HOPE IN THE FUTURE
IN
OUR LADY’S & ST. ALPHONSUS PARISH
Hope in the Future is an invitation from Bishop John Arnold,
to every parish in the Diocese of Salford to recognise and
develop their missionary identity and their call to
evangelise.
This is a 5 stage journey and we are currently in
Stage 3 – Living the Sunday Eucharist.
The current Hope in The Future team members are:
Fr. Pat, Sihle Chinamasa, Teresa Clark, Shirley Ganyo,
Constance Goddard, Liz Gondalez, Hilary Huckenhall,
John Kelly, Yvette Ryle, Denise Samuels, Liz Wright
The team usually meet on the last Thursday of each month.
Members of the team are in the process of carrying out a parish census.
After mass each Saturday morning we go out into the parish knocking on doors
and speaking with people. On this journey we have met with many people
including a number of our lapsed brothers and sisters. Our hope is to reach
out to people and in doing so build a stronger and closer parish community.
If you would like to help out on any Staurday morning your support would
be most welcome. Please speak with any member of the team.
As part of the Hope in the Future, Bishop John has asked Parish
groups to try to forge closer links with their local primary schools.
This is something that we continue to develop and have improved
communications between church and our schools.
At St. Alphonsus, members of the parish have attended the school
coffee mornings and the school choir have attended Sunday mass.
At Our Lady’s, since the start of Hope in The Future,
there has been a greater involvement of the children in the Sunday mass.
In both churches children who are on the sacramental programme take part
in the offertory procession and at Our Lady’s the younger children help
with the collection.
Another development in Our Lady’s church has been the introduction of
20 minutes Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament before Sunday Mass.
The Hope in The Future programme is enabling parishioners with different
talents to work together for the common good our our parish.
HOPE IN THE FUTURE PRAYER
God our loving Father, we thank you for blessing our parish communities
with all that we need to respond to our vocation to be missionary disciples.
We ask you to pour out afresh the gifts of your Spirit upon each one of us,
that we may be inspired to serve you in new and creative ways, bringing your
light to the world. We ask your blessing upon us as we journey together in
hope through Christ Our Lord, Amen.
You can find full details of the Hope in the Future project on the
Diocese of Salford website.