All expectant mothers and those whose babies have recently arrived (less than a year) are invited for a special blessing on Mothers’ Day, Sunday 30 March at the 10am Mass.

You and your partners are also then warmly invited to tea/coffee after Mass and a brief chat on the Sacrament of Baptism – what it is and what to think about ahead of time.

18 March 2025

The Catenian Association is an international Catholic organisation established over 100 years fostering the values of faith, family and friendship and it is hoped that men from our parish will consider joining the Catenians and encourage each other in our shared faith and charitable works and activities.

The local group meets every month at Harpenden Golf Club at 7pm for an informal meeting and supper. Please consider joining them and you will be assured of a warm welcome.

More information available on our website or simon-davies9@sky.com or George.jarzab@gmail.com.

18 March 2025

‘Gregorian chant holds pride of place, as it is proper to the Roman Liturgy’ – so said the documents of Vatican II.

The cantors have been singing the chant in its old and newer forms for several years now at the 11.30/12 noon Mass on Sundays. Several parishioners have enquired about joining a chant schola, and the cantors would now like to see if we can form a group – as is proper – as a bridge to full congregational participation in the chant.

Experimental sessions of 45 minutes will be held in the choir loft at 7.30pm on Tuesday 1 and Thursday 3 April. No experience is required beyond the ability to hold a tune together with others, and full tuition will be offered in effective voice production,  musicianship and the history and conventions of the chant.

If you are interested but can’t attend either preliminary session, please contact Jeremy White spodehouse@hotmail.com or text him on 07999 957665.

18 March 2025

the Parish Friends Group would like to thank all those who helped to make the Patrick’s Day Tea Party such a success. Over 80 people attended and £350 was collected for Cafod. Heartfelt thanks go to Peter and Damian who gave us great entertainment all afternoon. Thank you also to the cake makers. What a great selection we had. A wonderful afternoon all round.

18 March 2025

We are commemorating our deceased loved ones in a special way in our Easter Garden again this year by writing their names on bamboo butterfly shapes and planting them around the rose garden in front of the presbytery. These will be close to the three empty crosses, a symbol of the new life Christ won for us in his resurrection.

If you would like to remember deceased family or friends in this way, please send us their names clearly marked ‘Easter Garden’ either by posting the details through the presbytery door or by emailing the parish office stalbans@rcdow.org.uk

2 March 2025

The parish administrators here and at St Bartholomew’s have spent much of the past couple of weeks completing the annual financial returns required by the Diocese. Although we cannot release specific figures until the diocesan accounts are approved by the auditors, it is clear that we will have ended last year with a reasonable surplus. In the main that surplus has been generated by a) a cautious approach to capital expenditure, b) a combination of high interest rates and growth in our Building Fund and c) the receipt of a legacy during the year. With further falls in the interest rate almost certain and a reduction in our bank balance resulting from the commencement of building works in the spring, together with the resultant impact on parish centre lettings income, our operational surplus in 2025 will be significantly affected. This means that we have to think more carefully about everyday spending and maximise income where we can.

First then, I would like to thank you for your ongoing generosity; for your giving to our ordinary operational costs by way of the Sunday Offertory and for your donations to and pledges of support for the Parish Building Fund. To date £207,800 has been received and a further £240,500 is expected, making a total of £448,300 over the five years of the Building Fund Appeal (including £70,100 of gift aid tax reclaimed). Secondly, this is not an appeal for people to give more, it really isn’t. However, I would ask those of you who are UK tax payers to please consider gift aiding what you give and to give by standing order, if you do not already do so. Gift aiding is a straightforward way of maximising what you give without giving any more than you already do.

When UK tax payers gift aid their charitable donations, the charity can claim back the basic-rate tax from HM Revenue & Customs on their donations. In effect, gift aiding what you give will increase the value of what you give to the parish by 25p in every pound or 25%. (The only thing the tax payer needs to do is to ensure that the money the Government gives to a charity or charities, as a result of a tax payer’s gift aiding, does not exceed the amount of tax they have paid in the relevant tax year.)

So, if you are a UK tax payer who gives on a regular basis (perhaps you already do by standing order) but have not signed a gift aid declaration enabling us to reclaim a proportion of the tax you have already paid, please contact Angela, our Parish Administrator, at stalbans@rcdow.org.uk saying you would like to gift aid your giving and asking for the relevant Offertory or Building Fund standing order and/or gift aid form.

9th February 2025

On Saturday 17 May at 2.30pm the Cardinal will celebrate a Mass of Thanksgiving for couples celebrating their 5th, 10th, 25th, 30th, 40th, 50th, and 60th (and any year over 60) anniversary of Catholic marriage. If you would like to attend please inform the Parish Office by Thursday 3 April and include husband and wife’s names, wedding date, number of years married, postal address, email (or phone number, if no email).

2nd February 2025

Our Lenten talk schedule is something you are not going to want to miss.  Dr Pia Matthews will be speaking : 7.30pm to 9pm as follows:

Friday 7 March 2025 – Assisted Suicide

Friday 21 March 2025 – A Just War?

