When Fr. Chris arrived at St. John Bosco’s Church, he noticed that there were no consecration crosses stamped into the fabric of the building. Normally, as part of the consecration ceremony of a church, small crosses (called sconces), are either stamped or permanently fixed onto the pillars of the building and on top of the altar itself and the bishop who performs the dedication ceremony, anoints them with holy oil (called chrism). When Fr. Chris spoke to older members of the congregation, none of them could remember the church building ever being consecrated. A call to the Diocesan Offices at St. Edmund House, Portsmouth, confirmed his suspicions when, after checking their archives, officials found no record of the church’s consecration. Often when a new church is built it can’t be dedicated immediately as it may still have outstanding debts that need to be paid before the church can be officially consecrated by the bishop. Normally, this takes place after a few years but for some reason in the case of St. John Bosco’s, it had been overlooked. So, a little belatedly, 37 years to be exact, the situation was soon rectified when Bishop Crispian Hollis came to consecrate our church and officially dedicate it to St. John Bosco, our patron saint.

What a wonderful service it was ~ beginning with the Bishop blessing the font at the back of the church with outstretched arms, asking the Lord to send the life-giving presence of His Spirit upon it as the source of new life for His people. Then the water itself was blessed then sprinkled upon the entire congregation as a reminder to us all of our own baptism, while the choir were singing “Oh Living Water, refresh my soul”.  Next came the generous anointing of the altar with the holy chrism oil and the pillars around the church, making them as “holy visible signs of the mystery of Christ” and after the anointing the Bishop placed incense into the thurible with the words “Lord, as this building is filled with fragrance, so may Your Church fill the world with the fragrance of Christ”. The symbolism was very rich and the ceremony was very beautiful which continued with the celebration of Mass and ended with some of the children of the parish singing a special hymn and gesturing with sign language. To conclude some parishioners presented a lovely tapestry they had made to mark the event and a brass plaque in the church porch was unveiled before we went over to the school hall for refreshments and an opportunity to meet and chat with Bishop Crispian. It was a very special and memorable day for our community.

Main Index