St. Matthew S Parish Newsletter

St Matthew’s Parish Celebrating 70 Years 1946 - 2016

Sunday 26th February 2017 Eighth Sunday, Year A

Priests of the Parish: Canon Robert Hill & Fr. Eamon Friel Telephone: 0141 772 1619 St. matthew’s parish newsletter Email: [email protected] Website: www.saintmatthews.scot

2 | P a g e St. matthew’s parish newsletter Sunday Masses: Saturday Vigil: 5.30pm. Sunday: 9.30 am, 11.00 am and 12.15 pm Weekday Masses: Monday to Friday: 10.00 am, Saturday: 10.00 am PLEASE NOTE: THE MONDAY – FRIDAY 7.30 am MASS IS CURRENTLY SUSPENDED Holyday of Obligation Masses: Vigil Mass: 7.30pm. 7.30 am, 10.00 am and 7.30 pm Confessions: Saturdays, from after the 10.00 am Mass, and from 5.00 pm to 5.20 pm.

***PLEASE NOTE CHANGE OF PARISH EMAIL ADDRESS. The parish email address is now [email protected] Please visit our new website – still a work in progress, but we’re adding to it bit by bit. www.saintmatthews.scot

Unfortunately, we have been experiencing difficulties with the website in recent days, but at going to press, we hope that the website will be restored soon

To access the website, please do so through www.saintmatthews.scot . In changing the website, we relinquished ownership of the old URL. This means that a Google or other search will take you to a site other than St. Matthew’s parish – to be precise, a clothing outlet!

PROGRAMME FOR LENT in St. Matthew’s. Lent begins with Ash Wednesday on 1 March. TIMES FOR MASSES, WITH DISTRIBUTION OF ASHES, 7.30 am, 10 .00 am (including some children from St. Matthew’s Primary School), and 7.30 pm. Additional services of the distribution of ashes will be held in St. Matthews Primary and Turnbull High Schools. Over the next couple of weeks we will advertise parish events for the season of Lent. To start, we hope to arrange a series of Lenten Talks, taking place in the church, on the 3rd, 4th and 5th Tuesdays of Lent, that is: Tuesdays 21, 28 March, 4 April, all beginning at 7.00 pm. These will be based on the readings for the three most important days of the church’s year that comprise the single event of the EASTER TRIDUUM – Holy Thursday Mass of the Last super; Good Friday Solemn Commemoration of the Lord’s Passion; Holy Saturday Solemn Easter Vigil. Fr Hill will present these talks, exploring themes from these readings which open up the riches of the celebration. Look out for posters illustrating these. The session on 4 April will also include a prayer for re-dedication for Readers and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, and the commissioning of new Extraordinary Ministers, (thank you to those who returned their forms. New Ministers have been approved by the Archbishop and certificates will be distributed at the commissioning ceremony) so we hope that all readers at Mass and Extraordinary Ministers will make a special effort to attend. Following the pattern established over the past couple of years, we aim to have Stations of the Cross on the Wednesdays of Lent (excepting Ash Wednesday), and as before, we need people (individuals or members of parish groups working together) to lead these. Please let Fr Hill know if you would be prepared to lead one of the Wednesday Stations of the Cross Services. We need even more people than usual to help with music etc. during Lent, and particularly in Holy Week. Our Resources are going to be limited this year, so please: if you can help with the Lent and Easter Liturgies in any way, please let Fr. Hill know asap! VOCATIONS MASS ST. JOSEPH'S The monthly Mass for Vocations takes place at the Little Sisters of the Poor, St. Joseph’s Robroyston on Monday 27th February at 745pm . Nass will be celebrated by Canon Peter McBride. We look forward to you joining with us in praying for vocatiions. FILM & FAITH CLUB March 2017 AGAP Film and Faith Club will meet at 1pm for a Matinée and for a second screening at 7pm on Thursday 2nd March at St Mungo’s Retreat House, next to Saint Mungo’s Church, Townhead. 52 Parson Street, G4 0RX. This month’s film is “The Mission” (1986). New members welcome. Totally free! Big screen and speakers. Tea/coffee & Chat. Due to large numbers attending, please register your place beforehand either on website:

3 | P a g e St. matthew’s parish newsletter www.agap.org.uk/events/ email [email protected] or call 0141-552-5527.

