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ST. FRANCIS OF ASSISI CHURCH [ Back to Milford-on-Sea Read Page ]
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Scroll down for details of Mass times and Parish news HOW TO FIND ST. FRANCIS'S CHURCH You will find the Church of St. Francis of Assisi on the left-hand side driving out of Milford from the Green, on the main road, towards Christchurch and Bournemouth. The priest-in-charge, who is also the Parish Priest of New Milton, is Father Gerrit Vervenne. He can be contacted on 01425 614968. We also have a Deacon, Rev. Michael Welch who can be contacted on 01425 614706
Sundays: Holy Mass at the Church in Milford on Sunday
mornings only at 9.15 pm Holidays of Obligation: Holy Mass at 9.00
Holy
Communion Services: 10.00 am on Wednesdays and Fridays
Alternative
Sunday Mass venue: Our Lady of Lourdes, Mount Avenue, New Milton on Saturdays at 6
pm and Sundays at 8.00 am and 10.30 am Weekdays:
Holy Mass at 10.00 am except Saturdays, . . Roll of Parish Priests at St. Francis of Assisi since its founding..
Archives
Father Vervenne's day off: Tuesdays Have you looked at the Prayer Page yet? Try it - [ click here ] Did you know........? ...That our Church no longer belongs to a Deanery, but to the (Click above to visit!)
News of our Parish God is Love August 2010 An item of news has recently been circulating in the Parish that Father Dunne had died. This is true, insofar as it relates to Father John Dunne, formerly Parish Priest of Our Lady Queen of Peace and Blessed Margaret Pole in Southbourne, Bournemouth. He died, it is believed, on 13th August at St. John's Convent, Kiln Green, Reading. It is not yet known where his funeral will take place.
Father Thomas John Dunne - our Father
Dunne - who recently moved from Ashley to the Marie Louise Nursing Home in
Romsey, is still with us and on the waiting list for the heavenly gates.
If anybody would like to write to him his address is
Marie Louise House, Newton Lane, Romsey, Hampshire SO51
8GZ. Any letters from past parishioners would be very welcome. July has been a month where we have seen four friends leave us. We extend our prayers, our sympathy in their temporary loss and our love to those who have been bereaved. May the souls of all four rest in the peace, love and mercy of God our Father, who made us and who orders our entire existence. On Monday, 19th July, Father Vervenne officiated at a Service held at Bournemouth Crematorium for the Repose of the Soul of Mr. Brian Marshall, Pat's Marshall's dear husband, to whom she was married for nearly 60 years. Requiem Masses were subsequently held for the Repose of the Souls of Mr. Leonard Runyard (21st July). Mr. Ray Beachey, dear husband of Ursula, (23rd July) and Mary Hallé, dear mother of Michael and mother-in-law of Jenny. May they all be there for us as in time we rejoin them in God's Kingdom of light and peace. Amen.
June 2010 Below is an extract from Our Lady & St. Joseph's Church in Lymington's 'web blog'. Some Milford parishioners reading this will wonder what on earth this news has to do with us. We are now of course, with Lymington and Brockenhurst, a single Pastoral Area while still keeping our own churches. So with four churches and only two priests there will be an increasing collaboration between them and all of us as we learn to cope with the falling numbers of priests in this country. Just look on the whole thing as expanding the possibilities of new friendships on the journey to our final destination!
May 2010 May 9th
MASS FOR THE SICK Special
Pastoral Area Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton The afternoon finished with a delicious tea and lots of
socialisation in our Church Hall where many people renewed friendships with
others they discovered were still alive though unable to attend Mass as they had
in the past. Father Vervenne returned to parish duties in Milford today and joined us for coffee in the Maryland Room. He reminded us that next Sunday - 9th May - there would be the Mass of Anointing at 3.00 pm next Sunday at Our Lady of Lourdes church in New Milton. (See poster at the top of the page for details) April 2010 April 29th Father Vervenne returned from holiday today. While he was absent Mgr. Peter Ryan said Mass for us on the two Sundays Father Vervenne was away and for those who go the Our Lady of Lourdes for Mass on weekdays, Father Richard Sakson from St. Dominic's Priory said Mass on the Wednesdays and Fridays, finishing on 30th April. Our Communion Services continued as usual. April 17th After a few nail-biting hours earlier this week Fr. Vervenne left for a break in the sun - one of the last flights to leave the UK before the airport clampdown. As the great volcanic cloud of dust continues to linger, suspended high in the sky and apparently barely moving, we are now reduced to more nail-biting as we wonder whether we will get our priest back. How long is this dangerous dust going to remain in space? Is it ever going to come back to earth or is it going to go round and round our planet making future flying virtually impossible, unless we are prepared to take a risk, and that, in these days, is becoming more and more unlikely. We'll just have to wait and see: prayer would help. In the event we do have a priest - it is planned that on Sunday, 9th May we shall have a Mass with Anointing for the Sick at Our Lady of Lourdes' Church in New Milton, which is for everyone in the New Forest Pastoral Area who wishes to attend. It would be helpful to have some idea of the numbers who will be able to attend. Parishioners in our four churches are asked to help bring those would like to come but do not have transport. Please give the numbers either to Fr. Vervenne - who is due to return at the end of April - on 01425 614968 or to Rev. Michael Welch whose contact number is 01425 614706. April 15th Fr. Vervenne was due to leave for a holiday by air today but we are going through the problems of volcanic ash in England at the moment and it was not certain the plane would leave the runway. At it turned out, his plane was one of the last to take off from the UK as all flights were grounded from mid-day and it is assumed it arrived safely at its destination. April 4th It is planned for the first time in several years that sherry will be served with the coffee after Mass on Sunday - perhaps to lighten our hearts a bit after this long gloomy winter, which we hope will come to the end sometime next week - please God! April 3rd - Vigil Mass The worries expressed under the entry for April 1st did not materialise as parishioners of St. Francis Church were indeed invited to participate at in the readings at the Easter Services at Our Lady of Lourdes! We do have to apologise for any would-be vigil mass-goers in Milford who were misled by the yellow information booklet since the time of 8.30 printed for the Vigil Mass was incorrect. We are very sorry for any inconvenience this error caused. April 2nd Our Deacon, Rev. Michael came over to us at Milford to say the Stations of the Cross this morning in torrential rain. The Witness on the Green was held in All Saints' Church this year as it was reckoned to be too wet to flounder round in the mud of The Green. Many parishioners from Milford went over to Our Lady of Lourdes for the afternoon Service at 3.00 pm, at which our Bobby did the Readings. It is always good to see our parishes working together! April 1st The lovely Mass of Holy Thursday was said, as usual, in New Milton this year at 7.00 pm. There was a good representation from St. Francis, although no active part was taken by any of our parishioners except those our Ministers of the Eucharist, who renewed their vows with those from Our Lady of Lourdes Church. As yet it is not know whether any Milford parishioners will be taking parts in any of the other Holy Week and Easter Services this year.
March 2010 March 27th Our Penitential Service for Lent this year was held at 11.30 on Saturday 27th March as a change from our usual custom of having it on the evening of the day following the Chrism Mass at St. John's Cathedral in Portsmouth this. Four people went from St. Francis of Assisi this year. March 5th The Women's World Day of Prayer took place this year in the Baptist Church on a day which fooled us into thinking Spring had arrived. Not only was is sunny with little wind, but many colourful spring flowers had been planted in the churchyard. The service was led by a visitor from Texas, Renée Alsandor, who had been led to believe we were all going to dress up in Cameroon national dress for the opening procession up the aisle. She arrived in West African dress and looked magnificent! We were thrilled. For us, who had spent months wearing dark English winter colour clothes, it was a change just to get into some brighter colours, which was all we had managed to do. . . Banners had been prepared for the opening procession by a group of children from the Baptist church who had done a wonderful job. There was one with the national coat of arms, one portraying women working in the fields, one of our planet Earth, surrounded by a selection of all people of the world in their national costumes, holding hands; there was another of the national flag - and the last one? Well, while all these were the work of groups of children, the remaining one was a solo effort which caused lots of comment and was much admired: it was made by one little girl who was very touched by the story that children as young as 8 would pile bananas on their head to sell before they went to school and was determined that her banner should be 'her' banner and she was going to do it herself! All the churches had worked together to make a fund-raising lunch to finance this year's Service and we made enough money to do that and to send a larger contribution to the charity than in earlier years. The organisers thank everyone who helped and who attended the service for their generosity. The women of the Cameroon had worked hard to design a service which reflected the theme of this year's prayers: Let Everything that Has Breath Sing Praise to God. We were all moved by the fact that these women live a life of acute poverty and injustice and can still sing praise to God while we tend to spend far too much time moaning. February 24th Father Dunne was 86 today. He sends his love to those who still remember him and says he still thinks and prays for those he still remembers from the time when he was at St. Francis. He remarked that has now been retired for 11 years, which he thinks is amazing! Above is advance notice that this year's Women's World Day of Prayer will be held in the Baptist Church, Barnes Lane at 2.30 pm and in the evening, as usual, at St. Mary's Everton. While it always much easier to attend when the service is in our own churches, please make an effort to come this year. The service has been designed by the women of Cameroon, a very poor country of Western Africa, which is gifted in natural riches but whose economy is ruined by corruption, thought to be the worst in Africa. . . Women have a particularly hard time and it is remarkable that with all they have to contend with they can choose the theme of 'Let Everything That Has Breath Praise God'. Their faith means a great deal to these women and it is their faith that gets them through the pain and difficulties of their lives. February 2010 Here is where apologies from the editor must be forthcoming. I have now left completing these pages to the point where trying to fill them in makes me feel as though I am standing at the bottom of a tall mountain with instructions to move it a mile to the left, equipped with a small shovel. I shall start by going back to Ash Wednesday, a week ago, and making a big effort top do better henceforward! Late insertions in bright blue.
January 2010 18th - 25th January - Week of Prayer for Christian Unity The arrangements this year were a refinement - tweaking - of those for last year and worked remarkably well. There was no single 'main' service as in previous years to open the week, but the 'Peripatetic Prayers at 10.00' was held in each of the five churches (All Saints, St. Francis, Methodist, Baptist and St. Mary's Everton) from Monday to Friday, all of which were very well attended. The major service was planned to be held on Saturday morning in the Guide Hut followed by refreshments. The hall was packed. There was a good distribution of people from every church and several people who didn't generally attend any of the local churches arrived to share time together. Our turn to lead the service was, of course, held in St. Francis. Helen Lister and Anthony Kirke organised and led the prayers for us and we were very pleased to welcome over 30 people from our sister churches. In earlier years the 10.00 am services were held only in the Methodist Church, which is ideally placed in the middle of the village. This year, when all but the Methodist Church involved walking uphill, and St. Mary's needed actual transport to attend. it was heartening in the very cold weather to see so many people making the effort to pray for the unity Jesus wanted for us. May God bless us all.
3rd January Today we celebrate the Feast of the Epiphany, and there will be a Baptism during the Holy Mass at St. Francis. Details will come later. How exciting to welcome another member of our Community even if the little child will probably be a visiting member because Granny lives in Milford!
HERE STARTS JANUARY 2010
December 2009 This section will be completed in the next day or so. Ed.
November 2009
Theresa Myrtle Watson RIP
A Requiem Mass for
the repose of Myrtle's soul
November 1st The great news of the month was the lifting of the recommendation imposed by our Bishop on 23rd July which meant that from Mass on All Saints' Day we were able to resume receiving Holy Communion from the Chalice. The web site for our Pastoral Area - a 'green' site, suitably coloured for the New Forest - has been expanded over the last few weeks. Check it out from time to time to see what is going on. [ Click here ] November 15th Since there is no Grand Draw this year, it seems to be generally agreed that it would be good to give the physical St. Francis of Assisi Church a Christmas gift this year. Tom is making a model of the Church into which contributions will be put to make up something for the loss the real building has sustained this year due to lack of fundraising events. November 19th Father Vervenne took his break in the sunshine this month where it looks as though he might have been plagued by wind. Certainly Milford has been through some stormy weather in the last few weeks but so far there don't seem to be any tiles off the roof but the courtyard is steadily filling with leaves - that time of year of course! During Father Vervenne's absence we were fortunate to have Mgr. Peter Ryan say Mass for us in spite of having to fight an illness picked up on his pilgrimage in the Middle East and a chest infection as well. We thank him for his care of us. . . 20th November Last Sunday, 15th November, a message to our congregation reported that Myrtle Watson had requested some visitors from the following Wednesday, as she felt that by then her health would have improved. Myrtle's husband Bill, a long time resident of Milford, had died very suddenly on 5th November, and within a day or two Myrtle collapsed and was admitted to Bournemouth hospital suffering from intestinal problems and pneumonia. Bill's funeral had been arranged from 18th November at which of course Myrtle was unable to be present. Myrtle herself died peacefully in Bournemouth Hospital on Friday morning, 20th November. The funeral is being arranged and details will be available as they come to hand. They will be published on this page. Myrtle was a devoted parishioner at St. Francis over many years and her sweet and gentle presence interlaced with humour will be very much missed. May she rest in the peace of God's good kingdom. 22nd November We are really pleased to welcome the return of Father Vervenne to Sunday Mass this morning, Feast of Christ the King, and thank God for his safe return. 24th November This is the day that the Annual Bowling Competition will be taking place at Bashley, when of course Milford hopes that yet again they will prove to be champions, which is obviously a completely different hope to that of New Milton. . .
October 2009 Something must have happened during October but the current Webmaster appears to have developed some kind of absent-mindedness. Any reminders would be much appreciated. [ Click here ]
September 2009 September 1st
The party to celebrate ten years of Father Vervenne's tenure as Parish Priest of St. Francis of Assisi as well as to mark the 40th Anniversary of his Ordination in 1969 took place today. Organised by members of the congregation the food appeared at the clock wound its way to seven o'clock when Father arrived with Norah and of course the wine glasses were in their place with bottles standing to attention. The weather stayed dry even if the wind did blow a gale but it was cosy and attractive in the hall, with flowers courtesy of Yasmin on the tables. Helen Lister made a speech of thanks for all that Father Vervenne had done to rescue the parish when he arrived in 1999 and Paul Scarnell made the presentation of the gift from the parishioners to Father Vervenne, who announced with his usual excellent humour that now he didn't need to stay for the actual party! Everyone enjoyed the occasion and were happy to wish Father Vervenne many more years as our dear Parish Priest.
August 2009 . . . was a very quiet month!
July 2009
After all the excitement of June, July has turned into a
month of deprivation as the Bishop's recommendations are circulated through the
Diocese. It is being assumed that these will be rescinded after a vaccine
against swine flu becomes available later in the year or at the beginning of
next year.
June 2009 June 27th On the actual day of Fr. Vervenne's 40th Anniversary of Ordination to the Priesthood we offer him our congratulations and best wishes that we will all be here to celebrate his Golden Jubilee.
And Another Reason for a June Celebration!
This afternoon the marriage took place between Leah Shaw and one of Milford's altar boys - the tallest! - Paul Scarnell. On a beautiful sunny afternoon Leah, dressed in a fabulous long-skirted suit of dusky pink silk, married Paul Scarnell surrounded by both their families and some friends in St. Francis' Church. The reception took place in the house where they are now making their home together in Mill Meadow under the shade of a magnificent marquee which had bravely risen from death by drowning during the terrible storms which took place earlier in the week. The firm responsible did a wonderful job bringing it back to life, and under today's beautiful sun, surrounded by a lovely garden which Leah and Paul had been working to present in top form, their guests enjoyed a gourmet lunch catered by Diana Morley. Father Gerrit Vervenne officiated at the Nuptial Mass. We wish the bride, the groom and members of their families a very happy future together.
June 24th Double Celebration for all at Our Lady of Lourdes' Church in New Milton
The 17th June marked the Silver Jubilee of Mike's Ordination to the Permanent Diaconate and the people of Our Lady of Lourdes' Church in New Milton will be celebrating the occasion at a joint Mass and Party in New Milton on 24th June when Bishop Crispian will be with the parishioners' and their much-loved pastors, Father Gerrit Vervenne and Rev. Mike Deacon. On 27th June it will be the 40th Anniversary of Father Vervenne's Ordination to the Priesthood. Parishioners of Milford have been invited to share in the Ruby and Silver Jubilee party. We in Milford will be celebrating in September to mark the 10th Anniversary of Father Vervenne's arrival here to rescue us from the fate of being left without a priest after Father Dunne retired in 1999. Our friends from New Milton are looking forward in their turn to sharing in those celebrations. Father Vervenne's arrival meant many changes at St. Francis - for a start all the Milford Catholics finally discovered who each other were - since each group had previously stuck to their chosen Mass timings and many had no idea who their fellow Catholics in Milford were! The Church itself was refurbished and turned into a warm, attractive and welcoming environment where the parishioners became more relaxed, all of which fitted very well into the increasingly ecumenical grouping of the Churches of Milford. Certainly the members of both churches get along well together when they meet socially and all are grateful to have been given two such devoted men to look after their spiritual welfare. Our grateful thanks to the Lord and roll on party time!
May 2009 23rd May 2009
Anna-Marie and Andrew tie the knot! In our picture Anna-Marie, née Langford, and her husband Andrew Payne, prepare to walk down the aisle as man and wife after their wedding in St. Francis of Assisi on a sunny May day. Father Vervenne officiated of course, and the other people standing round the altar are members of the families and friends of the happy couple. We wish Mr and Mrs Payne a long and happy marriage and all the blessings God can bestow.
May 6th There was a Quiz evening at Our Lady of Lourdes today, which was attended by 40 people. It was a pity to see so few from Milford - it is very hard to convince people that there are changes in the wind and most people still resolutely see Milford and New Milton as completely separate entities in spite of sharing our Parish Priest: the time is coming when there may only be one priest where now that are two groups of worshippers who have two churches and one priest each. The time is coming when what we have now will be a luxury and we will have to get used to each others' company when the present four churches will have one priest. In the meantime we should make opportunities to meet each other more often and such occasions as the Quiz and skittles evenings offer us the chance to start new friendships. If you haven't yet been, try to make the exhibition in Lymington's church of Our Lady and St. Joseph: John Collins has done a wonderful job setting it all up and it is well worth making the trip to read all about the hardships suffered by local people through the centuries so that we can go to Mass today. Such a luxury may not always be with us.
