Gift  Aid     

Eucharistic Ministers      

Saturday 10th May St Columba’s Primary School  11.00am
Saturday 10th May Oakgrove Primary School  11.00am
Sunday 11th May Chapel Road Primary School  10.00am
Saturday 17th May Good Shepherd Primary School  11.00am
Saturday 31st May Trench Road Primary School  11.00am
Sunday 1st June  St Oliver Plunkett Primary School 11.15am

Saint Patrick's Day Mass Arrangements

Due to the 17th March falling in Holy week this year, the feast of Saint Patrick will be celebrated on Saturday 15th March. Mass will be celebrated as follows

St Columb's Church:                                 7:30pm(Friday Vigil); 10 :00am
Church of the Immaculate Conception: 6:00pm(Friday Vigil); 11:00am
St Oliver Plunkett Church:                         6:00pm (Friday Vigil); 11:15am
St Mary's Oratory:                                        9:30am

SACRAMENT OF CONFIRMATION -   Bishop Hegarty will administer the sacrament of Confirmation to children from Good Shepherd and Chapel Road Primary Schools on Saturday, 23rd February at 11.00am in St Columb’s Church and at 3.00pm children from St Oliver Plunkett Primary School and Oakgrove Integrated Primary School will be confirmed in St Oliver Plunkett Church, Strathfoyle. On Sunday, 24th February at 3.00pm Bishop Hegarty will confirm children from Trench Road and St Columb’s, Newbuildings Primary Schools in Church of the Immaculate Conception, Trench Road.

Pro-Life Petition – A motion has been tabled in the Assembly opposing Health Department Guidelines, which will make abortion widely available in Northern Ireland. Precious Life has launched a petition Postcard for the public to sign and send to their local Assembly members, calling on them to vote in support of this pro-life motion. Help by ordering your campaign postcard to distribute amongst your friends and family, Tel: 028 9027 8484

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PARISH RETREAT 2007 – ‘That You May Have Life & Have It To The Full’

Beginning on Sunday 16th September, the Parish will host a time of renewal and reflection in Saint Columb’s Church and the Church of the Immaculate Conception. The retreat will be given by Rev. Michael Doherty, Rev. Joseph Gormley, Rev. Kevin McElhennon and Rev. Paul Farren. For Further information and retreat programme click here.

 WELCOME!

This weekend, we welcome Rev. Christopher Ferguson, a native of Carnhill, to our parish community. Fr. Chris was ordained in 2002 and, following postgraduate studies at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, was appointed to Holy Family Parish, Ballymagroarty in August 2003. He has been appointed as Curate in this parish and Assistant Chaplain to Altnagelvin, Gransha and Waterside Hospitals. We also welcome Rev. John Irwin, the Chaplain to the Nazareth House, who has come to live with us in Chapel Road Parochial House.

                St Columb’s Church:           Vigil 7.30pm

                Immaculate Conception:     Vigil 6.00pm

                St Oliver Plunkett:                       Vigil 6.00pm

                St Mary’s Oratory:                Sunday 9.30am*

Gift Aid 

I am writing this letter on behalf of the Priests of our parish and the Parish Finance Committee to all parishioners who are registered in the Parish Gift Aid scheme.

The purpose of my letter is to thank you for your ongoing support of your Parish through your participation in the weekly Gift Aid envelope collections and to explain to you just how important this scheme is to the parish of Glendermott and Strathfoyle.

As you know, Gift Aid is an incredibly simple and profitable scheme sponsored by the Inland Revenue.  In practical terms, when you participate in the scheme for the benefit of Glendermott and Strathfoyle parish, the Inland Revenue adds a further 28% to your contribution – giving this money to the parish once a year. To give you an example of what this actually means in financial terms, our parish received the sum of £31,800 from the Inland Revenue in 2006.  As you can imagine, this goes a long way towards helping with the normal maintenance and capital costs associated with our churches and parish hall.

One interesting observation from our weekly Gift Aid collections is that, whilst there are some 615 Gift Aid envelopes in circulation, only around 400 of these envelopes are returned each week.  I am appealing to you therefore to please ensure that your weekly collection is placed in your Gift Aid envelope – otherwise the parish receives no financial benefit from the Inland Revenue, immediately cancelling the benefit of your good work.

As you can see from the amount of money returned by the Revenue last year, the Gift Aid scheme provides us with invaluable financial assistance.  If you have any ideas as to how we might be able to encourage others to join the Gift Aid scheme, or if you have any queries about it, please feel free to contact Marie, our parish secretary on 028 71 342 303, or if you prefer, email Marie at: This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .  Your views and ideas are most welcome.

I would like to thank you for taking the time to read my letter and most importantly, on behalf of our Priests and Parish Finance Committee, thank you for your continued financial support through the Gift Aid collections.  Your help is greatly appreciated.

Yours faithfully

On behalf of Waterside
Parish Finance Committee