WELCOME FATHER TOMY!
This week we
welcome to the 3 Churches our new priest, Fr Tomy Augustine, CMI. Fr Tomy comes to us from Kerala, and is a member of the Kottayam Province of the Carmelites of Mary Immaculate (CMI), as was Fr James. We are grateful to the CMI Father Provincial, Fr Sebastian, for sending Tomy to our diocese, and we are also grateful to our Diocesan Administrator, Mgr Bob Reardon, for appointing Father to our parishes.
Father’s ministry has been within Kerala up to this point, so it is a huge change for him to come to us. He will have to adjust to changes in culture – from manners to food to music to just “the way we do things”. But he will also have to adjust to changes in what I call “church culture” – the way we do church things around here – and that can be, if anything, an even bigger leap into the dark.
So, Father, we welcome you with open arms and hearts. We hope you will be happy here with us. Please be patient with us if you find things different – and we may even have to be patient with you! You will have a lot to absorb at the beginning.
Don’t be afraid to ask for help in any way. We may be a little more reserved than what you are used to, and how we live our faith may be a little more reserved, too.
Try to put any preconceived ideas to one side. We are pilgrims on the same road as you, and I’d like to think we are very warm people here in Wales. So don’t worry – the Lord is with us all, and he will never desert us!
Welcome – croeso!! P.S. Oh yes, we have our own language too... Fr Matthew