The Catholic Parish of

THE HOLY FAMILY

S A N D E R S T E A D

Part of the Archdiocese of Southwark

CHRISTMAS DAY - A MOMENT OF GRACE

By Webmaster • December 15, 2025
Christmas is always a time when hearts are more open to God than at any other time in the year. Please invite members of your families, your friends, your neighbours and your colleagues to join you for one of our three Christmas Day holy Masses. God can work powerfully through your words and your invitation, helping people we love and know, to discover the life-giving presence of the Lord Jesus in holy Mass. Just to remind you: Wednesday 24th December: 5.30pm Christmas Carols 6.00pm First holy Mass of Christmas Day 11.30pm Christmas Carols 12.00 Midnight Second holy Mass of Christmas Day Thursday 25th December: 10.00amChristmas Carols 10.30am Third holy Mass of Christmas Day Friday 26th December: 9.00am Morning Prayer and Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament 9.30am Holy Mass of the Feast of St.Stephen

HOLY COMMUNION UNDER BOTH KINDS; SIGN OF PEACE; HOLDING HANDS

By Webmaster • December 15, 2025
We can be truly proud of the fact that we have been fully following the teaching of the Second Vatican Council by making it possible for everyone to receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion exactly as he gave himself to us, under the forms of bread and wine. To receive Our Blessed Lord under just one kind is to receive him fully, but to receive him under both kinds is much more faithful to the way he gave himself to his friends at the Last Supper. There are warning signs that a very serious strain of ‘flu is around. With this in mind, I think it would be wise if we suspend receiving Our Lord in Holy Communion under the form of wine, during these winter months. If you feel you can receive Our Lord in the sacred host, in your hand, please do so. That way is more hygienic than receiving the sacred host on your tongue. However, if you feel it is best for you to receive on the tongue, please do continue to do so. It would also be sensible to simply bow to each other at the Sign of Peace in holy Mass rather than shake hands. So too, it’s probably best not to hold hands during the Our Father in the holy Mass.  I feel sad that we have to suspend these aspects of our celebration of holy Mass for a little while. We will reinstate them as soon as possible in the Spring when the threat of this very serious strain of the ‘flu has diminished.

CHILDREN’S LITURGY OF THE WORD DURING 11.00am SUNDAY HOLY MASS

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
We began again our ‘Liturgy of the Word’ for children of Primary School age on Sunday November 2nd and will continue on the following consecutive Sundays. Dear Parents please bear these dates in mind when you bring your children to holy Mass. During these ‘Liturgy of the Word’ sessions, our children will have opportunities to understand and enjoy God’s loving Word during the 11.00am holy Mass.

ADULT ON-GOING FAITH FORMATION MEETINGS - DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
We will shortly begin again our meetings for everyone who is ready to grow in Faith and who wishes to have a grown-up Faith. For many people, opportunities to move from a childish Faith to a mature Faith have been very limited or even not available at all! These meetings are moments to talk about any aspect whatsoever of human life and to receive a little help to see how our loving Lord is so close to us in everything and to see how he is trying to draw us all into a genuine adult Faith relationship with him and his Church. We will meet on Saturday mornings, at 12.00midday for one hour, in our Parish Room. Owing to other commitments, we can only have 4 meetings before Christmas, on the 22nd and 29th November and the 13th and 20th December.
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Welcome to Holy Family Parish

I wish all our visitors to this website, great peace and joy.
I hope you enjoy exploring our site and discovering the varied life of our vibrant parish.
If you would like to join us for the celebration of holy Mass, you will be welcomed with open arms.
So too, if you would like to join in any of our events and meetings, it will be a pleasure to see you.
If there is anything I can do to help or support you, please let me know.
With assurance of my prayers and warmest best wishes,

Fr Malachy

Holy Family Catholic Church

I wish all our visitors to this website, great peace and joy.
I hope you enjoy exploring our site and discovering the varied life of our vibrant parish.
If you would like to join us for the celebration of holy Mass, you will be welcomed with open arms.
So too, if you would like to join in any of our events and meetings, it will be a pleasure to see you.
If there is anything I can do to help or support you, please let me know.
With assurance of my prayers and warmest best wishes,

Fr Malachy


  • Weekend Mass

    Saturday: 5:00pm (Vigil Holy Mass)

    Sunday: 9am and  11am 

  • Weekday Mass

    Monday: 9:30am

    Tuesday:  9:30am

    Wednesday: 9.30 am

    Thursday: 9.30am

    Friday: 9.30am

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'Christ has no body now but yours' St Theresa of Avila

Parish News

Parish News

Our very latest news updates and information about Parish activities.

