We need more volunteers before we can open the Church for private prayer and so we will be unable to open this Thursday, 25th June, as we had hoped.
Our Lady of Lourdes in Hungerford is open for private prayer on Wednesdays between 12 and 4pm, if you would like to go there. Alternatively, please volunteer yourself!
Apologies, we had some technical issues this week, which delayed the service start and meant last minute having to drop our remote readers and music.
Fortunately, we were still able to proceed with plans to close with a performance from our very own Fr Zbigniew, who took the internet by storm by personally performing the closing hymn on a his guitar. The audience were all at home, but we're sure they were clapping and cheering at the end.
If you missed it, you can find the clip here.
As we cope with coronavirus in the UK, CAFOD asks us to think of our sisters and brothers in developing countries who are facing this pandemic with fragile health systems, some of which have almost no intensive care beds or ventilators.
Add to this rising food prices, loss of jobs and income, lack of access to washing facilities and limited ability to social distance. The likely impact will be devastating.
Prayer and listening to God is a vital part of our everyday life, but sometimes it is difficult to pray. The Diocese have set up a prayer and listening service at the instigation of Bishop Philip and a trained Prayer Minister is available to help you, if you wish. Have a look at https://www.portsmouthdiocese.org.uk/prayer-support
We wish you all a very Happy and Peaceful Easter in these strange times.
If you missed it, you can watch Easter Sunday Mass here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9w6id9uBe0
While we are separated from each other, if you usually put money in the collection at Mass, we would like to encourage you to donate direct to the parish account instead. Details of this are:
Lloyds Bank
30 93 04
00882993
PRCDTR Newbury St Francis de Sales
Ref: St Francis de Sales/Your name
An update on the services we will be streaming over the Easter Triduum.
While we will not be bringing you the main Easter Triduum services, you will be able to join us for a short service at 6pm on Maundy Thursday, Good Friday and Holy Saturday. Please tune in at http://www.stfrancisdesales.org.uk/mass-live.
We successfully streamed Palm Sunday mass, with readers, music and no major technical hiccups this week. If you missed it, you can catch up here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5Z-jh5ujec
Thank you everyone who has helped out with this including the readers, musicians and cameraman. Particular thanks to Fr Zbigniew for continuing to celebrate mass with us, despite no being able to see or hear us.
We were able to bring you mass live again today with readers joining us from St Francis de Sales, Wash Common and Our Lady of Lourdes, Hungerford, along with some music as well. Thank you all those who participated and made it possible.
We did unfortunately have some technical issues at the time of the offertory, and this ended up generating a second video on Youtube with a different link. We will be further testing and investigating our system this week to hopefully improve for next week.
Over 200 people joined us for our first ever live streamed mass. Thank you for joining us. We hope we will make improvements to the system going forward. Any feedback on the experience, please send it to webmaster@stfrancisdesales.org.uk.
If you missed the live stream for Sunday 22nd March, here's the link to the recording https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wEgxBoCeDYs
Please note, there are no public services at St Francis de Sales until further notice. This is due to the developing situation with COVID-19.
We would like to invite you to join us ONLINE for Sunday Mass which will be streamed live via our website. We intend to start at 10 am on Sunday, and you will be able to tune in at http://www.stfrancisdesales.org.uk/mass-live.
We hope you will join our parish celebration.
