News and Views for week beginning November 1st

All Saints’ Day is one day out of the year that we pick to celebrate the lives of all of the saints. So, who are the saints? Well, saints are people just like each one of us. Saints include every single person who is living now in God’s nearer presence. They are people who decided to use their talents to make the world a better place. They are people who made mistakes but weren’t afraid to ask for forgiveness. They are people who took care of others and strived for peace. Saints are inspiring people who took Jesus’ message in the Gospel today to heart: “Blessed are the clean of heart… the merciful… the peacemakers… they who hunger and thirst for righteousness… for they will see God. They will be called God’s children. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward will be great in heaven.”

Saints are people who thanked God for offering them the gift of heaven by making the most of their lives and being an inspiration to other people. There are well over a thousand people that the Church has canonized as saints, and then there are those whom we commemorate for their faith, their kindness and their example. These men and women saints have lives that were really inspirational, lives that we should really look up to and try to imitate. We can also pray to ask the help of the saints, asking them to pray for us! So All Saints’ Day: it reminds us of the meaning of our own lives! God calls us to be saints here and now.

ORGAN NEWS Thanks to your amazing generosity, work will begin on the main organ repairs and maintenance on Monday January 4th 2021. The organ will be silent for two to three weeks, but we very much look forward to having all the work completed before Easter next year.

Monday November 2nd is All Souls Day, and we offer a special Requiem Mass at 6:00pm for all our departed loved ones. Please add the names of your loved ones to the list of departed that will be read aloud and prayed for at this special Mass as we light candles in memory of our departed loved ones.

Remembrance Sunday November 8th We will offer a Special Mass of Remembrance at 9:30am with names read aloud from the War Memorials. Due to the fact that our Mass begins at 9:30am and there being no coffee, the time for the Act of Remembrance will be just before 11:00am.

SUNDAY SCHOOL IS ON HALF-TERM BREAK. It will return on Sunday 8th November.

The PCC will meet in Church after Mass on Sunday November 15th. Agenda items need to be sent to Colleen our PCC Secretary as soon as possible please.

Covid-19 Safe! Please, take all your Mass sheets and Newsletters home with you.

CHRISTMAS WORSHIP AT HOLY TRINITY.

Please note that we are hoping to offer a full and exciting programme of Christmas worship. The plan will of course be totally dependent on how the Covid-19 restrictions apply as we move from Autumn to Winter. It is our hope that by keeping everyone as safe as we can with regular deep cleaning, also the regular use of hand sanitiser and face masks etc we can keep to a regular pattern of worship, especially at Christmas.

December 13th at 3:00pm A Special Christmas Service of Lessons and Carols.

December 24th The First Mass of Christmas will be at the earlier time of 10:30pm with the Blessing of the Crib.

December 25th Christmas Day Family Mass will be at 10:00am.

December 26th The Feast of St Stephen. Mass at 10am

December 27th Sunday The Feast of the Holy Family. Mass at 9:30am

December 28th The Feast of the Holy Innocents. Mass at 6:00pm

St Andrew’s Deal. Advent 2020 will see Fr Paul licensed as Priest in Charge of St Andrew’s Church in Deal. This is a temporary measure by the Diocese and will hopefully not affect his ministry here at HTR too much, but one Sunday per month Fr Michael Morris will preside at HTR to allow Fr Paul to preside at Mass in Deal. Other calls on his time will be mainly on weekdays and evenings and hopefully there will be as little disruption as possible to parish life at HTR.

St Andrew’s Deal is like us a Society/Resolution Parish in the Catholic tradition, and the last priest at St Andrew’s resigned due to ill health back in February 2017 and despite advertising for a new priest, they have not been successful. They have been without a priest leader and pastor an exceptionally long time, so Fr Paul’s role will be to guide, lead and steady the ship, and hopefully prepare the parish for its next priest. However, under the current economic circumstances, the Diocese requires all parishes that have full-time clergy to pay their full parish Share to cover stipend costs, and this has proved very difficult for St Andrew’s just as it continues to be for us at HTR.

Live Streamed Mass As from today we will be “live streaming” Sunday Mass for the benefit of all those who cannot yet be with us in Church week by week, but who miss worship.

The Deanery Synod meets via Zoom on Thursday Nov 19th at 7:30pm. Our reps are Clive and Maggie.

If you are informed either by someone who has been present in the church building or by NHS test and trace that someone has tested positive for Covid-19 then NHS test and trace, working with public health officials, will advise on a course of action. If you have been informed that you are a contact of a person who has had a positive test result for COVID-19, you must self-isolate at home for 14 days from the date of your last contact with them.

You could be fined if you do not stay at home and self-isolate if you are notified by NHS Test and Trace that you need to self-isolate. Stay at home for 14 days and follow the self-isolation guidance below. Do not go to work, school, or public areas, and do not use public transport or taxis. Even if you never develop symptoms, you can still be infected and pass the virus on without knowing it. Please help us to keep all our people safe during this Pandemic!