OLDE FORGE EVANGELISATION CAFÉ
Webmaster • May 10, 2026
Thank you to everyone who works so hard to make our Evangelisation Cafe a means to help non-Christian people and people of no Faith, make connections with our Catholic Faith and our parish.
Frankly speaking though, we had, until recently slightly lost our way a little. The Evangelisation Cafe, on a certain day, had lost its purpose to evangelise! It was tending to slightly become just a place where people who already are Christian and attend Christian Services gather to socialise. Nothing wrong with this, of course, except that this is not the purpose of the Evangelisation Cafe. It is good and important that occasionally we have opportunities to socialise as Catholic parishioners. Yet the Evangelisation Cafe exists not to be inward-looking but to reach out to people who do not yet have any contact with us or with any of the Christian Churches in Sanderstead or indeed with the person of the Lord Jesus. On Saturdays however, there is a wonderful ethos of Evangelisation in the Cafe, created by the Hosts. Often, on Saturdays, the Cafe has a large number of visitors who have no connection with our parish at all. They are welcomed warmly by our Hosts who spend time chatting to our visitors and they are offered free drinks and free cakes baked and provided by many of our parishioners on our rota. It is real Evangelisation in action.
Please, dear sisters and brothers of our parish, help to make our Cafe what it is meant to be - a place where your family members, your friends and your neighbours and colleagues who have no or very little connection with the Christian Faith, can come for free coffee and cakes and, if and when they wish, begin to get to know what it means, through us, to have an adult Catholic, Christian Faith in the Lord Jesus. Please be actively involved as a Host or Baker/Provider of cakes. Please come to the Evangelisation Cafe and bring someone with you who has no connection with the Christian Faith. The Lord will do the rest!
We have a built-in device in our daily Streaming Service of holy Mass, which allows us to see where our holy Mass is being televised. I thought you might like to know which countries receive and broadcast holy Mass from our church. They are: United Kingdom United States of America Ecuador China Belgium India Canada Spain Japan Finland Andorra Switzerland South Korea Poland Portugal
To our Catechists Lorenza and Angela for the time they gave and the great efforts they made, over many months, to help the parents of our children to prepare their own children for the priceless gift of being able to receive Our Blessed Lord in Holy Communion. To the parents of Ada, Nikita, Olivia Storey, Olivia Sumaria, Kamsi, Leon, Mirielle-Esme and Alexander for the good example they give to their children and the promise made by these parents of coming to church and celebrating holy Mass every weekend with their children. Such great examples given to their children of trust in the Lord Jesus, brings and shows their Children a model of true Faith. Without a real commitment to Sunday holy Mass every weekend by Parents, Parents and their children will drift away from the Lord.
Deep in the human heart is a longing to be connected to others, to love and to be loved. I am leading this Workshop from 10.00am until 2.00pm on Saturday 11th July . The Workshop will help us to understand the reasons why we sometimes feel lonely and what a devastating effect Loneliness can have on us. I’ll suggest effective ways to ensure that your experience of Loneliness can actually become the means of finding deep, satisfying ways of being close to the Lord and to other people. The workshop will take place at the London Jesuit Centre. If you would like to attend this Workshop, please book now on the London Jesuit Centre website.