April 2009
This well-designed and painstakingly put together Exhibition is
April 30th Father Vervenne returned to duties in New Milton this morning so he will be back with us as usual on Sunday at 9.15 am. He is looking well after his break in the sunshine. April 26th Father Richard Sakson said farewell to St. Francis this morning at the end of his coverage during Father Vervenne's absence on holiday. He leaves with thanks and appreciation for looking after us, which he said he enjoyed. April 17th Some of you may be aware from items which appear from time to time in the Newsletter that our fellow Catholics in New Milton have been supporting a poor parish in Kenya. So far they have donated well over £11,000 - and I think I am pulling that figure from my head from sometime in the middle of last year, so it may well be much more. Father Vervenne has just received this email:
Any spelling or grammar errors, for a change, are not the webmaster's today and we do bear in mind that this priest's English is brilliant in comparison to the ones we might make in Swahili - if we knew it at all! We have not corrected it because we decided it would spoil the charm of the appeal. Father Vervenne is going to request a donation from Milford in this week's newsletter. He hopes that in spite of all the demands made on our pockets at this difficult time we will decide that those who have roofs will be generous to those who don't have one at all! April 12 Easter Sunday was among the best attended we have had for some time and there were many people up in the area behind the Altar. There were also many children present who were not too shy to go and collect the Easter Eggs offered by Father Vervenne. It has to be said that both in Milford and New Milton there were parishioners who talked hopefully of being in their second childhood and wondered whether that qualified them for the Cadbury's Cream Eggs. . . April 10th After a slow start the congregation gradually expanded for the Station of the Cross, led by Rev. Michael Welch on Good Friday and there were many Milford faces among those attending the traditional 3.00 pm service at Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton. April 9th A crowd of Eucharistic Ministers can be said to have thronged the Sanctuary at evening Mass on Maundy Thursday as they made the annual renewal of their vows at that beautiful celebration. April 7th Falling numbers in the parish had a marked effect on attendance at the Penitential Service this year. In the last twelve months not only has Milford lost a number of people who have we hope moved on to God's beautiful kingdom but quite a few have moved away from Milford to be near their children as they face increasing frailty. The number of housebound parishioners has also increased and it would be much appreciated if those who are prepared to commit themselves to serving the parish would volunteer as Eucharistic Ministers, particularly as far as taking Holy Communion to those people no longer able to physically attend Mass on Sundays is concerned. We are also looking for another volunteer to take responsibility for the Basics Bank. Pat Marshall has now reached 80 and would like to retire! April 5th The times of all the services for Easter are set out above. Palm Sunday Mass is at the usual time. Anyone who put their name down for the Chrism Mass at St. John's Cathedral on 7th April should be at St. Francis for the coach from New Milton which will stop to pick them up between 8.35 and 8.40. Our Penitential Service in preparation for Easter will be held that evening at 7.00 pm February & March 2009 This web site has been suffering this year due to a change of hardware at the keyboard face. We are sorry for the gap in news about St. Francis up to now. However, at the beginning of April we hope that things will now be back to normal. Rev. Michael has been conducting a series of Reflections on Lent at the church of Our Lady of Lourdes over the last six weeks. Although it was advertised both in the newsletters and as notices in the porch area, attendance from Milford was minimal. It may of course be that people from Milford attended the evenings at St. Dominic's. January 2009 January 30th In spite of - or perhaps because of - the economic gloom which has pervaded the start of this year, life has been quiet at St. Francis of Assisi apart from the festivities for the WPCU. Perhaps more of us should attend Mass and pray for our poor world and its people which together with the financial and climatic anxieties and the general ill-feeling between so many nations, notably between Israel and Gaza which flared up above all the other simmering intercountry relations this month. We can only look to God with any confidence of a cure.
January 19th Today St. Francis of Assisi hosted the opening service of this year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. All went very well until the recessional hymn: even with the help of good choral voices from all the churches, this approached a disaster. The organisers, who had prepared and worked so hard to put the service together, had missed the fact that the tune of the last hymn was known by few of the congregation. A suggestion will be put to the 'post mortem' meeting in February that in future we might ensure that a really well-known hymn which fits the theme of the service be chosen, whether or not it is the one suggested in the literature sent by Churches together in Britain and Ireland. There's nothing like a good rousing hymn for everyone to enjoy before leaving the Church for the celebration tea. . . which slipped down very well among those who visited the Maryland Room after the Service. Many thanks to those who did all the preparations.
JANUARY 2009 - WHERE THE NEW YEAR STARTED
December 2008 December 24th The hard work of getting the Christmas preparations, the decoration of our dear little church and the setting up of the Crib was all done in time and St. Francis of Assisi church looked lovely as Father Vervenne and the servers came down the steps at the end of the carol singing and the start of the celebration of the Mass. A change this year was that Paul Scarnell took responsibility for laying the Baby Jesus in the Manger, as Fr. Vervenne's recent major back surgery made it impossible for him to bend low enough and rise again to fulfil his traditional duty. Mass was, as usual, really well attended and Christmas came again . . . Deo gratias!
December 16th Penitential Service: this Service for Advent will be held at 7.00 pm on Tuesday 16th December. It is true that we have lost quite a few parishioners this year - some have moved house, usually for reasons of health where they have moved to be nearer their children as they become less sprightly than they were, others because the time finally arrived for them to move from this world to the next and with the care of our priest Fr. Vervenne, well prepared to make the journey. However, death can come at any time, between one minute and the next, and the chance of this lovely service is often neglected. The next time there will be a Penitential Service in our Church will be in Lent, so watch out for details.
December 12th Christmas preparations are well under way at St. Francis - collections of flower money, the Tree of Light, on which are hung the names of dear departed relatives and friends, the crib frame is being spruced up and the plan is to erect it on the Monday before Christmas as there will be no service in the Church until The First Mass of Christmas on Christmas Eve at 6.00 pm. Carols will be sung from 5.30 pm and for a real treat Mr. Bob Cook from Lymington will be playing the organ. Also under way are the preparations for the Week or Prayer for Christian Unity which starts with a service in St. Francis of Assisi followed by tea on Monday 19th January 2009. Help is requested in the way of help on the day to serve the teas and before the day to make cake and tidily cut sandwiches. Leah is taking charge of this as Sarah will be away the week-end immediately preceding the 'do'. The Homily will be preached by Rev. Mike, and it would be lovely to have a good strong representation from our parish as we are the host church this year. Christine Luxon, of All Saints' Church is the chief organiser of this occasion. We ourselves are in desperate need of another member of St. Francis church to share the work with Sarah on this kind of community ministry in Milford as Pat Marshall, who is getting on for 80 now, has decided to do less from now on. We also need a volunteer for help with Woman's World Day of Prayer which always takes place on the first Friday of March. We do not want to find ourselves in the position of being unable to help in both or either of these Ecumenical occasions in the future. There will be more on this subject as we go through the year. December 6th Grand Draw festivities were attended by only 18 people, and the amoun6t of money collected for the draw is roughly £400 down compared to last year. However, the party went very well; people enjoyed themselves and this year most of the prizes went to the people who had actually come to the party which was very nice. There are a few prizes left, including Lincoln's - he scooped a bottle of good Whisky and a bottle of wine. All that while he enjoys the Caribbean sun for a few months: Well done, Lincoln. The £100 first prize was won by Myrtle Watson. She was delighted and took the subsequent teasing of being our local millionairess with pleasure and much giggling. Congratulations to Myrtle! November 2008 November 28th Rev. Michael Welsh starts his run up to Christmas by starting his series of four evenings based on the liturgy of Advent today in New Milton. Parishioners from Milford are cordially invited to attend. We're getting to the end of selling tickets for the Draw and the social occasion where the tickets are drawn is set for Saturday, 6th December in the Maryland Room at noon. November 20th We welcome back Father Vervenne who returned from a holiday in the sun - which hopefully has restored him to 100% of his usual self - but which ended in an immediate return to work! Some of our parishioners in both Milford and New Milton will have learnt that Father Richard Saxon, who serves at St. Dominic's Priory, was laid low with a heart attack. He was transported very quickly to Southampton Coronary Unit which rose to the occasion and with the aid of a couple of stents, has been restored to pretty good health and returned to St. Dominic's to recover. Thank you, Lord, for the people you blessed with the intelligence to invent and put into operation these marvellous aids to health in our time! It has been nice to know that there is a Mass at 12 - 12.15 in the Priory, offered by Fr. Richard. Let's hope the opportunity will soon continue. November 16 Lincoln was still available to act as Sacristan in the absence of Paul Scarnell, who has now returned with Leah from Australia. Unfortunately an accident befell Paul while he was on holiday and he is somewhat crippled at the moment. Lincoln is about to go on a sunny holiday and will be back in the Spring - we wish him Bonnes Vacances! Sarah reminded everyone about the Grand Draw, which is somewhat lower than this time last year. It will be very understandable if the amount is less, but we can still hope! We are in need of more (exciting!) prizes. Think of what we ourselves might like to win: compare it to a possible speeding fine of £60 and be generous! We'd pay the fine, maybe with curses, but if we keep inside the speed limit we could afford to be generous and give more to our church in the way of a good prize - a bottle of champagne, an extra dollop of tickets or even a donation! We should like to take this opportunity of expressing our thanks to Father Peter for looking after us. November 9th Your webmaster was away and has nothing to say except thank you to Mgr Peter Ryan for agreeing to say Mass at St. Francis. November 6th This particular item and content is never written before the safe return from holiday of Fr. Vervenne, but he left today for his break in the sunshine and will return, God willing, on 20th November. October 2008 25th October
The civil wedding of Katarzyna and Marek Suliga took place in London in May and today they celebrated their wedding at a nuptial Mass in our church. It was due to take place at 1.00 pm but due to an unfortunate set of circumstances, mostly due to travel arrangements, the wedding party were late arrivals! Fr. Vervenne arrived at 12.30, thinking this was an ideal time so there would be no rush before the special Mass started. He waited, and waited and waited. . . . By 2.00 pm, having finally received news from the bride that there was a slight delay, and they hoped to be there in three-quarters of an hour, Fr. Vervenne went home for a late lunch.* It was obviously a day where time went wrong. Sarah was supposed to have arrived to see what a Polish wedding was like and afterwards to put things away and close the church after the wedding. Alas, she had not only forgotten about the wedding but fallen asleep, to be woken up by Norah at 3.00 saying that Fr. Vervenne was still waiting. She rushed to the church, to find a desultory group, mostly wearing black, standing around. outside the church. Sarah checked in then went back out to find out what was going on outside. Did the people there have any information? No, it appeared. They found enough English to tell Sarah they were only the musicians. They too were waiting. However, all ended happily as the Bride, Groom and the young Polish Jesuit priest from Stamford Hill arrived together from London and the short journey up the aisle started at 3.30 pm. Although the photographs Sarah took have been something of a disaster and we are unable to publish, we send Katarzyna and Marek our very best wishes and prayers for their future together. * 10th November: It appears that while the above describes the event at this end, there was a misunderstanding about the time, as it was intended that the wedding should be at 2.00 pm, not 1.00 pm. However, all ended happily and we are delighted to put a link to the wedding photographs. The bride and groom took a trip to our rocky shore for some pictures after the wedding on a very windy afternoon which makes for some very romantic pictures they will be able to enjoy in the future. [ Click here ] for the pictures. (Editor) 21st October (Part 2) For the most part October has been a quiet month, including the weather which has been beautiful. But the latter part of the month saw a little flurry of activity as the annual contest for the Bowling Cup (2nd Class)* was held at Bashley. Milford was very handicapped this year in that several of the more talented members of the team, Leah, Paul, David, Theresa and family, Michael and Jenny were either scattered around the globe, or in the case of Theresa, ill, in David's case - called in for emergency work, while their children are no longer mere and biddable school boys but grown up, students and not available. We managed nevertheless to put on a goodly team - matching Our Lady of Lourdes' team, in fact surpassing it by one. To the great disappointment of New Milton, the victory went yet again to Milford. We are beginning to feel embarrassed by this long string of victories and we think the time has come to extend our best wishes that it will be their turn next year! Everybody, however, had a wonderful evening: while the menu was the same as in previous years, the food was absolutely delicious. There being slightly less people altogether, we all had more 'go's and managed to mingle rather better than with a larger field on each side. Many thanks to Audrey Henegan who made all the arrangements. * '2nd Class' refers only to the size of the cup, which is very, very small. The quality and cachet are very, very large.
21st October The quiet spell should be broken this evening when a goodly team of 14 more or less stalwarts sets out yet again to do battle with Our Lady of Lourdes' Church in New Milton for the little silver cup which has been held by Milford now for several years. We probably ought to worry that such a state of affairs cannot last for ever - but I fear we are all riding high on a bit of hubris over this occasion! 12th October The Grand Draw has opened for this year when the target is £1000, though to be quite frank this might be somewhat on the hopeful side. We have lost four parishioners to Heaven this year - we continue in our optimism - and ten have moved to fresh fields, mostly moving nearer children as the years take their toll or just finding they are too frail to go to Mass in person any more. The loss of 14 people is pretty marked in an already small parish so it will be interesting to see how generous the remaining parishioners can be in this time of financial turmoil. It does appear that holidays rate rather higher than contributions to the church. It is hoped that each adult parishioner might be able to find a spare £10 between here and Christmas, roughly the cost of 2½ gallons of petrol or 2 lipsticks. Question of values, really . . . but if a warm church is what you fancy on a Sunday morning the bills have gone up for St. Francis as well as us personally.
September 2008 30th September This has been a very quiet month - even the weather has relaxed to give us the most settled period of the entire summer, although of course it is now autumn! Plans are afoot for future 'occasions': there is a Harvest Supper at New Milton to which we are invited if we would like to go. If you are interested please talk to Sarah. It's time again for the annual Bowling Competition between St. Francis of Assisi and Our Lady of Lourdes and this year it will take place three weeks earlier than usual on 21st October so prepared to be chivvied on arrival at Mass to enable us to raise a team capable of continuing our unblemished winning record! Several of our usual stalwarts will be away on holiday this year on the crucial date so if you wield a ball - which isn't very difficult because we're using a modern electric version and a surprising number of our older parishioners can bowl a good line and gain a strike. There is a list in the porch and the cost this year is £8.50. Please put the number of your meal choice in the relevant column. The other hardy annual Draw will be made on Sunday, 7th December at the Coffee Morning. The party has been abandoned because so few people are now willing to go out in the evening but there will be a choice of coffee, tea or sherry and hopefully some warm sausage rolls to liven up the proceedings. The aim this year is to raise £1,000. This will take some doing! One idea which has come up is that those people who make donations rather than buy tickets - or indeed as well as buying tickets! - give such donations under the Gift Aid Scheme, by which our church funds can gain something like a quarter more than the actual donation. This will be organised when Paul and Leah get back because it is Paul who organises the Gift Aid for us and it will mean signing a for, so stand by and remember every little helps to pay the gas and electricity bills to keep us warm at Sunday Mass in the winter! 1st September This day marks the ninth anniversary of Fr. Vervenne's appointment to be our Parish Priest of St. Francis of Assisi. We are grateful to God that we have been given a good priest who cares for us. We are also grateful to him for arranging things so that we were able to get to know each other as members of our Parish, where prior to Fr. Vervenne's arrival when we all went to different Masses, many of us had no idea who we all were! August 2008 27th August The funeral took place today at St. Francis of Assisi for Val (Dorothy Valentine) Culmer which was attended by family and many of her friends. The Requiem Mass was celebrated by Father Gerrit Vervenne, with Rev. Mike Welsh and Lincoln Chattee in attendance. 22nd August A Requiem Mass will be held for the repose of the soul of Val (Valentine) Culmer at St, Francis of Assisi Church at 10.00 am on Wednesday, 27th August. Mass will be followed by cremation at Bournemouth Crematorium. We offer our condolences to all Val's large family and many friends, by whom she will be very much missed. Her smile lighted the day for many people and that beautiful smile will be remembered with pleasure by all who knew her. May she rest in peace in God's lovely kingdom together with all those she knew and loved. 15th August
Val Culmer R.I.P. We are very sorry to let you all know that our dear Val Culmer died peacefully at home. All details regarding funeral arrangements will be printed as soon as they are known . At the moment it is hoped to be held on 27th August. 14th August Today is the 90th Birthday of Molly Woodford, a member of this parish for many years. This morning she attended the 10 o'clock Mass in New Milton which gave her enormous pleasure. She used to attend Mass every day but since losing her ability to drive in the last couple of years, she can only attend Mass on Sunday when neighbours bring her to St. Frances of Assisi. In the afternoon friends arranged for her to have a Birthday Tea party at home and our picture shows her blowing out her candles. She has a large supportive family and recently returned from a holiday in Ireland with one of her sisters, the trip being arranged by one of her nephews.
July 2008 July 2nd The Requiem Mass for the repose of the soul of Canon Dwyer took place in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton. A total of 2 Bishops - Bishop Crispian of Portsmouth Diocese and Bishop Peter Doyle of Northampton and 21 priests in all - concelebrated the Requiem Mass. Among the priests, of course, were those who minister to our own Pastoral area, Fr. Gerrit Vervenne and Fr. Jamie McGrath. Canon Dwyer's brother, who is also a priest was also present. In his retirement years, Canon Dwyer often said Mass at St. Francis when Father Vervenne - and formerly Fr. Dunn - were absent on holiday, which he always told us was 'a great pleasure'. As a headmaster in a school has to transfer his main work from teaching the children to supporting the staff, so a Canon's work frequently involves a move from parish work to pastoral care for the priests in his area. However in his days as a parish priest, Canon Dwyer built such a good rapport with his parishioners that many of them were present to say their farewells to this lovely priest whose holiness, gentleness, kindness and humour won him the love of those he served during the 68 years of his priesthood. We thank God for his life. We also offer our condolences to his family and to Nora, his housekeeper, who looked after him for very many years.
June 2008 June 27th Congratulations to Fr. Gerrit Vervenne from everyone in his parishes of Milford and New Milton as today he celebrates the 39th Anniversary of his Priesthood. June 24th Canon Timothy Dwyer died peacefully today in Lymington Hospital. We commend him to God his Father, whom he served so faithfully for so long. May he rest in the peace, light and happiness of the Kingdom God has promised to all of us. His Requiem Mass will take place at Our Lady of Lourdes, New Milton at 11.00 am on Wednesday 2nd July. June 1st Father Vervenne and Reverend Michael Welsh left New Milton after 8.00 am Mass today for a Pilgrimage to Lourdes organised by members of our sister church, Our Lady of Lourdes. with a sole representative from St. Francis of Assisi. It had seemed a good last year to make a pilgrimage to celebrate the 150th Anniversary of the visit of Our Lady to Lourdes, and it was! There is an account of the journey in the pages of www.newforestrcchurches.co.uk.
