OPENING DAYS AND TIMES OF THE OLD FORGE CAFÉ

Webmaster • October 15, 2023


The existence of our Cafe is in response to the appeal by both Pope Francis and Archbishop John, that we all become missionaries, seeking to help other people to know the Lord Jesus and his great, saving love. We pray that our Cafe will slowly begin to attract visitors, wishing to enjoy coffee, tea and delicious cakes and a place to relax with family and friends. The Lord could then do great things in the lives of the people who visit us, through our simple hospitality, kindness and care.


Thank you for all your suggestions about days and times to open our Cafe. The consensus is that Opening Times each week, for the present, will be:
Sundays, immediately after the 11.00am holy Mass until about 1.30pm
Thursdays, from 2.00pm until 4.00pm
Saturdays, from 11.00am until 1.00pm

Please find in the porch of the church, sheets with those time slots. Please select a time slot and pop your name and contact number in that slot. The more people who kindly offer this help, the better it will be for everyone and the more successful will be our work for the Lord. All that is needed is to serve coffee or tea and cake to our guests. We’ll show you exactly what to do. Please take part in this great way of reaching out to those who don’t yet know the Lord Jesus very well. 

Thank you for a magnificent response for hosts. Thank you to everyone who has already put their name and contact details in a time slot on the sheets found in the porch of the church. If you haven’t done this already, please choose a slot and add your name and contact detail to the sheets, so that we can all be part of this great work that the Lord is calling us all to do.

 

BAKING FOR THE OLD FORGE CAFÉ


We would like to offer our guests who visit the Olde Forge Cafe, a piece of cafe as well as a nice coffee or tea. Please would you make a cake or procure a cake, once a month, for this great work of Evangelisation? Just a simple cake that has a use-by date of a few days or more and could be held in our fridge or frozen, is perfect. Please, not a cream-based gateau that has a short life! Please let us know the ingredients used, information which we will need to make known when the cake appears in the Cafe! Please could you put your name and contact details on a sheet which you will find in the church porch if you could bake a cake or procure a cake once a month. We could then make up a rota of who and when. Please note that if you need to claim the cost of ingredients, please do take what you need from the donation money, in the basket on the Cafe counter, that our guests are encouraged to give for their refreshments.
 

ROTA FOR LECTORS – FEBRUARY 2026

By Webmaster • January 26, 2026
31 January 5pm Lisa 1st February 9am Richard; 11am Lorenza 7/8: 5pm Mutsa; 9am Phil; 11am Marian 14/15: 5pm Jim; 9am Mike Guckian; 11am Chris Mallows 21/22: 5pm Collette; 9am Gerry; 11am Chinwe  28: 5pm Claire 1st March: 9am Giannina; 11am Maggie

RETIRING COLLECTION NEXT WEEKEND (31 Jan/1 Feb)

By Webmaster • January 26, 2026
Our Retiring Collection next weekend will be for ‘Pax Christi’, the Catholic international Peace Movement, based on the Christian Gospel and inspired by Faith. ‘Pax Christi’ (the Peace of Christ) works with all who share a vision of a world where all people can live in peace, without fear or violence in any form.

EVANGELISATION CAFE (OLDE FORGE CAFE)

By Webmaster • January 26, 2026
Part of our parish response to the words of Fr Jim McManus (see this week’s ’Thought for the Week’) is the existence of our Evangelisation Cafe. The Cafe is, first and foremost, a way of encouraging new people who do not yet know the Lord Jesus, to get to know him through us. The Cafe as a place where retired people can have somewhere to go is not the reason for its existence. Nonetheless, of course, we do hope that the many retired people living in our area have meaningful and happy lives and feel that they can get to know the Lord Jesus through us, in the Cafe. Our Cafe is simply an attempt to break out of an inward-looking pastoral strategy built on maintaining things, to an outward-looking pastoral strategy built on ‘mission’, which is the very task that the Lord lays upon the shoulders of every adult Catholic person in our parish. The Cafe is not a place for us to simply sit down and enjoy sponsored food and drinks. It is, rather, a place where each of us is asked by the Lord to bring someone we know, but that someone we bring is to be a person who doesn’t yet know the Lord and his Church. The success of this project is entirely in our hands. Hopefully, one day, the Lord will say to you, “Well done, good and faithful servant. Now, enter into my Kingdom, your work for me is done.”? Social Workers do great work but we are not Social Workers; we are Missionaries of the Lord Jesus.

