La Celebración de la Santa Comunión

Many cleaners who work in the Aldgate part of the City of London are Spanish speakers originally from Latin and South America. Some arrived as asylum seekers, while most travelled to the UK for work directly or via European countries including Spain. However they came to be in London, few offices in the City would be as clean if it wasn't for the hard work of Spanish speaking cleaners. Recognising their contribution to the prosperity of the City is one reason our London Cleaners Carol Service was in Spanish (as well as English and Portuguese).

The majority of our English learners at classes on Saturdays and conversation groups during the week are Spanish speakers, and so it was a natural extension of this to begin exploring whether some would be interested in joining a regular act of Christian worship. This development has been led by our Spanish speaking chaplaincy team members, Claire and Ivonne.

We now have a weekly Rosary Group which meets on Fridays at 3:00pm and is led in Spanish, and our Saturday Bible study has grown so that we have now three times gathered for a Spanish language Eucharist on the first Saturday of the month directly following our English classes. It's a beautiful service - and the two priests at St Katharine's, Fr Angus and Fr Josh, have enjoyed learning to preside in Spanish as we continue to meet the spiritual as well as practical needs of workers in the City.

Most of our activities take a break over August and the next Spanish language Eucharist will be on Saturday 2nd September at 12 noon.

Meaningful Connection on International Women's Day

One of our chaplaincy team, Claire, writes...

Our recent Storytelling and Leadership Workshops culminated last month with the participants contributing to the planning and facilitation of a large event to celebrate International Women’s Day. From sharing food from their home countries, to painting their reflections on the theme of transformation, to ending the day in an act of prayer - the day was filled with meaningful connection.

One woman shared:

“I didn’t even need to look at the words of that hymn. I knew it by heart. We sang it back home.”

Another showed off her artwork:

'This is my land back home. These trees flower around this time of year.”

We are excited to see what God is doing in the lives of these women and all those in our

growing life here. Their art remains on display in the Church Hall. We pray that God continues to use St. Katharine Cree as a spiritual home and safe space to grow in leadership, faith, and community for this group of people.

We are grateful for a grant from the Church Urban Fund as part of the Near Neighbour's programme for supporting this project.

Father Marco G Lopes

Fr Josh Harris writes...

All of us here at St Katharine Cree are devastated to hear of the sudden and unexpected death of Fr Marco G Lopes, Vicar of St Martin's Plaistow and leader of the Luso-Hispanic Mission in Newham, on Monday morning.

Fr Marco has been a great friend to St Katharine's in the recent renewal of our ministry among City workers. He has prayed with us and for us often; he has led us in worship in Spanish and English; and he has given us constant encouragement and support in all kinds of ways. He and St Martin's were crucial to shaping our Living Wage Week service and the trilingual London Cleaners Carol Service in December. Among his many strengths and gifts, we will miss his good humour, prayerfulness, laughter, and gentle kindness.

Today at the Eucharist we prayed for him, for his wife Mary Ann, for his children Eunice and Rafi, and for the community of St Martin's. We will continue to pray for them, and all those who grieve this loss, here at St Katharine Cree.

The Diocese of Chelmsford has published a tribute to him which you may read here.