May 2008 25th May
On 25th May Charlotte Nicholls made her First Holy Communion at St. Francis Church in Milford. She arrived at the church under a see-through Queen-style umbrella bordered with white which protected her outfit from the rain. By the end of Mass the rain had stopped and by 11.30 the sun had come out at the close of the First Communion Mass for the five children at New Milton who were also making their First Holy Communion. It stayed for the parties afterwards which was a wonderful gift for the children, their admiring friends and families and everyone involved at both Churches. The children always look so sweet on these occasions and the prayers of both Parish communities will be with them. 18th May The second week of May - and a bit more - gave us all some beautiful weather, after which it collapsed. For this Sunday, when the New Forest Pastoral Area celebrated a Mass of Anointing for both ailing, frail and fit people at 3.00 pm, we were lucky as by the afternoon the sun was shining. Some people thought there were fewer people than at the previous Mass of Anointing but perhaps we should remember there have been several deaths among the congregations of the New Forest in the intervening years. Although there have been new arrivals in our churches, people still haven't quite got used to the idea that the Anointing Masses are also for well people. The newcomers tend to be fit - so far - and it is likely that many of them may have felt the particular occasion was not for them! For the moment at least. . . An excellent tea was served afterwards in the Church Hall. It is always such a pleasure to have these social occasions in the Parishes where people from all the Forest RC Churches can start getting to know each other. April 2008 April 27th Father Vervenne returned to full Parish duties today after his stay in the sun though buffeted by the wind. The cover arranged worked very well in his absence and this time our thanks are extended to include Mgr. Peter Ryan as well as to Father Richard Saksons. However, it is good to be back to usual patterns fpr both Milford and New Milton. April 25th The Requiem Mass for John Seery took place this morning at St. Francis, His body had lain overnight in the Church and on arrival was welcomed by many of his friends and family who had travelled from Ireland to celebrate the life of one of their dear relative who had endeared himself to his whole family during his life on earth. The Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr. Richard Saksons assisted by Reverend Michael Welch, who also gave the homily which was much appreciated by those who attended. April 24th After the angst and hassle of several months of poor health and all the work involved in the Christmas and Easter festivities which almost seemed to flow together this year, Father Vervenne has been recuperating in his usual haunt off the coast of Africa and he will be returning any minute now - give or take a day or so. We hope he will be in fine form to love and serve the Lord - and us, his parishioners who are very pleased to welcome him back! The cover arranged has been much appreciated and we offer our thanks to Father Richard Saksons from St Dominic's at Sway and Mgr. Peter Ryan from Lymington who have looked after us in Fr. Vervenne's absence. There was a Quizz at Our Lady of Lourdes this evening which was attended by some of the parishioners of St. Francis who sad to say, did not perform with their intermittent star quality. However, those who did attend had a lovely evening, which continued on their return to Milford-on-Sea. April 16th We are sorry to announce the the sudden death of John Joseph Seery on Wednesday, 16th April. He was a regular attender at Mass at St. Francis, and he will be missed by all those who knew him. We offer our condolences to his wife Mary, and our prayers for her comfort from the dear Lord in her loss. May John rest in the peace and light of God's wonderful kingdom. March 2008 March 22nd - Vigil Mass of Easter It was too cold to light the fire and bless the Pascal Candle outside and all was done at the back of the Church while the congregation waited in darkness. Soon light spread through the Church as the candles were lit from the Pascal Candle and the great Mass of Easter began. The silence of the bells from the Gloria of Maundy Thursday Mass was broken and the joy of Easter began. Because it was late there were few children to take up the Easter Egg gifts from Father Vervenne at the end of Mass but they were collected with glee after the daytime Masses at Milford and New Milton. We all wished each other a Happy and Joyous Easter after all the Masses. God bless us all in the coming year and from both churches we offer our thanks and appreciation for all the work done by Father Vervenne and Rev. Michael, who have served us well. Special thanks to Fr. Vervenne this year who has looked after us in the teeth of considerable pain. We thank the choir at New Milton and all those who work for and pray for the people in these joint parishes of St. Francis of Assisi and Our Lady of Lourdes. March 21st Good Friday. Our Deacon Michael Welch came to mark the Stations of the Cross at St. Francis of Assisi Church, after which many of our parishioners went over to the Green to witness the remembrance of Passion of Jesus with members of all the churches in Milford. We were blessed with sunny weather but with temperatures very much lower than last year. People snuggled up together and some felt we resembled the Emperor Penguins trying to keep warm while they looked after their eggs up to hatching in the Arctic winter night. It was a great celebration with all our brothers and sisters in Milford to mark the Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord. For many there, Easter had arrived, but many members of St. Francis travelled again to the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton for the traditional Good Friday afternoon Service. March 20th The lovely Mass of the Lord's Supper was held this evening at Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton. There seemed to be slightly fewer people present this evening which was probably due to the very cold and dark weather because of the exceptionally early Easter this year. The flowers were beautiful and the Mass, as always, a great highlight of the year. Father Vervenne seemed to copy very well under the strain of such a long celebration and he was certainly remembered in the prayers of his parishioners, quite of few of whom came from Milford and were included in the Readings and Prayers of the Mass. All Eucharist Ministers - or, if preferred - Extraordinary Ministers of the Eucharist - renewed their vows to God for the forthcoming year and agreed to meet again at the next Mass of the Lord's Supper. At the end of Mass, the altar was stripped, the Blessed Sacrament was taken to the Altar of Repose and several members stayed in adoration. We all awaited the joy of Easter March 18th Day of the Chrism Mass. Three people are going from Milford and they will be picked up in the coach at 8.38 am precisely! In the evening at 7.00 pm there is our Penitential Service in preparation for Easter.
March 16th Palm Sunday. There coffee will be served in the Maryland Room this morning after Mass.
March 14th A requiem Mass was said today for Jenny Hallé's father, Norman Anthony Davies. Jenny of course is one of our Eucharistic Ministers who will renew their vows at the evening Mass on Maundy Thursday. Norman is mourned by his daughter Jenny and her husband Michael, his four grandchildren Nicola, James, Zak and Jane and great-grandfather to Jasmine. Norman will now be united with his beloved Katie. May he rest in the peace and joy of God's heavenly Kingdom.
March 13th The Lenten Talks given by our Deacon, Rev. Michael, finish this evening. Although open to parishioners of Milford few people took the opportunity to go, which is a pity. Since our new grouping as a Pastoral Area and Milford and New Milton are paired there has been less and less contact between the two present parishes although we both share the pastoral care of Fr. Vervenne. The general excuse is a reluctance to go out at night, which is understandable in the case of more elderly members of the congregation. Perhaps car lifts might be arranged for the Advent talks at the other end of the year to give such parishioners a chance to expand their spiritual lives a bit further than Mass on Sunday. It's a thought anyway . . . However, listed above are the Easter services at New Milton and as well as being available in Milford at the back of our church, they are all listed on the yellow card circulated through all the houses in Milford, courtesy of All Saints' Church. As most of these take place at Our Lady of Lourdes we shall probably be there - at least for the daytime services.
March 8th Today Charlotte Nicholls made her First Confession in the company of the First Communion class at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton. Fr. Vervenne officiated. Posters were put up at St. Francis reminding parishioners that the Lenten Penitential Service will be held at 7.00 pm on Tuesday 18th March.
March 7th Today was Women's World Day of Prayer, which this year was celebrated in St. Francis of Assisi. Members of all the Milford Churches were present, about 70 in all and the collection which amounted to £202.72p was one of the highest the Milford WWDP committee has ever received. This we think was due to the insertion of Gift Aid envelopes in the prayer booklets. The national committee should be congratulated for an idea which met with success! Our local committee was rather dubious but we have definitely been proved wrong. In addition to the amount collected in Milford a further collection was made at St. Mary's Church in Everton - the amount hasn't been confirmed to us yet, but Sarah Bell, who led both services, told us that the collection plates looked well filled. The speaker at both Services was Sister Maria Natella OP. Refreshments were served afterwards in St. Francis and St. Mary's. The local Milford churches take it in turns each year to host the services, and St. Mary's in Everton has an evening service every year. The women of Guyana designed the service this year and next year it will be the responsibility of the women of Papua New Guinea.
2nd March Today is Mothering Sunday, which used to be known as Laetare Sunday, the 4th Sunday in Lent. The opening Antiphon for today's Mass starts with the invitation 'Rejoice, Jerusalem!' where the first Christian church, the Mother church, was built. The naming of the day as Mothering Sunday was in honour of this fact. Traditionally the Church was built on the site of the Room of the Last Supper and miraculously it survived the sacking of Jerusalem in 70 AD.
February 2008 February 28th As the painters seem to have omitted to paint the radiators in New Milton, the 10 o'clock Mass will continue at Milford for a third week which brings us to the Fifth Sunday in Lent. Palm Sunday this year falls on 16th March. A reminder that there is a list at the back of the church for those interested in going to the Chrism Mass on 18th March. There may still be a chance of a seat but anyone wishing to go may have left it too late now to join the coach. February 19th The Church of Our Lady of Lourdes starts its redecoration programme today and for the next two or three weeks, depending on the speed of the painters, 10 o'clock daily Mass will be held in St. Francis Church in Milford. It is hoped that given the chance to attend a weekday Mass during Lent will be snapped up by Milford parishioners. It is expected that New Milton daily regulars will make the effort to move over during this period. Stations of the Cross will be said on Friday mornings before Mass at 9.30. Everyone is welcome to take part in this traditional Lenten service. During Lent too there will be Vespers and Benediction in Lymington at 3.00 pm. Again all are welcome. This is a particularly welcome initiative for those who still miss the old days. . . Father Vervenne's progress is a mixture of two steps forward, one step back. We need to keep up the prayers, folks! Charlotte Nicholls has started preparation for her First Holy Communion on Sunday 25th May. She will be presenting a Bidding Prayer she has written on Sunday and enjoy the privilege of saying the Our Father at the altar. Please keep her in your prayers. She will make her First Confession on 8th March at New Milton. February 7th Rev. Michael will be starting his Lenten evenings at 7.00 today. They will take place every Thursday from today to 13th March, the week before the celebration Maundy Thursday There will be a list at the back of the Church on Sunday 9th February for names of those who would like to come to the Chrism Mass at Portsmouth Cathedral on Tuesday 18th March February 5th Father was back home today and has been warned he will need up to a couple of weeks for the treatment he received at hospital to take effect. Please pray for him. He will return to full-time work as soon as he is able. February 2nd Father Vervenne's trip to hospital is to take place on 4th February. He will be going in, armed with prayer for a successful procedure. Our Deacon Michael will be officiating at a Communion Service on Wednesday with distribution of the ashes. Father Richard Saksons will be saying the 10.00 am Mass at New Milton on that day. Incidentally, please note the correct spelling of his name! Something to be learned every day.
January 2008 January 31st January flew past with few fine days and much time spent getting inside out of the wind and rain, although yet again there was no snow. This year's Week of Prayer for Christian Unity saw many of our congregation at the main service, held this year in All Saints' and we played our part in the morning service held on the weekdays in the Methodist Church, the most centrally placed church in Milford and so the easiest for everyone to get to as they do their shopping. Alas, Father progress after the operation last August has run into a halt, indeed gone slightly backward and he was obliged to pay another visit to the hospital for more treatment. At the moment we are not quite sure when, but Rev. Michael has been most helpful to ensure we have Sunday Mass at Milford while Fr. Vervenne's movement is handicapped by his back problems. The month finished with a Women's World Day of Prayer fundraising event for which each church in Milford was asked to contribute 20 cakes. The request at St. Francis fell on deaf ears. We sent only one representative to the fundraising Tea and Slide Show about Guyana, whose women designed this year's service.. All somewhat embarrassing since St. Francis is the host church this year. It takes place at 2.30 pm on Friday 7th March, and we are providing tea and sandwiches, for which we have a great reputation. Let's hope the tradition will be continued this year!
Here ends 2007AD and we herald the dawn of 2008 AD
December 2007
December 24th The First Mass of Christmas was said by Fr. Vervenne for a crowded church. Pippa Judson made her debut as organist, for which everybody was most grateful and the singing was a great success. Thank you, Pippa, for all your hard work. At this point it would also be appropriate to thank our Deacon, Rev Mike Welsh, whose help over the period of Fr. Vervenne's absence has been invaluable in keeping both Parishes running smoothly during Fr. Vervenne's absence. December 23rd 4th Sunday of Advent - Father Vervenne returned to say Mass for us on this Sunday. At this point we should like to take the opportunity of thanking Father Richard Saxon for his kindness in taking the place of Fr. Vervenne to say Mass for us since Fr. Vervenne went to hospital on 29th August. Fr. Richard's care of us at St. Francis Church has been very much appreciated by all the parishioners.. December 18th The Advent Penitential Service will be held at St. Francis on Tuesday 18th December at 7.00 pm December 12th Anne Chatee's Requiem Mass was celebrated by Fr. Vervenne December 11th Grand Draw party in the Maryland Room - Tickets £4 December 9th Today was the last day for buying Grand Draw Tickets.
The Total achieved for the Grand Draw this year is a
profit of £807.00 for St. Francis Church Funds, after having paid
December 2nd - First Sunday of Advent
November 2007 November 29th The month has passed at great speed and it is hard to think we are at the end and already on the edge of Advent. We are very fortunate that Father Richard has continued to look after us on Sundays and will go on doing so wherever he can till things return to normal. Fr. Vervenne will not by allowed by his medical advisers to return to the four-Mass weekend until they give their permission although he does now say Mass on weekdays at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in New Milton and one or two for Sunday. We are very grateful to Fr, Richard for coming to our rescue: Thank you, Father! November 2nd - All Souls' Day Father Vervenne reappeared at the Altar this where, ably assisted by our dear deacon, Reverend Michael, he said Mass. This was much to the pleasure of a pretty full congregation. We do realise that Father Vervenne will still be taking things easy for the time being and we don't expect him to say Mass again for us till further on in his convalescence. We all thank him and wish him well - very well and very soon!
October 2007 The month ended with a bang at the Bowling Competition between St. Francis' Church and Our Lady of Lourdes at New Milton. For the first time since his operation, Father Vervenne rejoined his parishioners for a while during the evening and presented the prizes at the end of the match. There were a couple of sour notes among the competitors for the first time, since it was ruled, but not advertised to both teams, the the usual reward for a 'strike' - namely an additional turn by the player was not going to be played. Nobody in the Milford Team knew about this and played the regular way. There were in fact only one or two strikes anyway, but the game on our side proceeded normally. According to the scorer for the New Milton team, Milford had cheated! The scores were adjusted downward for Milford, but they managed to come out top after the first session. There was a very indignant air about the team as they would never, ever have cheated, particularly as the machines worked the same whether or not the 'strikers' got an extra go! It was also unfortunate the each team was marked by a member of their own side. This may have to be considered next year. The overall winners of the Cup for 2007 were the Milford Team, but in truth all ended winners as we had a lovely evening. Many thanks to Audrey Henegan for organising the competition, and thanks to the Bashley Chef and staff who produced an excellent meal for us - undoubtedly the best since the setting up of the Competition.
September 2007 In the absence of Father Vervenne we have been given a gift in the shape of Fr. Richard Saksons, who says Mass at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in New Milton on Wednesday and Friday at 10.00 am, and at the usual times on Saturday and Sunday. He says Mass for us in Milford at 9.15 on Sunday morning. Father Richard is based at St. Dominic's Priory. 11th September Father Vervenne is now itching to get home again and hopes to be back in New Milton very soon. His recovery has been amazing, undoubtedly due primarily to serious prayer which was then backed by his own optimism and indomitable determination. Please keep the prayers going until he is fully restored to health. 7th September There has been some improvement in Father Vervenne's condition but prayers are still a necessary part of his medication to ensure the improvement continues and that he will be returned to full health.
Monday 2nd September Your prayers are urgently requested for the
recovery of our
August 2007 29 August Today Father went into hospital for back surgery. We all wish him well and hope he will have a speedy recovery. 17th August
Sarah arrives to marry Peter accompanied by her father and attendants . The marriage of Sarah Louise Paine and Peter Martin Omura took place this afternoon at St. Francis in one of the biggest weddings at the church for some time. An array of guests from all over the world were there to cheer them on, all looking beautiful in their wedding outfits - well, perhaps the men looked rather more dignified and handsome than beautiful! The officiating priest of course was Father Gerrit Vervenne, Mr. Bob Cooke played the organ and the solo, Schubert's 'Ave Maria' was sung by Pippa Judson. May Peter and Sarah live happily ever after with the blessings of the Lord to keep them company.
July 2007 This month one of our longer serving parishioners, John Murphy, died very suddenly. He had suffered a stroke earlier in the year but had made a good recovered and had been back at church for several weeks. A quiet but friendly man, he had looked after the collection plate for many years. His gentle smile will be missed at St. Francis. May he rest in peace. A Requiem Mass, which was attended by his children, was held on 25th July The Coffee mornings, on first and third Sunday of the month have fallen into a regular pattern, though the numbers have dropped a bit during the summer when so many are away on holiday. Few of the visitors join us for coffee though. It might be an idea to have some general invitations made to offer visitors when they are welcomed on the relevant Sundays. The Christmas Draw tickets are now available. Unfortunately they are again in books of ten, so flex your writing hand to fill in your name and phone numbers ad nauseam! Good prizes would also be appreciated. Please, NO out of date goods. In the case of chocolates and biscuits particularly, it is always disappointing for a winner to find out that what they have won is inedible! Father Vervenne's back is getting much worse and giving cause for concern. Please remember him in your prayers.
June 2007 June 29th The day dawned wet and stormy, although by the time those who attended Mass were ready to leave the sun had come out to brighten the morning. The small incident of the lights failing at the Offertory was smoothly handled by a combination of Father Vervenne and Bobby Cowdell. As the lights came on again, Father explained with a big smile, "Priests know everything!" and a voice from the congregation was faintly heard announcing "And there was light. . ." before it tailed off. June 27th Today was the 38th Anniversary of the Ordination of Father Vervenne, and he can celebrate it knowing that he has the love and gratitude of his parishioners in both Milford at St. Francis of Assisi and in New Milton at the church of Our Lady of Lourdes. June 20th The funeral took place today of Harry Batty, who died earlier this month. June 17th We learnt today that Lincoln Chatee's wife, Ann, is not well, and prayers for her are requested from members of the Parish. A special Mass will be offered for her on Sunday 1st July. June 10th Today Thomas made his first Holy Communion surrounded by many family and friends. Sister Charlotte looked on thinking 'Next year, it will be my turn' and everything went very smoothly except for the lighting of Tom's original Baptismal Candle, which stubbornly refused to stay alight! As Fr. Vervenne explained, one light-up in 8 years wasn't enough. However, a junior candle came to the rescue, and with Tom managing successfully to hold both together, everything looked perfect, as can be seen in the picture.
While it will be his sister's turn next year, this year Tom was very keen to share the limelight with his friends!
Tom and some of his friends: Everyone in the congregation - many of whom were visitors - enjoyed the Celebration and the beautiful sound of Panis Angelicus sung by Monica Young and Colin Craig.
June 8th We heard the news of the sudden death on Friday morning of Harry Batty who suffered a major stroke on Wednesday night. He will now be reunited with his dear wife Ena, who died a few years ago. His funeral has been arranged for Wednesday, 20th June, at 11.00 am in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi, Milford-on-Sea. Harry will be very much missed by his many friends. May he now be enjoying the light and happiness of God's kingdom.
May 2007
April 2007 April 27th One of Peter Marriott's fun Quizzes was arranged for yesterday evening. Seven tables of eager contestants did battle with questions culled from the 'Who Wants to be a Millionaire' manual, an indispensable item in Peter's battery. The evening was a lot of fun, and lightened by the sudden arrival of Fr. Vervenne, looking bronzed and fit after his holiday. Unfortunately, that was only the outside. The inside was not good, and the back problems have returned with a vengeance. As 100 yards is the maximum that can be walked anywhere at the moment Fr. Vervenne's life is a bit restricted but he was back at the altar this morning to say Mass for us. Prayers on his behalf should be addressed to St. Luke! April 12th In Father Vervenne's absence we welcome Monsignori Jeremy Garratt and Peter Ryan who will cover the Sunday Masses in both Milford and New Milton. We are very grateful for their kindness in agreeing to look after us all. April 7th and 8th The Vigil Mass of Easter, on a beautiful fine evening, offered members of both parishes the chance to take part in the Readings, the singing was lovely and everyone present experienced the joy of celebrating Easter together. There was a Mass the following morning in New Milton at 8.00 am, one in Milford at 9.15 am and another one at 10.30 am in New Milton. Finally time for Father Vervenne to relax! He said he reckoned there were in both parishes a total of roughly 750 people this year at the Easter Masses. April 6th Good Friday: The Stations of the Cross were said by Rev. Michael at Milford and the service was well supported by the Parish. The main service of Good Friday was held in New Milton and many people from Milford were there. April 5th Maundy Thursday: At this lovely Mass the Eucharistic Ministers renewed their promises, and the Church in New Milton was full of flowers and people. April 3rd A coachload of parishioners from New Milton and Milford went to Portsmouth Cathedral to be present at the Chrism Mass, one of the wonders of Holy Week. The weather was dry, but a bit chilly and most of us stayed on the coach to eat our packed lunches after the Mass. In the evening Father Vervenne came over from New Milton for our Penitential Service where there were a lot more people than usual. Elsa kindly played the organ for us and the singing was good. April 1st Palm Sunday, and the arrival of Spring as the clocks changed overnight. Poor Father Vervenne just managed the timing, with the very long Gospel of the events of the Passion, to get over to New Milton for their 10.30 am Mass, having already said Mass at 8.00 before coming to Milford. This is definitely one of the downsides of sharing our Parish Priest: there isn't any time to sing hymns on such occasions.
