Southwark Report 2020_NEW final -Single pages
The Archdiocese of Southwark is pleased to publish an updated version of the Annual Report and Accounts for 2020. This version was revised after correcting a technical error and was re-submitted to the Charity Commission in December 2022.
The Archdiocese of Southwark is pleased to publish an updated version of the Annual Report and Accounts for 2020. This version was revised after correcting a technical error and was re-submitted to the Charity Commission in December 2022.
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IMPACT<br />
REPORT<br />
REFLECTION ON MINISTRY<br />
The fight against the virus<br />
continues and I continue to<br />
stand resolute, as a priest, to<br />
serve in all possible ways my<br />
congregation, local community<br />
and all people I can reach<br />
through social media.<br />
It is an understatement to say we live in unprecedented<br />
times even as the pandemic and its effects lessen. The<br />
pandemic hit when I was serving as an assistant priest at<br />
St Teresa’s Parish in Ashford. Within three weeks of the first<br />
lockdown, I felt everything had been stripped from me: my<br />
congregation had been taken away and a flourishing youth<br />
ministry I was five months into running, and was at a crucial<br />
stage of its development, had suddenly ceased.<br />
However, I was energised by a webinar for priests and lay<br />
leaders that I had recently joined. Someone made the point<br />
that we, as a Church, have always had people come to us,<br />
but as they were now unable to come, we would have to go<br />
to them.<br />
I saw it as necessary to seize these times to effectively<br />
evangelize, to give hope to people in these gloomy days and<br />
to let them know that their priests think about them and<br />
care for them. I therefore became intentional with<br />
our online streaming of Masses. I started making and<br />
sharing short videos on social media. Lengthy and strenuous<br />
work went into shifting my youth ministry online, which<br />
included ensuring all measures were in place for young<br />
people to be entirely safe.<br />
Within the pandemic, I was transferred by Archbishop John<br />
Wilson to Holy Family Parish in Thanet as parish priest. As<br />
everyone has had their share of difficulties, the pandemic<br />
continues to put a strain on my role as a priest, but I remain<br />
positive and hopeful as I continue to seek to serve.<br />
I don’t live each day waiting for the pandemic to end before<br />
I seek to roll out my vision for this new church, but find<br />
possible ways to do it. I am currently engaged in an online<br />
evangelisation process with a group of parishioners, and in<br />
future I hope it will be possible to reach out both online and<br />
in person.<br />
Fr Joseph Owusu-Ansah<br />
https://www.instagram.com/frjoeowusu_ansah<br />
Fr Joseph Owusu-Ansah<br />
Parish Priest of Holy Family RC Church, Thanet<br />
HOSPITAL CHAPLAINCY<br />
DURING A PANDEMIC<br />
When COVID-19 was first identified<br />
in China in December 2019 it seemed<br />
quite a distant problem as some of us<br />
in Britain had hoped. This suddenly<br />
changed for our chaplaincy one morning<br />
in early February 2019 when news of<br />
the first cases of COVID-19 infection in<br />
Britain had begun to spread.<br />
We suddenly had to empty and seal the holy<br />
water stoup in our hospital chapel to avoid risk<br />
of people cross infecting one another when they<br />
used it. The notion of being one world had been<br />
brought home. Reflecting on this, these words<br />
of Pope Francis words’ in Fratelli Tutti come to<br />
mind:<br />
“… a worldwide tragedy like the COVID-19<br />
pandemic momentarily revived the sense<br />
that we are a global community, all in the<br />
same boat, where one person’s problems are<br />
the problems of all… The storm has exposed<br />
our vulnerability and uncovered those false<br />
and superfluous certainties around which we<br />
constructed our daily schedules, our projects,<br />
our habits and priorities.” (Fratelli Tutti, n.32)<br />
Indeed, hospital visits by relatives stopped,<br />
and they had to rely on chaplains to visit their<br />
loved ones. Chaplains had to adapt to aprons,<br />
gloves and masks that made interaction with<br />
patients difficult. Attentive presence and<br />
empathy that often characterise the mission of<br />
chaplains proclaiming the Gospel to the sick was<br />
challenged. The idea of being a herald of the<br />
Gospel increasingly became more than the use<br />
of words and facial expressions. Simply being<br />
quietly present and allowing the Holy Spirit to<br />
intervene in such a difficult situation was often<br />
all that a chaplain could do.<br />
Dcn Alfred Banya<br />
Bishop’s<br />
Healthcare<br />
Advisor,<br />
<strong>Southwark</strong> / Head<br />
of Chaplaincy at<br />
Kings College,<br />
London<br />
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