Pope Francis declared October to be an Extraordinary Month of Mission (EMM2019). And individuals, parishes and schools across England and Wales have created a special time for Mission that will last in our memories for years to come.
Missio toured parishes and schools during EMM2019, and we’ve been truly inspired by your stories and events. Witnessing your commitment to Mission this month has been joyful and humbling. We’ve gathered some beautiful memories and want to say a huge thank you!
Here are just a few of our stand-out moments…
In Parishes
St Teresa’s church in Lexden, Brentwood Diocese was among the first to launch its parish program for EMM2019. Among the brilliant #MyMission statements we saw, was ‘to remember that no act of kindness, however small, is ever wasted’.
St Patrick’s in Langley Moor, Hexham and Newcastle Diocese, held Holy Hours and daily meditations throughout EMM2019. The parish invited other Christian Churches in the area, who joined for a light lunch and a Sunday afternoon of prayer for all missionaries of their respective churches. A truly special time for mission.
In Schools
Among the many amazing and inspiring schools we visited during EMM2019, we visited a junior school in Port Talbot that receives a Pupil Deprivation Grant. While chatting with the pupil Spiritual Leaders, one student mentioned that on Christmas Day last year, as his family sat down to eat dinner, he asked his family to pause and to pray for Sandra, the Iraqi refugee whose story Mission Together (the children’s branch of Missio) was sharing at that time. He said he wanted to remind his family to be grateful for what they had. We were so humbled by this beautiful example of ‘Children helping Children’ – the very heart of Mission Together. We do hope the family will pray with us again at Christmas this year, and we will be praying for you!
Our Local Secretaries
In the Parish of Our Lady, Star of the Sea and St Bernard of Clairvaux in Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, Missio Coordinator, Miss A Denney, had two cakes made to celebrate EMM2019. The parishioners made donations to Missio for a slice of the delicious cake to go with their tea and coffee after Mass. Everybody enjoyed the cake and we are so grateful for the fundraising!
We’d also like to congratulate Local Secretary, Teresa Welsh, on over 40 year’s service to the Red Box. She received her Silver Award at the Mission Together Mass held for EMM2019 with school children in Swansea. A life-long teacher, Teresa had personally taught a large number of the teachers who brought their classes from Swansea and the surrounding area of Menevia Diocese. Thank you, Teresa, for your extraordinary work.
Our Local Secretaries always go above and beyond to promote and support Missio. And EMM2019 has been no exception. We loved the personal #MyMission pledges the group came up with at a Local Secretaries training session in Leicester, which included a pledge to ‘help children around the world’ and ‘to guide and inspire others through Christ’.
In Music
There have been plenty of musical moments this month, with schools and parishes around the country learning and performing the EMM2019 song: ‘Baptised and Sent’. We were delighted to meet Local Secretaries at St David’s Priory in Swansea (pictured in the top image) as part of our tour for the Extraordinary Month of Mission, whose performance was especially moving. Thank you, you’re all stars!
We were also very honoured when Mrs Angela Filarowski from Yeadon gave us a special song she composed and arranged for her school children, so that others could share the beautiful music. You can read more about Ss Peter & Paul Parish’s EMM2019 here.
On World Mission Sunday
World Mission Sunday had special significance this year, running alongside EMM2019. Local Secretary, Rosemary Parles, from St Augustine’s, Gloucester writes: ‘We had another successful cream tea for World Mission Sunday. It was a vintage cream tea with 1940’s music, tombola and raffle. There were plenty of scones and a variety of cakes delivered on vintage crockery. We made £260.40 and a good time was had by all’.
We thank all our Local Secretaries for your amazing work. And we would love you to send us photos of your Red Box and World Mission Sunday Events. That way we can share the fun and the good ideas as well as thanking you for your fundraising and prayers!
Online
People around the world have been adding their personal #MyMission and #OurMission statements to our global online campaign. Over World Mission Sunday, we shared that Mission groups in the Antilles were reaching out to their community to bring help and light to people in need. At the same time, young people from Mary Immaculate & St Gregory the Great Parish in High Barnet shared their pledge to bring light to their community, while St Philip & St James in Bedford pledged to reach out to homeless people in theirs. It was a beautiful example of how we are all connected – wherever we are in the world – by our common goal to bring the light of Jesus to those who need it.
What was your EMM2019 moment?
These are just a few of the hundreds of thousands of EMM2019 moments we know people have experienced during October. We thank you for sharing them with us and with each other! If you have a stand-out moment you’d like to share, please do via Facebook (@MissioUK), Twitter (@MissioUK) or via email (info@missio.org.uk) – we would love to hear your stories.