St Thomas More Manor House Golden Jubilee celebrations

Screenshot - Cardinal blesses Alex's cake

There was standing room only at St Thomas More's church in Manor House, north London last Sunday, for their Golden Jubilee Mass. Cardinal Vincent Nichols was the chief celebrant.

It was a glorious sunny day - throughout the service, exotic birdsong - from the aviary over the roof - could be heard occasionally. (This parish also has a dovecote and a beehive.)

St Thomas More's is blessed with some wonderful musicians. Alessandro Romano opened the service with a beautiful rendition of Hidelgard Bingham's O Virtus Sapientiae.

The entrance hymn was Longing For Light by Bernadette Farrell - who was in the congregation. The organist was Agnelo Mendonca. Gina Fergione led the choir and sang the psalm beautifully.

Among other leading Catholics at the Mass were Richard Harries director of Caritas Westminster, Yogi Sutton and Richard Zipfel director and secretary of the Catholic Association for Racial Justice (CARJ), Christine Allen, Director of CAFOD, Barbara Kentish and Nora Mulready from the Irish Elders network.

In his homily Cardinal Vincent said it was lovely that Mass has been celebrated here with "constancy, faith and devotion for these 50 years - echoing exactly the words of St Paul in the second reading: 'What I have received I have handed on to you.' And we, here in this parish of St Thomas More, have been faithful to those words of St Paul: 'What I received I've handed on to you.' Family by family, community by community, we do the same. What we have received we hand on - because it is such an enormous gift."

Noting that it was the feast of Corpus Christi the Cardinal said, in the past there may have been more Corpus Christi processions but he said: "each one of you as you walk home is a procession of the Blessed Sacrament. Each one of you is there to bring to this wonderful strange sometimes puzzling world of ours, a moment, a mark of Jesus' presence on our streets and in our homes. And that's why a church like this, celebrating 50 years, we can think of it as a powerhouse - an outflowing of goodness and loveliness a place of compassion where we try to respond to the needs around us. And at the end of the day a place in which we praise God."

At the end of Mass, Fr Clive thanked the Cardinal for coming and spoke of the joy of living in London and of having such a diverse congregation. He paid tribute to the rich music tradition and talented young musicians at St Thomas More. He also noted the work of the Irish Elders, CARJ and those involved in the synodal process. Fr Clive also thanked his consultant Panos Kottorides for the excellent treatment he is receiving for Leukaemia at University College Hospital. Dr Kottorides was at the Mass with his wife.

A celebration in the hall followed. There was a delicious spread of food and drinks. Displays, organised by Martin McEnery and Tricia Zipfel, showed the tremendous history of the parish and its current activities. One featured a world map with surrounded by pictures of current parishioners - showing how they come from virtually every continent. One pictured 'those we have loved and lost'. And there was one showing the various parish groups.

Other displays - with key dates - showed people who have played an important role in the diocese in youth and community youth work. The Liturgy Centre established at St Thomas More's led liturgical renewal from 1975 onwards, producing many new texts and music. Composers who worked there included Fr Ernie Saunders (who wrote May the Choirs of Angels) Paul Inwood, Stephen Dean and Bernadette Farrell.

Another display showed the extensive work that has been done at the parish since 2021 on the Synodal process.

Tricia Zipfel told ICN: "For me the event was a powerful celebration of a really wonderful community and all the things we've achieved together over the years."

Watch a video and see more pictures of the celebration here: https://vimeo.com/1095423851/02cd45fd49?ts=0&share=copy

We will also be posting up more pictures on ICN's Facebook page:
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