Westminster Record August 2008
Parish Profile Our Lady of Lourdes - Harpenden This month we visit Harpenden in Hertfordshire, a prosperous commuter belt town just north of St Albans. - it’s a great strength and some of the young people even decided to have a concert and they then gave the money to support the Cathedral.”
By Eddie Tulasiewicz The history of Catholicism in Harpenden, is, in the words of its parish history, ‘both long and chequered’.
The parish has a large number of other groups and associations and despite the preponderance of young families, older people are well provided for. Many have joined ASCENT, which is open to retired men and women. With families often away from the parish during the day, the ASCENT group meets in the afternoons, and provides a chance to deepen faith through prayer and discussion and a practical solution to lonliness and isolation by a loving openness to others, with the inevitable cup of tea.
Thirteenth century records refer to a Catholic Church, or more accurately a Chapel, dedicated to St Nicholas and which was attached to the mother church in Wheathamstead. During the Reformation, every effort was made to ‘stamp out’ the Catholic faith – the Norman built Catholic church became Protestant and Catholicism in Harpenden vanished for over 300 years. In the 1880’s, it was Father Archibald MacDonnell, Rector of nearby St Albans, who saw in the return of Catholicism to Harpenden, visiting the village and ministering to its small number of Catholics. By the early 1900’s the Catholic community had grown to 25 Catholics and under the leadership of Fr Peter Louis Martin, Harpenden’s Catholics secured a plot of land and built a very humble corrugated iron chapel. By 1919 with the Catholic population approaching 100, Cardinal Bourne decided it was right to appoint a resident priest - Fr Bernard Longstaff . Under his stewardship, in 1923, Harpenden’s status was raised to that of parish and by the late 1920’s continuing expansion meant that the old iron chapel was no longer suitable to serve the Catholics of Harpenden. Plans for a new Church ‘Our Lady of Lourdes’ were drawn up and on 29 October 1929 the new Church was opened. It was consecrated 7 years later on 28 May 1936 by Archbishop Hinsley, who returned from Lourdes specially for the ceremony. When I meet Canon Harry Turner, parish priest of Harpenden since September 2001, I can’t miss him – he’s wearing a pair of vibrant blue braces; they seem to symbolise his infectious enthusiasm and energy which have helped to ensure an active and thriving parish. In recent years two of its men have been ordained as priests and two more are currently studying for the priesthood.
We need a bigger church “The church is a lovely building, perhaps one of the most attractive in the diocese! “ explains Canon Harry Turner with justifiable pride. “Constructed in stone, it was designed by Frederick Walters, the
Statue of Mary in the Lady Chapel man responsible for Buckfast Abbey and with arches and stained glass it is really beautiful. Now people keep saying to me, we need a bigger church! We have seating in the aisles so there is a huge pressure on the building. One of the problems is that we don’t have any facilities, our parish hall is on the other side of town. But we can’t expand, as the envelope of our site is confined”. One answer may be the construction of an Undercroft which the parish is actively pursuing. “In recent years, the congregation has gone up and so has the collection”, says Canon Harry. “One of the great boosts to the parish was the ‘At Your Word, Lord’ faith sharing programme. We ended up with 200 people in our groups, and they found it a huge opportunity to talk about their faith and lots of things have blossomed from that.”
Work-life balance Most people in Harpenden commute to work in London, explains Canon Harry. “One of the challenges we have is dealing with the work-life balance, people head off to the office at 7am and come back late in the evening. This puts real pressure on family life and for us as a parish means we can’t have any events till after 8 pm.” “The majority of our parish is young families. We have a congregation of 700, last year we only had 7 or 8 funerals, but 50 in first communion and 30 in confirmation class. Our people want their children to be involved in things - we have a strong teenage choir, our choir has been to Westminster Cathedral several times
Ecumenical co-operation Canon Harry explains that there is an excellent relationship with the Anglican parish. “The church leaders meet once a month, we go on reflection once a year and combine together for Palm Sunday and Remembrance Sunday and have a joint Good Friday Walk of Witness procession.” It is good to see that the relationship between the two faiths is now friendly co-operation – and differences that would have once been the subject of, at least, heated discussions can now be relieved through humour. Canon Harry recalls that one of his predecessors once loaned the Anglican Church of St Nicholas a thurible. One day, the rector said: “Sorry, we have not given it back to you yet.” The priest replied: “Don’t worry, just give us our church back!”
Canon Harry Turner and the imposing entrance to Our Lady of Lourdes, Harpenden
It’s clear that Canon Harry is much loved by his parish. As I leave he shows me two letters of thanks from parishioners. Both express their thanks for his spiritual and pastoral care and are testimony to the love and kindness, rooted in the love of Christ, which are central to the continuing growth of the Catholic faith in Harpenden.
The main altar