March 2007 March 22nd Rev. Michael continued his series of Six Lenten talks on Thursday evenings at New Milton. It would be nice next time - well, in Advent - to see a higher attendance from Milford. Talking of attendance from Milford, there will be a 'Quizz' Evening at New Milton on Thursday 26th April at 7.15. March 14th Representatives from St. Francis of Assisi met those from the other four parishes now included in the NEW FOREST Larger Pastoral Area (LPA) at the Inaugural Meeting held in the presence of the Rt. Rev. Crispian Hollis, Bishop of Portsmouth in the Parish Hall in Lymington. A rather generalised meeting, the report will be posted at a later date in the LPA website at www.newforestrcchurches.co.uk March 2nd Women's World Day of Prayer, this year prepared by the ladies of from Paraguay. The main service was hosted this year by our Baptist friends, who served a delicious and generous tea for us afterwards. As usual all the churches contributed to the Morning Prayers held in the Methodist Church in the village. It is always a real pleasure to find all the churches working together with such good will and friendship.
February 2007 February 25th A 'raise hand vote' was taken at Mass this morning regarding the proposed erection of yet another memorial to the war dead in Milford, this time on The Green. This is in addition to one at All Saints, one at Keyhaven and an entire War Memorial Hospital in Sea Road. From the front it looked as though about half the congregation voted in favour, from the back more like one-third. It is hoped this will be reflected in the report to the Parish Council. February 24th Today was Father Dunne's 83rd birthday, and he continues to live in his little bungalow in Ashley. His health is not what it used to be, alas one of the penalties of outliving the 'three score years and ten, or eighty for the stronger ones' referred to in the Scriptures. He sent messages of love and thanks to those who still remember him and apologises for no longer being able to write thank you letters. He assured the editor he often thinks of those he knew and prays for them.
February 5th - 9th Unfortunately for those who attend Mass at New Milton on the weekdays, by Monday Father Vervenne was confined to bed with a mysterious 'lurgy', which meant that he missed some celebrations to mark his 65th Birthday which occurred on 9th February. As the days passed, marked by Communion Services at Our Lady of Lourdes instead of Mass, by Thursday the parishioners together made a joint prayer that Father Vervenne would be better enough to celebrate Mass on his Big Birthday. Thankfully our prayers were answered and he did recover enough to offer Mass on Friday morning and enjoy the singing of his parishioners to 'Happy Birthday' after Mass. Milford presented the birthday card - which had been carefully prepared earlier - and signed by those who attended Mass on Sunday 4th February. It is understood Father Vervenne does feel much better even today - 11th February - and that he will be really well enough to enjoy the party which is being arranged after the 10.30 am Mass at New Milton on Sunday, which is also the Patronal Feast Day of the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes. Milford and St. Francis of Assisi send their best wishes to the Parishioners of Our Lady of Lourdes on this occasion. February 4th Mass as usual on Sunday, after the Saturday which saw the start of preparation in New Milton at Our Lady of Lourdes Church by the children who are making their First Communion this year. A card being prepared to give Father Vervenne on 9th February was signed by as many parishioners as came to Mass on that Sunday, plus a few more people. As it was being signed under his nose Father gamely pretended not to notice as he arrived to take Mass.
January 1 - 31 January was odd this year: it arrived well out of kilter with the normal calendar, and all this can be blamed on the fact that Christmas, due to the vaguely infinitesmally short 4th Week of Advent which overlapped with Christmas Eve. Fortunately it terminated in February, where some things did happen . . . STOP! This isn't right: the Week of Prayer for Church Unity took place in January, and this year it took place in the Baptist Church. The opening service was held on 22nd January at 2.00, and this year's theme was a call to be aware to other people's problems and difficulties. Father Vervenne drove over from New Milton to be there which was much appreciated by the Baptists and all who were there. Of course he always has to do a double duty on these occasions! The service at the Baptist Church was well attended in spite of the cold weather and the generous and thoughtful flavour of the service, led by Rev. Eric Parker and with a moving Reflection given by Rev. Barbara Jeffries of the Methodist Church, was well received. The service was followed by a really lovely tea prepared by the ladies of the Baptist community with a little help from our church by way of little 'hand' biscuits which echoed the post for the occasion. Every day from Monday to Friday there was a short service held at 10.00 am in the Methodist Church in the High Street which were very much appreciated by those who attended. The short services were designed by each of the churches in Milford and by St. Mary's in Everton.
NOW WE WELCOME JANUARY 2007
HERE ENDETH THE YEAR OF OUR LORD 2006
December 26th
Midnight Mass seemed even fuller than usual and there were many more children than we have seen in recent years which was a real pleasure. The crib looked great but with such lovely figures it could hardly look any other way. Nothing fell off that might have done and the light worked pretty well - not perfect, but next year, as usual, it will be better! The flowers on the window ledges were mainly red and white and with the green holly and ivy looked very Christmassy . The big floral arrangements were muted in yellow and cream with brown chyrsanthemums and green anthuriums. The unifying touch there was provided by festive foliage, very tasteful. Elsa was on loan from New Milton to play the organ and the congregation sang the old carols with something approaching gusto! Father Vervenne wished everyone a Happy Christmas as the congregation left the church on a damp, chilly Christmas night while the few smokers grabbed the first opportunity of renewing their acquaintance with their possibly Irish friend, Nick O'Theene. December 9th Today was the day of the draw and fortunately the weather was relatively dry for the first part of the day - the bit that mattered! To the accompaniment of eating and drinking, Father Vervenne started drawing the winners from a bag of well over 3,000 neatly folded tickets. There were 53 prizes varying in size from a modest bottle of body lotion and a festive tartan tea-towel via a litre of Gin and a ditto of Scotch not to mention a bottle of Jack Daniels to the top prize of £100. It is not easy to call to mind the names of the winners of the more modest prizes but the popular winner of the £100 was Barbara Mills whose regular Sunday duty is to organise the people who take up the bread and wine at the Offertory. What was noticed was that a holy book went to a couple who might need such a gift, a copy of Nigella's cookery book went to a retired chef and the only soft toy went to Anne Todd who was desperate to win it - wasn't that lovely? It all panned out very nicely. The total so far - it would be cool if just another £10 could appear as a donation - the total presented to St. Francis of Assisi Church funds so far is £790.44 - which is the figure after the £100 has been taken out plus the £60 for the cost of the tickets, which was funded by a parishioner and £12 towards the cost of the Grand Draw Party.
December 2006
The First Sunday of Advent sees another Coffee Morning: on show will be the prizes to be won at the Draw to be held next Saturday morning (9th December) at Noon, which might encourage a bit more buying of tickets. . .we'll see! November 2006 November 28th The funeral of Anne Scarnell took place at the Church of St. Francis of Assisi in Milford at 11.30 on Monday, November 27th, 2006. November 26th Sadly the decision had to be taken to cancel the proposed Grand Draw Supper on 9th December. It appears that perhaps this date interfered with too many other pre-Christmas parties! Instead, the Draw will take place at Noon on Saturday 9th December (the same day). All are welcome but it will be simply 'The Draw'. A list of Prizewinners will be posted in the Porch when it is done. The good news is that those who supported the Grand Draw have raised so far £749, which will be added to Church Funds. This figure may rise when-and-if possible donations arrive - some have been promised! Generally the support has been very good. There is, however, a downside: holding a Draw did mean that many less people were involved. St. Francis Church may well have garnered a profit to help with the running costs of the Church, but the social aspect has been a miserable failure. A voice was overheard at one of the recent Coffee Mornings asking plaintively 'Why is this happening?' when help was asked for the running of the Draw and providing food for the now-cancelled party. Why? Why? Because it helps to weld the Parish together in Community, which is what we are supposed to be. We are not called just to come the Mass on Sundays and forget the Church and fellow Christians for the rest of the week! We are put here on this earth to make relationships. If we fail to do this, and there is no shopping and acquiring nice things in Heaven, it's going to be very boring there if we haven't learnt to get along well with each other, because that's all there is to being there. . . Except of course the huge bonus of the Trinity, which includes Jesus whose birthday we are about to celebrate, the Saints, the Angels and our relatives and friends who stayed faithful together with lots of new and interesting people to meet and make friends with. November 19th
We offer our condolences and sympathy to Paul, her husband, to her children, Hilary, Pauline and Will, her grandchildren and to all her family and friends. November 14th
A new cup was awarded this year, to be known as the
Inter-Parish Cup, which can be awarded as required, no engraving to be done but
certificates recording the relevant victory to be awarded to the winning team.
November 1st Fr. Vervenne said Mass for the Parish this morning at 9.00 am. Some at the front thought very few people had come to Mass this morning, but they obviously hadn't seen the larger numbers who stayed at the back. Attendance was pretty much as usual. The main high point of the day was the celebration at St. Dominic's Priory to mark Sister Hyacinthe's Final Profession. One of her uncles had the pleasure of proclaiming that by marriage he was now 'uncle-in-law of Jesus'! Many of her family and friends came over from France and far-flung parts of the UK for Sister Hyacinthe's big day, and their great pleasure for her and for themselves at the All Saints' Mass of Celebration was evident to everyone there. The speeches were handled with traditional French aplomb - the French spoke French and the celebrant at the Mass, also French, Fr. Henry Donneaud with Sr. Hyacinthe, valiantly translated into English as the speeches progressed. Congratulations to Sister Hyacinthe on the occasion of her Final Profession and may all the Saints of today and the last two millennia and a bit, together with Our Lady, pray for her in her new role, and we commend Sr. Hyacinthe to her - and to our - good Lord.
(Our photographer is extremely sorry to have missed the
opportunity of taking the photograph of the day but hopes to remedy this
tomorrow.)
October 2006 29th October
His parents, Nicolas and Amanda Le Magoariel, live in Poissy, near Paris, and celebrated their wedding in St. Francis Church on 15th October last year. Now Peter and Mayve will have an even better excuse to visit our nearest European neighbour. . .oh, lucky people!
27th October Today we welcome back Father Vervenne after a successful holiday in the Canaries with temperatures in the nineties - much hotter than average: Global Warming is not just restricted to England in the Summer of 2006! Things will now get back to normal and hopefully the rise of the funds for the Grand Draw will increase. Maybe Donations will take over as tickets come to the end, although there are quite a few books of tickets left. Today the fund stands at £636, from which the £100 First Prize will be taken. It is hoped that during this week a date will be decided for the Draw Christmas Party in the Maryland Room, which will be ticketed and take the form of Wine or Soft Drinks where delicious nibbles will also be served. 14th October Again a well-attended Coffee Morning where the library still seems to be going well. Monsignor Peter Ryan said Mass for us this morning for which we were very grateful. The shortage of priests is definitely getting closer and more painful. In the Newsletter of 15th October there is a message from Canon Dwyer, who will be 92 in January next, and which is reproduced below:
4th October Patronal Feast day of St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milford. Father Vervenne moved Mass from Our Lady of Lourdes to Milford, so although there should have been lots more people at St. Francis it didn't quite work out like that. . . All things considered, the singing was quite impressive - is that the word? The first hymn, 'All Creatures of Our God and King' was 7 verses plus refrains. The congregation all waited hopefully as verse came after verse for a signal that the current one might be the last, especially as the CD had a rather long pause between the music for each verse. But no, there was no relief. We struggled nobly on to the last verse while it was suspected that Father Vervenne might be mildly amused at our efforts. We all thanked God the remaining hymns were shorter! 1st October The Coffee morning was well-attended this morning, and people are generally tending to stay longer. A lot of chat goes on and friendship is growing in the Parish - which is a lovely thing! We missed our young helper Theodore who obviously had other business with his family as he left promptly after Mass. We look forward to seeing him back on duty again at the next coffee morning, which will not be until 5th November. Return of tickets plus cash is continuing gently. Single members of the congregation are being very good about taking their £10 of tickets, but it has to be pointed out that married couples are also taking £10 - per couple. It was originally requested that to meet the general income from the Christmas Fair of earlier years £10 per individual was the target!
September 2006 30th September We have come to the end of the month when things did happen, but appeared to go by so fast the webmaster failed to get things written down. She has made a firm resolve to try to keep up to date in future, but it should go on record that this particular little note is being written on the Feast of St. Luke, a day, it must be said, that for anyone wanting to celebrate Mass was difficult to find today. The shortage of priests is beginning to strike home. . . September 5th It is 7 years today that Father Vervenne said his first Sunday Mass for us after having officially taken charge of us at the beginning of September. We owe him a debt of thanks that under his care the parish of St. Francis of Assisi has regained a lot of the vitality of former years, and now we have the children coming back to Mass, hopefully we can continue to increase our vitality. Thank you, Father Vervenne! September 3rd At the end of Mass this morning Father Vervenne expressed the hope that there might be 'a lot of new faces' at the Coffee Morning, especially if they 'brought their bodies along with them'. And there were! There was a larger number of people at Mass this morning than usual, and lots more children and young people, which is always a pleasure. It had looked very autumnal when we all set out for Mass this morning but the view through our home windows was deceptive as the weather turned out to be surprisingly mild. Several of the younger children, led by Theodore Swift, helped clear away the coffee cups and plates, but Pat Marshall was having something of an uphill task finding volunteers to help at the next coffee morning. Perhaps we all need to remember the old proverb about many hands making light work. There have been new people coming to the aid of the Coffee Mornings since the second one per month was introduced both to drink and help, and people do seem to enjoy them, as the Maryland Room was still open after 10.30. It's just that we need a few more on the helping side!
August 2006 August 30th The Grand Draw so far has raised £212. Built in expenses at this point are in the region of £250, which includes the £100 for the First Prize. Detailed figures will be available shortly. However, there's plenty of time to go yet and we're doing well so far. Married couples who have mainly committed themselves so far to £10-worth of tickets between them still have plenty of time to reach the target of £10 minimum per person to raise an amount comparable to what was previously earned at past Christmas Fairs. If we want to go on finding our church warm and welcoming with the new increased prices for heating and electricity we will definitely need to finance it! Have you seen your own bills at the moment? They're HUGE! August 26th
We wish Edward and Sylwia every blessing in their life together, which we hope will be a long and happy one.
July 2006 July 30th The Grand Draw was launched this morning after Sunday Mass. The introduction to the Draw pointed out that to make it a success we must sell at least enough tickets to make £800, and that will immediately sink to below £600 because the printing of the tickets and the licence to hold the Draw actually cost more than £200. So we really need to aim at £1000 minimum. This works out at a contribution of £10 each of all those people who go to Mass on Sundays - including the smallest ones! The least painful way of doing this is by buying the books in dribs and drabs, £1 a book, a fiver for 5 and so on. Parishioners need to think what they used to spend at Christmas fairs and put in at least that much.
We will also need really good prizes - so dear people, please put your hands in your pockets and be generous! 29th July
CONGRATULATIONS TO MATTHEW AND SARAH DIETZ
We all wish them a long and happy life together Mass this morning in New Milton was said by Canon Dwyer because Father Vervenne was back in his old parish in Southampton to say the Requiem Mass for Jean, the mother of Sister Maria. Both she and Sister Maria had been Father Vervenne's parishioners for many years before he left the Church of the Holy Family in Southampton to heading westwards to New Milton. We send our sympathy to Sister Maria and our prayers that her mother Jean may rest in great happiness in the peace and joy of God's beautiful kingdom. On the same day, in the evening, Bishop Crispian came to Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton to confirm 26 members of Catholic Churches in the New Forest. Congratulations to all who received the Sacrament of Confirmation. Let us all pray for the members of our parishes that now they have been confirmed in their Faith they will be filled with the Holy Spirit and so find themselves able and happy to help in the upbuilding of God's Kingdom on earth.
June 2006 27th June Father Vervenne very quietly celebrated the 37th Anniversary of his Ordination as a priest. Both his parishes will say a prayer of thanks that he is our parish priest, especially Milford since he was kind enough to rescue us when we were a little flock without a shepherd and in danger of being left stranded between two parishes. 23rd June It seems that with New Milton, of course, and Lymington, Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst, we are to be known collectively by the Diocese as LPA 19...officially, but perhaps for every day we might discuss the possibility of being known as something which would register with the world at large as something like 'New Forest - Central and East'. Ideas please to Father Vervenne and Father Jamie McGrath at Lymington! On 27th June, Father Vervenne will be celebrating the 37th Anniversary of his Ordination as a priest, for which we are all thankful. May God bless him, keep him safe for us, and grant him a good long working life! On 7th July, the Sacrament of Confirmation will take place at Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton at 7.00 pm. Bishop Crispian will officiate. 11th June 2006
Jennifer entertains friends and family after making her
First Holy Communion This morning's Mass was a celebratory one to mark Jennifer's First Holy Communion, and it was quite a family affair! Sisters Kate and Rebecca served on the Altar and Kate also did the Reading. Many parishioners joined them after Mass in the Maryland Room for Buck's Fizz, sherry or coffee and extremely delicious nibbles. June 4th This was a notable day in the history of the Parish of St. Francis of Assisi, when for the first time Holy Communion was received under two kinds. We welcomed four new Ministers of the Eucharist: Rita Ford, Anthony Kirke, Helen Lister and Rosalie Mans. For the first two weeks, today and 11th June, the Chalice will be offered to the communicants in turn by these new ministers, since they are, at the moment, the only ones who know how to proceed. The EMs of longer standing were given a lesson on how to deal with presenting the Blood of Christ after Mass this morning, and will be taking their turn in due course. The Coffee Morning was a good reflection of the congregation, which as often at this time of year was well attended. When the weather's good Milford gets a lot of impromptu visitors as well as regular holiday-makers. It would be nice if more of the visitors were brave enough to come down to the Maryland Room to meet the locals for coffee. . . it's a very good way for visitors to discover the best eating and drinking venues in the area!
