Carmelite News Summer 2021

At last, we were able to meet in person at the end of June! Ten of us congregated at the church hall of Our Lady and St Thomas in Ilkeston by kind permission of Fr Andrew Hardy, for our usual monthly prayer and study day (throughout the pandemic we have been continuing our regular Saturday monthly meetings on Zoom).

 We were delighted that Angela, one of our older members who has also been unwell and who has been unable to join us on Zoom, was able to come. We celebrated with her as she was at last able to make her final promises, which were received by Deacon James Hunter on behalf of the order.

This was also Teresa’s last meeting as she entered Notting Hill Carmel on the feast of Our Lady of Mount Carmel, 16th July. Heather presented her with a small gift and the community  arranged for a Mass to be celebrated for her intentions by Fr David Palmer. Many other prayers and Masses will be offered for her, and she will be sorely missed – although of course we will keep in touch. She has been a member for very many years and a great source of inspiration and support.

We now hope and pray that we will be able to return to “normal” with regular monthly meetings, but instead of returning to St Francis Church in Long Eaton we will be meeting at St John’s Church in Stapleford - again by kind permission of Fr Andrew Hardy.

Meeting for Morning Prayer on Zoom has been very helpful to the group as a way of keeping in touch and supporting each other. But now we have decided to meet monthly instead of every week, on the 4th Friday of the month at 10.15am for those that can make it.

The Community Retreat (31st July-1st August) – was originally planned to be held at Buckden Towers in Cambridgeshire but they are not planning to reopen this year.  Heather was fortunately able to book us into the Hayes Christian Conference Centre in Swanwick (see photo above) and 11 members are planning to attend.

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