Esther" to Sotheby's saleroom, London, for auction. It has been deteriorating in the Relics' Chapel and the money will go towards paying off the parish debt.
COUNCILLOR Stanley Cohen of Leeds, a Catholic, will be one of the 40 British members of the Duke of Edinburgh's third Commonwealth Study Conference in Australia next year. He is a member of the national executive of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association.
MISS JOSEPHINE DAGLEY. 84, organist of Holy Trinity Church, Hethe, Oxon, has received the Papal Blessing from Pope Paul. Presented with the scroll was a wallet of notes from the parish priest, Fr. W. Connick, and the congregation, "as a token of their immense gratitude, high esteem and deep affection."
MRS. MARGARET MARY COLLIER, of Cheltenham, widow of Mr. Vincent Henry Collier, left legacies of £1,150 to St. Gregory's Church, Cheltenham, £1,000 to St. Aloysius's, Gamethill, Glasgow, and the residue of her £50,611 (duty paid £16,165) estate equally between the Distressed Gentlefolk's Aid Association, the Guild of Our Lady of Ransom, the Society of St. Vincent de Paul, Nazareth House, Cheltenham, the RSPCA and the PDSA.
ANEW church costing about £30,000, to replace the "temporary" church hall of St. Thomas More at Kidlington, Oxford, built in 1934. is now under construction and should be ready by Easter. A £24,000 extension to the St. 1 homas More primary school is expected to be finished about the same time.
NEARLY 101) singers from six
parish choirs in Newport. Mon., took part in a Choir Festival at St. Michael's Church on Sunday. After rehearsal and adjudications by Dom Laurence Bevenot, the choirs combined to sing for Evening Mass celebrated by Fr. Daniel Payne.
PARISHIONERS of St. Mary's, Ahertillery, and St. David's Llanhilleth, presented a tropical sick call set and a cheque to Fr. McNamee, their former parish priest, ssho is to spend five years in Zambia on loan from the Archdiocese of Cardiff. Fr. McNamee presented the Bene Merenti Medal awarded by the Pope to Mrs. M. Cummins for her work for the parish over a period of 54 years.
TWO one-act operas will be presented by the Sacred Music Drama Society from January 11 to 13 at All Saints Church, Margaret Street, London. S.W,1.--The Equationby Geoffrey Bush and "The Three Wise Menby Inglis Gundry (chairman of the society). Tickets (Ns. to £1) may be had from Clifford Bartlett. hon. secretary. at 20 Ribblesdale Road. London. N.8.
TRIBUTE to Fr. Michael Rey
nell's seven years work as assistant priest of Our Lady Queen of Heaven Church. Langley Green. Crawley. Sussex, was paid at a social in the church hall when a cheque for £100 was presented to him by Fr. John McSheehy. parish priest. Fr. Reynell was recently transferred to St. Mary Magdalen Church. Brighton. as assistant priest.
;SISTER XAVIER, 71, a White Sister at the Notting Hill Provincial House, has just celebrated the golden jubilee of her profession. Before coming to England she worked in North Africa and is a well-known member of the Galea family who have contributed so much to the Church in Malta.
PRE Franciscan Sisters of St.
Mary of the Angels have been forced through lack of funds to offer for sale "Maryland", the house at Milford-on-Sea, Hampshire, which they have run as a home for elderly priests for 30 years. The Sisters are joining a convent at Wickham, Hampshire.
pit. TOM CORBISHLEY, of Farm Street, seems to be preaching more "away" than at home these days. On November 19 he will preach at a 6.30 p.m. service at St. Paul's and on November 23 at 8 p.m. he speaks at the Bloomsbury Central Baptist Church in Shaftesbury Avenue on "The Secular Background of the Gospels". In recent weeks he has appeared on panel discussions arranged by the BBC and the National Secular Society. THE Convent of Our Lady, Foxbush, Hildenborough, Tunbridge, Kent, will he auctioned in the spring unless sold privately beforehand, About £50,000 is expected for the freehold. The convent, run by the Sisters of Charity and Christian Instruction of Nevers, includes -apart from the school buildings -15 bedrooms, four reception rooms, four bathrooms and 271 acres of grounds. The agents are Knight, Frank and Rutley acting with Brooks and Son of Tonbridge.
TWO parishioners of the Sacred Heart Church, Bournemouth, have received Bene Merenti medals for their outstanding work for the church. Mr. Leonard Huffey of Clarendon Road received the gold medal and certificate for long service at the altar as Master of Ceremonies and as secretary of the St. Stephen's Guild since its establishment in 1946, and Mrs. Laura Hitchcock. of Beechey Road received the gold medal and certificate for a wide variety of activities which have included most of the social services, and particularly for many years work in the Union of Catholic Mothers.
ANEW wing to the Boarbank Nursing and Convalescent Home, Grange-over-Sands, Lan cashire, has been blessed and officially opened by Bishop Foley of Lancaster. The extension, named "Bethany", provides an extra 14 bedrooms for the home. which is run by the Canonesses of St. Augustine, of the Convent of Our Lady of Lourdes.
MGRMGR. J. M. RYAN, P.P., V.F., . parish priest of St. Joseph's Church, Weymouth, Dorset, for 17 years, and also Dean of Dorset, had a double presentation on the occasion of his recent retirement. Parishioners gave him a cheque for £245, an illuminated address and an engraved silver salver.
The Catholic Women's League, to %hum he was spiritual adviser, presented him with £10 and an engraved lighter.
SIX members of the Sedgley (Dudley) O.S.A., including their president, have just visited St. George's Convent, Broadstairs, Kent, to congratulate their first president, Mother Mary John Green, F.C.J., on receiving the Papal award-Pro Ecciesia er Pontifice, Mother Mary John, who has been 75 years in religion. was for very many years Principal and Reverend Mother of Sedgley Park College, Prestwich, and is held in great esteem by all the former students.