Jubilees & Anniversaries
We are, I hope, becoming well acquainted with the notion of 2025 as a Holy Year, a Year of Jubilee. We celebrate this anniversary of the birth of Our Lord with appropriate thanksgiving and prayer. Please do watch out for the different ways in which this Jubilee will be observed both locally and internationally.
Within this Holy Year I also want to make mention of two other significant anniversaries which occur in 2025.
Firstly, the Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Family of Nazareth celebrate the 150th anniversary of their foundation during this year. This Congregation was founded in Rome in 1875 by Frances Siedliska, or Blessed Mary of Jesus the Good Shepherd, as she is better known. As you are probably aware, the Sisters have been a welcome presence in Enfield since 1907. With the Sisters, we give thanks to Almighty God for the history of their Congregation, and for their prophetic witness to the calling of poverty, chastity and obedience.
Alongside this, we thank Sister Daniela (Superior) and the other Sisters for their gracious and kindly presence among us here in the parish. We pray that there may be many more years of their community here in Enfield. We also remember in our prayers their other foundations all over the world.
Now to the other significant anniversary. It is 1700 years since the First Ecumenical Council of the Church, which took place in Nicaea, a small town near Constantinople, in 325AD. This Council is justly famous for the Creed which was a statement of the faith of the Church, which all bishops present agreed was faithful to the Gospel. It is this Creed, with an addition by the Council of Constantinople in 381AD, about the Holy Spirit, which we recite on most Sundays of the Church Year.
The Nicene Creed was necessary because there were erroneous or heretical beliefs gaining traction in the Church at that time. The call to unity is not simply one to be nice and hospitable but also to adhere to the truth. The Fathers of the Council of Nicaea understood this and worked together to define the truth. We thank God for them and for their good work. Deo Gratias!
