What is a Jesuit Parish?

The 34th General Congregation of the Society of Jesus identified a number of key features of Jesuit parishes: faith education, spiritual exercises, justice, inter-religious dialogue and engagement with culture.

The leader of the Jesuits worldwide recently challenged Jesuit parishes to be missionary in their approach, to be “more concerned with those who do not come to church than those who do”. It certainly is a challenge - one way in which some Jesuits living at St Ignatius Presbytery are engaging in this is through the work of Jesuit Media Initiatives, particularly with Pray-as-you-go and Thinking Faith.

In addition to the above, a recent meeting of Jesuit parish priests identified a number of other characteristics commonly found in Jesuit parishes in Britain today. They found that:

• they have a broader vision than many; for example, visiting Jesuits provide a set of links with Jesuits Missions and other Jesuit works.
• they are inclusive and they expect there to be a wider range of people in the congregation whose needs they seek to serve
• they rate formation in ministry as an important priority; they have programmes of adult faith education.
• they have a collaborative approach
• they seek to be engaged with others for the good of the community as a whole
• Jesuits parishes, networking with other resources in the British Province of the Society of Jesus, can call upon a significantly broader pool of human resources than many others.
• there is an approach to planning and decision making that involves prayer and discernment.
• there is an emphasis on “breaking the word”, on good preaching and on the application of the Gospel to daily life.
• they are characterised by spiritual conversations and formed by Ignatian spirituality and the Spiritual Exercises.
• they emphasise the quality of our encounters with people
• they place an importance on availability to people: whether at the door, on the phone or by visiting.

The Parish Team

• Fr Peter Randall SJ (Parish Priest)
• Fr Bernard Charles SJ (Assistant Priest)
• Fr Michael Bossy SJ (Assistant Priest)
• Fr James Conway SJ (Social Outreach Co-ordinator)
• Ms Ann Murphy (Catechetical Co-ordinator)
• Sr Eugenia Geraghty OSM (Sacristan)

Jesuit Priests also in residence:

• Fr Paul Fletcher SJ (Superior)
• Fr Kevin Fox SJ (Minister)
• Fr Tim Byron SJ (St Ignatius College)
• Fr Anthony Carroll SJ (Heythrop College, University of London)
• Fr Tomasz Klin SJ (Polish Community)

• Fr Peter Scally SJ (Jesuit Media Initiatives) [currently in Australia on Tertianship]
• Fr Bernard Parkin SJ (resident at St. Annes Home, 77 Manor Road, London, N16 5BL.)

How to find us?

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