The month of August is dedicated to the Immaculate Heart of Mary
TWENTIETH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME
17 August 2025
| Sat 16 Aug | |||
| St. Theresa’s | 9.30am | Malankara Jacobite Syriac Orthodox Community Mass | |
| 5.00pm | Joe Blundell RIP | ||
| St. Columba’s | 6.30pm | Avondale Williams | |
| Sun 17 Aug | |||
| St. Theresa’s | 9.30am | Parishioners’ Intentions | |
| St. Columba’s | 11.00am | David Mark McLoughlin RIP (AM) | |
| 2.00pm | Kerala Catholic Community Mass in Syro-Malabar Rite | ||
| Mon 18 Aug | |||
| St. Theresa’s | Priests’ Intentions | ||
| St. Columba’s | 10.30am | Caroline Okolie | |
| Tue 19 Aug | |||
| St. Theresa’s | Special Intentions | ||
| St. Columba’s | 12 noon | Requiem Mass for Anthony Walsh | |
| Wed 20 Aug | St Bernard, Ab,D | ||
| St. Theresa’s | Joe Blundell RIP | ||
| St. Columba’s | 9.30am | Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament | |
| 10.15am | Novena Prayers | ||
| 10.30am | Private Intentions | ||
| Thu 21 Aug | St Pius X,Pp | ||
| St. Theresa’s | All those receiving their exam results | ||
| St. Columba’s | Priests’ Intentions | ||
| Fri 22 Aug | The Queenship of the Blessed Virgin Mary | ||
| St. Theresa’s | 10.00am | Nicholas Huber RIP | |
| St. Columba’s | The Parish | ||
| Sat 23 Aug | |||
| St. Theresa’s | 5.00pm | Frank Lally RIP | |
| St. Columba’s | 6.30pm | Tony Walsh RIP (MS) | |
| Sun 24 Aug | |||
| St. Theresa’s | 9.30am | Stephen James Taylor RIP | |
| St. Columba’s | 11.00am | Private Intention (MW) | |
| 2.00pm | Kerala Catholic Community Mass in Syro-Malabar Rite |
LIVE STREAMING OF MASS
Mass will be streamed at St Columba’s on Sunday 17 August at 11a.m.
Cover is needed at St Columba’s for occasions when Tim is unavailable. (St Theresa’s have a volunteer) The only requirement is you need to have an iPhone. If you would be willing to help with this, please contact one of the church offices. Thank you.
www.facebook.com/thecatholicparishofstcolumbaandsttheresa
POPE’S AUGUST PRAYER INTENTIONS
For mutual coexistence. Let us pray that societies where coexistence seems more difficult might not succumb to the temptation of confrontation for ethnic, political, religious or ideological reasons.
RECENTLY DECEASED
Please remember in your prayers: Mary Ible and Anthony Walsh. Anthony (Tony) Walsh’s Requiem Mass is on Tuesday 19 August at 12pm at St Columba’s. Mary Ible’s Requiem Mass is on Monday 8 September at 12 noon at St Columba’s. May the Lord console their families and friends.
ANNIVERSARIES
Sarah Flynn & Nicholas Huber.
CONFESSIONS
There will be Confessions after each weekday Mass until 11.30a.m.
St Columba’s: From 6p.m. before the 6.30p.m. Saturday evening Mass.
St Theresa’s: From 4.30p.m. before 5p.m. Saturday evening Mass.
WEDDINGS, BAPTISMS AND FUNERALS
Please contact one of the Parish Offices to make your arrangements.
MASS INTENTIONS (ST THERESA’S)
If you would like a Mass saying, please put the name of the person the Mass is for and the date you would like it in an envelope along with the donation. Please also put your name and a telephone number so that we can contact you if the date you requested is unavailable. Thank You.
FR WILLIAM
Fr William will be away until the end of August. We hope he has a well-earned rest.