PROGRAMME OF PREPARATION FOR FIRST RECONCILIATION AND FIRST HOLY COMMUNION, FOR CHILDREN

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
Our programme to help parents to prepare their children for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist will begin early in the New Year. Meetings for Parents and meetings for their children will be on Friday evenings at 5.00pm. The parents will meet with Fr Malachy in the Parish Room and the children will meet with our Catechists in the Sacristy of the church, at the same time. Each meeting will last just 30 minutes. The dates of the meetings are flexible but we are planning to have the first six meetings on: 16th, 23rd, and 30th January 2026, then the 6th, 13th and 20th of February 2026. First Reconciliation for Children and their parents will be during the Season of Lent 2026 and First Holy Communion during the month of June 2026. If you have a child who you think is ready to receive the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Holy Communion in 2026, please let me have details as soon as possible so that we can begin our planning.

BEQUEST, IN A WILL

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
It is wise to write a Will so that the resources you have when the time comes for you to leave this world, goes to the people and organisations you wish. May I suggest that you might consider leaving a Bequest in your will to our parish or to our diocese or to our priest as well as to other causes. A gift in your will can enable us to continue to help people to know the Lord Jesus and his saving love. What a wonderful legacy you would be leaving behind.

THANK YOU

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
To our parishioners who pay for coffee and cake, when visiting the Cafe. Your payment enables us to pay the costs of running the Cafe, without which we couldn’t keep the Cafe open. Of course, our visitors and especially the guests that you bring with you to the Cafe, do not pay anything for their refreshments.

CRUCIFIX

By Webmaster • September 22, 2025
As you see, we have raised up the outside crucifix to a height which now makes it fully visible to all who pass by our church. It is also now surrounded by a solid base.  This is another way in which we are demonstrating that we are a Christian community obedient to the Lord and to our Archbishop, by becoming a missionary parish. We are trying to make stronger the ‘rumour’ of the living presence of the true God who loves everyone and who can save all who come to him from their sins and from death itself. In a secular culture where the worship of false Gods like Money and Power and Violence and Fame and Selfishness in all its forms and Greed are so strong, the Lord needs you and I to take every opportunity we can to make his saving loving presence known.

THE CATHOLIC EDUCATION SERVICE ANNUAL COLLECTION, NEXT WEEKEND

By Webmaster • September 8, 2025
The CES supports Catholic Education in the 2000 Catholic schools, academies and colleges of England and Wales, providing education over 800,000 students. The CES is the chief negotiating and advisory body on matters affecting all aspects of Catholic education.
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Golden Jubilee of Priesthood

By Webmaster • September 1, 2022
PARISH CELEBRATION - THANK YOU, WITH ALL MY HEART What an amazing, quite wonderful Celebration we all enjoyed, last Sunday. It was an occasion full of joy and happiness, as we thanked the good Lord for all his loving kindness. It reminded me of the description, in the Acts of the Apostles, of how the first Christians lived - sharing and caring, as they rejoiced in their awareness of the risen Lord alive in their midst, by the power of the Holy Spirit. There isn’t enough space on this Newsletter to thank so many people by name, who in so many ways, made the Parish Celebration a huge success. Thank you, with all my heart, to everyone for everything you did. The memory of my Golden Anniversary of Priesthood will remain with me for ever. Please send me, digitally, your photographs. Unless you instruct me otherwise, I would like to publish some of them on our parish website, as a permanent reminder of a quite wonderful moment in the life our parish. Thank you for all your gifts and cards and best wishes. I am deeply honoured to be your priest. Thank you for your generous Collection for me which raised £1,596.00.

Parish Priest Notices

Important notices and items. These will contain news elements & important requests and parish notices

EXTRAORDINARY MINISTERS OF HOLY COMMUNION ROTA

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
DECEMBER 2025 6/7: 5pm Maggie; 9am Ross; 11am David, Simone, Margaret(H) 13/14: 5pm Marian; 9am Angela; 11am Phil, Lisa, Mary(H) 20/21: 5pm Carolyn; 9am Jim; 11am John, Giannina, Gabrielle(H) 24: 6pm Linda, Regina, Paul; 12Midnight: Lizzie, Lorenza, Patricia 25: 11am: Marian, Ross, Maggie(H) 27/28: 5pm David, 9am Angela, 11am Margaret, Simone, Phil(H) Thank you to our wonderful Ministers of the Eucharist who have accepted the Lord’s invitation to this awesome, sacred ministry, by their willingness to give up their own plans and convenience in order to do God’s will rather than their own. Let us pray for them because they too fight the same personal weaknesses we all have to fight against and they too have to fight the same temptations we all have to fight. God be with them.

