Forward Together - Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle

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No. 703
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Catholic
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This month we remember the fallen of conflicts throughout time, in particular a son of the
former Minsteracres family who died a hero while liberating towns in Europe in 1944 - P10
Get connected to the new Northern Cross website
KEEP up to date with the
news as it breaks by logging on to the new Northern
Cross website.
And readers who subscribe
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for only £1 a month can read
the full paper as it appears in
print - and see stories and pictures as they are edited for
publication in forthcoming issues. See Page 2.
Also inside:
lEncourage vocations - P4
lLetters - Pgs 6 and 7
lUshaw opens its doors P11
lTea party honours the Aycliffe Angels - P12
lAwake the world to Year of
Consecrated Life - P12
lNew parish comes together in Rome - Pgs 16 and
17
lSchools’ news - Pgs 20-23
Forward Together
www.northerncross.org.uk
lSport - P31
Project team starts work
-- with hope and prayer
Star advice
at the double
q Keiran Bew and Jeff Stelling at the English
Martyrs School, Hartlepool, awards night.
A SCHOOL sports hall
packed with 800-plus students, staff and parents
got a surprise double-star
turn for English Martyrs’
School awards night last
month.
Not only was top Sky
Sports broadcaster Jeff
Stelling guest of honour for
the presentation night at
the Hartlepool school, but
also stage, film and TV
actor Kieran Bew came
back to his old school to
collect a special award.
Jeff revealed that he was
born 100 yards from the
awards night stage in Catcote Road, Hartlepool,
played football in the field
opposite and even helped
build the school during a
part-time job before he became a journalist.
Kieran, star of wide-ranging television and stage
roles, spoke to pupils about
his time sitting down in the
hall watching awards
nights.
Both guests gave inspirational advice to the 300plus
award
winners,
warmly applauded by parents and teachers. And the
two celebrity guests joined
forces when Jeff handed
Kieran the Chairman’s
Award, the Fr Eamonn
Croghan Trophy, presented
by John Bailey
to former students who
make their mark in their
chosen field.
Jeff recalled that he embarked on a career, training
as a journalist with the
Hartlepool
Mail
and
Billingham & Stockton Express and taking every opportunity to report on
football and any other
sporting fixtures. A career
in sports broadcasting
opened up before him, first
on BBC Radio Tees, then
TV-AM, Channel 4, Eurosport and BSB before his
move to Sky Sports.
His advice to the students
was to be prepared to start
at the bottom and to prepare thoroughly. He spends
20 hours preparing for a
six-hour show.
Kieran’s advice to fellow
award winners was: “Read
what you like … and keep
reading.”
He also told them to be
forever grateful to their
teachers for opening up
horizons.
Afterwards, the two men
were unsparing with their
time, signing autographs,
posing for pictures, giving
careers advice and chatting
to students and family
members.
THE man charged with
managing the three-year
diocesan project to revitalise the Catholic Church
in the North East has
been appointed.
Tony Sacco, an employment and careers expert,
has been appointed Diocesan Development Officer to
work alongside Fr Jim O’Keefe in the Forward Together in Hope project
established by Bishop Seamus Cunningham.
The project will look at
ways in which to encourage
Catholic communities to
flourish with or without a
resident priest and will involve a huge consultation
exercise across the diocese.
A development group,
consisting both of ordained
and lay members, has been
meeting since January this
year shaping the framework for Forward Together
in Hope. The project was
explained by Bishop Seamus Cunningham in two
presentations at Cardinal
Hume School in July.
Fr Jim O’Keefe has now
taken up his full-time role
as Diocesan Development
Director to steer the threeyear initiative. As Episcopal Vicar and Diocesan
Director he has been intimately involved in the Forward Together in Hope
process since its inception.
Fr Jim said: “This is a
very exciting role – exploring how best we can enable
everyone in our diocese to
become more committed
disciples of Jesus as individuals and as members of
more viable worshipping
communities that reach out
and respond to the needs of
people in our world.”
Mr Sacco, a native of the
North East, has worked as
a Careers Adviser, ultimately managing a large
Careers Centre in South Tyneside, as a senior manager
with Tyneside Training and
Enterprise Council and as a
Partnership Director at
the Learning and Skills
Council. He also headed
up the Employability Service at Northumberland
County Council. He is
Chair of the Tees Valley
Ministry, a group which recruits and supports workplace chaplains.
Mr Sacco and his wife
Sue are active members of
St Mary’s RC Church in
Whickham.
He said: “I am delighted
to be part of Forward Together in Hope. While I
know that the task ahead is
huge and won’t be without
its challenges, I’m really
optimistic about the future
and the opportunities that a
thorough and prayerful review can offer all of us.”
The team is now developing a more detailed plan for
the project. Initial priorities
have included producing a
leaflet for wide circulation
across the diocese and
starting the process of communicating the initial
thinking at some key meetings.
The project team has en-
q Fr Jim O’Keefe and Tony Sacco begin work on
Forward Together in Hope.
gaged with the Spirituality
Network and had a meeting
with deans and heads of department at the diocese.
Forward Together in Hope
is also on the agenda for the
forthcoming Council of
Priests and Council of Laity
meetings.
Mr Sacco said: “This
work involves everyone
and we want it to be a truly
inclusive process with
strong two-way communication.”
A central part of the approach is to encourage
strong partnership working
between priests and laity at
every stage.
Above all, Forward Together in Hope is be rooted
in prayer.
A range of liturgy resources will be provided
throughout the three years
and Bishop Seamus will
lead the diocese in prayer
and reflection in the morning and evening of December 2, at St Mary’s
Cathedral and again on the
evening of December 10 at
St Joseph’s in Hartlepool.
Bishop Seamus said: “I
believe that it is important
for us to come together as a
diocese in prayer and that
our way into the future
must be rooted in prayer.’
Bishop outlines plans for Hartlepool changes
CHANGE is on the way for
Hartlepool’s Catholic churches.
The proposals are that one church
will close and two others face an
uncertain future, and all seven
parishes will be combined into one.
A church house and adjacent
property should also be closed.
Mass times will change in three
parishes, with two Saturday Vigil
Masses being moved to start a new
Vigil Mass in a different church.
Bishop Séamus Cunningham unveiled the plans to 300 parishioners
who packed St Anne’s Hall in English Martyrs School last month.
The headline plans are:
l All parishes in Hartlepool
will become amalgamated to form
one new parish.
l St Teresa’s Church will close.
l All the buildings at St Cuthbert’s Church will close but the
church will be kept.
l St Cuthbert’s will lose its Vigil
Mass and go down to one Mass on
a Sunday.
l There will be a Vigil Mass at
St Joseph’s to replace one at St
Cuthbert’s and one at St Thomas
More.
l The diocese cannot justify
spending a large amount of money
on the historic St Mary’s Church,
on the Headland, and talks about its
future are being held with English
Heritage.
In announcing the proposals,
Bishop referred to the ‘Vision’
working group, which had met the
diocesan Episcopal council twice.
He said: “Most ideas have captured exactly the needs and difficulties we find ourselves facing at
the moment.”
He said that if a church building
was closed, the pastoral and spiritual care would be maintained, but
it was down to local clergy and
laity to work out how. He said: “I
believe the time is here when we
open up our churches again. This is
where the laity can come into their
own as they lead services, expose
the Blessed Sacrament and work
out a rota so people are leading in
prayer. I believe a transformation
can take place if we are a praying
community and not just a talking
community.”
The Bishop concluded his appeal:
“After that, leave the fruits and the
results to the Holy Spirit.”
l Continued on Page 9.

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