Welcome to Our Lady of Lourdes Parish

Parish AGM

Our Parish AGM is being held on Thursday 24th May at 8pm. As well as a review of parish activities over the past year, reports on our finance and the major expenditure on the church building required following the recent quinquennial inspection and Health & Safety review, we will be looking forward to choosing a new development project (following the completion of our involvement in Buyamba), to various new intiatives and to preparations for our Parish and Diocesan Golden Jubilee in 2015.

Please make an effort to come along to this important and enjoyable evening with fellow parishoners.

To review the Parish accounts for the year of 2011 please click here.

Father Rob's Water Challenge

From March 10-16 Father Rob lived on 10 litres of water a day (that's for all drinking, washing, cooking and cleaning) - the amount that people in the poorest countries get by on. And to get some understanding of their plight, he walked at least a kilometre to a different house in the parish every morning to collect his water for the day. That's the way many in the Third World - especially women and girls - spend their days. The difference was that he was guaranteed clean water at the end of his walk, whereas 1 in 8 people (875 million) have no access to clean water.

You can see his video diary recorded on the last day of the challenge here.

He also set himself the target of raising £500 towards the parish project to raise £2000 to buy a community borehole to supply water to a whole village. So far he has raised over 300% of his personal target. You can still donate through JustGiving at this link. JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer.

At the end of the week Father Rob gave the main talk at the Cafod Retreat at Launde Abbey, Leicestershire. You can listen to his talk using these mp3 or Windows Media links.

Fifty-Fifty

Fr. Rob Esdaile, our parish priest, has published a collection of 50 of his own poems in aid of the parish heating project. Copies can be obtained from the repository in the church foyer or from the parish office, office@olchurch.org.uk for £5 (+£1 p&p if you'd like a copy sent to your own address).