Easter Sunday Year C

St John the Evangelist Parish
Aurs Rd., Barrhead G78 2RW
 
He is Risen, Alleluia.
 
Easter Sunday
20 April 2025  
 
Rev Monsignor John Canon Tormey: Parish Priest
Rev Fr Joseph J McGill:   Assistant Priest
Rev Denis Murphy:  Deacon
Email: [email protected]  Tel- 0141 881 0769
Website: www.stjohns-barrhead.org
 
Mary Hallan:    Safeguarding Co-Ordinator: [email protected]
 
LAST WEEK’S COLLECTIONS
First Collection GA: £379.60.  NGA £1002.11
Building Fund: GA £146.00 NGA £220.00
Monthly Standing Orders: £4,271.50
 
 
Easter Coffee Morning after 10am Mass on Easter Sunday in the church hall. It's going to be fantastic! Please come along for a cup of tea and a hot cross bun and enjoy some entertainment from Anna Marie. There will be a raffle, home baking and there might even be an extra special treat for the kids. Come along and celebrate a very blessed Easter in the parish.
 
 
Response to Psalm:
“The is the day the Lord has made:
let us rejoice in it and be glad”
Thanks to everyone who helped us to celebrate Holy Week: the most holy of weeks of the year.
Thanks to our sacristans, church cleaners, flower arrangers, readers, pass keepers, Eucharistic ministers, choirs and musicians for helping to make the church and liturgy so beautiful for our celebrations. Thanks for your hard work and commitment.
Easter Sunday: 10am and 11.30 am
No Easter Sunday evening Mass
Easter Week: Masses at Normal Times
 
 
Barrhead Churches Together
Thank you to everyone who joined in the  Holy Week Celebrations of the local Christians in Barrhead and Neilston. It is good for us to find ways to pray and celebrate together.
We pray for those who have died recently            John Walker, Florence (Ann) Carson, Kenneth McMaster, Thomas Kelly, Lynne Ewing.  
 
We pray for the anniversaries of
James Kierney, Helen Monaghan, Barbara McAleavy, Christopher Gribbon, James Hunter, Eleanor Hunter, Roseann Armstrong, Margaret Conafray, Sharon Giblin, Robin Millar, Jim Cassidy, Tom McAllister, Nan Brady, Ian Morton, Kenneth McMaster
 
Funerals
John Walker: vigil 7pm 22 April
Funeral Mass 10am 23 April
Florence Ann Carson  10am 24 April
 
Lourdes Hospitalité: Booking is now open for the Diocesan pilgrimage to Lourdes, 28th June-3rd July 2025. please contact Anne Louise pilgrimage co-ordinator on 01475 638132
 
Catholic Mothers Play and Pray Group 
Tues 10.30am in Parish Hall, All children and mothers welcome Contact Rachel Callaghan for more details 07508835310
[email protected] 
 
New Sunday Missal in Stall
New Red and White Cover Sunday Missal are now available. If you would like to order a new missal please let Alison know.
Red cover: £19.95 White cover: £22.95
Jubilee Year Items also available in stall.
 
Summer Fete Saturday 7 June 2025
We need more volunteers for our summer fete. We would like different parish groups and individuals to take charge of a stall each. It will be a great family day for the parish and we look forward to everyone getting involved in some way, even just to help set up and put away tables. Also required, are abled bodied people to help erect the gazebos.
 
Raffle Tickets are now available for selling. Can you please take away a bunch of tickets and when you get them sold, please hand in ticket stubs and money to the sacristy. We have great prizes, including a 40 inch Samsung TV. Tickets can be collected from the back of the church. Thank you.
 
Donations Can now be handed in to the church hall, back room or in the donation box in the church porch: Toys, jewellery, plants, home baking, (the day before the fete), arts and crafts, bottles and gifts for the wheel of fortune and the tombola. Alcohol can be given to SSVP members before Mass or handed into the sacristy.
 
We will also have a bouncy castle, beat the goalie and other games for all the family.
 
Parish Renovation Project
The Diocesan Property Office conducted a due diligence report with three options for our parish church:
Option One: Restore the Present Building.
Option Two: Rebuild a new church on the present site.
Option Three: Build on a church extension to the existing hall and demolish the existing church.
 
Here are the budget costs for these options:
Option One complete refurbishment: £1,554,042
Option Two new Build: £4,182,773
Option Three Hall Extension: £1,563,285
 
The Parish Pastoral Council met to discuss this report on March 25. Clearly Option two is beyond our means. Option one was favoured, but option three was also seen as a possibility.
 
The Diocesan Property Office has since informed the parish that along with our present building fund savings (over £400,000) and what the diocese can lend the parish, our total budget including VAT and Fees cannot go over £900,000 for any of these projects.
 
This presents a challenge. It was suggested by the diocesan and finance and property committee that we could sell off some land to help fund option three.
 
I then met with the Diocesan Property Manager,  the Project Manager from KSNPM, and two parish reps on 10 April to discuss what could be done.
 
The result of this meeting is as follows.
We can do a reduced project for option one that would come to £907,000 (including VAT and Fees) which would make the building wind and water tight, and would include repair of gutters, repairs to upper and lower roofs, walls, removing insulation in cavity walls, drying out wall and replacing plaster, repaint the church, and refurbish windows. It would exclude new windows and leave the heating system as it is for the time being.
 
Any church building will always need an ongoing maintenance plan, which will allow us to make further improvements, once we get the church into a good state of repair and have paid off the diocesan loan.
 
Option Three can still be done but it means we have to sell land and demolish the existing church.
 
I feel that option one will allow us to retain a separate hall, and return the church to a good condition, and allow the parish church of St John’s to retain its prominence in the town of Barrhead.
 
I invite you to a general meeting for the whole parish in the church at 7pm on Tuesday 6 May, to which every parishioner is welcome to attend.
 
We will meet with the Parish Priest, Diocesan Finance Director, Diocesan Property Manager, the Project Manager from KSNPM, and the Chairperson of the Parish Pastoral Council, to inform parishioners about how the project could be undertaken, and to allow for questions and suggestions. We would also look at how we would repay the diocesan loan. There will be a format for asking questions.
 
As a parish community I ask you to pray earnestly for the successful outcome of this enterprise.
Monsignor John Tormey. Parish Priest.
 
 
Times of Sunday Masses: Sat Vigil 4pm. Sun: 10am, 11.30am, 5pm.
Weekdays: Mon to Saturday 10am. Workers Mass: Each Wednesday at 7.30am
Daily Adoration in Church: 9.00am – 9.55am.
In Oratory: 10.30am-9pm on Monday, Wednesday, Friday.
Daily Rosary: 9.25am.
Sacrament of Reconciliation (Confessions): Monday to Friday 9.30am -9.50am      
Saturday: 10.30 am – 10.50am & 3.15pm – 3.45pm

Training for Baptismal Preparation Volunteers: The next 'training' day for volunteers delegated by their Parish Priests to be involved in Baptismal Preparation is on Saturday 3rd May, 10:30am - 3pm in the Diocesan Offices. You will be most welcome. 
 
Happy Easter to you all
from Fr John, Fr Joe and Deacon Denis.