To all Parishioners and Friends of St John’s – April 2024
You may remember that work to repair the dome and the mosaic of St John’s finished in May last year. During the following year we have had a few issues: the damp has been soaking through the concrete as we expected, there have been a couple of leaks when we had heavy rain and wind, and salts have been coming through the mosaic, again as we expected, as the building is drying out. The result of this drying out is that the paintwork has become spoilt in places.
We can’t cure all the issues in this large and wonderful building – we don’t have enough money to do that – but after one year the contractors are returning in May to fix what snags they can and to repaint sections of the building. To do this work the church will have to be closed from 6th to 24th May 2024; this means there will be no Sunday or weekday masses in the church during this period. For the two Sundays we are unable to have mass in the church, Fr Michael will be celebrating mass in the school hall. The schedule is as follows:
Mass as normal – Sunday 5th May
Church closed – Monday 6th May (Bank Holiday)
Mass in school – Sunday 12th May
Mass in school – Sunday 19th May
Church reopens – Sunday 26th May
Mass as normal – Sunday 26th May.
John McNerney, on behalf of the Parish Heritage Team