The Parish was founded just over one hundred years ago in 1914 and has been a place of welcome for people of all ages and backgrounds ever since.
We look forward to getting to know you and praying, serving and walking with you on your journey. We offer resources, including prayers and links to websites that may help you in your spiritual life here.
We have an active catechetical programme, with children and young people being prepared for the sacraments of Reconciliation, First Holy Communion and Confirmation. Learn more here.
There is a large and lively presence of youth groups such as the 3rd Pinner (St. Luke’s) Scout group (comprising Beavers, Cubs and Scouts), and Brownies, and plenty of activities and groups in which to participate. These are described here. Everyone has something to contribute and we hope you will soon feel able to participate in whatever feels right for you.
Contact the parish office (pinner@rcdow.org.uk) to subscribe to our weekly Newsletter and see what is happening now in the parish.
History of St Luke’s Parish
Following the Catholic Emancipation Act in 1829 new missions began to be established in this area, with the first local post-reformation church founded by Cardinal Manning in Harrow in 1873. In 1914, another new parish was founded, here in Pinner.
Cardinal Bourne appointed Fr Caulfield to establish a parish in Pinner, and he took up residence in Dudley House in Hatch End, celebrating the first Mass in a little chapel he built in the house with a congregation of just twelve new parishioners. Mass continued to be celebrated there until the first St Luke’s Church was opened on Love Lane, in what is now the parish centre, dedicated on the feast day of St Luke the Evangelist, 18 October 1915.
During the First World War some Belgian refugees sought shelter in Pinner and joined the congregation of St Luke’s. After the war those who had sought refuge in Pinner arranged for a bell to be brought from Belgium and installed in the original church, which was moved into the north tower of the new church, and still rings out in Pinner today.
The new church was finally consecrated on 14 July 1978, by Cardinal Basil Hume.
The church is a Grade II listed building, in recognition of being “a good example of the post-war work of one of the most highly-regarded and original ecclesiastical architects of the twentieth century, F X Velarde, showing his distinctive synthesis of modern and traditional influences, and his compositional use of bold elemental forms to create a church of harmonious form and massing” (Official Listing)
Click here for a leaflet containing more information on the history and architecture of St Luke’s church.