Knit & Natter making Poppies for Remembrance Sunday
Members of the knit & Natter group have been busy knitting poppies ready for the display in the church for Remembrance Sunday. The request was made by Carol Olding who asked that we knit as many poppies as possible in a two week period. There was steam coming off some of the needles!
Called And Gifted Sat 9th Sept
The Called and Gifted Programme started in St Boniface on Sat 9th Sept: Here the three stages.
Stage 1: The Teaching. Understanding about the Charisms and Spiritual Gifts from the Holy Spirit taught in the bible. This will be a group teaching session in St Boniface Hall. Sat 9th Sept.
Stage 2: The 1-1 discernment process. Portsmouth diocese have a team of facilitators, trained by the Catherine of Siena Institute, to help you unlock your potential charisms.
Stage 3: The Experimentation Stage. Prayerful support and team accompaniment to assist you as you explore one charism in real situations in your life. Do you feel joyful? Are the effects above and beyond normal expectations?
World Youth Day in Lisbon Portugal.
One of our amazing young parishioners has recently returned from the World Youth Day in Lisbon Portugal. Click on the link to read an account of meeting the Pope and being with over 1 million young Catholics from around the world. Click Here.
Nigerian Day: Mass and Celebration.
A tremendous occasion. Well done to everyone involved in helping to organise and arrange the Nigerian Mass and celebration in the hall after the 11am Mass on Sunday, 30th July. St Boniface was able to experience Mass with a Nigerian Choir to lead the worship. There was even a most joyful procession at the end of Mass. Well done on the amazing catering and particularly those who provided and cooked all the food.
First Holy Communion 2023
Well done to our amazing children and parents, prayer partners and everyone involved in this year’s FHC preparation Programme.
Newly Confirmed
Huge Congratulations to the newly confirmed Parishioners from St Boniface who all received the Sacrament of Confirmation from Bishop Philip on Saturday, 17th June in Portsmouth Cathedral. Please keep them all in your prayers.
St Boniface Parish Celebration Sunday, 4th June 2023.
To celebrate the feast of St Boniface, on Saturday evening, Fr Godwin gave a talk on the life, service and discipleship of St Boniface followed by Eucharistic Adoration. At the 11am Mass on the feast of the Holy Trinity, six faithful altar servers received their St Stephen medals having now completed at least a year of service. There then followed a share meal celebrating the many ethnic and cultural diversity that is making St Boniface a thriving parish. Many thanks to Fr Godwin and the amazing team of helpers. Thank you also to all the amazing chefs who prepared delicious food.
Flores de Mayo Sat 27th May
For the first time, this celebration took place in St Boniface Church on Sat, 27th May open to everyone. It was an amazing colourful and very joyful celebration, in warm sunshine. The Church was beautifully decorated with flower, there was Mass, procession and then fellowship and shared food in the hall.
St Boniface’s own Michelangelo
Following a presentation of a Diocesan medal, our very own MichaelAngelo, (aka Brendan O’Donovan) shared why he had devoted much time to reproducing three beautiful paintings now prominently displayed in the Church, See below. Inspiring Story
Brendan and Margaret O’Donovan: Diocesan Medals.
Fr Tom had the great pleasure of presenting Brendan and Margaret O’Donovan with Diocesan medals, on behalf of Bishop Philip. Fr Tom warmly shared the great work that Brendan and Margaret have been involved in since coming to St Boniface in the 1980’s. Reference was made to Brendan’s work over 35 years on the finance committee and overseeing Gift Aid and the envelope scheme. Both Brendan and Margaret helped on the first marriage preparation courses, were both Eucharistic Ministers and both were heavily involved with the 10:30 Sunday choir.
Margaret was also a hospital chaplain and a governor at Springhill school for 10 years.
You can also see Brendan’s amazing artistic skills with 3 paintings proudly displayed in the church.
Visitation from Germany
We were very pleased and honoured to welcome pilgrims from the Catholic parish S. Bonifatius in Amöneburg, Germany. This is the village where St Boniface built a small monastery and a church below the castle Amöneburg in 721 and began the Christianization of Upper Hesse. Led by their parish priest Fr. Bernhard Klatt and Deacon Paul Lang, our pilgrims will celebrate Mass with us on 16th April at 9am. Afterwards there was tea & coffee and biscuits in the church hall.
Easter 2023
How beautiful did St Boniface look this Easter. Easter was very busy this year following on from all the Lenten activities: Stations of the Cross, talks by Fr Tom and Soup lunches.
On Good Friday morning, Stations of the Cross were wonderfully led by the St Boniface confirmation candidates. At the Easter Vigil, we gatherer outside on the church steps to witness the Light of Christ coming into a darkened church.
