Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, We live at a time in which the world around us is threatened by so many things: war and conflict in many parts of the world, uncertainties and unrest closer to home, a continuing disregard for the dignity and wonder of life, financial worries for many. Yet, in the midst of this uncertainty we also see fresh green shoots of faith – more men and women coming forward for baptism, increasing numbers being confirmed and a renewed sense of mission. These green shoots of faith are a response to the promptings of the Holy Spirit, calling us to the confident faith about which Jesus speaks in this Sunday’s Gospel. Our times call us to show this faith to the world around us, to be confident in our mission, mindful that the life of the Church continues – and will continue – to the end of time. As Christ’s faithful people we must persevere in proclaiming the message of life in Him, even when the circumstances are difficult. St Paul’s words in this Sunday’s second reading are as timely for us as they were for Timothy: “Do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God.” We may face misunderstanding and rejection on account of the Gospel, but let us continue in persevering trust and gentleness in our witness to Christ, for this is life for the world. As we enter the month of October, the month of the Rosary, I ask you all to seek Mary’s intercession for our troubled world, for peace, for harmony in our society, for a spirit of welcome for the stranger, asylum seeker and refugee and for a spirit of understanding in our homes, our towns and cities. Our Lady intercedes for us always, so let us ask her to support us in the mission given to us by her Son. With every blessing  + Richard

This Sunday there is a second collection for CAFOD Please donate to our Family Fast Day parish collection to share God’s abundant gifts with our global neighbours as they find lasting solutions to poverty and climate challenges. Your generosity offers “signs of hope” in this Jubilee Year, helping build more water tanks in communities like Waré’s in Ethiopia where women have to walk for hours to get water. Use the CAFOD envelope in church, donate online at cafod.org.uk/envelope or call 0303 303 3030. You can also text CAFOD to 70560 to donate £10.

The younger people of the parish are invited to participate in a series of seven meetups, some in person and some on-line, between now and next April, in preparation for the sacrament of Confirmation in 2026. The sessions will last for no more than an hour and be held on Thursday evenings starting at 7:30pm. The first session will be an in person meeting on Thursday 23rd October in the Parish Room at St. Peter’s Church, when the schedule and content of the programme will be discussed.

As a deanery of Worthing we are not unique in becoming a single parish, it is all part of our Diocese Pastoral Plan. Here’s more detail on the plan. Bishop Richard issued his third Pastoral Plan for the Diocese, in January 2024, appointing Canon Kieron O’Brien as the Episcopal Vicar for Pastoral Planning. Canon Kieron explored the progress of the Plan: “Over the past 17 months, across the Diocese, our eleven former deaneries have started the process of becoming eleven new parishes, served by a team of clergy, who — while retaining their particular connection to a specific community — will be working more closely with each other than before. Recently a meeting of the priests and deacons of the Worthing Deanery met with Canon Kieron O’Brien and Deacon Nick St John who have been working with with us to guide us towards becoming a ‘New Parish’. Each of these new parishes is at a different stage, with the pace of change tailored to local circumstances, but it is hoped that by the end of the year (2026) all eleven new parishes will be formally established. Worthing is the last deanery to follow this path. The Worthing Deanery covers a large and irregular area and so there is a need to create ‘clusters’; groups of communities within a smaller geographical area, who will work more closely together to organise tasks such as preparation for each of the sacraments, the upkeep of buildings, the maintenance of Health and Safety and Safeguarding. It must be recognised that the major reason for re-organisation is spiritual renewal for each and every one of us. We each have our own special gifts and these will be needed for a successful parish. The Clergy Team will run the parish and they will work with the Leadership Team, a small group composed of some clergy and some laity. This group will be driving the vision and will take some time to appoint and to start working together as a team. This new model will hopefully facilitate some economies of scale and sharing of resources. However, if we see this purely as a structural change to enable greater efficiency, we will be missing the whole point of the Pastoral Plan. To this end, we need to return to three key words: Vision, Mission and Synodality.  “It is essential that the leadership (clergy and laity) in our new parishes can unite around a shared vision of what the Catholic Church, in this time and place, can look like, and feel like. Bishop Richard shares his vision for the Diocese in the opening pages of the Pastoral Plan; that is a good place to start, but the vision also needs to set the direction of travel locally, so that the Parish can be truly mission focused...This can only be achieved in a spirit of synodality, which is ‘church speak ’for ‘walking together and accompanying each other in faith. ’ Key to this are conversations in the Spirit (which can be one-to-one or in small groups) whereby we listen deeply to each other, to discover what is in our hearts for our new parishes.”