Papal Excitement Brewing Up in Stroud

22 July 2010

Yesterday (21 July) cliftondiocese.com heard about our Stroud parish’s ‘One Parish’ Mass which was their mission to build communion.  It sounded like a wonderful event.  Now we hear more from The Immaculate Conception as the excitement builds ahead of the Holy Father’s Historic visit.  Marilynne Morgan has the details for us.

‘One Parish’ Mass we launched a newly created  ‘parish beer’ which we named ‘Benedict’s Brew’ in honour of Pope Benedict XVI’s forthcoming visit to England in September.  The beer was brewed locally at The Village Inn in Nailsworth, by one of our parishioners.  It has proved very popular with everyone and a second batch will be available towards the end of August - good beer takes time to brew!  The beer has caused quite a stir in the locality, with our local papers being particularly interested in this venture.

We also released 100 helium filled balloons at the end of our celebration of Mass to announce, to whoever finds them that Pope Benedict is coming to England in September and we welcome him. 

During August we plan to hold three lectures on:  ‘The Role of the Papacy’, ‘The Life of Pope Benedict XVI’, and ‘The Life of John Henry Newman’.  These lectures will be open to anyone in and around Stroud, as we reach out to the wider community and share our faith with them.

On 14 September we will hold a special civic dinner for 100 people in the Subscription Rooms in Stroud to which we will invite civic guests, again to mark the visit of Pope Benedict.  This is an echo of the first civic dinner which our parish held over 150 years ago in the Subscription Rooms when our parish church was first built.  At that occasion, the Archbishop of Westminster was in attendance.

I hope this short report gives some indication of the excitement that is building in Stroud for the Holy Father’s historic visit.  We are indeed very excited and keen to share with our local community these and other planned events such as  prayer vigils, a flower festival, litter pick up (we want to do something for the local community and will be liaising with the local council about suitable projects we can take on) these and much, much more are on offer.  Watch out on our website for details of other events. 

Father Michael McAndrew is the Clifton Diocese Papal Visit Coordinator.  He said: “I was an Assistant Priest in Stroud many years ago and it’s a wonderful parish community.  Clearly the Holy Father’s historic visit is causing great excitement in Gloucestershire as it throughout our diocese.  The events planned to prepare and celebrate the visit are inventive and informative.  I hope to find the time to get to some of them.

“I also read about the ‘One Parish’ Mass yesterday on cliftondiocese.com.  Even when reading about it on the website - you get a strong sense of the parish’s mission of being in communion.”

It's been a really busy in the parish, earlier in the week we hosted young Catholics from all over Gloucestershire when our Youth Ministry Coordinator Dave Wheat came meet young papal pilgrims and help them prepare for their special role in Pope Benedict's visit.

Marilynne Morgan