Westminster Record September 2008
Parish Profile ‘A glimpse into the East End’ This month we visit St Mary and St Joseph’s, Poplar and Holy Name, Bow Common for our Parish Profile. a feeling of hugeness when you go in. “You’ll see,” he says with a smile.
By Fiona Paley It is the first real autumn day of the year as I visit Fr Aidan Rossiter CJ at St Mary and St Joseph’s in Poplar.
And huge it was. I was overwhelmed at the size of the Church building when Fr Aidan took me in. “Yes, it’s nearly a hundred feet high he says and claps his hand at the same time. I am astonished by the length of the echo “I know he says nodding, it’s four and a half to five seconds long. Can you imagine what it’s like with a choir in here?” As a liturgist it is clear to see that Fr Aidan is very appreciative of the size and layout of the Church.
The autumn sunshine streams in as he sits in his living room apologising for all the construction work taking place. “This is a huge house,” he says, “it was meant for a Canon and two or three others, but now there is just me. We have been trying to bring order to it since I came here two years ago. We are hoping to be able to use the space more efficiently by allowing some of the rooms to be used for catechesis and turning the kitchen into a parish office and by renting out flats upstairs to generate income for the parish. .” The priest Fr Aidan is a Josephite priest. He also tells me that he is a liturgist and teaches liturgy at Allen Hall. He has been at St Mary and St Joseph’s for two years but has been parish priest of Bow Common for eight years. His secret formula for running the parish he tells me is “I make sure that the liturgy is good and that any ideas are not just a flash in the pan. It’s nice to give the parish to the people. Everything should be able to continue if I was moved by a bishop tomorrow he tells me. The ideas that people have, they are no good if they won’t help put them into action. It might take a long time, but groups and activities grow over time. I’m very optimistic about this parish.”
The yellow pillars on the Baldachino
Fr Aidan is keen to tell me about the new groups and ideas that are coming from his parish. “Recently we have an art group on a Wednesday afternoon and we have restarted Young Christian Workers group in the parish. We will also be starting a proper RCIA programme in the parish and are hoping to do something on the Year of St Paul. We also provide room for an AA meeting on Friday evenings.” The schools
“We are very proud of our schools,” Fr Aidan informs me. The Primary School connected with the Parish is Holy Family School and the Secondary School is Bishop Challoner is the Secondary School. “Now there is a £47 The parish million commitment to education,” “It is multi ethnic, multi cultural and says Fr Aidan speaking of Bishop multi socio economic. He says with a Challoner’s recent building work and smile. When I ask if this makes it more development. “ This year the pass rates for GSCE were fantastic. The pass rate difficult he shakes his for 5 A*-C grades was in head and says: “not the mid 90s. In a way “You’ll just difficult, there are just different ways for get a feeling Catholic education is back where it should be in this pastoring to these groups; area- in the lead.” of hugeness they all have different
levels of commitment. It is when you The Church a parish that is going go in.” Records indicate that through change; Masses have been said in demographically and Poplar since 1807, but the present through socio-economic change. We building was constructed in 1953 have a lot of young families and a lot more young professionals, and still a with reparations money, “The old one lot of the old Catholic East enders. Sr was bombed during the war” Fr Aidan Christine Frost FCJ, has worked in tells me. Poplar for the last 40 years was given “It’s a fascinating building. It was built the MBE this year for her services to by Adrian Gilbert, brother of Sir Giles the local community and there are still Gilbert and it was built to seat 850. many activities that she runs in the There is an ongoing debate as to what area.” style the Church architecture is. Some As well as long established say it is Byzantine- modern, others say community activities such as the that it is jazz-Byzantine. “There are 24 weekly bingo on a Monday night and stained glass windows by Wilson of the Wednesday evening prayer group, Edinburgh and it’s huge. You’ll just get
“And look at those yellow pillars on the Baldachino,” he says, “what do they remind you off? Westminster Cathedral. It is a direct link with Westminster Cathedral. In fact this was known as the Cathedral of the East End.” “It was extremely well made, however like anyone that is 55 there are cracks and creases that need to be tended to in order to secure her for the next generation. He shows me the Church floor as an example. “There is an under floor heating system and it costs about £100 a weekend to heat this Church. However, it has taken its toll on the grouting between the floor tiles and it is in need of repair work. I don’t know when that would happen he says, it would cost about £50, 000. But the mindset has to be that these works are necessary in order to save it for the future.” Bow Common “I have been Parish Priest of Holy Name at Bow Common for 8 years, for 7 of those years it has been the base for the Vietnamese Catholic Chaplaincy. The Chaplain lives there. It is a good relationship, it has saved the Church in fact, and there are still 80 or so regular Sunday worshippers at Mass. They are a good and fruitful community and I love them dearly.” I ask if it is hard being split between two parishes. “ no” he says shaking his head, although the East end is still quite tribal in one sense, which is good as it gives each parish a sense of identity, there is a lot more collaboration between the parishes which is very important. “The thing that amazes me and humbles me is the faith of some of the parishioners, both at Poplar and Bow Common. They are a real people of faith.”
St Mary and St Joseph’s and Fr Aidan Rossiter (inset)