May 2006 May 29th PENTECOST Today we have officially received the news that the group of parishes we worked to hard to achieve has been agreed by the Portsmouth Diocese. In place of the former New Forest Deanery, we now belong to a grouping, smaller than a Deanery but larger than a single parish, now called a 'Larger Pastoral Area'. For ease of conversation they are now becoming known as LPAs. Milford and New Milton are now included with Lymington, Lyndhurst and Brockenhurst. We are delighted, but the rejoicing has to be tempered in the knowledge that not all Parishes are as so happy with the groupings in which they now find themselves, and to them we offer our sympathy and prayers. May 22nd
The latest Social Meeting, chaired by Lincoln Chatee, was
held to run almost in tandem with the after-Mass Sunday Coffee Morning. We
did get much better attendance and there were several plans confirmed. The
first, of course, would be the
A recently recovered Di Mussert is organising a Cream Tea in the Maryland Room on the afternoon of 17th June - time displayed in the church This is in aid of Breast Cancer Charity Aviva.. There will be a Quiz Evening run on 16th July by Daphne Jones assisted by Gretchen Naylor, tickets at £3.50 to include a cheese supper and a complimentary glass of wine. August will give everyone a breather till the air freshens up in September when we shall be offering a Bingo Evening with Fish and Chips. Come the winds and rains of October, there will be Spider Drive with tea and cake. The arrangements for that will be posted as soon as they are available, but it is expected to be some time in early September in the afternoon. Watch the notices on the Glass Door into the Church, and anywhere else you might see something interesting posted! 19th May Sybil Elmslie died recently in hospital following a fall and her funeral takes place today. The Requiem Mass will be at New Milton at 10.00 am. Although Sybil moved to New Milton some years ago, much of her active church life was spent in the Parish of Milford during the time she lived at Everton. She is survived by a niece, Mary Elmslie. May Sybil rest in peace in the glory of God's kingdom. This coming Sunday sees the start of the Third Sunday Coffee Morning. It is hoped everyone in the parish will support it well. 18th May Father Vervenne returned from a working break in Holland where among other things he had the pleasure of baptizing a little niece. We thank Canon Dwyer for looking after us in his absence, and welcome the return of Father Vervenne. 4th May Our thanks to Canon Dwyer who stepped in to look after both parishes while Father Vervenne took a rest from his duties after a busy Easter period marked by several baptisms and also funerals. In case of emergency, Canon Dwyer can be reached on 01425 612271. Father Vervenne returned in time for the bi-Annual 'Quizz', open to both parishes and thoroughly enjoyed by everyone. Peter Marriot, who also set the questions, was his usual very entertaining self as he compèred the evening. There were not as many contestants as usual from Milford but those who came did avoid the bottom rung! The outright winners by a single point was a table peopled entirely by New Milton parishioners, who were delighted with their success as were all those from Our Lady of Lourdes. The Milford lot were good sports and resisted the temptation to boo anything!
April 2006 April 19th Philip's funeral will take place at a Requiem Mass in St. Francis of Assisi on Monday next, 24th April, at 10.00 am. April 15th & 16th The Easter Vigil Mass at New Milton was attended by many people from Milford, some of whom this year were invited to take a share in the Bidding Prayers, which was much appreciated. Since the major services of the great Festivals of Easter and Christmas are shared in one place by both parishes, they were pleased to be able to actively partake in the service. The Sunday morning Mass at Milford was attended by so many that there were people up on the raised area behind the altar and we ran out of hymn books! April 14th The Penitential Service was well enough attended: it is good to know we are blessed with so many saintly people in our parish! The Stations on Good Friday were led by our Deacon, Mike Welch. Many of our Parish were also present at the Celebration of the Crucifixion at 3.00 in the afternoon on Good Friday, who had also been present at the Witness on the Green earlier in the day. April 13th The Mass of Maundy Thursday took place in New Milton at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, where Eucharistic Ministers renewed their vows to serve the local communities of God's people. April 13th The death occurred today of Philip Caswell, who with his wife Joan was a pillar of St. Francis of Assisi Parish until his debilitating illness. We offer our sympathy and love to Joan, and our prayers to God that he will welcome Philip into his kingdom of happiness and peace. The date of his funeral will be announced. 9th April At a Meeting of the Social Committee, chaired by Lincoln Chatee and held after Mass, two decisions were made by a reasonably well-attended group of parishioners: It was decided that there should be two coffee mornings a month instead of just one, which is an excellent idea since the spirit of friendliness in the Parish has really benefited from these meetings. The second was that the whole Parish should have a little 'jolly' after Mass to celebrate First Holy Communions. This year it will take place on Sunday 11th June. It would be excellent if we could find a few more people willing to help with these events, so that the onus for them do not fall exclusively on the same people and we could have a rota. Notices will be put up asking for this help soon. April 6th A Requiem Mass for Clarence Thompson will take place on Friday, 7th April at Noon in the Church of St. Francis of Assisi. It is hoped many of the parishioners will attend, as Clarence had very few living relatives, and as Father Vervenne pointed out, we are his family! Sr. Hyacinthe has set up a 'chat group' which will meet at the Priory on the first Wednesday of the month. The launch was on Ash Wednesday, and is set to continue. The meetings start at 7.00 pm This week sees the last of our Deacon Mike's Lenten Talks on Thursdays at New Milton. It would be nice if we could give him the pleasure of our company for that session. Starts at 7.00 pm, and of course we now have the lighter evenings.
March 2006 March 22nd Two meetings were called, an afternoon and an evening one, to ensure that as many people as possible would be able to attend. In the event nearly one fifth of people from each parish came to the joint meetings held at Our Lady of Lourdes. After a sometimes heated meeting, the final decision was that the grouping should be Brockenhurst, Lymington, Milford-on-Sea, New Milton with either Highcliffe or Lyndhurst, with a preference for Highcliffe to be the addition because of the ease of travelling. The decision was supported unanimously. March 15th The death occurred suddenly of Clarence Thompson, who was found by neighbours after he failed to collect his milk. He was a much loved and gentle man, who regularly attended both Mass and the Communion Service, and often went to Mass in Lymington on a Saturday morning. We pray that Jesus will welcome Clarence after his faithful following in his earthly life, and grant him the peace and glory of the Kingdom of God. The date of the funeral will be announced. March 16th The New Forest Deanery Pastoral Council met to consider the 'Larger Pastoral Areas Discussion Document' issued from Portsmouth. The original suggestion by them had been badly received and it was decided to think about the Deanery and what had made that work so well over three years, then consider alternative combinations of the current Deanery parishes together with the inclusion of Waterside & Totton, Christchurch & Highcliffe. After all that we come to a conclusion about which would work well for us. It was decided to call a meeting of parishioners of both parishes. They had been told about the grouping proposed by the Steering Committee for the implementation of Bishop Hollis' Plan for the Diocese and recommended to be sure to take the Portsmouth People. March 1st The funeral took place as arranged. Many people came to support Molly and pray for the repose of Bill's soul. February 2006 February 21st The death occurred on 21st February of our very long-time parishioner, Bill Woodford, married for over 60 years to Molly. and who served the Church in many ways during his lifetime. Many people from Milford who also know the church in Lymington may be surprised to learn that he decorated the building on his own. Although he had lost an arm in the war, and was an active member of Blesma (British Limbless E-Servicemen's Association), Bill was not only a painter and decorator but built his own house in Lymington, where he was born, met Molly and lived until he retired. Before his death, Bill had been ill for some time, an illness borne with courage and good humour but which involved great suffering. His funeral will take place at St. Francis Church on Ash Wednesday at 12 noon. There will be a reception in the Maryland Room to which all those attending are invited. After the Mass, Bill will be laid to rest in Highfield Cemetery, Pennington. May he rest in peace with our dear good Lord and all his friends and relatives who arrived before him. Our condolences to dear Molly. There will be non 9.00 am Mass at St. Francis on Ash Wednesday. There will be Mass at 10.00 am at New Milton for any who are not able to come to the Requiem Mass here. February 19th Mention is already in the Parish Newsletter of the trip to the Chrism Mass at Portsmouth. There is a list at New Milton and one will be appearing in Milford as soon as the Advertising Manager gets round to it! It will take place on Tuesday, 11th April. A coach will be arranged, and the cost will depend on the number of people who finally arrive. There will be a collection of people from Mew Milton and the coach will also stop at Milford to pick up. Numbers of course will be limited to the size of the coach, so if you want to come, reserve your place as soon as the list goes up. February 18th First Communion classes start today at New Milton. The final total will be six, of whom only one comes from Milford. Many of you will know who it is as she often hands out the Missalettes at the entrance to the St. Francis - the youngest Miss Atherton! He big sisters, Kate & Rebecca now both serve occasionally at Mass. February 5th
Once again it was a
coffee morning and the number of people at Mass
was much higher than usual which usually indicates an influx of visitors to
Milford-on-Sea. However, the complement for Coffee was about the same as
usual - a very pleasant gathering with lots of chatter. The 100 Club fund
is missed, and it would be lovely if someone would really take it on!
January 23rd
The Week of Prayer for Church Unity had its climax
in the evening service at St. Francis today. The
weather was kind, insofar as it didn't rain, but it gave not a fig for
the fact it was extremely cold! The brave people of Milford who
really cared about an ecumenical venture arrived to fill the church -
roughly 100 people arrived, which put the fear of God into the caterers
- as almost everyone went down to the Maryland Room -
who could then only pray for a repeat of the miracle of the feeding of the
5000! Somebody must have been listening as there was half a bottle
of wine left and a couple of little sandwiches plus a few
cakes.
Today our parish had the pleasure of hearing Rev. Dominic Furness, from the Anglican All Saints' Church, who preached during Mass at 9.15 am, part of the Milford celebrations to make 2006's Week of Prayer for Church Unity. He covered the Baptism of Christ in a sermon which was very much appreciated by the congregation, and some even admitted to tears in the eyes! What a wonderful change from the time of 50 years ago, when relations between the churches seemed set in stone from the 16th Century. It does go to show whatever man proposes, it is always God who disposes, and God will obviously not ignore the prayer of His son, Jesus, whose wish was to see us all one, as He himself is in His Father. (John 17:11) An ecumenical Service will be celebrated at St. Francis at 7.30 pm on Monday, 23rd January, after which refreshments will be served in the Maryland Room. January 6th Feast of the Epiphany: The kings were in place, but the numbers of those who managed to attend were down on last year. Pity. It is such a delightful feast, and rounds up the celebrations of Christmas very happily. January 1st The shepherds returned to their flocks and the three kings arrived early, to allow a little longer for the Kings to display their finery for more than one day on 6th January, the Epiphany. This hopeful anticipation was not approved, and alternative arrangements were made forthwith. On the first day of the New Year, only the shepherds stood their vigil round the crib while the Kings waited out of sight in the former Lady Chapel. After Mass Coffee and Cakes were served as usual in the Maryland Room, and Theodore had made some Chocolate Brownies to add to the Stollen and Fruit Cakes which were also available. Delicious!
A very happy new year to all of us in Milford!
(And everywhere else. . .) JANUARY 2006
December 2005 December 25th Everything was ready on time - except the Advent Candle holder which by error appeared on the altar, undecorated: next year it is guaranteed to look beautiful and to return to its rightful place. The lights were switched on with impeccable timing by Theodore Swift as Baby Jesus was placed in the manger by Fr. Vervenne, who this year needed no prompting to remember the baby! As usual the church was filled to capacity. Everyone wished everyone a Happy Christmas and we were able to go home on a reasonably pleasant evening with neither rain nor snow, ands not too much frost. The crib collection was the best ever on Christmas night when almost £40 was donated. The collection, as usual, is for the Catholic Children's Society. December 23rd Christmas time again - this time very close indeed to Christmas itself! Today the crib was erected, with 'rocks' composed of hessian very kindly provided by Mr. Michael Collyer of Everton Garden Centre fame. There will be another photograph of the completed crib for 2005, but as explained elsewhere, the computer in charge of the Milford-on-Sea website broke down on Christmas Eve and we are now at the catch-up stage. Please bear in mind that the computer was returned to base on 2nd January and much work is going to have to be done before things return to normal. Please be patient. . . .Report on Christmas will appear shortly.
December 4th After the heavy rain of Friday afternoon, the weather was dry first thing, and although there were a couple of heavy showers, the weather was kind - ish. However, maybe there was something besides the weather which affected the decision of many people about attending the Fair and supporting their Church. In the event, although many of the congregation of St. Francis did come, perhaps nearly the same number stayed away. The initial total take for this year was £431, compared with £673 last year. The year before that was £752. and in 2002, the total was £1,034. The numbers of people attending Mass regularly at St. Francis of Assisi on Sunday has risen from 79 in 2002 to 96 in the last quarter of this year - almost 10%. A further £90 towards the Fair, including donations, was received at the Coffee Morning today, which would bring the total to £521, still a long way below last year's total, when competition from other Fairs was about the same as this year but was also timed by chance to coincide with the Rugby World Cup Final. This would make it almost exactly half the amount taken three years ago. We all know we don't have the Great Hustler, Gina, with us any more, but she must be tut-tutting like mad above us! What did not diminish was the amount of hard work done by the stallholders and organisers, and it is disappointing for those who worked so hard and went to so much trouble to make the Fair an attractive and entertaining event, with some lovely things available. In this respect it has to be noted that gifts themselves were down this year, and without many things from Gina Frank's effects, the Gift Stall would have been almost naked; hardly any jewellery was donated this year by members of the parish. Our sincere thanks go to those who donated things for the stalls
The church buildings, as those of you who have visited the Maryland Room recently will have noticed, are not in the best of health. Damp is a serious problem. All renovations and repairs have to be paid for by the Parish, and while we have a priest to minister to us, we should at least work hard to keep our Church in a good state. In the next few years we run the risk - and it is a very high risk - of having no church at all, and no priest. Let's look after both while we have them. Donations would be very much appreciated from those who for one reason or another were unable to get to the Fair. Something new this year was the introduction of a Fair Trade Stall. Rosalind Mans organised it, and on the day itself her daughter, Louise, took over as Rosalind herself was unable to attend due to unexpected circumstances. It seems to have been a great success, and St. Francis of Assisi Church has applied for recognition as a Fair Trade Church, in common with 36% of all our churches in the Diocese of Portsmouth. Our Diocese has been officially declared a Fair Trade Diocese but it squeezed in with narrowest of time to spare, as almost immediately the goals posts were changed by the Fairtrade Foundation - http://www.fairtradefederation.com/ - and in future they will require a 50% take up. Portsmouth is only the 4th Catholic Diocese to achieve the new status out of a total of 22. They are hoping however to achieve the 50% before the Diocesan Fair Trade Conference in Reading on Saturday, 4th February 2006. Our Parish will be one more to help them achieve this aim.
December 1st There is a lot of work going on in the Maryland Room today to get ready for the Christmas Fair on 3rd December. It is beginning to look as though the entire parish has given up alcohol - there have never been so many bottles of hooch to put on the Tombola stall. The Jewellery stall looks as though there might be enough to furnish half-a-dozen debutantes for a small cocktail party, but we can always hope there may be more on the day! We should like to record our thanks here to the Royal British Legion M-o-S Women's Section, who brought forward their own Christmas sale to Friday, 2nd December, in the Guide Hut, in order not to clash with our Fair. We wish them the best of luck as the rain pounds down outside today and the barometer sinks to a very low level indeed. May this weather be followed by at least two fine days. . .(Yes, the writer knows we need the rain!) November 2005 November 27th Today is the First Sunday of Advent. During this season our Deacon Mike is giving a series of talks in the Church Hall at Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton. The first was last Wednesday, 23rd November, and remaining ones are the 30th and 7th December, both Wednesdays, and the last will take place on Monday evening, 12th December. The sessions start at 7.00 pm. November 9th The Requiem Mass took place today of Mrs. Pat Kimber, who for many years ran the choir of St. Francis of Assisi Church. The years had taken their toll on both, and Pat died, resident of the parish of Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton, where her Requiem Mass took place. Pat's husband John, who in his latter years played the organ in St. Francis' church, died last year. She leaves two children, Hilary and David, and their children Matthew, William, Daniel and Edward. Pat is also survived by her sister, Sister Kitty. May she rest in peace with the Lord she loved in the music of Heaven. November 8th
The Annual Skittles Competition between St. Francis of
Assisi and Our Lady of Lourdes - the churches, of course - took place
on 8th November at
Hoborne Bashley, and for the third time in a row,
Milford-on-Sea won. St. Francis' players tried hard not to let pride
swell their heads, though there were those among the opposing team who felt
they didn't try hard enough. Noting this, the winners offered decent
commiserations to Our Lady of Lourdes team but will now keep the trophy as
outright winners, mainly because there isn't any more room for the name of the
current winners. They will present a new trophy at the next meeting.
Milford-on-Sea really enjoys these meetings, and not
just because the skittles have fallen our way: we enjoy meeting the New
Milton parishioners, who always give us a great welcome, and we now look
forward to the Quizz evening on 24th November. Thank you, Our Lady of
Lourdes at New Milton.
November 6th
First Sunday of the month: The Coffee Morning took
place after a very well-attended Mass. There certainly seemed to be
rather more people in the Maryland Room than usual and a very pleasant time
went on till almost 10.40. . . is this a record? Never thought of
counting!
November 1st - All Saints' Day
On the preceding Sunday, Father Vervenne pointed out
that this day was a Holy Day of Obligation, and that the Obligation was to go
to Mass. The 9.15 Mass was quite well attended, though obviously people
who go to work would have found it difficult to be present at that time.
October 2005 October 29th We regret to announce the death of Mrs. Pat Kimber. Her Requiem Mass will take place at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes on Wednesday 9th November at 11.00 am. May she rest in peace in the Kingdom of God, among all her friends and relatives who have gone before her in the friendship of the Lord she loved. October 15th
The marriage took place in St. Francis of Assisi today, 15th October. Our congratulations and prayers go to Amanda (née Larke) and Nicolas Le Magoariel as they go through their lives together. Amanda's father Peter, a member of our congregation, and her mother Mayve will have the pleasure of frequent visits to France as the newly-weds will be living in Poissy, north-west of Paris.
We thank Canon Timothy Dwyer for looking after both parishes in Father Vervenne's absence, and the good Lord for returning Father Vervenne safely to his parish, where normal services will be resumed from Friday morning (14th October) October 2nd Coffee was served after Mass, and among the cakes were some made specially for us by Theodore Swift, who made his First Holy Communion in St. Francis in May this year. It is a joy to have the children taking part in the Coffee mornings, where they are so helpful in serving and clearing. Thank you to them all! September 2005 September 29th Today Father Vervenne left for a break.
