Saint Joseph's RC Church Tewkesbury

Our local foodbank – so very well supported in our parish – will be distributing extra Christmas baskets of help to local families in need this year. Please click on the download button below to open up the information sent by Project Manager, Marion Badham. An application form can also be obtained from the parish office.

Please bring this information to anyone you know in the area who may be in need of some help this Christmas.

Pope Francis and the Synod office in Rome are inviting the whole Church to become Synodal.

We are invited to journey together, listening to the promptings of the Holy Spirit in our lives and in the lives of the people we meet. 

The whole ‘Synod’ will be a two-year process beginning in every diocese in October 2021 and moving on to a national then international listening exercise.

The Synod prayer, Preparatory document and the Synod Vademecum provide us with an in depth understanding of what the synod entails.

Our first session will be starting at 5.00pm on Wednesday 5th January, prior to the Vigil Mass of Epiphany

Please see the information sheets in the Narthex for how you can be involved.

Catholic communities like ours here at St Joseph’s are invited to respond to Pope Francis’ invitation in Laudato Si’ to “work with generosity and tenderness in protecting this world which God has entrusted to us”.

An important part of our faith is to care for creation and to develop respect for other people in the world – how can we live out this invitation?

The CAFOD Live Simply Award is one such way; becoming a Live Simply Award parish helps us all go deeper and take action. Come and hear about the Award from local CAFOD staff member for Clifton, Liz Baldwin at an online Zoom meeting on Tuesday November 23^rd at 7.00pm. Newly appointed Clifton Diocesan Caritas and Environmental Officer Jason Charewicz will also be at the meeting, to update us on this new role and what it means for Clifton Diocese for both local social action and participating in Climate Change Action.

To join the meeting, see details below:

Topic: CAFOD Live Simply Award meeting-Tues Nov 23 at 7.00pm

Time: Nov 23, 2021 07:00 PM London

Join Zoom Meeting

Meeting ID: 856 6564 8384

Passcode: 107882

This chimes in with our call to join in with the 2021 – 2023 Synod… we are asked to meet and talk and listen in our various parishes. Facilitators will report back to Clifton Diocese in the spring and information and ideas will push up from there to the eventual meeting of Bishops in Rome. Everyone is invited to share their thoughts ideas, hopes and dreams. Please come along once the Synod meetings get started in St Joseph’s to continue and add to the conversation.

In a new Apostolic Letter entitled Patris corde (“With a Father’s Heart”), Pope Francis describes Saint Joseph as a beloved father, a tender and loving father, an obedient father, an accepting father; a father who is creatively courageous, a working father, a father in the shadows.

The Letter marks the 150th anniversary of Blessed Pope Pius IX’s declaration of St Joseph as Patron of the Universal Church. To celebrate the anniversary, Pope Francis has proclaimed a special “Year of St Joseph,” beginning on the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception 2020 and extending to the same feast in 2021.

Each time we say Mass we will recite together the prayer to St Joseph which you will find printed in our newsletter most weeks. Please see the display in the Narthex area put together by our Liturgy Team and feel free to add anything relevant to it.