PARISH OFFERTORY
Loose Plate: £589.13; Planned Giving:222.05 £; Average weekly SO £718.15. Candles: £41.88.
Apostleship of the Sea collection: The parish amount was £371.40 Thank you for your generosity.
PRAYING TOGETHER
- Pray for the residents of Greenfields, Flag lane North, Oakfield Avenue, The Glen, Jonathan’s Way, Graham Road & Blacon Point Road.
- For the Eucharistic Ministers, Altar Servers, Lay Readers, Parish Assistant & Local Church Leaders.
- For all those not yet connected to the life of the
- Church or who have lost their faith.
ST COLUMBA’S OFFICE
Office hours at St Columba’s are now 8.00am to 2.15pm, Monday to Thursday.
Office will be closed: 21 August and 1 September. When the office is closed, urgent matters will be dealt with through the kind services of Carol Galvin, Monday to Friday 9.00a.m to 12.00pm.
ST COLUMBA’S COFFEE ROTA
The coffee rota is on the noticeboard in St Columba’s Hall. Just write your name, charity and phone number on the calendar. If you can’t access the hall, leave a message on Margaret Curtis’s answerphone on 01244 318424 with your name and date(s) and she will add you to the rota.
17 August volunteers please
24 August volunteers please
31 August volunteers please
FAITH EXPLORATION AND SHARING
For any parishioner not yet in full communion with the Church but interested in exploring a way to that, beginning in September the parish will be running the Sycamore course explaining the Catholic faith. If you are interested in joining the group, please contact deacon Lawrence for more details. If you know someone you think might be interested why not offer some words of encouragement.
FISH AND CHIP BABIES KNITTING PROJECT
If you have any double-knitting wool to spare, we now need more for the babies in NE Africa. Please arrange to hand it to Margaret Curtis, thank you.
YEAR OF THE JUBILEE 2025 MASS
Pope Francis gave this year’s Jubilee the theme of ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ and invited Catholics everywhere to renew our hope and discover a vision that can “restore access to the fruits of the earth to everyone”. A special Mass to celebrate our faith and renew our hope for the future is to be held in St Columba’s church on Thursday 18 September at 7pm followed by refreshments in the hall. All parishioners are encouraged to attend.
In the words of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, Archbishop of Westminster “May our prayer in this Jubilee Year be robust and heartfelt: that God will guide our poor efforts here, enabling us to contribute to the harmony of the world and all its people”.
PARISH YOUTUBE CHANNEL
The Pastoral Council would like to offer Mass live streamed on our YouTube channel. To do this, at no cost to us, we need a minimum of 50 subscribers, we have 26 so far. We would be very grateful if parishioners could subscribe to the channel which can be found on YouTube as:
St Columba and Theresa RC Church Chester
Even if you are unlikely to use the service, please do subscribe to benefit others.
CAFOD – CANCEL THE DEBT
Thank you to all who signed Cafod’s petition for this cause. 100 signatures were received and the sheets have now been sent to CAFOD’s main office in London.
PARISH WEBSITE
If anyone has an item that they would like to have on the website, please contact Lyn Coyle, who is the parish liaison with the website manager. These items must be about parish-based events or information. marilyn.coyle44@gmail.com
EXAM RESULTS
To all our students who have received exam results this week and who will receive them over the following weeks, we wish you all the very best for your future, may wonderful opportunities lie ahead for you. Enjoy. Good luck and God Bless.
THOUGHT FOR THE WEEK – I don’t come to offer you perfect faith. I come to tell you that faith is a walk with stones, puddles, and unexpected hugs. Pope Leo XIV
CHURCHES TOGETHER FIFTH SUNDAY SERVICE
The next CTU Service is on 31 August at 4.30 at the URC Church on Heath Road. The theme is “A Short History of hymns”. It should be very enjoyable with a short social time afterwards. Please come to represent St Columba’s.