September 28th
BISHOP HOLLIS UNVEILS
PLAN FOR DIOCESAN DEVELOPMENT
Several parishioners ventured out on a very wet evening to St. Thomas Church in Iford to hear Bishop Hollis, Mgr. John Nelson and Nicky Stevens explain to those attending what had been proposed at the Pastoral Assembly held in July in Reading, and about which there has been a great deal of thought and paper work made available to all the parishes of the diocese. For those who would
like to know more, everything that is going on is also reported in 'Portsmouth
People' and on the Portsmouth Website
September 14th The proposed 'garden party' Cream Tea had to be moved to the Maryland Room. Unfortunately the morning was wet and a decision had to be made about borrowing the tea urn from the Anglicans. It was decided that there was too much wind, and there wasn't enough room to shelter parishioners under cover. Notices were placed at strategic points, notably next door to the machine dispensing tickets for the car park but some people missed it and benefited the NFDC! Needless to say, the afternoon was, after all sunny. Still, with the generosity of those who attended, St. Francis of Assisi's Church scooped £103.00. September 4th The month got off to a good start as a good number of people stayed for the Coffee served after Mass. It was good to see Colin and Pippa together with their two little ones! Colin is at present rehearsing with the English National Orchestra for a series of performances of 'The Magic Flute' at the London Coliseum and his current diary is full. Morgan, the youngest child, delighted with congregation with his desire to reach the altar, and at the end Father Vervenne picked him up from under his feet and returned him to his thankful father, who by this time was feel rather embarrassed. Father Vervenne and his unexpected armful were not the least phased, and Morgan's father needn't have worried: the congregation loved it. Past experience in the church with very young children who are free to move shows that they tend not to cry and misbehave, and as they get older, they feel at home, happy and contented in the familiar surroundings of their church. August 2005 31st August A meeting was held to day to consider the conclusions reached at the end of the CaFE programme held in June/July. Several ideas were considered and will be implemented as time goes by. A start was made on the mini-library which will initially run on the First Sunday of the Month. Pat Marshall has agreed to take responsibility for the running of it, and thanks are due to Anthony Kirke for the shelf he has made for the books. We are sorry to report today, 10th August, the death of Mrs. Trixie Lister, who was a member of this Parish for many years. Her funeral is planned to take place on Wednesday, 17th August, at 11.00 am at St. Francis. All members of the Parish will be welcome at the Requiem Mass, to be conducted by Father Vervenne. Our sympathy goes to her daughter Helen, who looked after her for many years, to her son Roger, and to all members of her family. May she rest in peace. Amen. July 2005 The patio containers outside the Church are looking really lovely again. Thanks are due to Anne Croll who keeps them in first-class order. Excellent coffee morning. The church was very full today - due of course to the annual influx of holiday makers who are always welcome. 27th July This was the 7th Wednesday of the third CaFE Series, 'Catholics Making a Difference' which was perhaps the most challenging of all the programmes. By the end of the programme there were several things we had decided to put into effect and Sarah Bell will be drawing up a summary of the plans proposed by those who attended the course. It is hoped that those who were unable to attend this one will support the plans to make our Church make a difference in the Community we have and in areas of the lives of others than we can achieve in our small but lively parish. June 2005 The month started with a deluge of cakes to celebrate Theodore's Holy Communion, which was a big surprise! There was talk again of a possible renewal of the 100 Club but agreement generally was to perhaps think again in September finished the chat. Tentatively Lincoln Chattee is considering taking over the running of it if it is revived. The CaFE Course started on 15th June. Sarah Bell and Anthony Kirke are sharing duties. It will continue until 27th July. Roughly a dozen people are attending the course regularly. The Course itself is very thought-provoking and those attending appear to be enjoying it. It has been noted that regular attendance at the Communion Services has risen and the numbers now also average about twelve people. May 2005 29th May A new CaFE course was announced today: 'Catholics Making a Difference'. It will begin on Wednesday 15th June at 7.30 pm in the Maryland Room and run for seven weeks. Wine, Coffee and little eats will be served, so save a bit of tummy space if you usually have a big tea. . . . We have had several new parishioners in the last few months are we would like to welcome them all. We are very pleased for any help they would like to offer. Anthony Kirke and his wife Judith are the most recent arrivals, and Anthony has offered to help Sarah in the running of the CaFE programme currently arranged. Sarah also hopes that those people who helped make the earlier sessions so successful will continue to give their most welcome services. At the moment it would be really good to have someone who would like to organise a Welcome Group to ensure that new parishioners are really made welcome and who would advise the Webmaster of the new arrivals. Any volunteers??? - at least for preliminary discussions which would of course include Father Vervenne! Some of our parishioners will be joining the Methodists in their Church in the village at their annual Anniversary Service followed by Tea. It's a pity there aren't a few more - it is so appreciated by the other Churches in Milford when we make an effort to attend their services! The most exciting event of the month happened at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in New Milton: as part of the new 'Deanery Events', organised by individual Parishes in the New Forest and open to members of all Parishes. For details of how this went and the preceding event, when members from most of the New Forest Deanery went on a day trip to Storrington, [ Click here ] and visit the NFD Parish Council site! Scroll down for details of the two events. However, there is another items of news to add to the Mass of Anointing held on 15th May in New Milton: at least three members of the congregation present at the Mass now enjoy vastly improved health. Deo gratias! The next Deanery Event takes place on Sunday, 5th June, with Benediction and a Cream Tea on the lawns. There are marquees in case of bad weather - but who knows? Maybe they'll be lucky, They asked for number of the people who might be going and so far only one name has appeared on the list, and it could be too late to let them know when Sunday comes. . . .Three more have said they intend to go. We need to get used to the idea of supporting our other parishes in the Deanery. It is all part of building up the Church. With the prospect of diminishing priest numbers, the continuing life of the Church will have to be taken over by the laity or it will die. It's rather like going to back to the first years of the Church when so many people joined it, attracted by the warm relationships between its members.
22nd May Today, Trinity Sunday, the Parish of St. Francis had the pleasure of seeing two of its younger members making their First Holy Communion.
Congratulations to Henry and Theodore! After Mass a party was held in the crypt by Henry's family to celebrate his first Holy Communion. The weather, for a change, was relatively fine but not as warm as would have been liked.
The first meeting of the month was a great success. There seemed to be many visitors to St. Francis today and we were very pleased to see them all. Gretchen did sterling work with the coffee, tea and cakes and biscuits, and she was helped by the services of the young Atherton Ladies and Theodore who looked after the needs of both the congregation and the washers-up who did equally valued service in the kitchen! What a nice parish we have!
April 2005 Pope John Paul ll died on the evening of 2nd April, the liturgical day of the 2nd Sunday of Easter. During his life time he instituted the Feast of Divine Mercy, as a result of visions recorded by St. Faustina, a young Polish nun who died in 1933. She was canonised by Pope John Paul in 2002. While he was still Karol Wojtila, Bishop of Krakow, he had come across Faustina's remarkable story and sent the papers off to the relevant department for consideration of canonisation. Six months later it was the Bishop of Krakow himself who found himself in Rome as the new Pope, following the death of Pope Paul Vl. The rest is history. . .
Father Vervenne said a Requiem Mass for the late Pope in New Milton on Tuesday 5th April which found Our Lady of Lourdes packed. From 7th April Canon Tim Dwyer very kindly looked after both parishes, New Milton and Milford, while Father Vervenne was away on holiday, a break where, for once, the sun seems to have shone. We are grateful for Canon Dwyer's care. After the Vatican ceremonies for the funeral, both attended in Rome and via television by millions, there was all the excitement of the election of a new Pope. This time the one who went in as the apparently strongest candidate, who had worked closely with Pope John Paul ll over 20 years, actually came out as Pope. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger emerged on to the balcony as pope in his white zuchetta to massive cheers in St Peter's Square and silent anxiety in the hearts of the more left-wing side of the Church. Let us hope that he will be the shepherd we all need and hope for, as would be fitting for the priest who represents the supreme Good Shepherd on earth. Let us pray for Pope Benedict XVl as he shoulders what must be the most awesome responsibility in this world.
March 2005 March 27th - Easter Sunday On a fine sunny morning with just a slight chill in the easterly wind, the beautifully decorated church was packed. Things went more or less smoothly for Mass itself apart from a late lighting of the Paschal Candle and a temperamental cut-out of the loudspeaker system. The latter wasn't really a problem as Father Vervenne's voice compensated for it and was certainly heard at the back of the church. There was a slight collapse of choral confidence at one point during the Communion Hymn, although the congregation got its voice together for the last verse. Father Vervenne handed out Easter Eggs to the braver children at the end of Mass. Maybe next year parents could remember this custom and encourage their children to overcome their shyness and go up to collect one! Many people stayed for the now traditional Sherry and Leah's Easter Biscuits which was much enjoyed by those who came to the Maryland Room. March 22nd The Penitential Service took place today in Milford, yesterday in New Milton. This makes it easier for people to attend, and several from each parish visited the other. Considering the opportunities offered at these Penitential Services it is a bit surprising that the attendances at Milford are not higher, but for those who go they are a treasured and appreciated part of the liturgical year, for which many thanks are due to Fr. Vervenne.
A few stalwarts from Milford attended the six Lenten Talks held at Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton. These were set up by our Deacon, Mike Welch, and during his absence in Florida, Sarah Bell led two of them. One of the outcomes was the realisation that many people had only a very sketchy knowledge of how the New Testament related to the Old, and how the prophesies through the centuries foreshadowed not only the coming of the Messiah but what would happen to him during his lifetime and afterwards. There was a suggestion that some Bible study might be organised.
The second session of 'Growing Together in Christ' finished on 1st March, and the report of the final part has now been sent off to Portsmouth together with the copies of the reports filled in by by each of the three groups who attended the first meeting on 22nd February. Some people thought the first meeting was a waste of time when consideration was given to the problems of a fictitious deanery. Those who came to the second meeting, however, although less were there, found it was a great help to have done it when considering what should happen in our own deanery. Any one interested in what conclusions were reached should [ Click here ] February 2005 February 6th Excellent attendance at St. Francis this morning in the newly carpeted Maryland Room. There seemed to be a lot of extra visitors at Mass this morning which is always heartwarming. A series of Lenten Meditations and Prayers based on the readings for the following Sunday in Lent starts on Thursday 10th February at the Church Hall at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in New Milton. Everyone from both parishes are welcome. They take place at 7.00 pm and will be led by our Deacon, Mike Welch.
There will also be two further - and completely different - sessions of 'Growing Together in Christ' at 4.30 pm on 22nd February and 1st March. These will be held at Milford. There will also be Sessions on different days and times at New Milton which might suit some people if the above dates are not convenient. [ Click here for details ] Two of our younger parishioners - Theodore and Henry - started their preparation for First Holy Communion on Saturday and will be helping in the Liturgy at Sunday Mass. They made an excellent start today and we shall keep them in our prayers. The date of the First Communion is 22nd May.
January 2005 January 31st Today Canon Timothy Dwyer celebrates his 90th Birthday. Congratulations and love from all the parishioners at St. Francis of Assisi, Milford-on-Sea. January 21st Red letter day for St. Francis - or more accurately Red Carpet Day. The new carpet has now been laid in the Maryland Room. The room now looks warm and cosy, and having a carpet will cut down the noise level during the Coffee Mornings.
January 18th A further course was held in Southbourne at Our Lady Queen of Peace to introduce the new sessions of 'Growing in Christ' This promises to be a really interesting exercise into which you can help plan for the future of our Parish and those of the Deanery. Do I hear someone saying 'Deanery?Deanery? What's a Deanery?' If you're not sure, come and find out. These two sessions are quite different from the first group held before Christmas, so people who attend do not need to have come to the first series. This one needs you there to help the powers-that-be come to some decisions.
The Milford Sessions will be at 4.30 pm on Tuesdays 22nd February and 1st March. Notices will be posted in the foyer of the Church. Those who would like to go but cannot manage to go in the afternoon will find the dates for the New Milton Sessions on the poster or at www.newforestdeanery.co.uk.
January 2nd Unsurprisingly there were very few people at the first Coffee Morning of the year. We expect many more next month when the new carpet should have been laid! Welcome to the Year of our Lord 2005
Good-bye to the Old Year - 2004 December 2004 December 31st St. Francis of Assisi had its annual Sherry and Mince Pie morning on the Sunday before Christmas, and for the First Mass of Christmas on 24th December the Church had been beautifully decorated - with masses of red berries after the appeal! The Crib had a new look this year and reverted to the 'Rock' style, leaving all the Roman cow-shed set dormant in the cupboard. The lighting still needs something to be desired, but next year.....it will be better. The picture below is a free interpretation of how the crib actually was, thinking in terms of another possible card for next year. This particular one will not be suitable as the placing of the statues has not been very successful! Our Lady's face has been blocked by the tallest King's crown. Sorry!
The Church was very full again, and all the extra chairs in the former Sanctuary had people sitting on them. The singing was good this year, and Elsa again very kindly played the organ for us. Colin Judson sang a solo after Communion - an old favourite which many of the congregation were delighted to hear again. 'The Holy City'. The famous Irish tenor of the first half of the 20th Century, John McHugh, made it one of his best known songs.
December 9th Busy month ahead, of course! The first Sunday was well attended in spite of the lack of chances to moan about not having won a bumper prize on the 100 Club. It was mooted that maybe we could start something called 'The New Hundred Club' - maybe around Easter....we shall explore possibilities anyway.
The inevitable leaves accumulated as the trees slimmed
down for winter. Alas the Old Boys' Cl
November 2004 November 28th Today was the day of the Christmas Fair. For the first time in several years the angels failed to put in an appearance but they have promised to make it for next year. Nevertheless there were plenty of decorations to jolly up the occasion. Alas, again there was a clash of 'do's', since both the Priory at St. Dominic's and Hazelgrove, the home in New Milton, had their Fairs today, not to mention others in the village. The weather was very good and there were THOUSANDS of cakes in response to Father Vervenne's request! The total made was £673.90. Last year's final total was £752, so maybe there will be a few others dribs and drabs to raise this year's total. It might be worth remembering that the year before that the grand total really was grand at £1,034. Perhaps our joint resolution for 2005 might be to raise the total made from the Fair or to do some additional events which will help maintain our Church.
November 7th We welcome this month our Permanent Deacon, Rev. Michael Welch, who has arrived from Mudeford to live in Barton-on-Sea with his wife Hilary. He has been ordained for over 20 years, and came to us after spending ten of those years at the Church of the Immaculate Conception and St. Joseph at Purewell. He gave his first Homily at Milford on Sunday and will do this regularly on a monthly basis. The Ordination of Deacon gives him power to conduct weddings and funerals, officiate at Baptisms, assist the Priest at Mass, read and preach the Gospel, and administer Holy Communion at Mass and to the housebound. He cannot hear Confessions nor say Mass, but what he can do will be a great help to our hard-worked Father Vervenne. We hope they will be very happy in our area, and can assure Michael of the prayers he asked us for on his behalf at Sunday Mass, 7th November. Despite fears that the Coffee Morning would be poorly attended since the lure of the 100 Club had now disappeared, the Maryland Room was crowded and there seemed to be an extra specially good array of cakes this morning. At one end of the room lurk the Poppy - British Legion Poppy Boxes and at the other the beginning of what we hope will be a great collection of goodies for the Christmas Fair on 27th November. The time has been put back to 10.00am since there is a clash with the Convent, whose Fair this year is on the same day from 12 - 3.00pm. The goods which were sold at enormous effort by Daphne and Peter Igoe in earlier years and classed as 'Bric-a-Brac' will not be at the sale this year. Generally they were items of little desire and a great many had to be carted down to the tip afterwards. So many of the items contributed in the past to this stall were well past their 'sell-by' date, some very dirty and others even broken. it does not mean that gifts offered which are in good clean condition will be rejected! Please bring something you yourself would be prepared to give good money for! We welcome little Morgan Judson into our Parish. His Baptism took place on Sunday 7th November at St. Francis' Church. He is of course Byron's little brother and the second son of our wonderful singers, Pippa and Colin.
October 2004 Father Vervenne has now returned from his holiday, fresh and firing on all cylinders, well, sort of...people who work too hard inevitably fall by the wayside when holidays appear, and of course the health gremlins turned up. A bit of TLC is called for. Details of 'Growing Together in Christ', which offers an opportunity to enrich our Faith in four sessions, have now been posted on the Notice Board and we look forward to the start on the afternoon of Tuesday 19th October at 4.30. There will be a pause on Tuesday 2nd November while we try to retain the trophy we won last year at the Skittles Evening. The list is up and if you would like to go, add your name. Money for the meal you choose by numbers (see options at top of list) must be handed to Sarah Bell by Sunday October 24th. Our Stations of the Cross are being restored and in the meantime the nuns at St. Dominic's Priory have kindly let us a set. It is hoped it won't be too long before our own ones are back on the wall. The 100 Club has now closed. Money has been refunded to those who requested it, the remainder being put into Church funds. Some parishioners have suggested that the £12 a year we used to put into the Fund could be given to the Church anyway - reward to come post mortem! Anyone who decides to take this course should also make a decision on what day they might pay it! Sadly no one came forward to run the Club, which itself had become unwieldy. People had moved from the Parish, in some cases overseas, and then needed reminding to renew their subscriptions which made a lot of extra work. Thanks are due from all of us to Andy Gage, who has served us so well over 10 years, to Pat Kimber and to all who have supported the fund over the 100 Club's existence. The last results are as set out below: First prize went to Doreen Dunn, who has the luck of the proverbial owner of all luck. She collected £20 with her No. 52. Second prize, although equal to the first, was won by Anita Hall with No. 57. £15 went to Tim Hyder with his No 72 and Ursula Beachey, with No. 26, collected the last ever prize from the 100 Club with No. 26.
September 2004 There was a meeting on 26th September about the Christmas Fair which takes place on Saturday 27th November, 10.00 am to Noon, in the Maryland Room. Details have not yet been handed in but this will be put up on this web site as soon as they are available. 'Growing Together in Christ', a programme of prayer and discussion, has been set up by the Portsmouth Diocese, and plans are afoot to involve our parish of St. Francis of Assisi. Current proposed dates are the afternoons from 4.00 pm to 5.30 pm on 19th and 26th October and 9th and 16th November Please make a note of these in your diary. Details will be announced in St Francis over the next few Sundays.
The revenge Skittle Match has been organised by New Milton
and will take place at the Bashley Skittle Alley 23rd September Canon Dwyer has very kindly agreed to be on call for the next couple of weeks in case of emergency. His telephone number is New Milton (01425) 612271 5th September This is a month of the big payouts! Forget Las Vegas: With No. 49, Daphne Igoe, who has just returned from holiday, was thrilled to be able to replenish her coffers with a generous £30. £20 went to Molly Woodford, who has just acquired a wheelchair for her husband Bill, was equally delighted with her win due to the pulling out of her lucky No. 95.. Margaret Tew, with No. 10 collected £15 - usually the top pay-out, and Len Runyard, whose name has appeared among the lucky ones more than once before, went home £10 richer with his No. 77.
August 2004 Technical problems have precluded any further entries for August. We hope they will be overcome in the next week or so. This month's winners were Kate Atherton with No. 87, Katy Passmore with No. 40 and Lincoln Chatee with No. 69, and the amounts were respectively £15, £10 and £1. We welcome a new parishioner to St. Francis: her name is Mrs. Connie Harrison and she has moved from Cheshire. We hope she will be very happy in Milford.
July 2004 July 11th
Today Lauren Bannon received the Sacrament of Confirmation at the hands of Father Vervenne. She chose the name Josephine, and at the end of Mass she sang for us, an unaccompanied Gospel-style version of an 'Alleluia'. Her sponsors were Mrs. Roberta Cowdell and Mr. Selwyn Chatee. We offer our congratulations and our prayers to her. July 6th The 6th Meeting for the CaFE Course was very well attended by members of the congregation from Our Lady of Lourdes in New Milton, and the small group of supporters from St. Francis were very welcome, although it would be lovely to have seen more of them. Never mind, there will be other occasions when broadening our knowledge of out Faith will be offered! As quite a lot of people decided this week after discovering that one of the points of Confirmation was to point up the obligation of carrying on Jesus's mission of spreading the Gospel, it's never too late. Talking of Confirmation, there will be one in our Church at Sunday Mass when Lauren Bannon, our young singer, who missed the Visitation of the Bishop for Confirmation last month in New Milton, will be confirmed by Father Vervenne. July 4th First Sunday of the month saw another outpouring from the capacious coffers of the 100 Club. (Ahem, ahem....) It was one of the more lowly pay-outs, and Miss J. Runyard scooped, with a little scoop, the jackpot of £15 with her ticket, No. 99. George Durrant and Audrey Henegan each collected £10 with their tickets Nos. 14 and 32.
