Parish press

The Catholic Herald's weekly guide to what is going on in your diocese
SOUTHWARK BELLS recently rang out at Corpus Christi church, Tonbridge, to celebrate the centenary of the refounding of the church after the Reformation. Mgr Michael Smith, the parish priest, said that the electronic digital bells, installed as a centenary project, sounded "just like the real thing".
A MARRIAGE. ENC:OINTER Weekend (for married couples who want to deepen and enrich their life together) is being held at Damascus House, Mill Hill on 21 April. Details from Mgr John Hinc on 071 928 5592.
AND1. BOWDEN, FORMERLY the organiser of the Young Christian Workers in Southwark, has left to join the Benedictines at Ampleforth.
HEXHAM AND NEWCASTLE MAURICE WARD, CHAIRMAN OF
the Society for the Protection of Unborn Children (SPUC)'s Stockton-on-Tees Branch, will launch the "Undying Flame for Unborn Children" today, as it arrives from London on its continuing tour of the United Kingdom. Fr Michael Corbett will conduct the special service at St Mary's church, Major Street, at 7pm.
ARUNDEL AND BRIGHTON MGR
JOHN HULL WILL SPEAK on "Authority and the Church" on 3 April at the Chapel Royal, Brighton. Mgr Hull's talk forms part of the Lunchtime Dialogue season of Monday talks.
LEEDS THE CARMELITES have offered to withdraw from Hazlewood Castle and have offered to sell it to the diocese. As a result of this decision, the Carmelites will now accept an offer by Bishop Crowley to return to the city of York where they had a community from 1253-1538.
CLIFTON CLAIRE HOBBS has resigned as Cathedral Organist as from the end of April. She joined the Cathedral in November 1991.
MORE COUPLES are needed for the Cathedral's pre-marriage team which helps prepare couples for marriage. The ideal couple should he "married three-to-ten years, be friendly and outgoing, have a concern for others".
PORTSMOUTH THE COMMITTEE of Wantage Section, in the local section, presented a cheque for £500 to Kate Burke; project manager of the Catholic Children's Society Bridge Fostering Scheme. Fr James Joseph Matthews A PRIEST OF the Diocese of Shrewsbury, Fr Matthews died on 27 January at the Sisters of Mercy Nursing Home in Colwyn Bay, North Wales, aged 86.
Born in Birkenhead in 1908 he studied for the priesthood at the English College, Lisbon, in the days when studies began at the age of 11. A contemporary of Archbishop John Murphy, it is suggested that he was a student tutor to Bishop Victor Guazzelli.
He was ordained a priest at Lisbon in 1935 and served as curate in the Cheshire parishes of St Joseph's, Sale, and St Paul's, Hyde, and as parish priest in three parishes: Our Lady of Pity, Greasby on Wirral, (1948-51), St Winefride's, Sandbach (1951-61) and St Vincent de Paul, Knutsford, (1961-68).
Fr John Thompson
FR THOMPSON men in Arrow Park Hospital, Wirral, on 30 January, having been taken ill while awaiting treatment.
Born in 1931, his family moved to Birkenhead where John read law at Liverpool University and qualified as a solicitor in 1955. Brought up a member of the Church of England, John decided to become a Catholic and was received into the Church in 1979. In 1982 he began his studies for the priesthood at Ushaw College.
He was ordained a priest by Bishop Gray at Qur Lady's, Birkenhead, on I 1 July, 1987, and his first assignment as an Assistant Priest was to the parish of St Joseph's, Sale.
In 1989 he was transferred to St Peter's, Hazel Grove, and to St Edward's, Macclesfield, in 1994, where he set himself about the task :of building up strong connections with the Parish School:as well as acting as chaplain-to Parkside Hospital.
Frank Whitehead, KSG,
BURSAR OF TIIE first Catholic co-educational teacher training establishment in England, Frank Whitehead died on 12 February.
Born in Liverpool in 1921, the seventh of nine boys, he experienced war service in India, Burma and Malaya and held a number of posts in the Corporation of Liverpool before his appointment in 1964 as Bursar of the newlyfounded Christ's College.
The college quickly became a favourite conference venue for a variety of Catholic agencies as well as for the Department of Education and Science.
Appointed treasurer of the National Pastoral Congress in 1980, he was subsequently made a Knight of St Gregory, spending much of his retirement continuing to work in a voluntary capacity.