The Parishes of Saint Oswald & Saint Sebastian
Saint Oswald’s Presbytery; Saint Oswalds Street
Old Swan; Liverpool, L13 5SB
Tel: 0151 228 3327
Webpage: www.sebosw.org
Email: stoswaldstsebastian@rcaol.org.uk
9th November 2020
Dear parent/guardian
As you know, things have been rather hectic since I became parish priest of Saint Oswald’s and Saint Sebastian’s. We had the start of Lent, and then a few weeks later, the ‘national lockdown’ began on the 23rd March. And now, as things were slowly starting to get some sort of normality back, we find ourselves in another lockdown. I am sure you are wondering what is happening with the pastoral and Catholic life within our schools during this time, so I thought it best to give you an update as to what is going on.
In the next couple of weeks I shall be meeting with all of the children in our schools (online), which will hopefully give us all a chance to start getting to know each other, and also make sure that your child can put a face to my name. Once these meeting have taken place, we will be looking at the upcoming season of Advent, and we will all be involved in an advent service, where the wreath will be blessed, and the children will have an opportunity to bring up their prayers to be placed by the wreath. These prayers will then be brought into our churches, so that the whole parish community will be able to pray for these intentions together. After that, we will be looking into how we conduct our Christmas services.
I also know a lot of you are wondering about how we will prepare and celebrate our First Holy Communion Masses, especially for the children who are in Years 4 and 5. An online program is being worked out that will hopefully enable all involved to start and work through the preparation course. We will look into celebrating the First Holy Communion Masses in due time.
I am looking forward to walking with you and your children, especially as we prepare for the coming Christmas feast, and I hope that we will be able to celebrate together as a community soon, within both of our churches.
God bless; and stay safe.
Fr. Liam Collister