The St Albans Catholic Deanery Festival St Albans Abbey
Sunday 25th June 2006
The St Albans Catholic Deanery Festival that took place at St Albans Abbey
on 18th June gave more than 500 people the opportunity to pray together and
celebrate Mass in the nave.
Around
100 parishioners from SS Alban & Stephen attended and assisted with the
service, and certainly joined in with gusto the singing of traditional hymns
such as “All people that on Earth do dwell”, “God is Love”, and more modern
tunes such as “Be still for the presence of the Lord”.
Following
a picnic in the grounds, we were welcomed by Canon Lane (from the Abbey),
then we were invited to tour the Abbey, pray at the Shrine to St Alban, and
take part in a rosary service (led by our Fr Charles) in the Lady Chapel.
The
afternoon culminated in a joyous celebration of Mass. Bishop James O’ Brien
led the
service with Frs Charles and Jerry joining the other priests of the
deanery to concelebrate.
As
one of the hymns at the welcoming service says: “This world stands divided
and apart. You draw all men together and we start in your body to see that
in fellowship we can be turning this world upside down”.
This festival showed how far we in St Albans have come in our ecumenical
aims and, indeed, managed to turn some of the old prejudices upside down!)
The
afternoon culminated in a joyous celebration of Mass. Bishop James O’ Brien
led the
service with Frs Charles and Jerry joining the other priests of the
deanery to concelebrate. 
