults and up to 4 children for £15.00. Please come along, support their efforts and also get rid of some of the Christmas and New Year excesses.
21st February: The Race Night to add funds to the Parish Project Fund will take place. The first stage will be to get ‘horse owners’ and lists will be available after Mass to give you the opportunity to become an owner. To become an owner costs £5.00 and gives you the chance of being a prize winner if your horse wins. You can also choose the name of your horse ! It is a B.Y.O.B and Nibbles night. In due course we will be looking for race sponsors but more information will be available in due course.
10th – 17th July: The annual Archdiocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes, led by Archbishop Cushley, will take place. Booking is now open and I have some forms and information if you are interested. I have a limited supply in the sacristy. You can also contact the travel agents direct at Tangney Tours, Pilgrim House, Station Court, Borough Green, Kent TN15 8AF (Tel. 01732.886666 or email to info@tangney-tours.com). Booking for the Saint-Frai Centre must be done through the Hospital Booking Secretary, 61 Hailes Gardens, Edinburgh EH13 0JN – Tel 0131.441.1939. Early booking is advised since there are limited places available especially in the Saint Frai centre.
As always, it is hoped to take a group of young people to Lourdes to help and work with the sick pilgrims from around our Archdiocese. An Information Meeting will be held on Sunday 25th January 2015 at 3pm in St. Kentigern’s Church Hall, Barnton, Edinburgh. Please come along to find out about YFL and our Pilgrimage. This year the all inclusive cost is £689. For more information, email youthforlourdes@hotmail.co.uk or give Kris a call on 07747867003.
A New Readers’ Rota is in the process of being created. If you would like to offer your services in this important ministry of the Church please sign on your details at the back of the Church. No experience is necessary since training will be given.
With every best wish & Blessing
to you and your families
Monsignor Tony.
Letter from Archbishop Cushley to the Deans of the Archdiocese.
To the Very Reverend Deans
Edinburgh, 10 January 2015
I am writing to thank you and the priests and deacons of your Deanery for your cordial welcome to me on the occasion of my meeting with you last Autumn to discuss the future provision of parishes in the Archdiocese.
In the light of those important discussions, a consensus close to unanimity emerged that we cannot continue to maintain the present numbers of parishes. As you know, this is due to a lack of priests, a drop in income and the fall in numbers attending Mass. This picture is made more complicated by the natural shift of the population in the Archdiocese’s considerable and diverse territory over the last 150 years, and the accumulation over a long period of a number of parish buildings that no longer serve our communities in the way they used to. It is an unpleasant task, but it nevertheless falls to our generation to look hard at our present situation, to establish what may now be done for the good of the diocese as a whole, and how best to serve our people through the regular provision of the Sunday Eucharist and the celebration of the Sacraments in a way that our number of priests and our finances realistically permit.
Given the archdiocesan survey of 2012 and the lengthy and exhaustive period of consultation that preceded the publication of the document Now is the Favourable Time, all the clergy attending the meetings agreed that this document should be the staring point for our present deliberations. Herewith, I enclose a slightly updated version of the clusters of parishes proposed which should be the point of departure for your discussions with the priests and, in due course, with the people in your parishes. The present clustering arranges our parishes into 31 groups. We can count until about the year 2035 on having 30 or so diocesan clergymen and, I hope, some religious priests as well for a time. I will of course be looking at ways to promote vocations to the priesthood, including inviting foreign priests to assist us. However, both ways of obtaining priests remain beyond our control and so we must look, at least in principle, to self-reliance. This means that we will have an average of 6 diocesan priests per deanery. Your draft proposal to me, therefore, must aim at the creation of six parishes in each deanery, so that, at the end of this exercise, we have a total of some 30 parishes or so throughout the diocese.
I am all too aware how painful and difficult it will be for us to arrive at this figure. But the spiritual and pastoral advantages would also be notable, in that we would have fewer, larger, stronger parishes with at least one priest at their heart. In that way our parishes will become again “a community of communities, a sanctuary where the thirsty come to drink in the midst of the journey, and a centre of common missionary outreach” (Evangelii Gaudium 28).
In the light of this critical situation, I would therefore like you to invite the priests in your deanery to do two things in the next three months.
First, I would like you to examine each of the clusters proposed for your deanery in Now is the Favourable Time, and see if each cluster could become one single parish with one central church, in other words, effectively amalgamating the parishes in each cluster into one, new parish.
Consequently, I would also ask you to propose which of the remaining parish churches should close and which ones might be retained as chapels of ease or Mass centres for a time. There may well be some churches that could be closed within a comparatively short period of time, that is, perhaps even by the end of 2015.
I would then ask each dean to put a draft proposal of the deanery to me at a forthcoming meeting, on or about Easter 2015.
After I have discussed this with you at the deanery level, I then intend to put the proposals to the clergy and lay representatives of the parishes at a deanery level. If there is an active or an ad hoc deanery council in the area, that might be the appropriate forum for this discussion.
After those consultations, I will reflect further before making a firm proposal to each of the parish communities directly affected by the consultation process.
* * *
The deanery discussion now about to take place
The criteria for your proposals, cluster by cluster, will be complex and will have to take into account many factors. As each cluster will have its own unique circumstances, I do not wish to place before you a complete list of criteria, but only propose to pose here some of the more important questions that I believe merit consideration. You may wish to pose questions of your own in addition to those set out below.
A.
Does each cluster essentially form the right point of departure for the best pastoral care possible of the Catholics now living there?
