Our Life and Ministry in Pictures

Encouraging

One of the things we do is to try to encourage our French Catholic brothers and sisters in Christ.

Here Sharon is visiting a Christmas nativity scene created in one of the local churches.

A lot of work is put into these creations and this particular church has some exquisite antique figurines which make a wonderful display.

It is often in these practical acts that French Catholics are most comfortable expressing the reality and depth of their faith.

Exhorting

Another way in which we have been able to help is in leading prayer groups and Bible studies.

This group was a response to our Archbishop calling on French Catholics to read the Bible more. He recommended starting with Mark's gospel.

We encouraged our friends to respond to this call and they agreed. So over several months we met together regularly to read and reflect on a chapter of Mark's gospel.

The resulting notes of our studies are available for download from the French side of this website.

Celebrating

We have also been able to serve and support our parish through Sharon's musical abilities.

She organises and leads the choir practices for our large parish (46 villages!).

She is also often called upon to play the piano or to lead the worship on Sundays.

Innovating

We proposed an English language carol service - mostly with anglophone ex-pats in mind.

The parish agreed to the idea and a healthy congregation of half French and half English met together for a traditional 9 lessons service, some wonderful English carols and a short meditation on the true meaning of Christmas.

It was such a success that we have been asked to do it again this year.

Serving the Community

Our intention has always been to try and take our place within our local community, not just within the church.

So when Sharon was invited to stand for election as a local councillor she quickly agreed.

She was easily elected and now does quite a lot of work organising the key events in village life.

Protecting the Community

Stephen was also for six years a voluntary fireman in the village.











Sadly increasing constraints for training and 24 hour cover meant he had to give this up, but it was a very interesting experience.







Here Stephen is in a first-aid training session.