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Here we are again, ladies, still in lockdown. I have never considered myself to be ‘extremely vulnerable’ but I have had a letter from the government to tell me that I am. This reminds me of the time when my grandson came home from school and asked his mother: ‘When is grandma going to turn into a little old lady with glasses and a bun?’ He was only six. To all such assumptions we should all shout ‘Never!’.
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Sadly, we have had to cancel the UCM’s Annual Mass at the Cathedral which should have taken place on 3 June. We look forward to celebrating it at some future date. Our members at St Clare’s parish, meanwhile, had to cancel the May Bi-monthly Mass which would have marked the 40th anniversary of the founding of the UCM in their parish.
We promise that we will celebrate with them as soon as we possibly can. Instead, Father David Potter, our diocesan spiritual adviser, offered Mass for all members who have died since the outbreak of the virus. This included Lil Newsome, a former diocesan president who many members will remember with affection. Lil oversaw the very successful concert which UCM performed at the Neptune Theatre in 1993 to celebrate the 80th anniversary of the founding of the organisation in 1913.
As our pilgrimage to Walsingham has had to be cancelled too, the rector, Monsignor John Armitage, is arranging to celebrate Mass at the shrine for each of the groups who would have been there if it were not for the lockdown. It will be available to watch online on 7 July if you go to the walsingham.org.uk website and then choose the heading ‘Live Stream’ – at least this way we will be there in spirit, if not in person. As coincidence would have it, the UCM's first pilgrimage to Walsingham was in 1945, just after VE Day. God bless, ladies. Stay safe, stay well. Madelaine McDonald, media officer
A century of service News from the Liverpool Province of the Knights of St Columba
A thank you to Fr Chris
The feast day of our patron, St Columba, falls on 9 June and in normal times we would be celebrating the day with Mass at St Columba’s parish church in Huyton. Alas, this year it is not possible due to the Coronavirus restrictions. Nevertheless, members with their families and friends will find other ways to remember St Columba on this day.
It is also an opportunity to thank Father Chris McCoy who, until recently, was parish priest at St Columba and St John Fisher and who always went to a great deal of trouble to make our annual visit to his parish so memorable. His homilies and newsletters over the years gave us insights into different aspects of the life and times of St Columba. As a recent example, every member of our centenary-year pilgrimage to Iona last October received from Fr Chris a souvenir bookmark offering biographical details about St Columba, who arrived on Iona from Ireland in the year 563. The images on the bookmark (pictured) are of window panels in St Columba’s church.
Another example comes from the parish newsletter for last year’s Mass for the Feast of St Columba, in which Fr Chris recounted the following tale about our patron: ‘On one of his journeys, St Columba encountered several Picts who were burying the body of a man who had been killed by an aquatic monster which lived in the River Nesa: a story that has often since been interpreted as the first written reference to the Loch Ness Monster. … Columba then saved another man from the monster by ordering the beast to retreat, which it did. St Columba died in the monastery he had built on Iona, in 597. The island became a place of pilgrimage, and has remained so ever since.’
In February Fr Chris joined the staff at the Metropolitan Cathedral after 10 years as a parish priest. We thank him for all he has done for the KSC in Liverpool over the last decade and wish him well in his new role.
Websites: www.ksc.org.uk www.kscprov02.weebly.com Email: dpokeane@aol.com
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