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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)
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CTS Books for Lent and life, the stand has just been updated, do please take a look
The Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes takes place this year from 25th to 31st July. Lourdes is a special place where we place ourselves under the protection of Our Lady, who leads us to her Son. We also deepen our sense of belonging to our parish, our diocese and the worldwide church. The pilgrimage will be lead by Archbishop Vincent Nichols.
The Small Faith Groups - Tuesday Group meet in the Margaret Clitherow Room at 10.15am each Tuesday in Lent to follow the diocesan Lenten course "Living as One". All welcome.
Examination Invigilators St Mary’s School for Summer 2010 GCE/GCSE exams. Hours: morning or afternoon or both during school time. Pay is currently £7.48per hour. A CRB disclosure is required for all successful applicants. For further information and an application form please contact Heather Pinnock, Exams Officer, at the school on 01279 654901
Shine, Jesus Shine! Churches Together in Bishops Stortford and Shine invite you to an inclusive workshop on Tuesday 16 March, 7.30-9am in the 6th Form Common Room at St Mary’s School. The service designed for people with learning disabilities welcomes people of all ages and abilities
Saturday 13th March 10am-3:30pm – a day of devotion to and enthronement of a uniquely blessed and consecrated image of Our Lady of Guadalupe at Westminster Cathedral Hall, (beside the Cathedral), Diocese of Westminster. Admission free. The launch of a nine-month novena nationwide tour of the image, which concludes on 13th December, Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Our Parish Worship - A personal view
Click here for link to all the articles
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.
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