Dear Friends
As you know, Caritas Brentwood were this year organising the Mass for Migrants on behalf of the Dioceses of Westminster, Southwark and Brentwood, due to be celebrated at St Antony’s, Forest Gate on Saturday 2nd May.
We cannot gather in the usual way – but at a time when so many Migrant Workers are amongst those on the “frontline” in the NHS and care homes, as well as working as delivery drivers, cleaners and caterers, this is a time to honour them in prayer. In addition, as so many within our migrant communities are amongst the most financially vulnerable, working on zero hours contracts or pay that is below the Real Living Wage, it is also a good moment to highlight the wonderful heritage of Catholic Social Teaching that recognises everyone as “our brothers and sisters”, calls us to tear down borders that divide and exclude any group of people, and has mandated us to pay a Real Living Wage ever since Pope Leo XIII wrote about it in 1891.
We will therefore be celebrating the Migrants Mass via Instagram Livestream on Saturday 2nd May, at 10.30am. We will work on ways to include migrant voices within that Mass – hopefully we will be able to prerecord Intercessions in a variety of languages, and I will work with some of the ethnic chaplains to achieve this in the next fortnight. Please could I ask the Ethnic Chaplains receiving this email to contact me if there is a member of your community who would be able to prerecord a prayer. I will then work with you/them to ensure there is a range of prayers, and a variety of nationalities represented.
All the Mass details – and how to access the livestream – are at www.bcys.net/events/migrantsmass Please do publicise this on websites and via social media where possible – and especially to the ethnic chaplaincy groups with which you are in contact. One of the benefits of Instagram is that it allows people to interact with the Mass through adding prayers and sending greetings in their own language; such a time of “Spiritual Communion” may be very helpful for many exhausted or anxious people to know that they are connected with a wider community that is praying for them and cares about them, and that – through advocating the Real Living Wage – the Church is also campaigning in practical ways to ameliorate their conditions at such a difficult time.
With every blessing
Fr Dominic
Dear Friends
Following the email below, this is just a little update with two pieces of good news about next weeks’ Mass:
- We are now able to offer the Mass on YouTube as well as Instagram, which we hope will mean that more people can access it more easily. We have also – thanks to a lot of help from some good friends – managed to improve the sound and audio quality, so hopefully it will be a good and clear stream for anyone watching and praying the Mass. The details are:
The YouTube channel direct link is: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCBuTWplUUonmBuJVlRpEzPw. It is also possible to find us by going to youtube.com and searching for “Brentwood Catholic Youth Service.”
The Instagram Livestream can be accessed on the Instagram App, and then simply locate BrentwoodCYS.
- Thanks to some lovely responses from the Ethnic Chaplains and CitizensUK we are in the process of recording migrant voices from different communities, so that these voices form part of the Mass. We are also working to ensure the music is as diverse, vibrant and joyful as possible. Over the next few days we will be using Social Media to promote the Mass as far and wide as possible, with the theme “You are clapping for us, now pray with us” recognising the amazing contribution of migrants to so many services that are now being recognised and honoured as essential.
There will be an Order of Service for the Mass available at www.bcys.net/events/migrantsmass by Thursday evening. Please do spread the YouTube and Instagram links, and we look forward to seeing you online!
With many blessings
Fr Dominic
Migrants Mass 2020 Poster YouTube
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Dear Friends
The Order of Service for tomorrow’s Mass for Migrants is now on the website, with the direct link, https://bcys.net/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Migrants-Mass-Order-of-Service-3.pdf
The direct link to the YouTube streaming of the Mass, which will go live at 10.25am tomorrow, is https://youtu.be/lGLfjz5wSHc
Please do share this information with Ethnic Chaplaincies and groups within your schools, parishes and other networks; we hope the Mass will both honour and uplift our migrant communities at a time when so many are working so hard, and many are also facing great financial hardship. There are many migrant voices from across East London and beyond involved in the prayers of the Mass, and the music, and we invite everyone to join us online for this special celebration.
With every blessing
Fr Dominic (on behalf of caritas Diocese of Brentwood)
