It’s one of those things in life that we sometimes find difficult – “new beginnings”.
Often we feel that we’ve only just got used to something new and we have to change again – Cardinal St John Henry Newman said something to the effect that “to change is to grow, to change often is to mature”. When we look back we can see the different changes in our lives and sometimes find ourselves evaluating a past experience quite differently to how we thought at the time, hopefully for the better.
Change happens is Parishes as much as anywhere else in our lives so I have to announce that Fr Carlos is now leaving us after 3 years of being here. He will move to the parish of Highbury in north London at the end of October.
We are going to be joined by Fr Antonio Pineda who was ordained in 2018 and has been the assistant at Boreham Wood parish up till now.
I shall be sorry to lose Fr Carlos but am also excited that Fr Antonio will be coming to us.
Sadly, in the present situation, we will not be able to give Fr Carlos the usual Bishop’s Stortford send off, but perhaps next year we might be able to celebrate with him. It may be that some of you would like to present Fr Carlos with a gift and, since he is away at the moment I can say this openly, we will be happy to receive any contributions towards such a gift. Please hand them in at the Sacristy or at church or to the Parish office or through the door at No 3 Windhill, and simply address them to “Fr Peter’ with the letter ‘H’ after my name, thus – Fr Peter H that will be our secret code !!
Things this week have tightened up again with new government regulations – the government have recognized that churches are already Covid compliant and so we are allowed mostly to continue as we are, but it may have repercussions for our celebrations of First Holy Communion later this year – we are waiting for specific instructions from the Diocese and will let families know as soon as we receive news. There is no doubt that we must all continue to be vigilant and take our responsibilities to do so seriously.
And perhaps this is a good time to remind ourselves to keep all those who have the virus across the world very much in our prayers.
God bless, Fr Peter