A MEMORABLE New Year's Day for the priests and parishoners

of St Joseph's and St Mary's Church, Guernsey, Channel Islands, who celebrated the centenary of its consecration on Jan 1. Fr Patrick Tansey, who was one of the concelebrants, writes as follows: "The Right Reverend Mgr Canon Raymond Lawrence, Episcopal Vicar for the Channel Islands, and parish priest, was assisted by three priests who were born in Guernsey and were ordained in the church for the Diocese of Portsmouth, of which the Channel Islands are a part.
'The Rev David Mahy, Dean of Jersey; The Rev Edward Richer, parish priest of Fleet, Aldershot; and the Rev Vincent Harvey, assistant priest at St John's Cathedral, Portsmouth, joined Mgr Lawrence nad Fr Philip Hsley, SCJ, parish priest
of Delancey parish on the island. for the special
A number of events are planned to commemorate the consecration. A History of the Church and Parish is to be produced, and Bishop Emery of Portsmouth is to visit the island for the main celebration.
The church was opened in 1851 by Cardinal Wiseman, Archbishop of Westminister, having been built to a design by Pugin. Consecrated by Bishop John Vertue, first Bishop of Portsmouth, it has the honour of being the first church to have been consecrated in the Diocese of Portsmouth after the establishment of the Diocese in 1882.
The centenary year of consecration coincides with the fortieth anniversary of the liberation of the Channel Islands from Nazi occupation in 1945.