Welcome to the website of St Joseph and the English Martyrs. Our church is situated in the Hertfordshire Market town of Bishop's Stortford and is part of the Diocese of Westminster.


Priest : Canon Edward Matthews

Parish Office:
Open 10.00am - 3.00pm Weekdays



Email Address:bishopsstortford@rcdow.org.uk

Parking arrangements (pdf)

The Sacrament of Confirmation 2012 will be conferred at St Joseph & the English Martyrs on Thursday 17 May by Bishop John Sherrington. Candidates should be born on or before 31 August 1997. Forms are available at the back of the church and should be returned to No3 Windhill asap but no later than 12 February 2012

St Paul’s Letter to the Romans A series of talks (on DVD) given by a Franciscan preacher Fr R Cantalamessa called ‘Life in Christ’ will be held in the parish centre starting on Wednesday 15 February at 8pm.These talks are based on St Paul’s letter to the Romans.Contact details in parish newsletter

National Marriage Week 7-14 February is organised by charities that care about building stronger marriages (www. marriage-week.org.uk) Please keep in your prayers 15 engaged couple who will meet in our parish centre on Saturday 18 February for a Marriage Preparation Day. On 5 May 2012 there will be a special family Mass where married couples will have the opportunity to renew their vows (Full details to follow) and - Archbishop’s Mass of Thanksgiving for the Sacrament of Matrimony Westminster Cathedral, Saturday 26 May 2012 at 3.00 pm. The Archbishop will be inviting to this Mass all couples in the Diocese who are celebrating their 10th, 25th, 40th, 50th 60th and 60+ wedding anniversary of Catholic marriage in 2012. Please send us the following details: husband and wife’s names, wedding date, full postal address and email (or telephone number, if no email) either by email to bishopsstortford@rcdow.org.uk or post to No 3 Windhill by 3 March 2012.

Education Sunday – Sunday 5 February is Catholic Education Sunday The Catholic Education Services (CES) works closely with other faiths and negotiates, on behalf of all bishops, with Government, other national bodies on legal, administrative, and religious education matters in order to: promote Catholic interests in education; safeguard Catholic interests in education; contribute to Christian perspectives within educational debate at national level. A donation will be made on behalf of the parish towards the work of this group. Please keep all our Catholic schools in your prayers this weekend.

4. Gathering with Christ - and the priest

Last time (and it seems so long ago - I apologise) we reminded ourselves that when the parish community comes together to worship, Christ is really present in the community and that this presence is as real as in the consecrated bread and wine. That's not all. He is also present in the presiding priest, for this is what the Church teaches in the Second Vatican Council (Constitution on the Liturgy, 7): 'To accomplish so great a work Christ is always present in his Church, especially in her liturgical celebrations. He is present in the Sacrifice of the Mass not only in the person of the minister, "the same now offering, through the ministry of priests, who formerly offered himself on the cross" [Council of Trent], but especially in the Eucharistic species. By his power he is present in the sacraments so that when anybody baptises it is really Christ himself who baptises'.

Just as well that is so, because if the sacraments depended for their effectiveness on the presiding minister, priest or deacon (a deacon can baptise and preside at marriages), they wouldn't be sacraments as we understand them. They must be the action of Christ, otherwise they would not work.

For me, that is a great consolation because I sometimes say to myself, ‘Who am I that all these people should depend on me for leading their worship?' The answer is it's not me, it's Jesus Christ. Baptising a baby, absolving a penitent from his or her sins, or consecrating bread and wine, is me doing the actions and saying the words but Christ working his power through me. I am all too aware of my distractedness, my lack of effort, and all my other faults and foibles which get in the way of the community's worship; yet it is Christ who for some reason uses me as his minister.

Before each celebration of the Mass I pray a little prayer which goes something like this, "Dear Lord, help me to help these people worship you". I like to think that, ideally, people will go away from Sunday Mass, not thinking about the priest's 'performance', but about how they experienced a true encounter with their Saviour, Jesus Christ.

I use the word 'priest' of the one who presides at Mass, but that is not strictly correct because it appears to assume that there is only one priest - the ordained minister. The full truth is that all baptised people share in the priesthood of Jesus Christ; indeed, that is how the entire People of God is empowered to offer full and proper worship to the Father. The ordained priest's job is to enable or activate the baptismal priesthood of everybody else, to lead them in the exercise of their priesthood. His ministry is truly one of service.

In some parts of the world the title 'presbyter' (= elder) is increasingly used of the ordained minister. It has good scriptural pedigree as well as being more accurate.

The Church in this country, like so many others in Europe, is facing a down-turn in the number of ordained priests. Not so far from Bishop’s Stortford, East Anglia has had to amalgamate many parishes under a single priest. Our diocese of Westminster does not yet have as great a problem, but with a high average age of currently active priests real shortages are not far away in the future. All of us, laity and clergy, families and schools, must do our utmost to promote in young men the consideration of a life in the ministerial priesthood. After all, the sufficient supply of priests guarantees the future of our liturgy.