To mark our parish centenary year, last year we began work to transform an area between the church and the school called the ‘prayer garden’ but in practice not very usable for prayer or anything else. The area has been levelled and paved, with steps from the playground level (instead of a bank to scramble up) and a new gate providing level access to the public from the church car park (previously it was only accessible from the school end). A statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, blessed by Bishop Alan during his visit in September to mark the start of the project, was installed on a new brick plinth as the finishing touch. The whole project was finished just in time for the renewed prayer garden to be blessed by Fr Matthew, joined by servers and the children’s liturgy group, after Mass on Mothering Sunday, when we also presented some spring flowers to express our gratitude to Mary, our mother.
In due course there will be some benches and planters provided by the school community, including replanted shrubs that were given in memory of members of the community.
The prayer garden will be open to the public outside school hours. During the school day the car park gate will be locked, and the gate at the playground end opened so that it can be used by the school.
The entire project was funded by donations from parishioners, and a recent legacy, as a gift from the parishioners of today to future generations in recognition of the past 100 years of our parish. We are still fundraising for another centenary project, the installation of an angelus bell in our of our turrets – you can give to this project and find out more here.
