The Church of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour at Deanby Gardens has been open for the people of the parish to gather to worship for 50 years now. To celebrate this, on its anniversary weekend (Sun 20 Dec), a number of priests who lived and served at the Deanby end of the parish are coming to celebrate the Sunday Masses. Then on the 1st January 2010, to start the New Year and the next 50 years of Our Lady’s Church, Bishop Noel Treanor will celebrate Mass at 11 am to mark this historic occasion.

In January the process of establishing a Parish Pastoral Council begins with an Information Session on Sun 17 Jan for anyone who’s interested in what Sacred Heart Parish could offer the people here in the years ahead; there will be a further four nights of training to help establish the pastoral council on the Sundays of February for those who’d like to get involved. The remit of a Parish Pastoral Council is to work co-operatively with the priests and sisters of the parish team and the parishioners to assist the entire parish

community to achieve the mission of the Church in the local community.

Many aspects of parish life remain the same through the years - and the opportunities to be involved are many (see below). The most important way of being involved is to be part of the praying community who gather together weekly in our churches to honour God at Mass. I would especially ask your prayers for all the children of our schools and in particular those who are getting ready to receive the sacraments this year.

At the same time as we look forwards as to where this New Year of 2010 might take us, we look back on the year (and the years) and express our grateful thanks to all those who participate in the life of Sacred Heart Parish and make it a vibrant, faithful parish community centred on the love of Christ.