On Saturday 10th August sisters, friends, neighbours and parishioners gathered in the church of St Anthony of Padua, Walker, for a mass to celebrate and give thanks to the many sisters who, through the last 31 years, have been part of the St Aidan community in Hexham Avenue, supporting its mission, serving parish and contributing to the life of their neighbourhood.
The mass was concelebrated by Fr Johnathan, parish priest, together with Fr Jude OP, and Fr Callum from Durham, friends of the sisters.
As Fr Johnathan observed during his homily, the reading for the feast St Lawrence, were most appropriate for the occasion ‘[…] the more you sow the more you reap.’ (2 Cor 9, 6), ‘God loves a cheerful giver’ (2 Cor 9, 8), and ‘[…] unless a wheat grain falls on the ground and dies, it remains only a single grain: but if it dies, it yields a rich harvest.’ (John 12, 24). Fr Jonathan thanked the community and all the sisters who for 31 years sowed so generously and gave so cheerfully and selflessly to the neighbourhood and to the parish, and the fruit of their selfless giving are still being reaped today.
After mass, the sisters invited all who attended for tea and coffee in the art room and garden of Kids Kabin, where some of the volunteers and children helped with the refreshments and even produced some freshly baked muffins!
In a booklet distributed to the participants after the mass that you can download here, Sr Christine reviews some of the most significant people and events in the life of the community: the welcoming neighbours, the priests and pastors, Walking With, the colleagues, the helpers, the Assumption Volunteers, who remain in Hexham Avenue, the children who prompted the creation of Kids Kabin as a much needed outlet for their creativity and play. About them all, Sr Christine writes “everyone […] for us leaves this indelible legacy in the memory and the heart. Never were the words ‘thank you’ more sincerely spoken, or the prayer ‘may God bless you and keep you, may His face shine on you’ more fervently prayed’”.
Sr Francesca
