Prayer Service on the steps

of St Joseph's Church

every Sunday Morning at 10.00am

Everyone welcome

          A selection of the congregation at Christmas morning Mass at St Joseph's 25th Dec. 2007

 Extract from the St Joseph's weekly bulletin dated 6th Jan 2008

Resolution will resolve the "problem" at St Joseph's

Good morning and welcome to the People’s Mass for Sunday 6th January 2008. Thank you for sharing our worship this morning and for showing your continued commitment to this, our holy place. Please pray especially this morning for our brothers and sisters in Manchester, Liverpool and in the many troubled parishes in the United States that the risen Lord will bless their struggles. Another year begins at St Joseph’s, as houses and apartments rise in dockland and the struggle for the re-opening of our church continues with renewed vigour. The time for resolution is now and nowhere is that sense of resolution stronger than in Sailortown. We have spent nearly seven years outside the locked doors of our church, yet our determination to win back all that is ours has not wavered. In fact, the opposite is true, as we look forward to 2008 as a year of change – change for the better.

 A new Bishop will soon be presiding over the creaking diocese that is Down and Connor, new homes are springing up to bolster our church as in the past and our faith community – witnessed by the outstanding attendance at Christmas morning Mass – is as vibrant as ever. We look forward with optimism and we are right to do so.

Very soon, we will be taking the continuing struggle for St Joseph’s into the homes of the priests of this diocese. We will be writing to each and everyone of them to urge them to do all that they can to help end the stalemate in dockland. We have, of course, done this before, but as Fr Des said recently; “There are many changes taking place within the church and every priest should be given the opportunity to re-evaluate his opinions of the injustice at St Joseph’s “. We will give them that chance in the firm belief that even one voice joining us in chorus will ring clear above the mumblings of a multitude of cowering “yes” men.

 People ask how we can find the stamina to pursue our quest for the reopening of St Joseph’s. It is a fair question, for there cannot be one of us who hasn’t harboured just a little smidgeon of doubt over the years. The answer, however, was and remains very simple. This is our church and we will have a say in its future. Not as lackeys on some middle class board of trustees, but as full members of a faith community that decides and determines the direction for St Joseph’s. Christmas morning was a gift from God for all of us. The best gift we have ever been given. No commercial nonsense, just the people of this church coming together to celebrate the birth of Our Lord as the good people of St Joseph’s have done for generations. It was a gift welcomed by us all as prayers and carols rang out across the dock and the Blessed sacrament of the Eucharist returned to its Sailortown home. Maybe not so welcome to the doubters who stand apart from us or the power men of Lisbreen, but a gift all the same. And one that even they will come to recognize and value as change continues.

The year ahead will, once again, offer challenges, but God will give us the strength to endure and persevere. We have done so for seven years and we will continue to do so until we have achieved all that we know we can. We knew back in 2001 that this would be a difficult task. Luckily, perhaps, we could not look into the future to see the extent of that difficulty. We had only faith and that faith has sustained us. It will continue to nurture and sustain us until our resolution, not just for the New year, but for everyday of that year, has helped resolve the “problem” at St Joseph’s.

Stop Press

August 2006

St Joseph's Campaign

2000 days on and

still strong

For a brief history of the struggle to reopen

The historic Church of St Joseph's in

Belfast's Sailortown district click on

the link below

Campaigners occupy

St Joseph's Church after five years on the street

Click on photo above for gallery of images

depicting the three day occupation of St Joseph's Church

St Joseph's Church in the city’s Sailortown was closed in February 2001 after the Catholic Church said there was no longer a sustainable faith community in the docks’ area, but its 150-strong congregation, which says that the church was closed against its wishes and without consultation, has continued to gather every Sunday for services outside its locked doors.

Campaigners, who heard a "Mass of Reconciliation" said by their spiritual leader Fr Des Wilson, claim that they want to highlight the "neglect" of the listed building by both the Catholic Church and the Department of Environment and that an occupation , similar to one two years ago, has been the only avenue left open to them.

Gerry Gallagher chairman of the Save St Joseph's Campaign said: "After five years on the street, we have been forced to take this action to highlight the neglect, in spiritual and temporal terms, of both the Catholic Church authorities and the Department of the Environment and we will stay until we are satisfied that our case has been heard.

"Despite previous assurances, both agencies have failed to protect what is a listed building from the ravages of the elements and we have had no choice but to take back that which is ours by right.