To help us understand the full significance of the Resurrection, one of our parishioners has created the empty tomb displayed on Our lady’s altar. This complements the wonderful flowers, Pascal candle and notice the gold vail that streams down to the baptismal font. Thank you to all who have helped to decorate the church.
Repair and Maintenance
Great work from Terry Bignell and his partner Terry who have repainted sections of the narthex (entrance to the church) which were badly peeling.
Senior’s Epiphany Tea Party
Nearly 40 parishioners were guests on Saturday, 7th January 2023 for tea, cake and sandwiches. The guests were wonderfully looked after by the St Boniface confirmation candidates who served the refreshments and made sure cups were refilled and empty plates replenished. Great afternoon of chat and fellowship.
Christmas 2022
Wonderful to celebrate a Christmas after two years of Covid restrictions. Thank you Lord. We continue to pray for all those who are unwell and still impacted by Covid.
Thank you for the Shoeboxes!
Dear Carole and the Parishioners Of St Boniface, Shirley
Thank you so much for supporting our shoebox scheme again this year.
It has been another successful year, with nearly 1000 boxes collected from Magna Rotary supporters. In total, 18,207 boxes were collected across the Wessex District.
I hope you found the new system of us supplying boxes beneficial. Many of the boxes were beautifully decorated with colouring, stickers or wrapping paper.
From feedback I have received it proved popular with many, as shoeboxes are becoming more difficult to obtain. It also enabled a little more standardisation of contents as all boxes were the same size. It certainly made our job of checking and packing a lot easier.
Lorries will be heading off to Albania, Montenegro, Moldova and Romania very shortly. Some of our boxes were identified as boxes to go to Ukraine. However, clubs in Lviv and Kyiv have said that they do not have the logistics capability to distribute them to orphanages etc in Ukraine. They are all extremely busy arranging shelters for tens of thousands of their population needing support, especially with more recent concerns of safety.
However, our colleagues in Moldova and Romania will make sure that those boxes will get to Ukrainian children who are refugees in their countries.
A huge thank you to everyone who donated shoeboxes, additional contents and knitwear and to those parishioners who sponsored boxes.
Chris Lait
Southampton Magna Rotary Club
Transformations…
The new kitchen and store room are now completed. (See before and after photos).
And the new accessible toilet is complete and in use. The new toilet is easier to access for church users and provides privacy for the hall hirers.
Thank you to our hard working finance and maintenance teams for making this transformation happen!
ST BONIFACE 23rd CHRISTMAS SHOEBOX APPEAL
This weekend we are launching our 23rd Shoebox Appeal and we hope you will help us! We have sent almost 11,000 boxes to disadvantaged children/refugees in Eastern Europe and the Philippines from St Boniface Church since 2000. The boxes have been joyfully received by children in the most distressing of situations! Each box of love gives a child hope and belief that they are special and that someone they will never meet cares for them.
So-will you help?
This year there are some changes to the scheme made by the Rotary Club itself. First of all the boxes are provided by the Club as flat packs which we have made up for you. You can decorate your box by applying Christmas stickers, cut out motifs from wrapping paper, children’s messages and/or drawings etc. The lid has to fit into a slot provided on the box.
As before, the leaflet explains all you need to know and an elastic band/shoelace etc must be placed around the box and £2 towards transport be attached. Boxes can be collected this weekend or next and must be returned to the Margaret Clitherow Room in the Hall before Masses on Saturday or Sunday 22nd/23rd October (not the Saturday 10.00 am Mass).
It is a few months now since we saw on our screens the exodus of so many Ukrainians into the neighbouring countries in hope of safety. The Rotary clubs on the ground helped then and are still helping the thousands of people both those who have chosen not to leave their safe haven for Europe so they may return one day more easily, and those who did move on. The clubs in Albania, Moldova and Romania are active in this area and commit to doing their best to deliver our boxes of love and kindness (and those of other local groups and churches) to the most needy of children they help in their countries whether refugees or local families.
Please- whatever you are doing for your own families- help us by making up a box or giving a cash donation via the “Sponsor a shoebox” envelopes available in the porch!
The children who will receive the boxes are so special. Please remember them and help us. They are all God’s children and we can make a difference to their lives. Your box may be the only present some of these children have ever received or will ever receive!
Thank you so much for whatever you can do for us.
Carole and Tom Olding
Parish Mission Day
We give thanks to God for the Parish Vision/Mission Day!
We prayed and reflected on the ideas contained in the book ‘Divine Renovation’ by Fr John Mallon. This has been successfully used by many parishes as a guide for future growth and direction.
We asked:
How can we move from Maintainance to Mission
..From Guest to Host ,,,
…From Consumer to Disciple.
Please keep this work in your prayers.