WELCOME TO OUR PARISH
If you are NEW TO THE PARISH, please complete a Parish Registration Form and send (or bring) it to either parish office to let us know that you are here and enable us to welcome you. Forms can be found in the front porches of both churches and on the website https://sscolumbaandtheresa.co.uk/i-am-new/. Thank you.
MARRIAGE HELP
Retrouvaille helps couples find hope and healing for their marriage. Next date: 17-19 Oct. www.retrouvaille.org.uk Tel: 0788 7296983
ST COLUMBA’S CHURCH & HALL BOOKINGS
To arrange meetings etc. in either the Church, Newman Room, or the Iona Chapel, please book through Magdalena Bukowska, St. Columba’s Church Office, phone: 01244 624019, email: stcolumbaschurch2016@outlook.com. Office hours Monday to Thursday 8a.m. to 2.15p.m.
Hall availability can be checked by looking at St Columba’s Church website – section for Church Hall gives a calendar of events in the Hall. Then contact Magdalena Bukowska on 01244 624019 for enquires within the office hours stated above or email columbashallbookings@gmail.com to arrange booking.
SUNSET CAFÉ PROJECT
Chester Townhouse, the Hospitality Hero and Soul Kitchen Chester have launched the Sunset Cafe inside the Chester Townhouse Hotel, Lower Bridge Street from 11a.m. to 3p.m. every Friday until the end of September. This is a live training cafe aiming to educate, train and support individuals stepping back into employment. We would be delighted if any parishioners or visitors in town on a Friday were able to visit the cafe to support this project.
SUMMER ACTIVITIES
Cheshire libraries are worth looking at, with the summer reading challenge, family games, story club and plenty of other activities https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/residents/libraries/events.
Also check out the Cheshire West and Chester Council web site for further activities and availability as well as Edsential for holiday activities and food programme https://edsential.com/haf/
ST WERBURGH AND ST COLUMBA’S PRIMARY SCHOOL
St Werburgh’s and St Columba’s Catholic Primary School. Our much-loved Headteacher is due to retire in December 2025, and we are looking to appoint a new Headteacher for our happy, vibrant, and successful Primary school.
The Governors are looking to appoint a committed and practicing Catholic, an ambitious, dynamic, and inspirational leader who has the vision to continue to drive the school forward.
If you are interested in this position, please click on the link for more information and the application pack.
FOOD BANK DONATIONS – MORE NEEDED
Donated food is taken to the West Cheshire Foodbank at Ellesmere Port every fortnight. The warehouse is usually fairly full but recently the crates have been half empty. The volunteers confirmed that they have had to buy in supplies out of their limited resources. The donation receipt book shows our parish donation weighing 20.6 kgs but another entry showed that 403kgs of food had to be purchased at Costco. If you can, please give as generously as possible, especially UHT milk, Longlife juice, curry sauce, tinned spaghetti and chocolate A look at the Foodbank website (westcheshirefoodbank.org.uk) indicates where there is a need for particular items.
Thank you so much. Your generosity makes all the difference.
ST. WERBURGH’S 150th ANNIVERSARY
This will be celebrated in December this year. Details of events in the coming week are on the notice board in both churches.
NEWSLETTER – 31 August
We have been advised that Bell Graphics will be closing for a week at the end of August/beginning of September. This will impact the Sunday 31 August newsletter. For the Sunday edition, Sunday 31 August the deadline for submission of articles / items is now Wednesday 20 August, 9am
NEXT WEEK’S NEWSLETTER
Sunday 24 August edition will be compiled by Alison Wrigglesworth Phone: 07759 042262, or email: a.wrigglesworth@outlook.com. Sunday 31 August edition will be compiled by Muriel Green Phone 01244 383836 or email muriel.green1@btinternet.com. Please include a phone number in case of queries, and please ensure that notices are also emailed to st.theresas@btinternet.com or phoned to the compiler by 9.00 a.m. on WEDNESDAY 20 AUGUST 2025 (FOR BOTH EDITIONS 24 & 31 August))