On Wednesday 3rd March, His Eminence John Cardinal Foley conferred the Ministry of Acolyte on our Seminarian Alan Burgess, along with six of his second-year colleages from the Pontifical Beda College.

Unlike temporary commisioning of Extra-ordinary Ministers of Holy Communion, this is a permanent ‘minor order’ authorising Alan to “aid the deacon and minister to the priest in liturgical celebrations … to distribute Holy Communion as an auxiliary minister (in the usual circumstances) … to expose and depose the Blessed Sacrament for Adoration” and to instruct altar servers and others in their temporary liturgical duties.

Alan is excited about his Acolytate and looks forward to his second pastoral placement this coming summer (elsewhere in our diocese). While visiting us at his diocesan base here in New Malden, he will now be able to assist in these ways and in taking Communion to the housebound and hospitalised.

The next major step for Alan, God willing, is his Candidacy for Ordination to the Diaconate which normally takes place in November of the third year of semiary formation (ie. 2010).

The Parish congratulates Alan on this second step on the road to Priestly Ordination. We continue to pray for him, and for our resident potential seminarian, Philip Andrews who is away from us this weekend, in Retreat at St John’s Seminary, Wonersh, in preparation for attending the Selection Conference next month.