"The roof and broken windows have been left to rot and some of the guttering remains blocked despite our constant pleas for repairs, while the Bishop of Down and Connor refuses to acknowledge that our faith community even exists."

He said the parishioners had been "denied a say" in the church's future.

"We want to highlight the failure of the Department of the Environment to protect St Joseph's, despite repeated lobbying by campaigners and our political representatives and we want to turn the spotlight of publicity onto a closure debate and a dedicated faith community that have been ignored continuously by the Catholic Church."

Campaigners have called for the support of other churches in the city and extended an open welcome to come to St Joseph’s to "the people of Belfast and beyond".

Mr Gallagher said they did not want financial help from other parishes or individuals and did not wish to be in dispute with anyone, cleric or layman.

He said that they wanted to have a say in the decision-making process about the church, the right to save and restore a listed building and the right to worship in "our sacramental home."

ends

Scene after Mass of closure in 2001

Easter 2002 the faithful gather after Mass on the steps

2003 Once there was Mass celebrated here.

February 2004 Campaigners have prepared the chucrh for Mass inside once again

Christmas 2005 the faithful gather again for Mass

.

Scene after Mass of closure in 2001

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A day of reconciliation in an ongoing Sacramental life

Good morning and welcome to the People’s Mass for Sunday 19th February 2006.
Thank you for continuing to support our five year battle for justice at St Joseph’s and
for keeping the faith flourishing in this corner of Sailortown.

Today, we mark the fifth anniversary of the closure of our church with a special
Mass of Reconciliation, a Mass dedicated to the harmonious resolution of the dispute
in dockland. We thank Fr Des for his presence here in this holy place and bless him
for his gift of the Eucharist as we take our church for its right and proper use.
Everyone who hears our Mass this morning should remember that, although this is a
momentous day, it is but another step in the Sacramental life of a church that stretches back more
than 130 years.

St Joseph’s was built to anchor the faith of the people of dockland and, as it was meant to
do, it continues to offer a spiritual home to all those who love and cherish that faith. These may not be fashionable words in at a time when church attendances are at an all time low and plans for the sell off of many churches – in this Diocese alone – are already in the pipeline, but, they are true and truth cannot be bought or sold. We have struggled for five long years for what we believe to be right, for what we were taught was right and for what, in all conscience, we cannot cast aside.

Accountants and statisticians can blather all they like about the so-called realities of church life in
the modern world, The reality is much more simple. Our people bought and paid for this church, nourished it down hard years of poverty and pogrom through sacrifice and devotion and left it
to us as a legacy of faith. We can no more walk away from it than we would from our mothers or
fathers. Accountants cannot appreciate that value of love.
The further reality is, of course, that the Real Presence of Our Lord dwelt in this sacred place
for generations and no man, whether clergy or laity, has the right to attempt to deconsecrate
that which is sacred.

Many things have been said about our church and our people in the past five years, but not one word to our faces. It is a sad reflection, on the day when we pray that the Holy Spirit will come upon all the parties concerned in this dispute, that the people of St Joseph’s, who have shown their commitment to it through five winters, have been ignored continuously by those clerics who claim to offer pastoral leadership. But, today, is a day of reconciliation. A day of forgiveness and a day of joy. It is also a day when all eyes should look to our altar, makeshift as it is, and see the future of our church in the body and blood of our risen Lord.

Please pray for the blessings of the faith on our friends at St Michael’s in Manchester and St Mary of the Angels in Liverpool; victims of the Church’s business-hatchet men across the water, that they
will have the faith and courage to maintain their struggles, and for the brave people of Drumaroad in Co Down who also fight for what is right.
 

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Strangers to

honesty and honour

drive people from the Church

 

Good morning and welcome to The People’s Mass for Sunday 20^th February 2005. Thank you for sharing our worship this morning and for supporting our continuing struggle for justice at St Joseph’s.

It is now four years since the Bishop of Down and Connor broke hearts in dockland by closing

St Joseph’s, but, contrary to what the Big Lad hoped, Sailortown spirits are harder to break and the fight for justice goes on, and goes on apace.

We are a people dispossessed, but not disheartened despite the injustice and ignorance of a yellow-bellied clergy that has no shame. We have detailed our cause in both emotional and intellectual terms for all to hear and no-one – not one of the so-called holy men – has had the guts to challenge our arguments. They are as empty of courage as they are of faith. They are a congregation of yes men who drive people from churches by their arrogance, their ineffectual behaviour and their wiliness to kiss the Episcopal ring at all costs. Never has such a bunch of white-collared toadies gathered under one roof as at St Peter’s a fortnight ago. All of them fawning and cringing, all of them hoping of a photograph with the Big Lad or a chance to be seen in his company. A right shower.

