Back in May, I received a call from Mgr Martin Hayes, our vicar general (who serves as the CEO of the Diocese of Westminster). He told me that Cardinal Vincent would like me to be the new parish priest of “a nice part of our diocese”. When I heard that I was being sent here at St Theresa’s, I couldn’t have been happier. Something immediately felt right about the new assignment.
Perhaps it was because I grew up in Sudbury, a parish in the same deanery as St Theresa’s, and so I knew this area of London quite well. In fact, I was ordained in Sudbury at St George’s Church in 2018. Prior to that, I had studied at the Cardinal Wiseman High School in Greenford and St Ann’s Shopping Centre in Harrow-on-the-Hill was the place I went to whenever I had enough money to spend!
Elsewhere on this website, there is a page with my mini-biography, but perhaps it would be appropriate to say something about myself here as well.
Before I decided to be a priest, I worked in the media industry, both print and digital. Initially, I focused on print media, working as writer and editor for various organisations including the Royal College of Nursing, Brunel University and the London Borough of Newham. I also designed publications for these organisations including newsletters, posters and brochures. When the world turned digital, I developed a passion for web design, video production and image editing and found employment in these areas.
In 2011, I was accepted for priestly formation and Cardinal Vincent sent me to the Venerable English College in Rome where I studied for seven years. After ordination, I served as assistant priest at Borehamwood for two years and then Bishop’s Stortford for three years.
I moved to 22 Boniface Walk at the end of August, giving me the whole month of September to work on the presbytery and make it my home. After residing “quietly” in the presbytery for more than a month, it feels very good indeed to be able to communicate with you at long last. This Sunday is the first Sunday I am officially your new parish priest and it is my joy to celebrate the Sunday Masses with you, as well as talk to you through this website and the parish newsletter, The Little Way.
It has been 20 years since you last welcomed a new priest to your parish. Changes, especially big changes, can be worrying for some. However, I do hope that you will join me in feeling excited too. Under the guidance of our great patron saint, Theresa of the Child Jesus, let us join together to carry on Fr Richard’s great work and perhaps try new things to make our parish even more of a Christ-centred community.
I feel blessed to have been sent here in the Catholic parish of Headstone Lane and I am very much looking forward to getting to know all of you and be a part of your lives.
I can’t promise that I won’t make any mistakes (because I’m sure I will!) but I can promise that whatever I do will be done in the spirit of serving the parish as best I can.
