st Joseph's church, pickering

            The parish of St Joseph’s in Pickering is celebrating its third centenary in ten years. It’s not just that we like celebrations! There were three significant events early in the last century, all of them important for the Catholic Church in Pickering.

            In 1901 Fr Edwin Bryan founded St Joseph’s School.  First called “Fr Bryan’s Academy”, it offered education to a small group of local Catholic children that were anything but “academicians” in the way we use the word now. That centenary was celebrated ten years ago, a great event with Bishop John Crowley. 

            The parish of St Joseph Pickering was set up by Fr Bryan in 1904. Until then the Catholic community in Pickering had only the status of a Mission. Now it was established as a permanent, legal entity. We marked that centenary in 2004.

            The third and greatest centenary is of the fine church which stands on Potter Hill, which was completed in 1911. The church was built by Leonard Stokes, the most celebrated catholic architect of the time. Fr Bryan equipped it with a font carved by Eric Gill, the most notable sculptor of the day, and finished it with a statue of St Joseph by Peter Paul Pugin, son of the the more famous Augustus Welby Pugin. Since Fr Bryan’s day the church has been enhanced by many fine additions, among them an icon of Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, specially painted for the church by an artist in Rome, and a mosaic of Christ with loaves and fishes, made and donated by local artist Audrey Murty.

            For some reason the church was never consecrated, and this omission is being rectified during the centenary year at a Mass celebrated by Bishop Terence Drainey on 20th September at 7 pm. A set of consecration crosses, matching the original ironwork of the building, has been commissioned from a local artist blacksmith. The St Joseph’s Singers are rehearsing a new setting of the Mass for the occasion. All the people of Pickering are invited. Please let us know if you are bringing a party of five or more.

 Fr Bill East.