OUR LADY QUEEN OF PEACE

Throughout November, we will have the Books of Remembrance in the church. Please come and write in names of loved ones who have died in the past year (no need to rewrite names from previous years).  This Sunday there will be a minute silence before masses for Remembrance Sunday On 22nd November at 10.00am, please join us for a special Memorial Mass at St Peter’s to pray in particular for loved ones who have died this year, and all those who are bereaved. Refreshments will be served afterwards in the Parish Room. All are welcome.

Join us for a celebration breakfast. Sweet and savoury treats to enjoy with your coffee or take home. Lots of Christmas gifts on sale: jumpers, books, pyjamas, glittery outfits, plus a raffle.  All proceeds to the SVP Christmas Parcels Campaign.

Please consider supporting our Christmas campaign, providing care parcels to local families in need. We will be collecting toiletries during November.  Please donate soap, shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste, baby products, sanitary products etc. If you would prefer to make a financial contribution, you can donate via our card machines.

Applications are still open. The first meeting for parents and children is on Tuesday 25th November , 7.30pm. Further dates to follow soon. The First Holy Communion masses will be in June 2026

Tickets are now available for the Parish Christmas Lunch happening on Thursday 11th December (see poster below)

The Catholic Bishops’ Conference of England & Wales (CBCEW) and Birmingham Newman University are conducting research into Neurodiversity and our Faith. If you are an adult neurodivergent Catholic or a caregiver of a neurodivergent Catholic, they would like to hear from you. Your experiences will help them to become more inclusive and responsive to your needs. To find out more and to complete the short surveys, please visit: www.godwhospeaks.uk/neurodivergent-catholic-surveys/ If you have any questions about this research, please email E: fleur.dorrell@cbcew.org.uk .

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ, For many of us, when we think of Rome, we think of St Peter’s Basilica. In a Jubilee Year such as this, the entry through the Holy Door of St Peter’s is a high point of any pilgrimage. It is from the Apostolic Palace, next to St Peter’s, that the Holy Father makes his Angelus addresses and it is there that the public audiences take place, as well as significant celebrations in the life of the Church: canonisations, the inaugurations of new popes and the requiem Masses for deceased popes. Yet it is the Lateran Basilica, built originally by the Emperor Constantine, that is described as “the mother and head of all the churches of the City and the World.” It is the Cathedral Church of Rome, and popes lived in the Lateran Palace for hundreds of years. It is the Pope’s Cathedral, for he is the Bishop of Rome. It is for this reason that the whole Church celebrates this feast. It is a celebration of our unity with the Holy Father, the successor of St Peter. This Sunday’s first reading, the vision of Ezekiel of the Temple in Jerusalem, speaks of the water that flows from the Temple bringing life to the desert. So it is for the Church. The waters of baptism – in which, as St Paul tells us, we die and rise with the new life of Christ – bring us to live our lives in the love that exists in the Trinity, as members of Christ’s Church. The celebration of the dedication of any Church is a reminder, as St Paul tells us in this Sunday’s second reading, that the Church is made of the living stones of the baptised. We are the Church, called to reflect the wonder of the Gospel to the world around us. This is the mission that we have been given through our baptism – the mission that calls others to share in the wonder of the Church’s life, the life of Christ. The Lateran Basilica, the “mother of all the churches” stands as a witness to the world and a reminder to us, who are the living stones, of the mission to which we are called, in union with Pope Leo, the successor of Peter. With every blessing,  + Richard.

There will be a Healing Service with Anointing of the Sick on Thursday 13th November , 2.30pm at St Peter’s. Please email the office if you would like to be anointed: adurvalley@abdiocese.org.uk . All are welcome.

There are three Temples in today's readings at Mass. The first is the Temple described by Ezekiel from the vision he receives from God. The second is the Temple cleansed by Jesus which was rebuilt and later enhanced by Herod. The third is the body of Jesus. Ezekiel describes the ideal Temple where water trickles and then flows abundantly from the south of the threshold towards the East. This heavenly vision is a prophesy of the body of Jesus on the cross where His blood and water flow from the side of His body and spreads throughout the whole world for healing. It is said to flow east as this is the direction of worship of God. Jesus enters the Temple in Jerusalem through the East Gate and enters the Court of the Gentiles where non-Jews were to worship but He finds it full of noise and a place of consumerism. There was no place for worship and so the Gentiles were excluded. By making space and cleansing this courtyard Jesus makes it possible for everyone to worship God but He points, not to the blood of sacrificial animals, but to the blood which comes from the perfect Temple and perfect sacrifice of the Lamb of God - His body. Jesus' death makes true worship, in spirit and in truth, possible and He shows His resurrection is the antidote to our death. On Remembrance Sunday and this month of November we pray that an angel may take each soul to the gate of the door of the heavenly Temple which is Jesus, the gate and the door to the kingdom of peace and the eternal worship of God.  With my prayer for you all and our deceased parishioners. God bless you. Fr Graham