The Sisters of the Holy Family

We are sad that the sisters are finally leaving our parish this week. So today the 11.30 mass will be offered in thanksgiving for what they have done for us. They came to Woodford some years before St Thomas’ parish and church existed. They provided Parkmore primary school and St Mary’s girls’ grammar school until this combined with St Paul’s secondary modern to form Trinity. They provided teachers and head-teachers for St Antony’s until living memory. Times changed. Catholic education had been the preserve of religious orders when nobody else was doing it. Gradually you – the Lay Church have taken it over and we religious have move to other concerns. It was not only school education that the sisters provided. They have been active in many roles in the parish: caring quietly for any manner of needy. They have prayed in their common life and with their Associates. They are among the giants of recent generations on whose shoulders we stand. We thank them heartily. Now their task passes to you.