Sacrament of Reconciliation for Primary 3 Children in St. Matthew’s Parish will take place on Thursday 16 March at 7.00 pm. There will be a meeting for parents of Children celebrating Reconciliation for the first time in St. Matthew’s church hall, Tuesday 21 February, 7.00 pm VOCATIONS to the Priesthood and Religious Life Anyone thinking of the priesthood as his vocation should contact Father Ross Campbell, the Vocations Director of the Archdiocese Glasgow: [email protected]. CHURCH CLEANING: Team B will be on duty Thursday 2nd March. ITEMS FOR THE NEWSLETTER can be sent to [email protected], items must be received before the Friday prior to the publication of the newsletter for which they are intended. Forthcoming parish meetings WHAT WHERE WHEN PARISH FINANCE COMMITTEE Presbytery Monday 27 February, 2017, 7.00 pm PARISH PASTORAL COUNCIL Presbytery Monday 6 March, 7.00 pm RCIA Presbytery Tuesday 7 March, 2017, 7.30 pm . Recent Collections: DATE 1st Collection 2nd Collection Sun 12 Feb £1184.10 £2366.99 (Annual Deanery Mission Appeal) Sun 19 Feb £1161.07 £966.15 (Education Sunday) Many thanks.

Forthcoming Special collections

Catholic Education 19 February 2017 LENTEN ALMS 5, 12, 19 March; 2 April SCIAF 26 March

SPRING FAYRE. This will be held in the church hall on Saturday, 25th March at 10.30 am in aid of church funds. We hope to have the following stalls:- BRIC A BRAC, JEWELLERY, TOYS,BOOKS,CDS/DVDS, TOMBOLA, RAFFLE, HOMEBAKING. We would be grateful if parishioners could bring donations for the stalls to the hall which will be open from 6.30 pm on the Friday before the Fayre. There will be a box at the back of the church for donations for tombola and raffle prizes. Anyone who requires items to be uplifted (no furniture or clothing please) should contact Terry McKee as soon as possible (tel.563 4026). HELP! We need lots of helpers, so if you are available either on the Friday night or Saturday please get in touch.

SVDP Lenten Appeal

The SVDP conference requests your support for the 2016 Lenten appeal which is to supply toiletries, etc for the homeless people supported by the Ozanam Centre in Glasgow. Boxes will be available at the rear of the church and we would be grateful if you could provide the following, in small sizes, suitable for either men or women, over the weeks of Lent.

Mar 5th Small towels. Deodorant Mar 12th Soap, Shower gel Mar 19th Shampoo, hairspray, combs etc. Mar 26th Women’s tights, leggings, socks, Men’s socks

4 | P a g e St. matthew’s parish newsletter Apr 2nd Toothpaste, toothbrushes Apr 9th Small Easter eggs

.     ST. MATTHEW’S @ 70      More exciting news about the development of our church building. The next stage of the process is to submit our formal application to east Dunbartonshire Council for planning permission to carry out the work. The pace is already hotting up, and the extensive survey of the present church building is under way. At this stage it is difficult to be more precise about an exact timetable for the work, but it appears that a reasonable working estimate of the timetable of events will be that the remainder of this year will be taken up with seeking planning permission, and if this is successful, the architects will produce more detailed plans for parish scrutiny. Once these are considered by the parish community, the tendering process for contactors will take place. All of this would suggest that as we move to the end of this year, it will be time to vacate the church completely to allow for work to begin, and to use the hall for Masses. We can hope to be able to begin using the new look church within a year of the work beginning! Shortly, we expect to meet once again with Council Planners and surveyors regarding the development of “The Triangle”. It is good to work with them to see how our new look church will also be a very visible part of any developments at the heart of Bishopbriggs – where we have been for the past 70 years” This of course is a very rough timetable. In the meantime, we need to begin in earnest the process of serious fund raising. We have the task of raising ¾ million pounds! We will be considering this huge task very soon indeed.

Next on list of celebrations for St. Matthew’s @ 70 Two events are in the calendar for the early months of 2017: 1. An exciting collaboration between St. Matthew’s parish, Turnbull High School and coordinated by AGAP (Archdiocese of Glasgow Arts Project): a production in drama, music and audio visual elements recalling and celebrating 70 years of history. This will take place on 28 March 2017 in the parish Hall, with students from Turnbull High being involved in the acting and music. Tickets (£5.00) can be purchased after Mass this weekend, or from AGAP, details on the posters in the church. We very much hope that our own parishioners would like to be involved in in this project too. Interested? Contact Fr. Hill for more information 2. Mass for Couples. This is something we spoke about in the lead up to the 70th anniversary of the parish in October last year. As part of our events for all people in the parish, we promised to arrange during Lent a Mass for married couples, couples preparing for marriage, couples who have just met: all who wish to celebrate their relationships. Family members are most welcome to attend too. This Mass is equally open to people whose spouses are sadly not around. Those who are widowed, who were left alone for whatever reason are also most welcome to come to this Mass should they wish to do so (we do of course recognise that this may be too painful or inappropriate for some: we just don’t want anyone to feel excluded). This will be one of the most important events to mark the 70th anniversary of the parish. The Mass will be on Monday 20 March, at 7.00 pm. We would love couples to read at Mass, help with music, distribute Holy Communion (if they are Eucharistic Ministers). Family members may like to serve, help with music etc. Please let Fr. Hill know if you would like to help with any of these. There will of course be a blessing for all coupes/families participating in this Mass.

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