New priest inducted, Posada reminder, charity appeal
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Latest news from across the Diocese of East Anglia includes a new priest in Stowmarket, a Posada reminder and a charity back-pack appeal.
On Tuesday October 1, Bishop Alan Hopes inducted Fr Ioan Sandor from Romania (pictured above to Bishop Alan’s right) as the new Parish Priest for Our Lady’s, Stowmarket. The Induction Mass was a concelebration with many priests from the Diocese of East Anglia and three of Fr Ioan’s fellow-priests from Romania.
It’s time to start preparing for your parish’s Advent Posada Journey. Posters, a handy rota, prayers and other resources are now available on the Diocesan website’s Evangelisation pages.
‘Posada’ is a Mexican tradition. A young couple dress up as Mary and Joseph and then spend the days of Advent travelling from house to house asking for a room for the night and telling their hosts about the imminent arrival of Jesus at Christmas.
Our modern day ‘Posada’ uses a statue of Mary and Joseph and the donkey instead of a young couple to travel from home to home. Posada provides an opportunity for hospitality, a time of prayer with others and a sharing of our Christian faith with family and friends. By hosting the statue we can join this simple but effective form of evangelisation.
Pictured above are Emily and Ciaran of the Ignite Team with the Posada.
As part of its continuing support for Mary’s Meals, St Benet’s in Beccles took the chance to support the charity’s Back-pack Appeal, reports Terry O’Brien.
Initially, our class of First Communicants took up the challenge over the summer. They were soon joined by all the children at our parish school and the appeal was then widened to include the whole parish.
Initially, the children had a target to fill 60 small back-packs with a range of useful, everyday items – such as personal hygiene and school sundries. It was a salutary lesson for our youngsters to realise that these simple things, which we all take for granted, are desperately needed by children in developing countries.
Our Mary’s Meals co-ordinator, Helen Hemmings, reports that an amazing total of 84 fully-loaded back-packs were donated, together with several additional bags of sundries to act as replacements!
Helen was full of praise for Sydna Playford (pictured right) who willingly took on the task of ensuring that each back-pack was complete with the full range of suitable items. Sydna – pictured on her staircase with some of the back-packs – did the bulk of the sorting and checking and then stored them for us until they were sent off recently.
Picture by Helen Hemmings.
