Forward... 

 

It is a privilege and honour to write the forward to the Parish History of Our Lady’s Parish, on its 160th Anniversary.

 

It has also been a privilege and honour, and a pleasure, to serve as Our Lady’s Parish Priest since 1997 – following in the footsteps of my twenty-six predecessors.

 

Saint Peter writes ‘He is the living stone, rejected by men but chosen by God and precious to him; set yourselves close to him so that you too, the holy priesthood that offers the spiritual sacrifices which Jesus Christ has made acceptable to God, may be living stones making a spiritual house.’ (Peter 2:3-5)

 

We are the living stones of this Christian community – commissioned as ‘missionary disciples’ to be Christ’s ‘ambassadors’ (St. Paul Cor. 5:20) in loving witness, worship and service to our community.

 

There have been many changes over these 160 years – in the Church, Society, Education and the design of Our Lady’s Church. The priests and people of Our Lady’s Parish have experienced many joyful family and Parish celebrations but also wars, peace, poverty and economic depressions, through twelve Pontificates and six Reigns – and we too are facing a challenging time for the Catholic Church. Blessed John Henry, Cardinal Newman wrote that ‘To live is to change and to be perfect is to have changed often’.

 

And so, building on and celebrating our heritage – the stones of Our Lady’s Church, and the ‘living stones’ of our dedicated, faithful and often courageous priests, parishioners and teachers in our Parish School we can face the future with confidence. We do so knowing that Jesus, Our Risen Lord, has promised to be with his Church forever. (Matthew 28:20)

 

I commend this publication to be read and enjoyed by everyone.

 

Many thanks to Phil Livesey and Neil West for their initiative to begin and to bring this book to completion and to all who have collaborated with them, with their own very interesting and often amusing memories! God bless you all.

 

Fr Kevin C. Foulkes