FROM St. ANTHONY'S, BROADSTONE

Many of you who read this will probably suppose that the Roman Catholic Church community in Broadstone based at St. Anthony's in York Road, is ahnost entirely composed of people whose origins are to be found in England, Wales, Scotland or Ireland. It is not so. If I think of the congregation as a whole, the majority indeed have their origins in the British Isles, but people of very diverse origins are represented. Without too much racking of the brain, I can think of people from Poland, Croatia, Italy, Holland, Germany, France, Spain, Gibraltar, Malta, India, Malaysia, the Philippines, Goa, Burma, Vietnam, Peru, Nigeria and South Africa. This variety is stimulating and a source of richness in our life together. Our patron Saint, Anthony, exemplifies this variety, having been born in Portugal he worked in France and Italy, dying in Padua in 1231.

In its very early days the Church was just a small group within the Jewish people. Within a very few years, however, it began to include people of many different nationalities and St. Peter could say, "I now really understand that God has no favourites, but that anybody of any nationality who fears Him and does what is right is acceptable to Him". (Acts of the Apostles 10 vv 34.35).

I like to think that at St. Anthony's, as in so many other Christian communities throughout Britain, you can see a living example of God's inclusiveness, for He has no favourites, or to hark back to the old translation of Scripture, He is "no respecter of persons".

Fr. Kenneth Noakes, Parish Priest.

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