June 2004 June 30th The CaFE Course 'Exploring the Catholic Church' has just passed halfway. There are three more sessions left and everyone is welcome. There will be future opportunities to see these videos on a 'house' basis later in the year, but it is good to get as many of the parish members of both Milford and New Milton working with each other - it makes the 'Body of Christ' more together, so to speak! And the social nibbles are really rather good...... June 27th This Sunday was the 35th Anniversary of Father Vervenne's Ordination, and the congregation was in fine voice to sing the hymns he had chosen to celebrate the occasion, which he himself had done nothing to advertise! However, canny members of the Parish had put some arrangements in hand, and a little presentation to Father Vervenne was made at the end of Mass by Paul Scarnell, who also gave an appreciative speech to our dear Parish Priest, to whom our thanks are due for the preservation of our Parish of St. Francis of Assisi. June 7th We gained a new member of the Parish this morning with the arrival of Morgan Daly Anthony Judson, who weighed in at five-and-a-half pounds. We do hope for Colin's and Phillipa's sake that their singing gifts don't emerge from Morgan's lungs in the middle of the night. Congratulations to all the family, including Byron! June 6th Sunday, moneyday! The big haul today went to Katy Passmore whose lucky ticket, No.40 ('Next one up from mine!' sighed Father Vervenne wistfully) brought her a massive £30. She was thrilled! Mr. and Mrs. Brydon split £20 between them with No. 18. Len Runyard collected £15 with No. 35 and Joan Caffyn brought up the rear, her No. 65 bringing in a modest £10, which of course delighted her. June 2nd Three of our younger Parish family were confirmed in the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, New Milton, by Bishop Crispian on Wednesday 2nd June at an evening Mass. There were over 30 candidates from the seven Parishes in the New Forest Deanery and together with the families they filled the Church. Brothers Nathaniel Fletcher and David Ross Yates - both commonly known by their middle names were joined from Milford by Emma Dillane, who only recently moved into the area. Congratulations to them all.
June 1st The second CaFE series started in the Maryland. Parishioners from both Milford and New Milton attended. The subject is 'Exploring the Catholic Church' The series will run for the next 8 Tuesdays.
May 2004 May 23rd The congregation celebrated the First Holy Communion of two of their members, Rebecca and Pollyanna. It is the custom of this Church that while the children are studying for this great Sacrament, they go up to the Altar to say the Our Father with the celebrant. On this occasion the Sanctuary was filled with children from all over the Church who went to join the young new communicants - a scene which will long be remembered for its charm. After Mass there was a party for the parishioners with Rebecca and Pollyanna and their families in the Maryland Room
May 9th Advance notice was given today of a new course, 'Exploring the Catholic Church', and the probable starting date is Tuesday 1st June. It will be held in the Maryland Room at St. Francis Church, and an invitation to attend has also been given to Our Lady of Lourdes. Plans are also afoot for a meeting sponsored by Portsmouth to cover the New Forest and the Bournemouth Deaneries on Wednesday 3rd June. The original 'road shows' for Listening 2004 were at Portsmouth, Basingstoke and Chandler's Ford at 8.00 pm. Most people from this end of the diocese felt the distances were too far and too late, so Portsmouth is trying to fit one in for this area. Please look out for information in the entrance to St. Francis, and for more information visit the NFDPC site [ here ]. May 2nd Coffee morning was well attended, but the press cub was absent so there are no interesting details to set out here. Lucky numbers were drawn though, and those who ended up the morning richer by £15, £10 and £10 respectively were Gretchen Nagle with No. 2, Anne Chatee with No. 9 and Michael Webdale No. 59.
April 2004 April 29th Night of the Quiz, when we discovered that Father's holiday was a washout: cold and wet and no form of heating. He managed to warm up by mowing the lawns in Our Lady of Lourdes' Church in New Milton! However he felt, he and Norah were in great form with their support from Milford and New Milton in 2:1 proportion as they won the Quiz in find form. A cup was awarded which Vera is going to hold until it comes up for grabs again in the Autumn. April 28th Father Vervenne returned safely from his break, hopefully feeling full of energy for the months ahead. The Parish was most grateful to Canon Dwyer for having looked after us in Father V's absence, and most of them were stunned with amazement when he revealed his age! Ninety next birthday - 21st January. Quite hard to imagine being born in the first part of WWI! April 20th The announcement was made at Mass that the planned new CaFE series had been postponed. The very poor attendance at the showing of 'Jesus of Nazareth' before Easter had dented the courage of those in charge of the CaFE project. It was decided to put off the series to a later date when the Parish has recovered from Easter, family visits etc. and prayers have been said in advance for the success of CaFE, which this times is called 'Exploring the Catholic Church'. It is important to develop more enthusiasm for the very precious gift of Faith which many of us take so much for granted. If you don't look after a garden it won't flourish, and nor will Faith. What is more, many of us are getting to the Last Chance Arms - shall we go in and have some refreshment? Easter Sunday - April 11th At Easter Sunday Mass St. Francis was the fullest it's been for years as there were people standing at the back, the former sanctuary being completely filled. Apart from a little musical mishap at the beginning where the music didn't match the words of Jesus Christ is Risen Today and a brave but small contingent did their best to sing the preceding and almost unknown hymn instead, everything went beautifully. Unfortunately there was another little hazard waiting to trip everyone up at the end of Mass, when Father announced that Sherry and Easter Biscuits would be served in the Maryland Room - the crypt of the Church. Alas, alas, alas! Nobody had unlocked the room so by the time a key had been found many would-be enthusiastic topers had drifted away. In a way it was just as well: there were still enough takers to finish two thirds of the sherry and most of the biscuits. Apologies go to any visitors who were disappointed! Come again next year. Sherry and Biscuits come out at Easter, Sherry and Mince Pies on the last Sunday before Christmas! April 6th This was the day of the Penitential Service, where just over 50 people must have made Father Vervenne feel it was worth while! Elsa kindly came over to play the organ, and as usual, the singing improved gradually through the service. We are most grateful for Father's care of his somewhat imperfect congregation in Milford. April 4th Palm Sunday - progress has produced the ready-made palms, which do keep minds more concentrated on the prayers of the Mass on this important day, whereas in the olden days, minds were more filled with how on earth to make the crosses from the raw (so to speak) dried palm leaves! Attendance at the Coffee Morning was high, and the winners happily stretched out their hands, if they were present, to receive the monthly 100 Club cheques. Star of the Month was Doreen Dunn - of New Milton's Our Lady of Lourdes - and a consistently lucky lady in her nineties who collected a cheque for £15 via Father V's fair hand with her No. 52, with an eager pair of runners-up, chasing her with enthusiasm for £10 each, in the form of John Murphy and June Groves, respectively Nos. 79 and 12. Father Vervenne was hard pressed with the long gospels of the day to get to and fro his parishes!
March 2004 March 29th & 31st The presentation of the video 'Jesus of Nazareth' with Robert Powell, planned for showing on these dates was an almost complete disaster, despite advertising and heavy baking and sandwiching to provide the food. Four people arrived for Part 1, but with such a small attendance it was decided to cancel the showing. One parishioner was extremely disappointed and she was invited to a private showing. On the Wednesday, when Part 2 was due to be shown, only one potential viewer arrived, and telephoned Sarah to find out what had happened. She too was invited to come to the private view and lent Part 1 to see in her own house. The first parishioner left a telephone message after she had seen the film, with sincere thanks that it had been the first time she could read the Gospels with real understanding and visualise the characters as real people. March 7th The first Sunday of the month dispensed its largesse with more than usual generosity: there were four payouts. The numbers drawn were 89, 14, 90 and 87, and the lucky recipients were Margaret Guy, who collected £30, George Durrant was richer by £20, Sarah Nicholls - Derek and Eve Goss's daughter collected £15 and young Kate Atherton had £10 to pop into her piggy bank! The Maryland Room was very crowded today and the remainder of the cake left from Friday disappeared to the pleasure of the cooks who had provided them for the Women's World Day of Prayer which took place on 5th May. March 5th Women's World Day of Prayer was celebrated in our Church in the afternoon with a very good attendance. The Meditation given by Patricia Cox from Portsmouth (Department of Catechesis and Evangelism) The singing was led by a choir from All Saints, and the new organ played by John Wheeler. The evening service was held, as usual, at St. Mary's Church in Everton - younger sister church of All Saints, and the talk there was given by Kate Harris, a colleague of Patricia Cox who works in the same department in Portsmouth (Park Place). This year's service was designed by the Christian Women of Panama. The success of the meetings was due to the wonderful way the churches work together in Milford, and as this year's hosts, St. Francis extends a very warm thank you to everyone who help, including its own members. March 4th The funeral took place today of John Kimber, dear husband of Pat, father of Hilary and David and grandfather of four. It was his 82nd birthday. May he rest in peace, and our condolences go to his family.
February 2004 February 29th After a long illness bravely borne, the death was announced this morning of Mr. John Kimber, husband of Pat. John played the organ at St. Francis for many years after the retirement of Leslie Frank, husband of the famous Gina who herself died in January of this year. We all offer her our condolences and prayers. It is hoped the funeral might be arranged for Thursday of this coming week. When details are finalised they will be available on this page. Anyone reading them is requested to pass them on to members of the congregation they know. The church was very full this morning and two of this year's First Communicants, Pollyanna and Rebecca read their Bidding Prayers. For the first time they said the prayers from the middle of the altar, but as their voices needed a boost, Father Vervenne very kindly knelt down so they could benefit from his personal microphone! Next week they will use a little help in the way of a small stool behind the lectern so that they can use the usual microphone. . . The classes started in New Milton and will continue until May, when the First Communions will take place. A request for cakes and sandwiches was made for the tea to follow this year's Women's World Day of Prayers, which takes place on Friday 5th March at 2.30 pm. As many people as possible are asked to attend. The service is, of course, open to everyone. It may have been designed by women by it is designed for the world! February 26th The funeral took place this morning of Mrs. Doris Everard, mourned by a large family. She had been a housebound member of our congregation since she moved to Milford several years ago. February 25th Lent got under way with Mass this morning, which approximately 35 people attended. February 15th Elsa very kindly came over from New Milton to play the organ for us this morning and the singing was greatly improved. It was a real treat to get into church and hear the lovely sound of a real organ. There were a lot of visitors to the Church today - grandchildren down visiting the grandparents over half term. So pleasant to see so many children in St. Francis! February 12th Today's great news is the arrival of THE ORGAN! This splendid addition to our church was fired by a very generous donation from a parishioner in Our Lady of Lourdes - all we need now is to collect the 75% of its cost from our own congregation... Rumour has it that it sounds magnificent! Another thing we need now is to get a choir to match. February 2nd The funeral took place today of dear Gina. The person who writes this was unable to be present, so all that can be written is that it is generally agreed that Fr. Vervenne did her proud. May she rest in peace. Amen. February 1st The draw day! Top prize was won by Mrs. I. Hutchinson, known of course to everyone as 'Mac', who collected £15 with No. 29. £10 each was taken by Michael Webdale with No. 59 and Phyllis Salt with No. 80.
January 2004 January 27th Alas! The quotation to organise the electricity to fit the cooker was about the same amount of money as the cost of the cooker. The decision has been made to return the cooker and get a brand new top of the range Baby Belling which uses a normal 13 amp plug. The 'Good as New' second-hand shop is arranging the purchase and delivery of one. January 23rd A second-hand electric cooker was delivered to St. Francis with a view to being able to offer Soup and Roll lunches to accompany further 'Cafe' type videos. It is thought that perhaps an occasion to view them during daylight hours would be helpful for those who find evenings more difficult. There will shortly be some posters advertising the new sessions. At this point, the cooker is not connected! January 20th The funeral took place today after a Requiem Mass at St. Francis of Mr. M. J. (Joe) Connaughton. Members of his family, including Mrs. Kath Connaughton, were joined by members of the congregation. May Joe rest in the peace and light of God's Kingdom. January 16th The death was announced today of Gina Frank, much of whose energy over the years has been devoted to the congregation and Church of St. Francis of Assisi. May God have mercy on her soul have bring her into everlasting joy in His heavenly Kingdom. January 4th & 9th The first Coffee Morning of the year was well attended, and the numbers this month had something in common: they were all divisible by 3. Well, it makes a change! The owners of the numbers were Mrs. R. Middleton, No. 93; Kit Webdale, who is in hospital in Southampton had her No. 63 drawn and Mr. and Mrs. J. Brydon won second equal prize of £10 with No. 18. Both Val and Gina were in the news: Val Culmer was taken ill just before Christmas which she spent with her daughter. She has now returned to Milford and is much better. On Friday 9th January Gina Frank was taken to hospital in Bournemouth and we are awaiting further news. Earlier, in the first week of the year, the winter gales caused Fr. Vervenne to chase his wind-borne dustbin which resulted in a fall. Fortunately nothing was broken but genuflections have switched knees and there is a poorly toe! Funny how no one appreciates any of their toes until they sustain damage, at which point they become VIPs - very important parts!
2003 AD
Shepherds' Adoration - Crib Christmas 2003 December 2003 24th December While there was Carol Singing before the First Mass of Christmas, the phrase has to be used loosely. It does seem odd that our singing can be so poor when the Anglicans - and other denominations in Milford - do so much better! It must be that they do have a nucleus to take the strain in the form of a choir. Perhaps during the coming year some kind soul might be prepared to magic a choir in St. Francis. Prayers may be required to effect this sort of miracle so let's get on our knees! We did however have some beautiful singing from our resident opera star, Colin Judson who sang Christina Rosetti's lovely words: 'In the Bleak Mid Winter'. The church looked beautiful - lovely flowers, and how blessed we are with our magnificent crib figures. This year the glass star had been gilded and was at last properly visible. Anne Croll, together with some able bodied companions, had had the forethought to put up some chairs on the raised portion of the Sanctuary so that there was enough room to accommodate the large number of people who attended Mass. 20th December The Baptism took place today of Edgar David Michael Bell in the presence of his maternal grandparents and great-grandmother, his godmothers: Joanna Neill, his aunt, and Winnie, a dear friend of Edgar's parents Michael and Lorraine. His godfather, Martin Brannelly, was unable to be present since he was in Morocco. Father Vervenne officiated. A celebration lunch to which all present were invited was held at No. 1 High Street.
It is hoped that early in the new year, a list will be available on this web site of all records of Baptisms and Marriages which have taken place in St. Francis of Assisi since the Church was set up in in 1967, 16th December Father Vervenne came over from New Milton to hold a Penitential Service for us. He had anticipated 36 people present, but there were a few more. So good to know there are relatively few parishioners who feel they need shriving! One can only assume the really good ones still attend the Sacrament of Reconciliation. Our thanks to Father who looks after us so kindly. 7th December Continuing Gina's Birthday celebrations, champagne and all sorts of goodies including an iced cake decorated with a musical theme were served in another transformed Maryland Room, which now has its name proudly displayed outside its main entrance. Father Vervenne now seems to have made a reasonable recovery from the flu and it is hoped he hasn't got back into harness too early! The 100 Club Draw this morning was a 'biggie', with 5 payouts: £30, £20 and 3 of £15. For the first time ever a couple won two prizes, their numbers being drawn successively. Peter and Daphne Igoe with Nos. 55 and 49 pooled 2nd and 3rd prizes, giving them a total of £35 - ahead of the actual winners this time, Tim and Hunni MacArthur, who collected £30. The remaining two prizes went to Gerry Hazelden and James Hallé who are now free to rush out and squander £15 each. Three cheers for a good start to the month! 6th December The dinner evening was followed by a celebration Mass on St. Nicholas's Day, 6th December to mark Gina Frank's 90th Birthday - which had actually taken place on the Wednesday before. The Mass was attended by many friends and relatives of Gina, from places ranging from Milford and New Milton to Germany and Australia. After Mass friends had organised the mass exodus heavenwards of 90 coloured balloons to mark the occasion, each tagged with Gina's name and address. One bunch of balloons was too reluctant to go and remained perched in the tree outside St. Francis. 5th December December got off to a tremendous start with the Parish Supper, held in a candlelit Maryland Room where everything was red and gold glitter. Drinks, wine or sherry to choose from, preceded the meal with excellent 'nibbles'. Anne-Marie Atherton with her able friend from Chicago produced a sumptuous meal of tender chicken in a superb sauce with carrots, fine beans and red cabbage and new potatoes, followed by a selection of delectable puddings. Inches must have gone on to people's waistlines! Kate and Becky Atherton acted as waitresses and captured many hearts. The meal, washed down with plenty of wine, was followed by magnificent coffee (American style?) and After Eight Mints. Many thanks to everyone concerned, including an occasional visitor to the Parish in the form of Katy Passmore, who always manages to be helpful when functions take place. Twenty-six people sat down to eat - sadly Mr. and Mrs. McArthur were unable to come for reasons of ill health.
November 2003 30th November Although the first rush total of takings from the fair seemed very disappointing, by the time all the money and donations had been made the final total was £752, much to Fr. Vervenne's delight, expressed in his newsletter of 30th November. It is cheering to receive his thanks and approval after all the effort made by those who helped in any way with the fair. A thank you to him in turn! 22nd November England may have won the World Cup for Rugby but St. Francis's parishioners failed miserably to come anywhere near the wonderful total for the Christmas Fair of last year. Less than £500 is the current total, compared with over £1,000 last year - 2002. Mind, everything was against us: 3 competing Fairs in the village centre, which on a really dark, wet November day was serious competition. That, combined with the final of the Rugby World Cup made things very difficult. 19th November ...was the evening of the Quiz in New Milton. Although it was packed there were very few people from Milford who ventured forth to experience the new 'I want to be a Millionaire' format which was much more fun than the standard Pub Quiz style and modestly, we have to report that St. Francis won this evening too! Our luck can't last...can it? Peter Marriot was a huge success as Host and Question Master and our thanks go to him. Oh yes, the contestants won the Million, transformed for the occasion into a welcome selection of bars of chocolate! Sadly Father Vervenne was not able to grace the occasion as he was suffering in bed with real flu. Everybody sent their best wishes for a speedy recovery. We are all getting ready for the Christmas Fair which takes place on Saturday 22nd - stallholders are wondering when the 'rush' will come in view of the competition with the final of the World Cup Rugby. They will arrive with their radios as they man the stalls - or generally, woman the stalls! 4th November A very pleasant evening at Holborne-Bashley with the skittles resulted in an impressive win for St. Francis - he was in good form! That makes a respectable running total of 1 - 1, and we will see what happens next year. Many thanks to Our Lady of Lourdes for organising the evening. October rushed past and turned into November almost before we noticed! The Coffee Morning on 2nd November coincided with All Saints' Day this year because 1st November was a Saturday, which is no longer celebrated as it used to be. . .Mass seemed rather longer for some reason, and the number selection was a very rushed affair. Today's winners featured two prizes to Our Lady of Lourdes members - Sybil Elmslie who won the first prize of £15 with No. 47, and Audrey Henegan who collected one of the two £10 prizes, the other going to Peter Barton of massive luck, the numbers respectively 32 and 85. The Coffee Morning was really well attended today and things are beginning to appear for the Fair which this year is being held earlier than usual on 22nd November. Members of the Parish are reminded to sort out gifts for the Fair, which can be left under the table in the Church Porch, or dig into their savings to spend generously at the event. On November 4th there will be a needle match between Milford and New Milton in an effort to trounce Our Lady of Lourdes this year: they won the Skittles Match last year and we shall try to do better this year and improve on coming second! Father Vervenne has elected to bowl for St. Francis as our Parish is so much smaller. We need more big guns! Plans are afoot for a Parish Supper on Friday 5th December in the Maryland Room and tickets at £7.50 are available after Mass on Sunday, after the Communion Services or direct from Sarah on 64 38 45. The tickets are numbered and there will be a lucky draw after the supper on the day - or night even!
