Farewell to Fr Leo, Prisoners’ Sunday, Love Christmas

The flower arrangers at St John’s Cathedral got together to bid a fond farewell to Fr Leo Michael as he left for his new parish in Newmarket.

In the picture above with Fr Leo are Urszula Parker, Ann Richardson, Norma Marshall, Pat Chia, Imelda Race and Sylvia Moore.

Pact, a national charity that provides support to prisoners, is looking for parish representatives to raise awareness of its work.

The charity’s appeal for support comes as we approach Prisoners’ Sunday, which this year is on October 10.

As well as supporting prisoners themselves, Pact also cares for their families through a range of services, including prison-based family engagement workers, prison visitors’ centres and a national helpline.

Parish representatives give occasional talks after Mass and put out leaflets and posters about the work of Pact. If you are interested in this role, please ring 020 3031 6867 and explore the website here.

If you live within travelling distance of Norwich, you might also be interested in becoming a mentor for a prisoner of ex-prisoner with Community Chaplaincy Norfolk (CCN). This charity is currently looking for more Catholic mentors, and you read about its work here.

Mentors with CCN meet their clients roughly once a week at St Stephen’s café in Norwich or another suitable place and accompany them on their journey back into society after release from prison.

Love Christmas, a national initiative to sponsor and deliver a million Christmas boxes to the most vulnerable and isolated, is organising a webinar to explain its work.

Tom Jackson, who heads up the initiative, will be speaking about how parishes can get involved in a webinar from 11am to 12 noon on Wednesday October 6.

This ecumenical initiative that is a practical way for Catholic parishes and organisations to reach out to those in need this Christmas. Last year, 2,275 churches took part in the ‘Love Christmas’ campaign and shared 777,000 boxes of gifts and Christmas food to people in their communities who might not otherwise have received anything at Christmas. You can read about last year’s campaign here.

Love Christmas is organised by the Church Revitalisation Trust, which was founded from Holy Trinity Brompton. The initiative is being supported by Fr Dermott Donnelly from the Hexham and Newcastle Youth Ministry Team, Hannah Vaughan-Spruce from Divine Renovation UK and Brendan Thompson from Catholic Voices.

You can register for the webinar here. 

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