Fr Paddy McCafferty cannot be said to be anything like the lily livers that purport to be priests in 21^st Century Down and Connor. He is a man of integrity and undoubted sincerity – those qualities alone set him apart from the mediocre – but even Paddy has tunnel vision when it comes to St Joseph’s.

We wrote to him through the columns of a local paper – he has no parish and we do not have his home address - and received, via the same route, the most dismissive of replies. Further correspondence on the matter has been silenced in the same newspaper and, today, we make no apology for printing the content of our latest letter to him.

"Dear editor

I was dismayed and more than a little surprised to read Fr Paddy McCafferty’s dismissive reply to an invitation from the people of St Joseph’s church in Belfast.

In the "finally" section of his letter, he said that; "There are some good and sincere people involved (at St Joseph’s), however, I do not believe in the campaign – or that the matter is as cut and dried as presented"

I have written directly to Fr McCafferty on at least two occasions to explain the situation at St Joseph’s, to highlight the areas of concern and, most importantly, to invite him to meet with the people themselves. I have yet to receive even the courtesy of an acknowledgement.

It is regrettable that a priest, who normally peppers his letters with references and has obviously researched his subject matters in great detail, should dismiss the commitment of a faith community so flippantly. His expression, "cut and dried" could not be more appropriate.

Fr McCafferty has not met any of the people involved to discern whether they are either good or sincere and, amazingly, chooses not to discuss the many questions raised by their struggle for worship.

God’s People are forced to worship in the street, have done for nearly four years, to shed light on questions of church ownership, empowerment of the laity and accountability of clergy that the diocese of Down and Connor would rather see buried in silence.

Finally, we have never asked Fr McCafferty to "join" our campaign; we would not be so presumptuous. But, we have and do ask that he; a priest who, in the words of Fr Des Wilson is charged with "providing people with worship" and "finding and proclaiming the divine quality in what people do", should take the time and trouble to, at least, meet with those people and learn the facts and facets of their campaign first-hand before dismissing their legacy of worship, devotion and commitment in two sentences.

Yours faithfully,

Gerry Gallagher

Secretary, Save St Joseph’s Campaign.

We have asked only for consideration, not only of Fr Paddy but also of the hundreds of other priests with whom we have been in touch over the years. Not one has shown an ounce of charity.

Today, we call on all clergy to do what is right and stand up for the people of St Joseph’s, we call on the members of the St Joseph’s Preservation Trust to go public with their private disenchantment with the Diocese of Down and Connor which blocks any future for our chapel.

We don’t ask for miracles, but we do ask for honesty, honour and a little endeavour.

We were brought up to admire such qualities, but also brought up in the faith that sustains us today to recognise men and women for whom all three have become strangers.

Please pray for our brothers and sisters at St Michael the Archangel in Ancoats, Manchester and St Mary of the Angels in Everton, Liverpool.

Their churches were closed without consultation and they have suffered the same wounding denigration as the people of St Joseph’s.

Their struggle for justice mirrors our own and, please God, they too will overcome.

 

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Sunrise over St Joseph's by Ciaran Gallagher

 

 

An artistic impression

of how a refurbished

St Joseph's might just look

 

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Sailortown goes to Manchester

 Campaigners from St Joseph's and St Mary's of The Angels Church  Liverpool gather with the people of St Michaels Church in the Ancoats district of Manchester.

Campaigners from St. Joseph's went to the Ancoats district of Manchester in a show of solidarity with the congregation of St Michael's whose church was closed shortly before Christmas 2003

National coverage of the "occupation" of St.Joseph's in February 2004  reached the  congregation there who have also been forced to worship on the street.. Contact was made  and arrangements put in place for a visit in mid March. The Sailortown campaigners were given a warm welcome by the Ancoats campaigners on the evening of Saturday March 20th. Detailed discussions revealed a frightening similarity between both groups particularly in relation to their treatment at the hands of the respective local Curiae

On Sunday 21st March we were joined by campaigners from the church of St Mary of the Angels in Liverpool. A joint prayer service was  held on the street in front of St Michaels by representatives from all three groups.

In summary three groups of disparate people realised that they were not alone  that a bond had been formed that will be strengthened in the coming months. In the words of one campaigner from St Michaels  which captured the experience we were now        "One Voice, One Family, One Faith".

 

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