WEEK DAY LECTORS

By WEBMASTER • December 14, 2025
Tuesday: Giannina Wednesday: Patricia  Thursday: Marian

CHURCH CLEANING - SATURDAY 20TH DECEMBER AT 9.30am

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
Please come to help to clean our church, before the great season of Christmas begins. To ensure the place where the Lord dwells among us is kept clean and tidy, is a sign of the great respect we have for the sacredness of God’s House. Please come to help, for half an hour, as a demonstration of your love for God.

OLDE FORGE CAFE - FREE COFFEE AND CAKE FOR OUR VISITORS

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
Please do your best to bring members of your family, your friends, neighbours and colleagues who normally have little, if any contact with our Catholic parish, to the Olde Forge Cafe. Please remember that those you bring with you DO NOT give a donation for their coffee and cake. Only us, who are regular members of our parish, are asked to give a donation, each time, to cover the cost of the Coffee machine, coffee beans, heat, light etc. Dear Bakers and those who provide milk, please remember to take your expenses from the donations received.

CALLED TO BEAR FRUIT CONSULTATION RESPONSE.

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
Thank you to the thousands of people who took part in the Called to Bear Fruit consultation. We are grateful to you all for sharing so openly your hopes for the life of the Church in our Archdiocese. The consultation response, which includes 15 actions points for renewal, is available at https://rcaos.org.uk/calledtobearfruit and hardcopies will be sent to every parish. The consultation revealed a burning desire within our parishes to be missionary and evangelising disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ, who work together to help people encounter His love. So, as we move forward on the next steps together, let’s build up the Body of Christ in Southwark with faith and confidence, becoming ever more a community of missionary disciples filled with joy and hope for the future. As an Archdiocese, we will continue to discern the process of renewal, and further updates will be provided in due course. There are hard copies of the ‘Report on the Consultation’, in the porch of the church. I’m afraid they are rain-damaged but hopefully still readable.

THANK YOU

By Webmaster • December 1, 2025
The Gardening Group for their great work in the Cafe as well as in the grounds around the church. On Tuesdays, our cafe is hosted by Bridget, Linda and Jannine. Their warmth, kindness and week by week consistency has led to our Cafe on Tuesdays becoming a place of great welcome for many Visitors as well as our own parishioners. This is exactly what our Evangelisation Cafe should be. Very well done and thank you.

Parish / Diocesan
 Events

SHORT PENANCE SERVICE AND INDIVIDUAL RECONCILIATION - WEDNESDAY 6.00pm

By Webmaster • December 15, 2025
To prepare our hearts to celebrate Christmas properly and well, as the time when the Lord Jesus came into our world to save us from Sin and Death, the Sacrament of Reconciliation is available next Wednesday evening 17th December . In this wonderful Sacrament we experience the gentle, compassionate love of God for us. Please take up this opportunity and you will be filled with the Peace that God alone can give us.

RCIA - RITE OF CHRISTIAN INITIATION OF ADULTS

By Webmaster • December 14, 2025
The final meetings for adults preparing for the Sacraments of Reconciliation and Eucharist and Confirmation will be the 21st and 28th of November, then the 12th and 19th of December. First Reconciliation will be on the 5th December and First Holy Communion, during the 11.00am holy Mass on the 21st December. The Sacrament of Confirmation will be celebrated during 11.00am holy Mass on Sunday 4th January 2026. Please pray for Sarah and Sian as they prepare to receive the fullness of the Lord’s saving gifts for the first time in their lives and as they become adults in Faith

MORE DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

By Webmaster • December 8, 2025
Please note in your diaries: Advent Service of ‘Light in Darkness’, followed by Tea in the Olde Forge Cafe: Sunday 14th December at 3.00pm. Advent Penance Service and Individual Reconciliation: Wednesday 17th December at 6.00PM Christmas holy Masses and Carols: Wednesday 24th December - Carols at 5.30pm, holy Mass at 6.00pm; Wednesday 24th December - Carols at 11.30pm and holy Mass at 12.00Midnight;  Thursday 25th December - Carols at 10.30am and holy Mass at 11.00am

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