News diary A community celebration

By Father Giorgio Miles

After living in Italy for almost 12 years and helping in a busy parish there, I returned to England in 2019 and received permission from my own bishop to live in the Wigan area as my family were all living in the area.

I was invited to live in the presbytery at St Cuthbert’s in Wigan and work half-time in the parish with Father Aidan Kelly, the parish priest. During my time there I built up our links with two of the schools in the parish as I have always believed our Catholic schools are an integral part of our Church community. I work on the principle that the local Church is a combination of our parish, our schools and our homes.

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When Father Kelly announced his retirement, I was delighted when Archbishop Malcom appointed me as the new parish priest in this wonderful community under the care and patronage of St Edward the Confessor.

Father Kelly had begun the construction of a shrine to St Edward in St Cuthbert’s church with the statue of the saint from the original St Edward’s church which was demolished. I was pleased to bring this project to fruition and had asked Bishop Tom Neylon to celebrate Mass and dedicate the new shrine on the Feast of St

Ukrainian New Year in the Isle of Man

The parish of St Mary’s and St Columba’s in the south of the Isle of Man has made its hall available for activities for Ukrainian refugees in the area. On 14 January parishioners were pleased to join some of our refugee families as they celebrated the Ukrainian New Year.

Edward. So, it was very fortunate that my appointment document arrived a few days before and Bishop Tom kindly agreed to induct me as parish priest at the same Mass.

Like many parishes these days we are made up of three previous parishes and so the induction offered us an opportunity to celebrate as a whole community from across the combined parish.

For me relationship with other faith communities is very important. We are all called to serve those in our local communities and we can do that best when we serve and speak as one when we can.

I was delighted when The Reverend. Neil Cook, the Team Leader for the Church of England in Wigan accepted my invitation to join us and take part in the service. We are planning to develop some projects together. I was also delighted when Quddoos Hafeez from the Ahmaddya Muslim Association also accepted my invitation. During the liturgy we agreed to maintain links of friendship, to work together where we can and to speak as one voice in matters we have a shared position on.

I am very grateful to Archbishop Malcolm for entrusting this wonderful parish into my care. I look forward to developing a fully collaborative ministry here.