Peter Oakley RIP

I have just discovered that Peter Oakley died on 23 March. If you have not seen  any of his videos on YouTube you have missed a treat. He started posting in 2006 and his videos are his reflections and musings on life coupled with some wonderful stories of his youth. His obit is in the Telegraph:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/obituaries/10722373/Peter-Oakley-obituary.html

Do read it and look at the video clips.

End of Mission Social

End of Mission Social - At 7.00pm on Saturday 22nd March the Parish is throwing a party to mark
the end of our Mission and to celebrate the feasts of St. Patrick and St. Joseph. We are providing the
band and the food you just bring your own drink. It is free and you are all invited but please let us know if you are coming. RSVP by filling inthe form that you will find the link toon the Mission page of the ParishWebsite, by putting your name on one of the sheets at the back of the Church or by telephone to the Parish Office.
http://www.stjosephsbromley.org/parish-mission

Strange abduction to the Planet Zog

It is rumoured that the missing plane has been captured by a giant star-ship from the Planet Zog in the Andromeda Galaxy. The plane has been captured so that the passengers and crew can be used for experimentation. It is expected that it will reappear in a couple of weeks time with all the occupants blissfully unaware that anything has taken place.
This sounds rather far fetched; but it makes as much sense as some of the speculation that has taken place in the media. Meanwhile we should pray for the passengers and crew that they are all safe and unharmed.

The Parish Mission - week one is over

Well the first week is over. This was a week of outreach trying to visit all the homes that are registered as belonging to Parishioners. Some have moved away, others are "Resting Catholics", some are regular church goers. We tried to visit them all without fear or favour guided by the team from the Sion Community. Hopefully we will continue with this programme of visits when the Mission is over. It is only by reaching out to people that the Church can hope to make a difference. If we sit back and wait for people to come to us we will slowly fade away.

Current Activities

Things are pretty good for us although rather hectic. I am finishing off my dissertation and extended essay. they are due in at the end of April. Hopefully, if they are OK, my Foundation Degree will be upgraded to an Honours Degree. As I am now "working" as a Permanent Deacon at our local church I am finding getting motivated a challenge. Sometimes I do wonder why I decided to go for this. I could have just stuck with the basic degree. Never mind - onward and upward!

We are both occupied at Church as we have a Parish Mission starting this coming weekend. Julia is in charge of hospitality which means getting a group of people together to provide  refreshments after all the services - including breakfast after the 6:30am Mass! She is also having to provide lunch and supper for the Mission Team that is visiting the Parish - this is up to 13 people. You will understand that she is quite busy!

Apologies for lack of activity

I must apologise for the lack of recent activity. I have been and am still rather busy finishing off my dissertation for my degree and also with the forthcoming Parish Mission. If you are interested in coming to the Mission the programme of events can be found by clicking here.

An interesting debate

There is an interesting debate going on in the comment section of the Daily Telegraph. One of the posts is:
You cannot live forever.. Attempting to extend life expectancy for people who should have died years ago just racks up the bill "which is already oppressive" and continues to make the population / housing crisis even worse...
Their must be a cut off point at which your time is up. And it must be set by population demographics not by condition.
Their are far too many elderly in the UK for the tax base to support something has to go, Either tax the economy and those of working age to death or give Nature a push and drop the population and free up resources.
Either way expanding pensions and healthcare and continuing to tie up so many flats and houses on a section of the population that has "to be blunt" had it is complete madness. Either set a cut off point and after that step back and let Nature reset the population balance or more pro-active methods will eventually have to be used, The UK cannot maintain the current12 million "soon to be over 20 million" elderly.. The economy and the tax base of 34 million due to drop to 29 million of working age cannot pay for or accommodate so many in retirement.
Sticking your head in the sand and hoping for the best will not cut it i'm afraid... The problem will not just go away and so far everything the government is doing to win the next election will just bring D-day closer and quicker that it would have been had they not decided to keep the triple lock and not to means test. The deficit has not shrunk "it is impossible to shrink it now boomers are hitting the retirement pay rolls" the debt is increasing exponentially and the tax base just cannot keep up.
That their will be a reckoning "and in a time short" as opposed to many years from now is absolutly guaranteed. The longer it is ignored the worse it gets and the more draconian the solution. Sorry to pee in your soup but it is what it is and given the voter demographics it cannot be fixed... The end result after the next election is not in doubt...... Good luck.

As the write syas, sticking our head in the sand is not an option. The question is what should we do?
To take part click here.