Our Lady of Lourdes:
Parish Priest: Canon Tom Gunning
Email: tom.gunning@cliftondiocese.com
Parish Administrator: Maricris Magbanua.
Email: wsm.ourladyoflourdes@cliftondiocese.com
Mass Times
Sundays 9.15am
Weekdays: Tuesday 9.30 am, Thursday 7.00 pm, Saturday 12.00 Midday
Our Lady of Lourdes
Baytree Road
Weston-Super-Mare
BS22 8HQ
Phone: 01934 627 137
Safeguarding
Our Parish Safeguarding representative is Maricris Magbanua
The Choir
in 1980 there were about 20 members in the choir and thanks to John Walcott (the organist and choir master) they sang 4 part harmony. We produced a CD to raise money to help with the cost of the organ which John had installed in 1979. The choir sang in Worle high street coming up to Christmas 1980 to raise money to help those in need after the flooding of Uphill. They would also go to a Care Home near Corpus Christi and sing carols every year. John was organist for about 12 years but then moved on and Geoff Thornton came for a few weeks and stayed for over twenty years. Over that time the choir shrank due to people moving away and some sadly dying. When Geoff retired the choir sang unaccompanied for about a year and then Nigel Parkin took over as organist. After one year Nigel moved on and for a while they sang unaccompanied until Frances Ball volunteered to play. The choir has grown in numbers again and is thriving.
Finance and Fabric Committee
This is a joint committee which oversees the Parish Finances and the Fabric of the Church, the Presbytery, the Parish Hall, and the Church Grounds.
The Treasurer reports quarterly on the state of the finances, including income and expenditure for the quarter/year.
The Gift Aid Secretary keeps a record of the gift aid donations (standing orders and envelopes) and submits returns to the Diocese. Individual details are confidential and known only to the Gift Aid Secretary.
The committee considers the state of the buildings and grounds whether any work needs to be undertaken and approves the expenditure, or recommends it to the Diocese.
At present there are seven members of the committee, which includes the Parish Priest, the Treasurer and the Gift Aid Secretary.
Divine Mercy Prayer Group
Parish History
In 1923 Daniel Cotter, a parishioner of Corpus Christi, donated a plot of land in Baytree road, Milton, to Corpus Christi for the purpose of building a small wooden Chapel-of-Ease called Our Lady of Lourdes to serve the congregations of Milton and Worle. This small chapel soon could not cope with the population growth in Milton and Worle, so that in 1933 the land between the existing chapel and Milton Road was purchased for £560, with a view to building a much larger and permanent church for Milton, Worle, Banwell and Locking when funds became available.
The church was built in the Gothic style in Taunton Vale cream bricks and was completed in 1938 at a cost of £4000. It was L-shaped with a north transept, which contained a sacristy and a confessional. This church was still a part of Corpus Christi Parish until October 1964, when the Parish of Our Lady of Lourdes was founded. A house near the church in Milton Road was bought as a presbytery.
The Church was then consecrated on the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes, February 11th 1978.
1964 -1967: Fr William O’Callaghan
Parish Priest successively at Stroud, Henbury and Portishead and appointed Canon. When he retired he could boast of a long period of good health until he eventually fell ill and died in 2003.
1967 – 1967 – Fr Edward HickRetired sick, then from 1969 was chaplain to Prior Park prep. school Cricklade, but his illness returned in 1972 and he retired to St Angela’s Convent in Clifton, Bristol, operated by The Sisters of the Temple, where he died peacefully on 5th December 1977.
1968 – 1972 – Fr Dr Mervyn Alban Alexander
Ordained as auxiliary Bishop of Clifton and lived in Bath, then became Bishop of Clifton. Retired in 2001 as bishop, he became parish priest at St Josephs, WsM until 2007, when he went to St Angela’s Nursing Home in Clifton, Bristol, where he died on 14th August 2010, aged 85.
1972 – 2002 – Fr Michael O’Sullivan
Retired to his birth place in a little village, Boherbue, outside Cork where his family still live. He died on 5th July 2015, aged 84.
2002 – 2015 – Fr Martin Queenan
Left to take over the Parish of St George in Warminster, where he is now..
2015-2019 – Fr. Alexander Redman
Left to move to cover Glastonbury, Shepton Mall, Cheddar and Wells.
2019 – Canon Tom Gunning
Currently covers the three parishes of Corpus Christi, Our Lady of Lourdes and St Joseph’s