About Us
Welcome
Whether this is your first time to our Church family, or you have been coming here for many years – all are very welcome to be part of this wonderfully multicultural and diverse community of faith and friendship.
This parish has been witnessing to Christ and serving the people of this part of Bristol since 1848.
We are a ‘Communion of Communities in Mission’ with more than 60 nationalities who gather each Sunday at 10am to celebrate God’s great Love for the world in our Mass.
Our commitment is to be a people at the service of the poor, both locally and globally; to be a community of warmth and welcome; to be a community of healing and hope. We are committed to work for the unity of the Church with our brothers and sisters of other Christian traditions, sharing mission and worship together; and to seek to build a fellowship of all believers among the many world faiths in our area.
In the love of Christ Jesus! Shalom! Peace!
Richard
Mission
Almost all the ministries and charisms of our patron saint are being served by St Nicks 650 years after his death.
Our now well-known work with asylum seekers and refugees lies at the core of our parish’s identity and mission. That is why we established and are actively supporting our ‘Borderlands Charity’
We have long given food to the poor and homeless, supported self-help groups, rehabilition, commnity gathering, and charitable giving
The community that carries forward this mission is rich in faith, joy, celebration, diversity, commitment and enthusiasm: but poor in finance. Most of our parishioners who have work are in low pay occupations (often as Care Assistants). Many of our parishioners are still seeking safe asylum and are either on very minimal (sub-poverty) NASS (National Asylum Support Service) support, or are totally destitute by government decree. This means they have no roof over their head, no warm winter clothes, no food, very minimal health care, no money for personal or transport needs unless we, their brothers and sisters in Christ, support them. Where one part of the Body suffers, we all suffer in the Body of Christ, teaches St Paul.
And in the midst of all these challenges, we are a joyful, welcoming Christian Community drawn from over 60 nationalities who are building our ‘Parish in Communion for Mission’ as a communion of communities that celebrates our diversity and walks alongside the poor and marginalised of our Inner City and beyond.
Good News to the Poor
If people are going to see us in the face of Jesus Christ then they have to see a Church that is reaching out to the poor,
that is caring for the sick and the marginalised,
that is providing for children the next step in their encounter with Jesus
The synod of Bishops on the ‘The New Evangelisation’
We take very seriously ‘God’s preferential option for the poor’. This teaching is enshrined in the Scriptures from the liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egypt in Exodus (a story of abused refugees), through the Law of Sinai that was on the side of the poor and ‘the stranger among you’, and the Prophets who challenged the People of God to live justice rather than hide behind ritual and sacrifice, to the birth of the Saviour in the poverty of homeless Bethlehem, escaping as a refugee from Herod’s terror and growing up in the poverty and squalor of Nazareth. His great parable of the Last Judgement asks nothing about religious belief but about our compassionate and caring humanity (Matt 25).
But this must never remain teaching – there is no ‘orthodoxy’ without ‘orthopraxis’ – living it in practice! The Church has always valued (even declaring them Saints!) those who practice such an option for the poor.
St. Nicholas of Tolentino?
LOVER OF GOD, LOVER OF THE POOR
Lover of children, born like Samuel, Samson and John the Baptist of barren parents, the gift of God and his parents gift to God.
Who learnt to break bread with the poor long before he learnt to break the Bread of the Eucharist – risking his future in obedience to the God of the Poor and disobeying the voices of those who knew not the poor man of Nazareth.
Man of prayer who entered Love’s silence in order the proclaim Love’s Saving Word.
Vessel of God’s healing love, from whom healing and life flowed in all abundance, raising the dead, healing the wounds, setting free.
God’s compassion to the prisoner, God’s protector and rescuer of the prostitute, listening with an gentle heart and open mind.
Reaching in praying love beyond the bridge of death, holding the Departed in the purifying love of God.
St Nicholas, inspirer of our mission, healer of our wounds pray for us!
Parish Priest
Richard is proud of his Scottish origins, but has lived and worked all his life in England. He has been a Roman Catholic priest of Clifton Diocese for 46 years, working for 41 years in very impoverished Outer Estate and Inner City parishes. Influenced by both Charismatic Renewal and Liberation Theology he finds the reality of oppression and poverty the source for theology and mission.
For over 13 years he was RC Chaplain at HM Prison Bristol. He was co-chair of an expanding project that established four houses for ex-prisoners, and is now involved with supporting people seeking safe sanctuary (‘asylum’) in this country.
For the past few years, working with others in the parish of St Nicks and beyond, he has been part of establishing the charity, ‘BORDERLANDS – from exclusion to BELONGING’, in order to resource and secure the very costly service ministries of the parish, especially our work with refugees and those seeking safe sanctuary (or asylum) and the work with homeless people.
He has long been Chair of Bishopʼs Committee for Health and Healing seeking to encourage the Healing ministry in the diocese and beyond.
With others in the diocese he pioneered the development of Child Protection (now called ʻSafeguardingʼ) in Catholic Church both on a national as well as diocesan level and remains a member of the Diocesan Safeguarding Commission. Being adopted himself, he feels privileged to be Chaplain to the CCS Adoption (our Diocesan Childrenʼs Society).
Committed to working not only ecumenically but also across all faiths, he serves on Bristolʼs Multi-Faith Forum, working against racism and encouraging community cohesion, building the ‘wider fellowship of believers’ in the service of our city and society.
He has a passion for the unity of the Church and its mission to bring justice, equality and freedom to the oppressed of our world.