Parish Day and Fr. Jerry's 40th Anniversary Celebrations

Looking at the weather on Saturday, I doubt we were the only ones worrying about what the weather would be like for this very special celebration the following day! We were more than somewhat comforted to know that there was to be a marquee for the mass.

We woke on Sunday morning to bright sunshine and on checking the weather forecast we were informed that though it would cloud over, we would be spared any rain.

Arriving at Cardinal Newman at about ten thirty there was already a large number of people milling around.

After parking up and making our way to the marquee we found that, though there were already many people inside, we were able to seat ourselves together and started to look forward to the mass. We were told that there was seating in the marquee for 'about 500'.

Before very long the marquee filled up and we were thankful the day was staying dry (even if the clouds were moving in) because it was necessary to remove all the panels from the back of the marquee to allow more seating outside to accommodate the growing numbers! I am not sure how many people did attend but I did hear people saying there were perhaps a couple of hundred people seated & standing out side of the marquee!

Fr Jerry and the servers had got ready in the sacristy of the school chapel, and I can only guess on the thoughts and feelings passing through Fr Jerry's mind as he walked down to the Marquee.

I will not give a blow by blow account of the mass, I am sure their are people more able to eloquently describe the whole thing, but for me, and I am sure many others, it was a very emotional mass, Father, several times found himself having to pause to collect himself.

The folk group were on top form, as were both the Junior and Senior Choir. The Junior Choir had some special songs and also performed a lovely blessing for us.

After the mass, several presentations were made to say thank-you for the hard work and efforts of various people. Followed by a presentation to Fr Jerry along with several gifts along with a poem written for him (I hope to get permission to upload a copy of the poem soon!). We then moved on to the children's favourite bit of the day - the Bar-B-Q, as custom has it, as well as the church organised Bar-B-Q, people are invited to bring along their own Bar-B-Q and picnic, and we were not alone in doing so. I can only apologise to anyone sitting near us as the disposable Bar-B-Q we had seemed to generate a great deal more smoke than heat, well, initially at least!

The afternoon stayed dry, even though there was a lot of threatening clouds in the sky. After eating, everyone seemed to spend a very enjoyable afternoon moving around a socialising and looking at the montage of photographs of Fr Jerry in his earlier years. I was personally quite taken with a picture of Fr Jerry on a Kawasaki motorbike... I have just never thought of him as a biker!

Whilst sat with some friends over the other side of the field from where we had set up camp, we were joined by our two eldest children who had packed up all our things and brought them with them. Looking at the time, we realised that it was time to leave, a decision our youngest did not seem too happy for us to make.

All in all it was a very good day and a lovely celebration, we would like to add our thanks for everyone involved in organising it, you all did a fantastic job!

See the Photos here