20th September 2008 marked the Centenary of the official opening of our Church building. This means that people have been gathering to worship God, praying and meeting in this place for just over one hundred years. This truly was a day that we needed to celebrate!
But rather than just keeping the one day, we are commemorating it with a "Parish Centenary Year".
The celebration year is going very well. On the 5th May, Bishop Paul Hendricks visited us and presided at a Mass of Thanksgiving to mark the opening of the Year. This was a “Parish family” event, and was followed in the afternoon by a Parish Picnic Get Together! The prayers of many were heard and answered, as the sun was shining brightly that afternoon. The fine weather helped to ensure that this first Centenary social event was a great success.
We were pleased that Archbishop Kevin agreed to celebrate the Commemorative Mass on 29th September, dispite his recent major surgery, and two further impending operations. The Archbishop spoke about the changes Norbury must have experienced over the last 100 years, was hopeful for the future, and encouraged the Parish to continue to strive, in faith, to live out the Gospel. Various photo's of before and after Mass can be seen on the Diocesan Website. The Church was virtually full with our invited guests and a good turnout of our parish community. Among the guests were:
the Deputy Mayor of Lambeth, Councillor Christopher Wellbelove,
Fr Michael Jones (a former Parish Priest of St Bartholonew's, who grew up in Norbury and was ordained priest at St Bartholomew's in 1978)
Fr Phil Matthias and Canon Gerry Coates (both former parishioners, ordained in 1954)
Mass was followed by a wonderful reception in the Church Hall, (Click here to see Fr Tom cutting the cake on Cllr Wellbelove's blog)
The rest of the Diary is still coming together, and we would hope to have at least one centenary event each month. Any suggestions will be very well received.