29th June 2025 - Thought from Fr. Colm

Congratulations to the 22 young parishioners who celebrated their Confirmations last Tuesday. Thank you Sarah and Ciaran for your leadership in getting them to this great day.

Over three hundred people filled the nave of Durham Cathedral on Monday to hear Cardinal Timothy Radcliffe speak. He gave an interesting firsthand account of the recent Conclave, describing it as much more relaxed and joyful occasion than the recent film would have us believe. Both Cardinal Radcliffe and Professor Anna Rowlands then answered some interesting,  and challenging questions.

We had a great afternoon at St. Godric’s last Saturday with the Durham University Brass Band, despite a rather too serious beginning to the second half of the programme. 

Feast of Saints Peter and Paul:

“There is one day for the passion of two apostles. 
But these two also were as one;
although they suffered on different days, they were as one. 
Peter went first, Paul followed. 
We are celebrating a feast day, consecrated for us by the blood of the apostles. 
Let us love their faith, their lives, their labours,
their sufferings, their confession of faith, their preaching.”

St. Augustine (354-430) Father & Doctor of the Church

22nd June 2025 - Thought from Fr. Colm

The Feast of Corpus Christi this weekend is a time to reflect on the importance of the Eucharist in our lives. It is also a time which offers me the opportunity to thank all our Eucharistic Ministers for their support and dedication especially to bringing the Eucharist to the house bound. Our Ministers will renew their commitments at all Masses this weekend.

We welcome Bishop Stephen to our parish this week for the celebration of the sacrament of confirmation on Tuesday evening. They are a great group of young people and how they have taken their preparation very seriously. We need you to maintain contact with the parish. Those who have been welcomers have been a real blessing. A special thanks to Sarah and Ciaran for being there for them, and for the many hours of hard graft, not forgetting Marjorie, the silent third member of the team.

We look forward to our Parish Picnic, our trip to Holy Island. Weather like this would be a bonus.

My mind goes back to another memorable parish trip to the West of Ireland. Most of the pilgrims will always recall our very eventful boat trip. One glowing  memory for me was celebrating Mass on the island of Inisbofin.

Fr. Tony King joined us and explained the two plaques each side of the sanctuary showing the photos of young men and women from this tiny island who had left Inishbofin to become priests and nuns throughout the world. Two blood sisters in particular who went on to become Dominican nuns, and who were the first white people allowed into the townships in South Africa, and at the height of political unrest. This display with Fr Tony’s historical overview and in such beautiful surroundings made our final hymn more poignant. 

That final hymn was In Christ Alone, and though small in number, we sang with gusto. But,  it was the accompanying organ that rang out above everything else that remains encased in my memory. We were fortunate to have an exceptional musician with us on that trip. Geoff Foxall lifted the rafters in that historic church on that small island as I imagine it has never been lifted before.

Sadly, Geoff’s brother John, also a fine musician, died this week. With the loss of his close friend, Helen Tumilty, this has been a difficult time for Geoff. Our prayers are with you Geoff and never forget how, in your quiet humble way, you played an exceptional hymn in the most unlikely of settings.

Inishbofin on a Sunday morning.

Sunlight, turfsmoke, seagulls, boatslip, diesel.

One by one we were being handed down

Into a boat that dipped and shilly-shallied

Scaresomely every time. We sat tight

On short cross-benches, in nervous twos and threes,

Obedient, newly close, nobody speaking

Except the boatmen, as the gunwales sank

And seemed they might ship water any minute.

The sea was very calm but even so,

When the engine kicked and our ferryman

Swayed for balance, reaching for the tiller,

I panicked at the shiftiness and heft

Of the craft itself. What guaranteed us —

That quick response and buoyancy and swim —

Kept me in agony. All the time

As we went sailing evenly across

The deep, still, seeable-down-into water,

It was as if I looked from another boat

Sailing through the air, far up, and could see

How riskily we fared into the morning,

And loved in vain our bare, bowed, numbered heads. 

From Seeing Things by Seamus Heaney

15th June 2025 - Thought from Fr. Colm

I spoke to someone who seemed like a foreman about the intrusive building at the bottom of the Mill Lane. He told me they hoped to be finished before the beginning of the new university term in September. So at least we know it’s for students, surprise, surprise. We will then have our street back, but my sense of outrage has not diminished one bit.

As a parishioner observed recently that we (Gilesgate area) are slowly becoming part of the university campus. While it is always so uplifting to have students come to our services, sensible planning might keep our local historic community together at affordable rental and purchasing levels.

“There is no one-size-fits-all solution to the challenges facing our cities or to the housing crisis, but the two issues need to be considered together. From an urban design and planning point of view, the well-connected open city is a powerful paradigm and an engine for integration and inclusivity.” Richard Rogers, Architect.

We, as parish, hope to contribute to more affordable housing with the surplus land we have in the parish, and especially with the development of the old car park at St Bede’s presbytery, the planning of which could have been faster, but is now proceeding with a bit more pace. The sale of which might offset the ever increasing costs of maintaining our present structures. And all this before we come to the ever diminished state of Durhams once beautiful city.

First Communions. A special thank you to the staff of our three primary schools for the hard work they put in bringing the children to this important stage of their spiritual development. It’s over to the parents now to continue with what communion really means: Community, belonging, gathering, breaking of bread, sharing….and commitment.

Happy Father’s Day to all our Dads!

"One father is more than a hundred schoolmasters."

George Herbert