October 2003 October 5th There was a notable absentee this morning: Father Vervenne. He returns from holiday this week and the parish has been grateful for the ministrations of Canon Timothy Dwyer who has been standing in for him. Gretchen, who works so hard on these coffee mornings, won the first prize of £15 with No. 2, while Arwel Roberts and Simon Langford with Nos. 30 and 23 respectively each walked away with £10.
September 2003 September 7th Things are beginning to get back to normal - but probably only for a little while! Maybe October will be more like it...However, the Coffee Morning heralded joy for the chosen few: 'Mac' Hutchinson scooped the jack pot of £30 on the 100 Club draw, closely pursued £10 behind by George Durrant. Colin Judson came in £5 lighter, and Leah Shaw, who overslept and missed all the excitement, discovered when she got to Mass in New Milton that she had collected this month's bobby prize - worth as much as the usual second and third prizes of normal months - £10 lovely pounds! Delight among them all. September 5th St. Dominic's Priory was saddened this morning when Sister Margarita suffered a major stroke. The prayers of all the areas they serve are requested for her swift recovery.
August 2003 Welcome to all the tourists here at the moment - Mass looks pretty full on Sundays at the moment - although many regular faces are missing. It'll all get back to normal in September! August kicked off with the usual coffee morning when Sean Quirke ended up £15 richer with his No. 36, Alice Baxter - Anne Todd's daughter - and Len Runyard each won £10 with their Nos. 78 and 35.
July 2003 July 6th Coffee morning - well attended, especially in view of the number of people away on holiday! This month's winners were Jim and Agnes Bryden with No. 18, who took home a cheque for £15. The 2nd and 3rd prizes, equal amounts of £10 each, went to Peter and Daphne Igoe with No. 49 and John Langford with No. 68 as they breasted the tape almost simultaneously! July 3rd The funeral took place today of Mrs. Margaret Mary Murphy. Her husband, Paul, died in December last year, and Margaret's health, which had been affected over the time she nursed Paul, was seriously aggravated when she was injured in an accident in Lymington shortly after he died. She did her best to ignore all this, and even managed to go out to lunch on the day she died. We offer our condolences to her family and pray that she may rest in peace.
June 2003 The Garden Party took place on a brilliantly hot afternoon, and members of the Milford Guides were there to help with the teas. Paul and Anne had worked really hard to make the garden party a success but probably due to people being away on holiday, attendance was not as good as we all hoped. Those who did come had the pleasure of walking round a beautiful garden and picking up some good bargains in plants and knick-knacks. June 21st A Garden Party is planned at Windmill House, Barnes Lane, on the afternoon of 21st June. It starts at 2.30 and Anne and Paul will be very pleased to welcome visitors! Bring and Buy sale, cakes, plants etc. and a lovely garden to enjoy. June 20th The funeral will take place of Mrs. Helen Salt, who has died. There will be a Requiem Mass at 12.15 pm. May she rest in peace, Amen. And may God comfort her husband, members of her family and the friends she leaves behind. June 19th For the Feast of Corpus Christi this year Father Vervenne had estimated 36 people at Mass this morning. There were 39, excluding himself. June 3rd and 10th The last two of the present series took place on these dates. Attendance on the 3rd was good, but very disappointing on the last day. It will be made available during afternoons at some point during the Autumn and Winter, for people who found the time for the first series difficult. We shall also be running the second programme of Videos at some point during Winter afternoons. Times and dates are subject to review and notices will appear in good time. June 1st The first number drawn by Fr. Vervenne was No. 54, the announcement of which caused a cry of 'Rubbish!' to escape from the lips of one Sarah Bell. This was unfortunate, as the aforementioned moaner hadn't realised it was her own number. Her luck was really in this month as it was the time of the mega payouts and she won first prize of £30. Second prize was scooped by New Milton's nonagenarian, Doreen Dunn with No. 52. Mrs. R. Mans' No. 34 took third prize and gained her £15. The fourth prize of £10 went to Eve Brown with No. 91. Gretchen, our usual genie of the coffee pot was away this week and Angela Elridge stepped womanfully into the breach with the help of Leah Shaw. There seemed to be a very good selection of cakes and biscuits this week...many thanks to the providers.
May 2003 CaFE took a break on 27th May and will resume on 3rd June as so many people who have been attending were to be away on holiday. The Deanery Pastoral Council website is under construction and progress can be viewed if you [ Click here ]. May 29th The morning Mass for Ascension was quite well attended. Thanks go to Fr. Vervenne for giving us the opportunity to go to Mass in Milford on these Holydays instead of having to travel to New Milton or Lymington. May 21st A Beetle Drive to raise funds towards the purchase of the TV Monitor and the Videos for CaFE was held this afternoon. There was a Raffle and tea was served. Twenty people turned up, although more tickets were actually sold, which was great since it meant everybody could play. The First Prize of a bottle of Scotch was won by Leah Shaw, who managed to win although moving tables only once! The event raised just over £105.00, and this included some donations and the Raffle money. May 15th Following on the introduction of CaFE, the New Forest Deanery Meeting due for today was transferred to St. Francis of Assisi Church instead of the usual venue at New Milton. This was arranged so that members of the Deanery Council could be offered a taste of CaFE with candles, flowers on the table, wine and food as a background to the introductory session. Details of the actual Deanery Meeting will eventually find themselves on the NF Deanery Website which is due to be launched in the next few weeks. May 13th This evening's CaFE went smoothly apart from some awkard fumbling with the assorted buttons on both remotes, the TV set and the Video by the operator. Thanks to some urgent prayer on her part the film eventually appeared on the screen and the rest of the evening went well! May 6th Today's CaFE was due to be run by Audrey Henegan to give her some experience for the forthcoming CaFE Course at Our Lady of Lourdes Church in New Milton. Unfortunately Audrey was taken ill and Pat Marshall stepped into the breach and led a successful evening. May 4th A well attended coffee morning on a beautiful sunny day. This month's winners were Paul Bannon, with his ticket for his children, No. 6 which scooped him £15. £10 each were won by June Groves and Phyllis Salt with their tickets Nos. 12 and 80 respectively,
April 2003 April 29th Today's CaFE meeting was better attended. As the Anglicans who came last week have now returned to their own programme which takes place on Tuesday evenings, the fact that a couple more people were present than last week means there were five more from St. Francis, which was good news. Audrey Henegan from New Milton who will be running the course there later on was volunteered to stand in and run the sessions taking place on 6th May. We wish her good luck! April 22nd The CaFE course began at Milford in the Maryland Room. The message about bringing a picnic was interpreted by some people as packets of biscuits....which, while welcome, did worry Sarah who wondered what some people ate for supper! Are they on the right sort of diet? Three Anglicans arrived, who were most welcome, and eleven parish members. With lighted candles and wine, and enjoyable evening was spent with those who came. It is hoped it will be better supported in the coming weeks. Very kindly, donations amounting to just over £100 against the cost of setting up the course (approximately £750) were received. Those who were there found the course inspiring, interesting and informative. We hope to welcome more people next week. Easter 2003 The Penitential Service was attended. Those who were there should feel blessed that they had the chance to do so. Those who did not, did not. It is good of Father Vervenne to give his time to us: it should be appreciated while there is time to do so. The church flowers were lovely and their scent added a great deal to the physical pleasure of being present at the Easter Mass, which took place on Sunday morning. The extra space above the altar was used, and the general singing was enhanced by the solo sung at the Communion by Colin Judson, accompanied by Pippa. Byron (their son, aged 2-ish, slightly under), strolled happily up and down the aisle, reviewing the congregation generally and Father's performance at the lectern in particular... The Celebration of the Last Supper (Maundy Thursday evening) and the Easter Vigil took place at New Milton, and several members of the Milford congregation were there. All Eucharistic Ministers renewed their promises at this Mass for the coming year. April 6th A very full Maryland Room this month finally discovered who had won the 100 Club - never did so many tongues wag their way over Fr. Vervenne's voice as he drew the lucky numbers! Len Runyard - rumour has it he set up the 100 Club in the first place - got the top price of £15 with No. 77, Peter Barton won £10 with No. 86 and Beatrice Lister, affectionately known as Trixie, was equal second in spite of being drawn third with another £10! Here endeth another draw. Below is a list of activities arranged for the Maryland Room over the next month or two. The CaFE series of talks on video combined with a social evening on Tuesdays will start just after Easter. Everyone is welcome. Publicity to launch the programme will start on Palm Sunday. Easter Sunday: Easter Biscuits &
Sherry/Coffee after Mass To find out more about CaFE [ Click here ]
March 2003 March 20th There is something new going on in the Maryland Room: an enormous television set is waiting hopefully in the corner for something to happen......Could it be something to do with this CaFE thing? March 14th An Ecumenical Retreat was arranged for all the churches in Milford at St. Dominic's Priory. Altogether there were 37 people who took part including 12 from St. Francis. Representatives from the Anglicans, the Methodists and the Baptists came and the day was voted a huge success by all those who attended. It is very likely that more similar days will be arranged. The weather was beautiful in spite of a cold wind. March 5th Lent got off to a slowish start today, with the right-hand side of the church quite full, but the left-hand side a little sparsely filled. Those who attended were grateful that Fr. Vervenne was prepared to say three Masses today, including one at Milford, to save them having to make a journey over to New Milton. March 2nd Coffee morning - and Draw Day - which brought joy (of the pecuniary variety) to several, especially Father Vervenne! It was one of the bigger payouts: Eve Brown with 91 got the top prize of £30, Father Vervenne was the runner-up with £20. George Durrant got £15 and Mrs. A Baxter collected the 4th prize for £10. Numbers, for those who set store by these were respectively 91, 39, 14 and 78. People were generally so pleased for Fr. V after a long, lean period - if he's ever won! - that there wasn't a single moan! Who says we're not a generous bunch? (Nobody, so far as we know We had music at Mass this morning, and by the time we got to the 4th hymn we were getting quite good, although all the hymns are well known. Paul Scarnell took on the terrifying task of manipulating the pre-programmed buttons on the dread player with notable success, all in all. We were reminded that Wednesday is Ash Wednesday and that Father would be there at 9.00 am, and also that the Women's World Day of Prayer would be taking place on Friday, 7th March.
February 2003 February 9th At the end of Mass this morning, Father Vervenne was given a surprise when the congregation sang 'Happy Birthday' to him. It was his 61st birthday, and had he been among the congregation before the start of Mass, he would have heard the words 'sixty-one' winging their way round the pews, but people were warned to say nothing until they could surprise him with their choral rendition.
February 2nd We welcomed Fr. Vervenne's return from a well-earned holiday to pull out the numbers from the velvet bag on a very well attended Coffee Morning. Andy Gage has been so teased about whether all the numbers actually were in the bag, that to-day when everyone arrived for coffee he had lined up all the counters in a 1 - 100 number square, and gathered witnesses to testify he put them all into the velvet bag - honest! The lucky numbers to-day were 25, 27 and 13. Margaret Langford scooped the top prize of £15. Arthur Bishop, who is recovering at home after an operation collected £10 and the Tea Lady herself, Gretchen Nagle, reached out happily for the last £10 cheque. While these three were delighted, ninety-seven others bore their disappointment with stiff upper lips. Including Father Vervenne. The participants at the Coffee Morning put on a performance they rarely match with their hymn singing as they sang Happy Birthday to Pat Kimber, for many years Choir Mistress of St. Francis.
January 2003 January 24th The funeral took place today of Miss Sally O'Sullivan, who died last week aged 97. She was born in the Falkland Islands where her father was Chief of Police. At the Requiem Mass, Canon Dwyer, the celebrant, noted the gentle irony of our having celebrated in the two days before the funeral the Prayer for Unity Week with prayers written in Argentina. Sally was renowned for her beautiful hats, which were also mentioned during the Mass, and at least one regret was expressed that there was no hat laid on the coffin. Preferably the spectacular green one. May Sally rest in peace in the kingdom of light and happiness.
January 22nd A very well attended afternoon service to mark the Week of Prayer for Church Unity was held at St. Francis. Canon Dwyer officiated and Mr. John Wheeller played the organ. Pippa Judson sang 'Treasures in Clay Jars' and members of all the Milford churches were present. We also welcomed several members from our sister parish in New Milton. While representatives of three of the Churches took an active part in the service, the Baptists were missing. The Reverend Eric Parker explained that the Baptists had a very full programme on a Wednesday and he was very sorry to have been unable to find any experienced readers to take part. After the service there was tea in the Maryland Room - so popular we ran out of cups! Another ecumenical service was held in All Saints' Church Hall the following evening. This had been organised by the Rev. Alastair Dunn together with Rev. Eric Parker. Attendance was good, among the congregation a good many Catholics! The piano was played with tremendous vigour by Clifford........., and his enthusiasm and great talent fired those present to such an extent they reckoned they sounded like a trained choir!
January 17th Paul Scarnell gave his first Communion Service to-day. It wasn't until after he had received the congratulations of those present that he confessed the nervousness he had felt at the beginning.
January 12th At Mass this morning, Paul Scarnell was consecrated as a new Minister of the Eucharist, and welcomed by the Parish. Father Vervenne asked that anyone else who was interested in accepting the responsibilities of this role should let him know. In a community such as ours with a large number of elderly members, it is important that there are enough good and willing people who will take Communion to the sick and the housebound. Anne Scarnell, slightly embarrassed at finding she was also included in her husband's limelight today, made a spirited appeal on behalf of SPUC, the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children. SPUC's work is much wider than the name of the society suggest, since they are also involved in helping with subsequent emotional problems often experienced by women who have been through the trauma of aborting a child they were carrying. In addition, they work for the right of the sick and elderly not to be 'put down' solely because they have become difficult to look after. The final figure for the Christmas Fair is £1,034.60 - very gratifying! The only downside is that we shall have to work even harder next year to beat that handsome total! The collection for the Diocesan Children Society amounted to £116.06 - a vast improvement on £3 for Christmas Night - but then who carries money on Christmas night?....more to the point perhaps, who has any left? Members of our parish who go to the Saturday morning Mass at Our Lady & St. Joseph's Church in Lymington will be very sorry to hear that Bishop Crispian has accepted Father Don Clements' wish to retire early due to serious ill health. Father Don has already lost the sight of one eye, and continuing work puts his other eye at risk. As well as sight problems, he has suffered other serious health problems including cancer, but he will nevertheless be working until September. It appears this is the earliest date it will be possible to provide another priest to take over the many responsibilities of the Lymington Parish. As well as a sizeable church and congregation with 3 Sunday Masses and daily Mass, Lymington has a flourishing Catholic primary school, due to reopen in new premises for the next school year, together with not only the two hospitals, but various nursing and sheltered homes as well as the Oakhaven Hospice. Father Clements asked hopefully if anyone had Air Miles lying around unused and unlikely to be used, could he have them to use to fly to Leeds from Southampton as he is no longer able to drive anything but the shortest distances.
January 5th Many people seem to have been mown down by the severe cold which is circulating in Milford - well, that's what we think is the reason for the sparse Mass attendance this very cold morning. Rita Ford celebrated her 60th birthday by providing sherry in the Maryland Room accompanied by shortbread fingers. All those who attended thought this was a good way to beat the cold and decided they could become accustomed to it with no trouble! No accounting for numbers in the draw! This week's clutch of numbers were 57, 59 and 69 to bring up the last. Lucky winners were Anita Hall, Kit Webdale and Lincoln Chattee. There were growing grumbling mumbles from the perpetual losers, some of whom are beginning to despair of ever boosting their waning bank balances with the huge sums available once a month from the 100 Club. Amounts won this week were £15 for the first prize and 2 x £10 for the minor placings - £10 for each, that is!
St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milford-on-sea purchased a new Wyvern organ last year. At the moment it is sulking in a corner making not even a whimper: there is no one to play it! Any keen organist who is thinking of retiring to the Milford area would be most welcome to play for the congregation sometimes at Sunday Mass - they would, indeed, be welcomed with open arms!
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Please
reserve the evening of 1st September when we shall be celebrating Father
Vervenne's having been with us at St. Francis of Assisi Church in Milford for
ten years. A party is being arranged for him in the Maryland Room when we
will not only be thanking him for spending a quarter of his priestly life with
us but also marking his Ruby Anniversary. The party will start at 7.00 pm.
which
has been a difficult year for many
Congratulations
to all those who took part in any way towards the raising of this amount:
"Well Done and Cheers!" shouted the little Mouse. . .
We regret to report the death of Anne Scarnell, who died
overnight after a short stay in hospital. She had struggled bravely with
ill health for some time but reaching her Golden Wedding in 2005 was one of her
very precious moments. We ask the good Lord to receive her into the glory
of his Kingdom and that she may rest in peace, light and happiness.
This evening Milford was required to do battle again with
New Milton in defence of of its Skittles Crown. For the last four years,
St. Francis of Assisi Church has won the match, and this year the style was
changed by the New Milton parishioners and we had to get used to bowling,
American-style instead. There was quite a lot of fear at the possible huge
weight of the balls, but those who in previous years had been responsible for
setting the skittles upright were mightily relieved when they
discovered there
was a suitable slave arrangement under the new system to get the pins
re-established with no effort from the players!
Peter
and Mayve Larke, really proud grandparents, are hoping that when they next
inspect this site they will see a photograph of petit Monsieur Thomas James who
weighed in at 3½kg on 17th October at Poissy, France.
Their wish is the webmaster's pleasure so here he is.
After a spectacular arrival in their carriage on a sunny
but windy afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Edward Habgood were married at St. Francis
Church, in the company of family and friends. Fr. Gerrit Vervenne
officiated, and the ceremony was embellished by the singing of Pippa Judson.
celebration
in the Maryland Room to mark the making of her First Holy Communion by Jennifer
Atherton. She is our little ewe lamb for this year, and we will all pray for her
on this lovely occasion and wish her our congratulations and prayers.
The atmosphere was one of real friendship and
fellowship and we can only thank the Lord it all went so well.
Here is a picture of the Tree of Prayers,
which had a former life as part of the Christmas decorations by Paula at
St. George's Hospital, to where it has now returned. It was
spotted by one of the Committee arranging the evening and reserved for
the Tree of Prayers. Each of the leaves carried a prayer written
by those attending, and the leaves were be burned at a suitable moment
when there wasn't any wind so that the smoke ascended in the traditional
way to the
addressee!
A
urgent request has
gone out for plants with red berries on them - there seems to be a bit of a
dearth this year - goodness know why as the season so far has been very
mild...must have still been loads of worms to eat in the gardens and woods
around Milford. These are, of course, required for Christmas
decoration as the days get closer to Christmas.
ub
next door seem to have been unable to provide the muscle to move them this year
and the bulk was finally left to Leah and friend - both over 60 - to bag 10 bags
of the things, which were kindly removed by Paul. In future, there will
have to be another solution: either the leaves are attacked by a united effort
of everyone on one particular day, or a financial collection will be requested
and professionals brought in two or three times during the season to dispose of
the leaves.
