First Holy Communion – a Special Day!

Nine of our parish children made their First Holy Communion at a special Mass celebrated yesterday (5 December 2020). Although numbers were severely restricted to the children and some family due to the current pandemic, many others were able to join them in spirit through the live-stream.

It was the delayed culmination of a long period of preparation but, as Fr John told the children, it marks not an end but the beginning of a new phase in their relation with God. 

Congratulations to children and parents, as well as those who accompanied and helped them through this journey; and we look forward to celebrating this joyous milestone with the children and families in proper communal style when we finally can!

A Precious Place: Update

We understand that here in Truro, a small team is helping Fr John to prepare the way for a parish self-audit, as suggested in Bishop’s recent document A Precious Place.

Meanwhile, in response to readers’ suggestions, we have produced a Short Summary of A Precious Place to help and stimulate you to examine the longer document. This Short Summary can be found in our Editions page as a Supplement to THE PORTICO Issue 28.

Heard in Court …

These are things people actually said in court, word for word, taken down and now published by court stenographers who had the torment of staying calm while these exchanges were actually taking place: 

q: : What is your date of birth? 

a: : July fifteenth. 

q: : What year? 

a: : Every year. 

*******

q: : What gear were you in at the moment of the impact? 

a: : Gucci sweats and Reeboks.

(Anon contributor - more of these to come in future posts!?) 

Welcome to Fr Jarek!

Most readers will remember Fr Jarek ( Father Jaroslaw Kucharczyk) who very kindly came to look after us during Fr John’s sabbatical late last year (2019). He is now back in Cornwall as the Parish Priest at Camborne /Redruth, and we are sure that our Truro community join us in sending him warm greetings and a Welcome to Cornwall.

Sharing Sunday

We were not able to have any Harvest Festival celebrations this year so here is a reminder of one from the past.  Fr Gilmour is presiding over an altar decorated with local produce. We called it ‘Sharing Sunday’ as a reminder that we need to become involved in sharing our wealth not only with those of our local community but also with the wider world.  Sharing is especially important today with so many suffering from the effects of the pandemic

(from Tony Barber)

Sr. Kathleen, RIP

We are sad to announce that Sr Kathleen passed away on the night of 29 November 2020.

Many in our community will have fond memories of Sr Kathleen and Sr Edith of the Sisters of Notre Dame, who spent many years working in the Truro parish before retiring to the motherhouse.

Sr Kathleen sent a message to us a few days ago, warning us that her remaining time with us was very short, asking to be remembered to everyone, and asking for our prayers. She said that she was ready and eager to return to God.

Women in the Church

In his wide-ranging new book Let Us Dream, written in conversation with Austen Ivereigh, Pope Francis writes about female roles in the Church, saying that “allowing women’s perspectives to challenge existing assumptions” is something he has tried to focus on as Pope, appointing women to positions where they can “shape the culture” and “influence the vision and mindset” of the Church’s central bureaucracy. 

He makes it clear that female leadership in the Church cannot simply be equated with what happens in the Vatican or on “specific roles”. While the Pope has opened up discussions about the possibility of women deacons, he stresses that leadership should not be equated with inclusion into the ranks of the clergy. 

“Perhaps because of clericalism, which is a corruption of the priesthood, many people wrongly believe that Church leadership is exclusively male,” he writes. “But if you go to any diocese in the world you’ll see women running departments, schools, hospitals, and many other organisations and programs; in some areas, you’ll find many more women than men as leaders.”

He adds: “To say they aren’t truly leaders because they aren’t priests is clericalist and disrespectful.”

(from The Tablet)