EXTRAORDINARY MINISTERS OF HOLY COMMUNION ROTA

By Webmaster • January 25, 2026
31 January : 5pm Linda 1st February: 9am Regina; 11am Patrick 7/8 : 5pm Paul; 9am Lizzie; 11am Lorenza 14/15 : 5pm Patricia; 9am Maggie; 11am Ross 21/22 : 5pm David; 9am Marian; 11am Angela 28 : 5pm Phil  1st March : 9am Margaret; 11am Simone 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 • January 25, 2026
Mon: Jim Tue: Giannina Wed: Lorenza Fri: Maggie

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

By Webmaster • January 25, 2026
Dear Parents, please make sure that you and your children arrive early for Sunday holy Mass so that the children, at the beginning of holy Mass, may make their way into the sacristy with our Catechists, to begin their own special reflection on the Sunday Gospels.

HOLY MASS INTENTION/STIPEND

By Webmaster • January 25, 2026
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.

OLDE FORGE CAFE - FREE COFFEE AND CAKE FOR OUR VISITORS

By Webmaster • January 25, 2026
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.

BEQUEST, IN A WILL

By Webmaster • January 25, 2026
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.

OLD FORGE CAFE BAKER’S AND HOST'S ROTA

By Webmaster • January 25, 2026
OLDE FORGE CAFE BAKERS/PROVIDERS ROTA JANUARY 2026 31: Giannina FEBRUARY 2026 7: Caroline 14: Kinga 21: Chinwe 28: Gerry Please, if possible, could you provide enough cakes for the whole of each week. Thank you to everybody who is helping to provide cakes. To avoid having too many cakes, Coral mentioned to me that non-perishable cakes can be safely stored in the Cafe for a short while. When it is your turn to provide a non-perishable cake, please bring your cake to the Cafe a few days before the date of your turn. OLDE FORGE CAFE - HOSTS ROTA JANUARY 2026 26: Lorenza, Paul 31: Maggie, Patrick February 2026 1: Jim, Ros 3: Lorenza, Patricia 7: Gabrielle, Giannina 8: Simone, Jenny 10: Linda, Bridget 14: Jim, Collette 15: Leslie, Marian 17: Linda, Bridget 21: David, Mary 22: Regina, Phil 24: Lorenza, Patricia 28: Lizzie, Paul 1st March: Giannina, Jim Please note that for each of the above dates when the Cafe is open, one of the two Hosts has been trained in the use of the new coffee machine. Please would that trained person be the only person operating the machine and also please train the other person in its use. Many thanks. Thank you to everybody who acts as a Host. If an unexpected emergency occurs on the date you are scheduled to be a Host, please don’t worry about the Cafe. No need to try to find someone to ‘stand in’ for you. There is no need whatsoever to ‘swop’ with someone! We are not a Business, having to stay open to make money! - we open when and if we can. We take this role of ‘Host’ as a Vocation from the Lord to be his Missionary and his Prophet. Actually, the Cafe has, at times, functioned well with just one Host. The success of our Evangelisation Cafe depends on us. The more we speak to others of our Cafe, inviting them to visit us, the more successful it will be. Please invite members of your families, your friends, your neighbours and colleagues. Please check when it is your turn to be a Host (or a Baker!). Please see this role as a Calling, a Vocation from the Lord which you are generously telling the Lord you will do”. Thank you so much for your trust in the good Lord