Friday 28 March 2025 – Conscience in a Modern World

Dr Pia Matthews is a senior lecturer at St Mary’s University, Twickenham, and a lecturer at Allen Hall, our Diocesan Seminary, in Chelsea.  She gained a BA/MA in Law from Cambridge University, a BTh (Theology) from St John’s Seminary and Surrey University, and an MA in Bioethics from St Mary’s. She currently teaches on the MA Bioethics and Medical Law programme, and on the FD Healthcare Practitioners Ethics, Theology and Care at St Mary’s; and in marriage and family life at Allen Hall. In 2015, she was appointed an expert to the XIV Ordinary General Assembly Synod of Bishops by Pope Francis.

2nd February 2025

Please follow this link to read a copy of the letter from Fr Michael that has been sent out this week with the bulletin. It relates to the revised schedule of masses for both parishes following their recent pairing.

20th December 2024

In recent years the ‘pairing’ of some neighbouring parishes in the Diocese of Westminster has been both necessary and advantageous. Necessary because of changing demographics and new realities concerning the numbers and the composition of local communities in London and Hertfordshire, the need to rationalise resources and the declining number of men offering themselves for priesthood in the Diocese, with more lay men and women becoming more actively involved in the life and work of the Church in parishes and more widely, supporting the clergy and fellow parishioners. There is scope to increase such involvement. Advantageous because of the beneficial sharing of resources, human and material, and because the sustainability and viability of parishes are more secure going forward. Across the Diocese there are some twenty such ‘pairings’, involving forty-plus parishes. Pairings are in all four pastoral areas of the Diocese. ‘Paired’ parishes have one Parish Priest serving both parishes and churches. Some also have an Assistant Priest if the size of the parishes and the presence of a school or hospital, etc. make this possible, taking into account the availability of priests. Some also have the benefit of the ministry of a permanent deacon, usually a parishioner of one of the parishes, trained and ordained for this ministry.

From 1 January 2025 the parishes of St Alban and St Stephen, St Albans and St Bartholomew, St Albans South will be ‘paired’, with Fr Michael O’Boy as Parish Priest of both parishes and continuing to reside at St Alban & St Stephen. Inevitably there will need to be some adjustments to the present schedule of Masses in both parishes. Both parishes will continue to have a Finance Committee to assist and advise the Parish Priest. Both parishes will continue to have their distinctive identities while being open to parishioners of, and visitors to, both parishes. Parish boundaries will be maintained while being more porous than rigid. ‘Less walls, more bridges’ is the way forward for parishes. Please do give the support Fr Michael will need as he takes on additional responsibilities assisted by Fr John Casey. He has responded generously to what has been asked of him and he will rely on the prayers and goodwill of the communities of St Albans and St Albans South.

St Alban, St Stephen, St John Fisher and St Bartholomew, pray for us.

 Fr Michael writes… As Mgr. Hayes says the pairing of parishes is not new to the Diocese or indeed the Deanery to which we belong. Moreover, there is a sense in which the pairing of St Alban and St Stephen with St Bartholomew’s is a natural one, grouping together the Catholic parishes of the City of St Albans. Even so, I am conscious that the pairing of parishes may feel like a loss – calling on each parish to share its parish clergy. Undoubtedly, the pairing will involve a division of time and labour, but I hope and believe that this pairing of St Alban and St Stephen with St Bartholomew’s will open up a new and exciting chapter for the Catholic community here in St Albans. Where there is need, opportunity or advantage in our working closely with St Bartholomew’s it will make collaboration, and therefore the best use of all the resources at our disposal, much easier. It will also enable the common witness of the Catholic community here in St Albans.

This coming Monday evening I will be meeting with our Parish Pastoral Council to reflect on what this pairing will mean for us here at St Alban and St Stephen and in the first instance, as it is the most pressing practical question, what the pairing of parishes might mean for the Sunday and weekday Mass schedule at St Alban & St Stephen. I hope to do the same with St Bartholomew’s Parish Council in the very near future. In the coming weeks and months there will be much to consider, but as that process begins, I want to reassure you that I am committed to maintaining the Catholic presence across St Albans – in St Bartholomew’s, Marshalswick and the City Centre – and to delivering the plans that have been made, and are in the making, for the refurbishment of the parish complex here on Beaconsfield Road. Please pray for our parish, for the whole Parish Team, the parishioners of St Barts as well as for myself and Fr John, and Fr Francis as he moves on to new pastures, as we, the Catholic Parishes of St Albans, look to renew our mission.

1 December 2024

The theme of the Jubilee Year 2025, “Pilgrims of Hope,” is uniquely captured in the prayers, readings, and options of the Mass for the Holy Year. They stress the themes of pilgrimage. More information about the Jubilee Year and prayers can be downloaded from Prayers for The Jubilee 2025 – Catholic Bishops’ Conference. The faithful, united under Christ’s banner, always have hope. The expectation that the Lord will come in the present, and the end of the ages, inspires them to make a pilgrimage to God, and their neighbour.

22 November 2024

We have received an email from the Diocese this week highlighting a concerning rise in scam emails targeting parishioners in the Diocese. These emails impersonate the parish priest, often using a similar email name and masking the real email address. They typically request the recipient to purchase Amazon or other gift cards as gifts for the priest. Unfortunately, we have received reports of people falling victim to these scams, with some individuals losing up to £600 to the fraudsters.

To avoid this happening to you, please:

• Never purchase gift cards as gifts for the parish priest, based on an email request, unless you have verified the request directly in person or through a trusted means.
• Double-check any suspicious email by directly contacting the parish office.
• Avoid sharing personal or financial information in response to unsolicited emails.

If you encounter these emails, please report them as spam and inform the parish office immediately.

19 November 2024