This week's bulletin is now ready to download. Please follow the links for resources for Racial Justice Sunday and the two campaigns for protection of the unborn child. Please remember our home made resource on the Old Testament which was prepared for Sunday of the Word can be watched either as a complete Holy Hour or as individual reflections. It is available on our Online Services Page.

Fr Mark and Prebendary David Wright from St Peter's Anglican Church volunteering at the Lateral Flow Testing Centre that Fr Craig Fullard has set up in his parish club at St Joseph's in Willenhall. We still need more volunteers if you are able to give a few hours a week of your time. More details can be found on our parish bulletin. 

This Sunday's bulletin is now ready on the Mass Times and Bulletin Page. Can I draw your attention to the special celebration of the Sunday of the Word of God which is online a 6.00pm this Sunday? Using the Year of the Word posters that hang on the walls of our three churches, we have created a Holy Hour of meditation relating passages of the Old Testament to our present day. If you listen carefully you might recognise the voices of some of our parishioners. It will remain on our YouTube channel and can be used as a resource any time, either in its entirety or as a selection of individual meditations.

​Speaking at his Wednesday General Audience, Pope Francis appealed for all nations to work toward a world without nuclear weapons:

​"The day after tomorrow, Friday, 22 January, the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons enters into force. This is the first legally binding international instrument explicitly prohibiting these weapons, whose indiscriminate use would impact a huge number of people in a short time and would cause long-lasting damage to the environment.

I strongly encourage all States and all people to work decisively toward promoting conditions necessary for a world without nuclear weapons, contributing to the advancement of peace and multilateral cooperation which humanity greatly needs today."

His appeal comes two days before the entry into force of the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW), also known as the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty. The accord is the first legally binding international agreement to prohibit signatory states from developing, testing, producing, stockpiling, stationing, transferring, and using or threatening to use nuclear arms.

The Vatican became the first state to sign and ratify the Nuclear Weapons Ban Treaty. Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Vatican’s Secretary for Relations with States, signed it at the UN Headquarters in New York on 20 September 2017, the first day it was open for signatures. It reached the required 50 signatures in late October 2020, and comes into force on 22 January 2021.

The Department of Health is holding a public consultation on whether to continue the practice of allowing abortion providers to send abortion pills to women so that they can perform their own abortion at home. We need as many pro-life people as possible to complete the Department of Health’s questionnaire in order to help stop dangerous DIY abortions becoming permanent. SPUC has prepared a briefing which gives a step by step guide to completing the consultation questionnaire. Please go to:

https://www.spuc.org.uk/Get-Involved/Campaigns/England-DIY-Abortion-Consultation 

The consultation ends on 26 February 2021.

For the next 8 days Christians from different churches throughout the world are invited to pray together for Christian Unity. Obviously, 'coming together' is not possible but if you pray with the resources provided below, you will know that even in your own home you will be united with countless numbers of Christians in prayer.

The bulletin for this Sunday is now ready on the Mass times and Bulletin Page

Every year Pax Christi promotes the Holy Father’s World Peace Day Message on the 2nd Sunday in Ordinary Time. This is in the Liturgical Calendar cycle of prayer. Pax Christi  sends resource materials to every parish in the country to help them mark and celebrate the day. You can find the Peace Day message and other resources below.

We received the news yesterday that the official decree has come through and we are now the parish of Blessed Carlo Acutis! Once we are through the present difficulties with the pandemic, we will have a great celebration! Let us pray to Blessed Carlo that we will safely reach that day very soon.
God Bless,
Fr Mark

If you downloaded the bulletin before 6.30pm on Saturday evening 9th January, please note that it is no longer correct. You need to download the latest version. The timetable for Monday 11th January has been changed as there will not be a Mass on Monday Evening at St Michael's and there is no Holy hour in the morning at SS Peter and Paul's. There will be an Online Mass both in the morning and the evening and there will be a Holy Hour at 8.00pm

The Bulletin is now ready to download from the 'Mass Times and Bulletin' page. Now that we are in lockdown, there are more online services available this week. 

Although it is a real blessing that the Government is allowing Public Masses to continue during the lockdown, it is important that the elderly and those who are vulnerable should avoid coming to church whilst the the new variant of the virus is so widespread.

​Clinically Extremely Vulnerable (January 2021)
 
There are 2.2 million people in England classified as being at high-risk, including those who have received organ transplants or are on immunosuppressant drugs. On checking the NHS website this is the current list of conditions, which fall into this category they are:

• those who have had an organ transplant
• are having chemotherapy or antibody treatment for cancer, including immunotherapy
• are having an intense course of radiotherapy (radical radiotherapy) for lung cancer
• are having targeted cancer treatments that can affect the immune system (such as protein kinase inhibitors or PARP inhibitors)
• have blood or bone marrow cancer (such as leukaemia, lymphoma or myeloma)
• have had a bone marrow or stem cell transplant in the past 6 months, or are still taking immunosuppressant medicine
• have been told by a doctor you have a severe lung condition (such as cystic fibrosis, severe asthma or severe COPD)
• have a condition that means you have a very high risk of getting infections (such as SCID or sickle cell)
• those who are taking medicine that makes them much more likely to get infections (such as high doses of steroids or immunosuppressant medicine)
• have a serious heart condition and are pregnant
• those who have a problem with their spleen or those who have had their spleen removed (splenectomy)
• an adult with Down's syndrome
• any adult who is having dialysis or has severe (stage 5) long-term kidney disease; or
• who have been classed as clinically extremely vulnerable, based on clinical judgement and an assessment of their needs.

 

With the announcement of a new lockdown for England to curb the rapid spread of COVID-19, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, President of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England and Wales, said:

“The regular practice of our faith in God is a well-established source of both personal resilience and dedicated service to those in need. Such resilience and enduring service are vital in these difficult circumstances.
I am glad that no measures have been introduced that would obstruct or curtail this essential source of energy for the common good. Catholic parishes will continue to serve the needs of their local community.
In one parish, for example, the provision of food for the needy has increased by 400% since March last year.”

The latest lockdown restrictions come into force on 5 January 2021.
The government has published its lockdown guidance for England. In terms of Communal Worship and Life Events, the following guidance is provided:

You can leave home to attend or visit a place of worship for communal worship, a funeral or event related to a death, a burial ground or a remembrance garden, or to attend a wedding ceremony.

You should follow the guidance on the safe use of places of worship and must not mingle with anyone outside of your household or support bubble when attending a place of worship.

Weddings, funerals and religious, belief-based or commemorative events linked to someone’s death are all subject to limits on the numbers that can attend, and weddings and civil ceremonies may only take place in exceptional circumstances.

We may need to change our Mass Schedule this week depending on the availability of volunteers. Please check this news page regularly so that you know whether a Mass will be taking place.

The 9.30am Mass this morning at SS Peter and Paul will be a public Mass and the funeral will take place at St Michael's.

The Bulletin for Sunday 3rd January 2021 is now ready to download from the Mass Times and Bulletin Page.
There is a great opportunity to volunteer in the local community with Covid 19 testing, more details are on this bulletin.
Happy New Year!