ARCHBISHOP’S HOUSE, WESTMINSTER
14 AUGUST 2020
Dear Parishioners,
I am very pleased to let you know of the appointment of your new Parish Priest, succeeding Fr Fortunato Pantisano who has been your Parish Priest since September 2018. As you are aware, he has been away from the parish for personal reasons for the past few months. He is pleased that there is to be a new Parish Priest who is a member of a Religious Congregation, the Congregation of the Holy Spirit, well known in the Diocese. Parishioners will have the opportunity to express their gratitude to Fr Fortunato for his ministry in Garston in due course.
Fr Paul Antwi-Boasiako CSSp is your new Parish Priest. He was born in Kumasi, Ghana. He studied for the priesthood in Nigeria and has done further studies in Ireland – both countries have St Patrick as their Patron Saint. He has ministered as a priest in Gambia, Ghana and in the United Kingdom, serving in the Archdiocese of Southwark in parish ministry and hospital chaplaincy and before that in New Barnet as Assistant Priest for a year. Fr Paul takes up his new appointment as Parish Priest at Our Lady and St Michael, Garston at the beginning of September. Fr Terkura Igbe CSSp, Chaplain at St Michael’s School, Garston will also be in residence in the presbytery.
On behalf of the Diocese, and the parish of Garston, a warm welcome is extended to Fr Paul. Please support him with your prayers and your commitment to the life and work of the parish. Deacon Paul Quinn and Veronika Clark, the Parish Administrator, have worked hard to ensure the needs of the parish have been met in recent months, and we are all very grateful to them and to all who have assisted them.
The Congregation of the Holy Spirit is also known as the Holy Ghost Fathers and now more widely as the Spiritans. It was founded in France as a missionary congregation dedicated to the evangelization of the poor in 1703. Spiritans willingly accept tasks that others may find difficult to undertake, and they serve where there is greatest need. Spiritans came to England from France 200 years after their foundation and rented Prior Park, a mansion near Bath in Somerset. In 1947 a house was acquired in Bickley, Kent as the headquarters for the infant English Province and a centre for late vocations. From the late 1980s to the present the British Province of the Spiritans has focused on work with young people, people seeking asylum and refugees, people who are sick, elderly people and other marginalized and disadvantaged people in the UK. The Spiritans support their elderly confrères and also their missionary apostolate overseas. Parish-based ministry enables service to the local Church and the wider Church. Spiritans serve in parishes in several dioceses in England and Wales and in Scotland – Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham, Salford, Shrewsbury, Southwark, Ayr, Glasgow and Motherwell. In the Diocese of Westminster there is an established and effective presence of the Spiritans in the parishes of Archway, Hounslow and New Barnet and in chaplaincies at Heathrow Airport, hospitals and schools.
A new chapter begins for the parish of Garston! May the efforts of all who share in the life and work of the parish, and the ministry and mission of the Church, be blessed by the Lord. Spirit of the living God fall afresh on us, and may Our Lady and St Michael pray for us. Amen.
I hope that you and your families will remain safe and well.
With my prayers and best wishes,
Fr Martin
Mgr Martin Hayes | Vicar General | Diocese of Westminster