An Intention for holy Mass is a specific prayer, often for a particular person or purpose, that a priest offers during the celebration of a holy Mass. It is the best way that we have to unite our lives, our hopes, our fears, our joys and our sorrows with the Lord Jesus. It is the best way possible, because every time holy Mass takes place, the Lord’s Death and Resurrection also takes place. A holy Mass Intention is a prayer asking that the Lord’s victory over sin and death be applied to the Intention. The Intention can be for those who are still living in this world or for those who have left this world. Anyone, of course, may request a holy Mass - In Thanksgiving, for a Birthday, for someone who has died, on the occasion of a special Anniversary, for someone who is unwell or for any other intention that we believe the good Lord wishes to hear and possibly to give us. Every holy Mass is the making present of the Lord offering his saving love to everyone, so every holy Mass is for everyone! However, sometimes we have specific Intentions that we may wish to mention to the Lord. A ‘Stipend’ or Offering for the holy Mass is not a fee! It is not ‘the cost of a holy Mass’! The holy Mass is so sacred, so full of the Lord’s presence and saving power that it is priceless! In fact, the Stipend is only a gesture of gratitude and care for the priest who celebrates the holy Mass for you. It is a way for supporting our priests who, although they do not receive salaries, still need personal funds to meet their own ‘costs of living.’ The Stipend suggested by the Archdiocese of Southwark Finance Committee is a minimum of £10 for each holy Mass. Of course, anyone who can’t afford a Stipend should still request a holy Mass Intention and I’m sure every priest would always be more than happy to celebrate holy Mass for someone in that situation. Here in our parish, please use the holy Mass Intention envelopes which you will find in the porch of the church. Please write the details of the Intention, a preferred date if required, enclose the Stipend, and let me have it directly or post it through the presbytery letterbox.
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.
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.
In ordinary jobs, people swop roles and swop arrangements for their jobs with each other. That is good and necessary. A Vocation is something very different than a Job! A Vocation is a Calling from the Lord to a particular person, to fulfil a sacred and a specific role on specific occasions. Our Eucharistic Ministers and our Lectors have a Vocation to sacred roles. They have been called and chosen by the Lord, through his Church, to exercise specific, sacred Callings for specific moments. Dear Eucharistic Ministers and Lectors, if it is impossible for you, at any time, to fulfil your sacred role on a specific occasion, please let me know as soon as you can so that I can appoint someone else to exercise their Calling on that specific occasion. I would be very grateful if you could please advise me rather than swop with someone else, for the above reason. Many thanks.
Thank you very much to Antonia who has very kindly agreed to look after the flowers which decorate our church. Church flowers are a beautiful prayer of praise and thanksgiving to God. We are always very grateful for any flowers you may wish to donate which will be used in the church to give honour to the Lord.
Please may I remind you of the change in our Sunday holy Mass schedule, by direction of Archbishop John. Every parish in the Archdiocese of Southwark is asked to consider a change in the number of parish Sunday holy Masses. For some parishes there may be no changes at all. For other parishes there may be a reduction in the number of Sunday holy Masses. For more parishes, there may be no change in the number of Sunday holy Masses but there may be a change in the times of their Sunday holy Masses. For some parishes changes may only be for the Summer months each year because Summertime sees smaller congregations while people are on holiday away from their parishes. For other parishes, the changes may be permanent. This new Sunday holy Mass schedule throughout the Archdiocese will begin on 18th and 19th of July, the third weekend of the month. Here, in our own parish, we have had two very well-attended general meetings to discuss what we should do. I have also asked you to let me have your views, via emails, telephone calls and in person. I have received many messages and had many conversations. Discussions have also taken place at Area (Deanery) level between parishes. In our parish, your almost unanimous comments and suggestions to me, have been: 1. That we do not need three Sunday holy Masses, given the smaller population of our parish in comparison with other much larger parishes. 2. That two Sunday holy Masses would be enough for our needs and in fact that just two Sunday holy Masses would actually help us to celebrate Sunday holy Masses much more together as a parish community and with more participation. 3. That the 9.00am Sunday holy Mass is the least well attended of our present three Sunday holy Masses. 4. That we could lose the 9.00am Sunday holy Mass, without too much difficulty for people, given that we would still have a choice of two Sunday holy Masses in our parish, every weekend. 5. That to help those who presently celebrate 9.00am Sunday holy Mass and because it wouldn’t cause too much of a change for the present large 11.00am Sunday holy Mass congregation, that we have our second Sunday holy Mass at 10.30am on Sunday itself. 6. That would mean that every weekend we have our first Sunday holy Mass as a Vigil Sunday holy Mass at 5.00pm on Saturdays. That we would have our second of two Sunday holy Masses at 10.30am every Sunday. Please let me know if you have any further comments or suggestions. In particular, please let me know if you think the changes mentioned above, would have an impact on the size of our Sunday holy Mass congregations.