Bishop David is very conscious that there are a considerable number of people around the Diocese who are due to be baptised or received into full communion with the Church, to receive the Sacrament of Confirmation and to receive their First Holy Communion. All these celebrations are currently delayed through the coronavirus crisis. Bishop David sends the following messages to all those waiting to receive these sacraments.

To catechumens preparing for Sacramental Initiation into the Church and candidates from other ecclesial communities preparing to be received into full communion with the Catholic Church:

Dear friends,
In my first pastoral letter as Bishop of Northampton, I used an image that I would like to share with you again now. It is the early Easter picture of the disciples hiding together behind locked doors because of fear. Maybe this image of the first Christians speaks to us in an even more powerful way during these days of coronavirus lockdown. Then again, we may be telling ourselves, at least they were hiding in their locked room “together”! Being a disciples of Jesus Christ is a community experience rather than an individualistic and solitary one. God’s people have always been a pilgrim people and by his grace, you have been brought into an experience of this pilgrimage journey to the Kingdom of Heaven. [Read more…] about To those wishing to receive the Sacraments