History
The
parish has been in existence for some years, serving the local
Catholic population in the Booker area. Before the church was
built, Sunday Mass was held in the Castlefield Community Hall.
This meant that parishioners had to arrive early to make sure
any debris from previous evenings’ parties was cleared before
setting up the room ready for Mass.
Canon Griffiths, parish priest of St Augustine’s in High Wycombe,
organised the building of the church, with many parishioners helping
to fund it. On Wed 7th October 1981 (the feast of Our Lady of
the Rosary), Bishop Grant opened and consecrated the church.
The
first Parish Priest was Fr Francis McDermott – known as Fr Mac.
He was a charismatic character, much loved by all who knew him.
He served as parish priest for ten years assisted by five nuns
of the order Daughters of Jesus.
Fr
Dan Keily succeeded Fr Mac and he was actually the last priest
who served OLG alone. Fr Dan stopped the second Sunday Mass, and
though this was unpopular at the time it proved to be a great
advantage for the community. It meant all parishioners congregated
for a single Sunday Mass, enabling everyone to get to know each
other.
The
shortage of priests in the diocese led Bishop Leo McCarty to take
action. Our parish was too small to exist on its own, so was clustered
with St Wulstan’s, where Fr John Bierne was parish priest. It
was during this time that the nuns left the area, resulting in
the greater involvement of lay members of the community in the
running of the church.
Father
Stephen McGuiness followed Fr John at St Wulstan’s and thus also
served Our Lady of Grace. He was assisted by Sr Mary Inchbold.
Sr Mary used to live in Uganda and was instrumental in setting
up the parish charity, called Bega-kwa-Bega (meaning shoulder
to shoulder). This charity cares for and educates Ugandan orphans.
Sadly, after seven years serving the parish, Fr Stephen suffered
an extended period of ill health. Fortunately Sr Mary arranged
for a supply priest, Fr Jack Clancy, to celebrate Sunday Mass
for us.
During
Fr Stephen’s absence Sr Mary retired. Before leaving she was instrumental
in setting up what was called the Parish Co-ordinating Group to
support the running of the church, as well as ensuring all her
day to day tasks were shared out among parishioners.
Fr Stephen retained these support systems, on his return.
In
2006 the church celebrated its Silver Anniversary. A Sion Parish
Mission was arranged at this time at Fr Stephen’s instigation
and he composed a special Mission Prayer, which is still in use,
becoming our Parish Prayer.
Father
Stephen left the parish in the January 2006 (sadly before seeing
the Mission completed) and was replaced by a Polish priest Fr
Stanislaw Maciuszek (Fr. Stan).
When
Fr Stan’s Bishop moved him to Sheffield in August 2009, Bishop
Peter moved Fr Innocent Abonyi MSP from St Augustine’s in High
Wycombe, to become parish priest of Our Lady of Grace and St Wulstan’s.
His new responsibilities included serving the congregations at
St James’ and St Edmund Campion.
In
October 2010 Our Lady of Grace merged with the churches of St
Wulstan’s, St James’ and St Edmund Campion to form the new Parish
of Blessed John Henry Newman.
Following Bishop Peter's decision to make further changes to the parish, St Edmund Campion and St James the Great churches closed on 13 May 2012. Our Lady of Grace, together with St Wulstan's is one of the two remaining churches which make up the parish of Blessed John Henry Newman.
