News

NEWS

Latest News

for our parish calendar

Mass times

Our regular pattern is that weekday masses are at 9:30am at St John the Baptist (except Thursdays) and 6pm at St Joseph’s. For Sundays there is the 6pm Saturday vigil mass and the 11am Mass at St John the Baptist, and 11am and 5:30pm masses at St Joseph’s. Mass times – particularly for weekday masses are subject to change, so please double check in our newsletter for up to the minute information

The Bishops of England and Wales have released a statement on the obligation to attend Mass, and invite everyone who has not yet returned to Mass to do so from Pentecost. https://www.cbcew.org.uk/spring-plenary-2022-resolution-returning-to-mass-at-pentecost/

CONFESSION. Our main session is from 11 to 11:45am on Saturday mornings at St Joseph’s, or by arrangement with a priest.

For events for students and young adults see the page here.

The regular pattern of meetings each week is:

Monday 4:30pm Rosary Group – contact parish office

Tuesday 7:30pm – Faith Discussion group

https://zoom.us/j/96161676521 ID: 961 6167 6521

Wednesday 8pm Lectio Divina

https://zoom.us/j/92327977736 ID: 923 2797 7736

Thursday / 10am: parish discussion group

https://zoom.us/j/92452001507 ID: 924 5200 1507

see alongside for details of each event

Parish Wellbeing Group and Mental Health Awareness Week

We have created a new page on our website for our Parish Wellbeing Group.

There you will find news and information from the group

The first article highlights the current Mental Health Awareness Week

go to new page

https://www.change.org/p/sos-save-our-student-from-deportation

A message from students and staff at Cardinal Newman Catholic School:

Right now, the Home Office is threatening to endanger the life of a Ann – a 16-year old Sudanese refugee, and her family.

Our friend and her family came to the UK in 2019 seeking asylum and safety after the father and eldest sister were arrested for their involvement in peaceful anti-Government protests. The family has not been able to make contact with their father due to assumed imprisonment or death.

For three years, our friend and her family have been living in the UK and have become valued members of our community, especially at our school. But now they face the threat of being deported, through no fault of their own.

Ann has been studying at Cardinal Newman Catholic School, in Brighton becoming an integral part of their community. She is currently studying for her GCSEs, not missing a day of school despite being forcibly relocated to London.

We do not want to put Ann in danger.

We do not want to lose a valued member of the community.

We refuse to accept that our friend may be at risk.

This family has already faced prosecution from the Sudanese government and it is extremely unlikely, if they were to return, that the same government would treat them fairly.

We want to keep them safe here. Brighton has become their home!

We don’t have a lot of time to act; please help!

click this link or the qr code below

Hosting Ukrainian Refugees

Although there is less in the news now about displaced Ukrainian people and the Government scheme to enable them to settle here, the need remains and is still acute. We know a number of people have considered hosting an individual or family, but may have been put off by how complex it seems. The Catholic Church, through Caritas Social Action Network and Saint John of God Hospitaller Services, is now launching a strong support scheme to make it easy for Catholics to host guests – their service includes matching, support with all paperwork, and transport of guests.

If you are in a position to consider hosting contact the office and we will give you full information.

Our New Resource Page

In particular look out for our resources pages, providing links to good things to watch, listen to, or read. Also the Prayers of the Faithful are now published weekly on the newsletter page. We would encourage all parishioners to submit potential prayers by email to the office, so that increasingly these do become the prayers of all the faithful.

Great external courses and events

There are great online worship and events coming up. See our section Upcoming Courses and Events at the top of the Resources page.

St Joseph's Hall Redevelopment

We are embarking on an ambitious project to improve parish facilities and integrate university chaplaincies

Currently we have submitted building plans to the council and are hoping to receive planning permission.

Once this is received we can be clearer on timeline and plans and will be holding meetings at both churches.

more information here

Our Alpha opportunity

On Thursday the 21st September we are starting our first in person Alpha since before the pandemic! This is a great opportunity to respond to two of the Pope’s calls to all of us:

– to grow our faith – do come and see what it is and whether it will be enjoyable and useful

– and to spread the word – please do think about who you could invite – friends, family, colleagues

more information here

A new page

We are adding a new page, hoping to start building up a library of significant homilies.

Here you will find the first one – Canon Kieron’s homily on forgiveness from Sunday 17th September.

here

The Baton of Hope - the greatest suicide prevention initiative - comes to St John the Baptist

On Wednesday July 5th the Baton of Hope – the UK’s greatest suicide prevention initiative came to Brighton – with the Baton being carried through the streets by a series of 90 people affected by suicide. A key stopping place was the garden in the forecourt of St John the Baptist – the baton was there for 45 minutes with music, and important talks. Members of our parish wellbeing group were there for this important event, as was the Mayor, and Mike McCarthy, the founder of the national initiative.

full story here

Congratulations to Fr Aidan

for the 40th anniversary of his Ordination – we had a wonderful celebration as you can see

here

Meeting Opportunities

We run two weekly discussion and community groups online – on Tuesday evenings and Thursday mornings. The format is very simple – we gather and catch up with each other, watch some video input on a significant topic, and then discuss what we have heard. Each week is self contained, and all are welcome to join, whether for a single week or more regularly.

On Wednesdays at 8 there is an hour of prayer and reflection on the upcoming Sunday gospel led by monks from Worth Abbey

the Fitzherbert Community Hub

The Fitzherbert Community Hub is now open and thriving.

Do join us for a Real Junk Food Project lunch on Tuesdays, Wednesdays, or Thursdays, or at a parish event.

Click the link to watch Herb Nahapiet explaining the Hub facilities and mission

Click Here

Fitzherbert Community Hub

A new short film has been added to the hub website. View it at

Many of you will have enjoyed visiting the community cafe run by the Real Junk Food Project at St John the Baptist before lockdown. It was really popular with parishioners and members of the wider local community alike but because of the condition of the parish hall and kitchen we were only able to open one lunchtime a week, despite such high demand. You will also be aware of the Food Hub, coordinated by Brighton Table Tennis Club, that has been operating out of St John the Baptist. Covid-19 has exposed the extent of food poverty in the area that we serve and the food bank is now providing food for 300 people a week and ready cooked meals to 45 refugee/asylum seeker families, some of whom have no recourse to public finance or cooking facilities.

Building on these two initiatives we are now working in partnership with our three co-located grassroots charities, Voices in Exile, Brighton Table Tennis Club and Real Junk Food Project to raise funding to redevelop the parish hall at St John the Baptist, creating a flexible, multi-purpose, socially inclusive Community Hub with a commercial standard teaching kitchen, dining area, food bank, full disability access (including a lift to the upper rooms) and additional meeting spaces. Central to our plans is the provision of a daily “pay as you feel” (customers pay what they feel the food is worth or what they can afford) community café using food otherwise destined for landfill. This is an exciting opportunity for us as a Parish as not only will we have access to a lovely new parish hall and cafe but we will be able to live out our faith through social outreach and community building.

Full information is on the hub website at https://fitzherbertcommunityhub.org.uk/

Please have a look at the short films in the following link which considers local need and how this project will help: