
Despite restrictions limiting our celebrations, it was lovely to be able to mark the Golden Jubilee of St Gerard's Church this morning with a Mass of Thanksgiving celebrated by Bishop Toal and Fr Parkes.
The Solemn Opening of St Gerard's Church by Bishop Francis Thomson and Father Patrick Moss, took place fifty years ago today, 13th June 1971. The new Church was opened to serve the new parish which had been founded just 4 years earlier in 1967 and had worshipped until then in the temporary Church in the old Noble School on the North Road.
We give thanks to God for fifty years of celebrating our Catholic faith in St Gerard's. We pray for the clergy who have served us especially Canon Moss, Canon O'Hare, Canon Brosnan, Fr Brown, Fr McGoldrick, Fr Parkes, Deacon Tom, Deacon Jim and Bishop Toal. We are grateful to all our parishioners who helped establish our parish and church and have served the community tirelessly in many ways over the years. And finally we give thanks to God for all the celebrations of the Sacraments which have taken place here, for the faith which has been received and nurtured in our Church and for the Gospel message which has been preached in St Gerard's and taken out to be lived out in our homes and community in Bellshill.
St Gerard Majella, pray for us.