Tetbury’s New Priest Inducted
22 June 2009
The Catholic community of St Michael’s in Tetbury have celebrated the induction of Father Patrick Eastman as their new Priest in Charge. Father Patrick writes with his reflections for cliftondiocese.com.
I was at home relaxing and watching television one Friday evening recently when I received a phone call and out of the blue Father David Ryan the area Dean. He said: “I am at a meeting with the people of St. Michael’s at Tetbury and they were wondering if you would be willing to come out of retirement and take pastoral care of them?” It came as quite a shock and I needed a few days to think it over. It wasn’t too hard to make my decision and agree. For a few months I had gone there to preside at their weekend Masses and had discovered what a wonderful group of people they were. They were enthusiastic, positive and a very happy community. I decided to accept their invitation with an outline of how I though we could work together. From my 21 years experience of being a Catholic priest in Tulsa, Oklahoma; I was very familiar with an arrangement where the priest would be responsible for pastoral care and all the priestly ministry with a lay person to take responsibility for all the administrative work. When I proposed this to them they readily accepted the challenge of this style of ministry with me continuing to live in our home in Cricklade. Thus we essentially returned to an ancient Christian pattern where the gifts of the Spirit are shared amongst the whole community and the responsibilities for the different aspects of ministry shred between the priest and the faithful. My induction as their priest-in-charge was a most joyous expression of our work together to build on the wonderful foundation left by Monsignor Bill Mitchell. There was a tremendous acceptance and support by simply everyone. I am absolutely thrilled to be part of their faith community and I so much look forward to working with them all. Having said that of course, it is a little daunting to follow in the footsteps of such a great priest as Father Bill.
Father Patrick Eastman
The Catholic community of St Michael’s in Tetbury have celebrated the induction of Father Patrick Eastman as their new Priest in Charge. Father Patrick writes with his reflections for cliftondiocese.com.
I was at home relaxing and watching television one Friday evening recently when I received a phone call and out of the blue Father David Ryan the area Dean. He said: “I am at a meeting with the people of St. Michael’s at Tetbury and they were wondering if you would be willing to come out of retirement and take pastoral care of them?” It came as quite a shock and I needed a few days to think it over. It wasn’t too hard to make my decision and agree. For a few months I had gone there to preside at their weekend Masses and had discovered what a wonderful group of people they were. They were enthusiastic, positive and a very happy community. I decided to accept their invitation with an outline of how I though we could work together. From my 21 years experience of being a Catholic priest in Tulsa, Oklahoma; I was very familiar with an arrangement where the priest would be responsible for pastoral care and all the priestly ministry with a lay person to take responsibility for all the administrative work. When I proposed this to them they readily accepted the challenge of this style of ministry with me continuing to live in our home in Cricklade. Thus we essentially returned to an ancient Christian pattern where the gifts of the Spirit are shared amongst the whole community and the responsibilities for the different aspects of ministry shred between the priest and the faithful. My induction as their priest-in-charge was a most joyous expression of our work together to build on the wonderful foundation left by Monsignor Bill Mitchell. There was a tremendous acceptance and support by simply everyone. I am absolutely thrilled to be part of their faith community and I so much look forward to working with them all. Having said that of course, it is a little daunting to follow in the footsteps of such a great priest as Father Bill.
Father Patrick Eastman
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