Archived news and comment from the Parish
St Vincent de Paul Society
Due to the tremendous generosity of Holy Innocents parishioners, the SVP has been able to donate £200 of the recent collection to the SVP Sudan Appeal, as well as helping the needy in our own locality! Please add this cause to your prayer supplications.
The SVP in Sudan has many programmes, some of which are concerned with:- Baby feeding, Vocational training (to enable people to go into paid employment); 'foster homes' for street children; and Medical Clinics.
As Kamal put it, "We have an opportunity to let these people live, not just survive."
God bless you and thank you for your support. Please see the poster in the porch and / or visit: the SVP's twinnage site.
Direct contact details are: Email: info@svp.org.uk; Tel: 020-7407 4644
Holy Innocents Church - Silver Jubilee of Church
The parish celebrated the 25th anniversary of the consecration of Holy Innocents Church on the weekend of 7th & 8th October. Canon John McNmara and Bishop Patrick Lynch were Celebrants at two of the weekend Masses.Black Empowerment Project Excites Holy Innocents
Parishioner Andrew Jones has appealed for support for an intriguing Christian Black Empowerment scheme in South Africa. Called Partnership Vineyards. It was founded following a proposal made, in October 2002, by Andrew and his wife Branwen, both wine journalists, to the owners of Riebeek Cellars, one hour's drive north of Cape Town.
Andrew has reported a wonderful response from Riebeek Cellars which embraced the project and began to develop it. A superb vineyard site of approximately 150 acres has been purchased on private mortgage and the first 15 acres has been planted with Sauvignon Blanc vines.
Partnership Vineyards is not a charity. It is an empowerment project, officially approved by the South African Government, that will transform the lives of 150 farm labourers who have never owned anything tangible. That means, of course 150 families. The labourers will become landowners and shareholders. Their holdings will be paid for by their farmer employers over as long as 10 years. This is Christian partnership in the most positive manner.
Holy Innocents parishioners proved themselves exceedingly generous in their response with donations which have continued to be received and now total in excess of £3,600. This is an exciting start to a fund raising scheme with a target of £50,000 over the next 3 years. The money will enable the entire vineyard to be planted. This will result in a 50% rise in income for the farm labourers over a 4 year period. They will also receive professional wine education from the Riebeek Cellars management.
Help has also been received from Holy Innocents South African parishioners, Derryn and Helen Coetzee, which has resulted in the free publication of www.partnershipvineyards.com.
Parish News
Bud Colburn 1917 - 2004
A beautiful sunny evening on Saturday September 4th saw a 5pm Thanksgiving Mass to celebrate the life of the late Bud Colburn at St. Katherine's Church, Knockholt. Bud had been responsible with the Vicar of St.Katherine's for the introduction of Catholic Masses in the Anglican parish church and Canon John Watts commented aptly on Bud's involvement to a packed congregation. Many Holy Innocents parishioners attended, as well as Bud's friends and relatives from many miles around. He will be missed by many of us. (AJ)
Priests at Holy Innocents since 1893
Read the informative Origin of Our Parish. You may well be surprised by the Canadian connection. Or look at the names of those priests that have served the parish of Holy Innocents since 1893 - and let the names bring back those memories! If you have information or photos on Holy Innocents' priests please contact the Editor.
Photo Appeal
Photos of Priests: Please can you help? We are planning to publish a feature detailing all the priests who have served at Holy Innocents. Do you have any photos of them which we can borrow for a few days? Please contact the Editor.
Photos of the Sick: Do you have photos of anyone named on the Parish sicklist? We would like to help parishioners identify those for whom we pray. Please contact the Editor.