Patronal Celebrations

Wednesday 12 June at 1.10pm
Choral Patronal Festival Mass

 

All are warmly invited to join us as we celebrate our Patron S Botolph

 

Our Patronal Festival is one of our biggest and best celebrations of the year – the service will include choral and organ music from St Botolph’s Choir and Iestyn Evans, including Mozart’s sumptuous Coronation Mass, and will be followed by the traditional Parish Party with refreshments including Palestinian savoury and sweet delicacies, and a special St Botolph Cake created by our friend John Marshall.

 

Reflecting the war in Gaza and violence throughout the Holy Land, our guest preacher this year is The Reverend Canon Daniel Burton, Vicar of St Mary with St Peter Oldham, Greater Manchester, and Chair of Action around Bethlehem Children with Disability (‘ABCD Bethlehem’), a UK charity which works tirelessly to support the needs of disabled children and young adults, and their families in the West Bank. The war in Gaza has greatly increased tension in the West Bank and has resulted in significantly higher rates of attrition and further restrictions on the population. ABCD’s rehabilitation centre in Nour Shams has twice been ransacked by government forces; the charity has undertaken to refurbish and restock this centre and to continue to support the children and families it serves. To help fund this work ABCD is running an emergency appeal, details of which may be found on their website https://www.abcdbethlehem.org. St Botolph’s has supported ABCD for some years, and the collection at the Patronal Festival Mass will go towards the emergency appeal as well.

Icon of St Botolph © Holy Transfiguration Monastery, Brookline, Mass.,and used by permission