St. matthew’s parish newsletter

St Matthew’s
Parish
Celebrating
70 Years
1946 - 2016

Sunday 7th JANUARY 2018
FEAST OF THE EPIPHANY
Priests of the Parish: Canon Robert Hill & Fr. Eamon Friel
Telephone: 0141 772 1619
Email:
Website: www.saintmatthews.scot

Priests of the Parish: Canon Robert Hill; Fr. Eamon Friel

Telephone: 0141 772 1619

New Parish Email:

New Parish Website: www.saintmatthews.scot

Items for inclusion in the newsletter can be sent to . Items must be received before the Friday prior to the publication.

Sunday Masses: Saturday Vigil:5.30pm. Sunday: 9.30 am, 11.00 am and 12.15 pm

Weekday Masses: Monday to Friday: 10.00am. Saturday:10.00 am

Holyday of Obligation Masses: Vigil Mass: 7.30pm. 7.30 am, 10.00 am and 7.30 pm

Confessions: Saturday after the 10.00 am Mass, and from 5.00 pm to 5.20 pm

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE: Feast of the Epiphany of the Lord. Bishop William Nolan of Galloway and Dumfries and President of the Bishops’ Justice and Peace Commission has issued a letter for this occasion. Copies are available for you to take from the back and side exists from the church.

‘THE NEW BUILD CAMPAIGN’: ‘SAINT MATTHEW’S – THE NEXT 70 YEARS!’: The Design Team begin work! Recently, the first meeting of the Design Team for our rebuild met in the church: a significant step in moving the project forward. Chaired by the architect for the project Justin Fenton, and representatives of the firms of Quantity Surveyor, Structural Engineer; Services Engineer and Archdiocese of Glasgow Director of Development Ken Crilley and Fr. Hill. As Ken states: “The Design Team met on Thursday with a view to progressing the Building Warrant Application. It is envisaged that the Application will be submitted to East Dunbartonshire Council for consideration around late March 2018”.

WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY: This annual event will take place from the 18th until the 25th of January (the Feast of the conversion of St. Paul), and is a great opportunity for us to remember to pray for that unity that Jesus prayed would be the way in which his followers would be recognised.

A VERY BIG THANK YOU: From Fr. Hill and Fr. Friel for the Christmas good wishes and gifts given to us by parishioners. We are extremely grateful. Sincere thanks go to the very many people who worked so hard and offered their time and talents to the preparation for and celebration of the Christmas liturgies. We are most grateful to all who did so much to ensure our Christmas liturgies were so well conducted and celebrated.

HOLY LAND RETREAT FOR CLERGY FROM SOCTLAND, ENGLAND AND WALES: For the second year running Fr. Hill has been invited to give the reflections for this retreat for members of the clergy in the British Isles on this 8 day retreat. He will therefore be away from the parish from Sunday 7th January until Tuesday 16th January. Masses during that period will be covered by the Mill Hill Missionaries from Cardonald.

LAY READERS AND INTERCESSORS : The new rota for January-June 2018 is now ready. Please uplift your copy from the sacristy. “My email address is if you need to contact me”.

CALENDERS & DIARIES: Diaries and 2018 Calendars are all available for sale in the Repository at the back of the church. Prices for all items are indicated as marked and the room will be open during the day to facilitate your purchases.

LOTTERY: The December winners were:

1140 Clare Grehan £203

1057 Doreen Docherty £203

1250 Gerry Hay £101.50

We have raised over £70,800 towards the Church Building Fund, thank you.

The January draw will take place on Sunday 28th of January with Sunday 21st of January the last date for payment. We are still looking for more new members, joining forms are available at the back of the Church. If you require clarification, please contact John Feechan on 563 3914.

The SVDP conference would like to thank you all once again for your tremendous response to our Advent appeal for food. Boxes were delivered to St. Flannan’s, St. Theresa’s, St. Augustine’s, St. Roch’s and St. Aloysius’ Springburn in the week before Christmas where they are being used to support needy families.

UCM: A reminder for all members, our lunch at ‘The Avenue’ is on Friday 12th Jan at 12:30pm. All members welcome.

CHURCH CLEANING: Team C will be on duty Friday 12th January.

HAVE YOU EVER THOUGHT you might like to become a Catholic, but did not like to ask? Or perhaps you didn’t know where to begin? There is a simple solution at hand if that’s the case. Our parish (and most others) has the solution for anyone wanting more information. RCIA is the title of the group which exists to answer questions of people making enquiries, explain a bit more about the Catholic Church, and to set up for those looking to do so how to become part of the church. RCIA stands for the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults – a bit of a mouthful, but it is something wonderful. RCIA is for any adult to come along and see for themselves what the church is like. We meet just now on the first Tuesday of each month, in the church house, at 7.30 pm, and the team consists of long standing members of the parish and some very new members of the parish who have come in through RCIA. Interested? Have a word with Fr. Hill.

APPROVAL TO TEACH IN A CATHOLIC SCHOOL: The law requires that everyone who teaches in a Scottish Catholic School must have been approved by the local Bishop (or his delegate). This applies to all, whether Catholic or not. Catholics should ordinarily have references provided by a priest who regularly sees them at Mass; preferably the priest in the parish in which they reside, but if they attend Mass elsewhere, the reference should come from a priest who would know them from Mass attendance.

If you think you may require Approval to teach in a Catholic school, then please make sure you are known to the priest you will approach for your reference. If you have any questions/concerns regarding approval and whether you will be eligible to teach in a Catholic School, please make an appointment to chat to Fr. Hill sooner rather than later. This will be an entirely confidential conversation!

RECENT COLLECTIONS:

DATE / 1st Collection / Special (St. Nicholas Care Fund) / Building Fund (dons)
24th Dec / tba / tba / tba
1st Jan / tba / tba / tba

Many thanks.

FORTHCOMING SPECIAL COLLECTIONS

JUSTICE & PEACE (Epiphany) / 7th January
CATHOLIC EDUCATION / 28th January

Notification of funerals due to take place in St. Matthew’s during the coming week:

NAME / Reception / Funeral mass
Rose Boyle / Monday 8th Jan, 6.30 pm / Tuesday 9th Jan, 10.00 am

Forthcoming Parish Meetings:

RCIA / Presbytery / Tue 9th Jan, 7.30 pm

NEW PARISHIONERS/CHANGE OF ADDRESS : If you are new to our parish or have changed address within the parish boundary - PLEASE LET US KNOW. It helps to keep our records up to date. There are forms for this purpose on the notice board in the porch next to the GAD forms. Thank you for your co-operation.

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