Does each cluster as it presently stands, have the people, building or buildings to be the necessary basis for a single parish?
How many people go to Mass in each of the present parishes in the cluster?
Is each of those parishes financially viable?
Does any parish have an outstanding debt that it is unable to repay?
Does any parish in the cluster have other serious debts?
Does any parish have significant problems presently with the fabric of its buildings?
B.
Is there a parish, or a combination of parishes, that would provide an adequate church for the numbers in the cluster; an adequate church hall; an adequate car park; good road or rail links; a central or well-connected site in the cluster area; an adequate parish house? If there is no such parish, would it be considered necessary to start afresh and build from scratch? If so, could the parishioners afford such a scheme?
C.
Is there a willingness among the people to travel to another parish, e.g. the “mother” parish of the area, the biggest church in the area, etc.?
If, once the cluster became a single parish, there were only one priest living there, in which area or parish would you consider it best for him to reside?
If a particular parish must close, would it be better to close it now; keep it as a chapel of ease; use it a few times only during the week, with a view to closing it on a specified date?
D.
Does the cluster in question truly merit more than one parish? If so, where and why?
Do you consider that the people in the cluster, in becoming a single parish, would be able to collaborate together in this new project?
* * *
In the meantime, I would ask you and, through your good offices, our fellow priests to publish this letter and its contents widely, so that the people are aware of this important exercise. We are still at an early stage, but it is evident that this exercise is the most important discernment in the pastoral life of our local church for a generation. It will affect us all and so it must be carried out with honesty and charity, but also with courage and magnanimity. It is therefore only right that the people know what is being done in this regard. In due course, everyone in every deanery and parish will have an opportunity to put his or her views to me in an appropriate fashion. In this regard, I also intend to publish this letter on our social media sites.
Finally, I will also publish shortly a separate letter to the entire Archdiocese with a vision for our pastoral future.
I look forward to hearing from you and to being invited to attend a deanery meeting in your territory to discuss your first draft of proposals some time in the Spring of this year.
With my deep gratitude for all your work, I am
Yours sincerely in Christ,
+ Leo Cushley
Archbishop of St Andrews & Edinburgh
c.c. Parish clergy
PARISH CLUSTERS
| DEANERY | ST GILES | SS. MARGARET & ANDREW | SS. MUNGO & NINIAN | ST MARY’S | SS DAVID & CUTHBERT |
| CLUSTER 1 | St Mary’s CathedralSS Ninian & Triduana
St Patrick St Albert |
St Margaret DunfermlineSt Patrick Lochgelly
Holy Name Oakley OL & St Bride Cowdenbeath St Bernard Ballingry |
St Francis Xavier FalkirkSt Mary of the Angels
St Anthony Polmont OLL Larbert St Joseph Bonnybridge |
St Andrew LivingstonSt Philip
St Peter St Theresa East Calder |
Our Lady of Loretto MusselburghSt Gabriel Prestonpans
St Martin Tranent |
| CLUSTER 2 | St John the EvangelistSt Mary Magdalene
St Teresa of Lisieux |
OLL DunfermlineSt Peter in Chains Inverkeithing
SS John & Columba Rosyth St Joseph Kelty
|
Christ the King GrangemouthSacred Heart Grangemouth
St Mary of the Assumption Bo’ness |
St Michael Linlithgow SS John Cantius & Nicholas BroxburnSt Philomena Winchburgh | St David DalkiethSS Luke & Anne Mayfield
St Mary Pathead |
| CLUSTER 3 | St CatherineSt Gregory
St John Vianney
|
St Paul GlenrothesSt Mary Leslie
Falkland St Agatha Methil St Giles Kennoway |
St Alexanders DennySt Lukes Banknock | SS. Mary & Columba BathgateOLL Blackburn
St Joseph Whitburn Sacred Heart & St Anthony Armadale |
Sacred Heart PenicuikSt Margaret Loanhead
|
| CLUSTER 4 | St Peter
St Columba St Mark Sacred Heart |
St Marie KirkcaldySt Pius Kirkcaldy
St Ninian Bowhill St Joseph Burntisland |
St Mary StirlingSt Margaret
Holy Spirit OL & St Ninian Bannockburn Sacred Heart Cowie |
St Thomas AddiewellSt John the Baptist Fauldhouse
OL Stoneyburn OL & St Bridget West Calder |
St Mary HaddingtonOL Star of the Sea North Berwick
OL of the Waves Dunbar
|
| CLUSTER 5 | St Mary Star of the SeaHoly Cross
St Margaret Mary St Margaret (DM) |
St James in St AndrewsSt Andrews University
Christ the King Pittenweem Most Holy Trinity Crail |
St Patrick KilsythSt Paul Milton of Campsie
St Dominic Torrance |
OL of Consolation BonnyriggSt Margaret Gorebridge
St Matthew Rosewell |
|
| CLUSTER 6 | St John the BaptistSt Kentigern
St Andrew St Margaret (SQ) St Mary Ratho |
St Machan LennoxtownSt Kessog Blanefield
St Anthony Balfron |
OL & St Andrew GalashielsSt Cuthbert Melrose
OL & St Joseph Selkirk |
||
| CLUSTER 7 | Our Lady CurrieSt Cuthbert
St Joseph St John Ogilvie |
Immaculate Conception JedburghImmaculate Conception Kelso
SS Mary & David Hawick
|
|||
| CLUSTER 8 | OL & St Margaret DunsSt Andrew Eyemouth | ||||
| CLUSTER 9 | St Joseph PeeblesSt James Innerleithen |