Help us win new, substantial new Heritage Lottery Funding (HLF) funding in a Heritage Grant to restore the Dome and main Sanctuary of Ss Peter & Paul and St Philomena Church by completing our new survey to prove to HLF that we have local support.

Chasing funding to restore Wirral’s landmark buildings and heritage is arduous at best of times. So far, we’ve achieved much after three successful HLF projects. There is much more to do – our work is not done!

For funding to complete the roof restoration, we need to consult YOU about the proposed activities. This next project focusses remedial works on the Dome itself, in a project worth over £500,000.

Encourage 5 other friends/family/acquaintances who don’t attend Ss Peter & Paul and St Philomena to do likewise. Survey closes 31^st December 2018.

We’d love to hear what you think!

By HLF standards, successful projects don’t just mean good quality restoration work but outstanding activities to engage the Community. In 2018, the Dome won the Marsh Award for Innovative Church Projects, for its World War II Audio Tour for schools.

Free of charge HLF Activities might include:

• extending successful primary visits to secondary schools;
• producing a photographic ‘Reflection Book’ helping housebound and isolated reconnect with personal heritage;
• making an Interactive Photo Album to record heritage for future generations;
• developing an accessible Community Peace Garden.

Do you live near New Brighton or Wirral? Would these Activities engage you?

We have produced a community survey to help us make a good Second Round Application to win a substantial HLF Heritage Grant.

As a BIG THANK YOU, you will be entered for our free prize draw to win £50 which will be drawn on Epiphany, Sunday 6^th January 2019 at the social following Mass.

If you are a younger person, we would also like to hear your views!

A special version of the survey  can be completed by clicking the link below. (N.B. you will not be asked for any personal details).

November is the specific time of the year when we remember our loved ones who have died in recent times and over the years. If you would like your relative or friend to be remembered at Holy Mass, please provide the names of your deceased loved ones that you wish to be remembered and place them in an envelope (at the back of the church) with a discretionary offering and hand the envelope to one of the Priests.

Dear friends of the Shrine,

During the General Chapter of the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, we received our new appointments for the year 2018-2019: Canon Parant has been appointed by Msgr Wach to Béziers and as a chaplain of our School in Montpellier, whilst Father Gribbin will join our community at Ss PPP soon.

We are all very grateful to Canon Parant for his excellent work for our family of Ss PPP and we assure him of all our prayers for his new mission. We are also very grateful to God’s Providence, since our church was again granted £72,000 for preparation works and surveys, in order to restore the last part of the building, i.e. the dome and the sanctuary, which are both in great need of reparation.

This year, three men from the United Kingdom will join our Seminary of Gricigliano (Italy), and begin their formation to the priesthood: in these days of darkness, these vocations are both an answer to our daily prayers, our sacrifices, and a sign of hope. Please keep praying for Lee, Gary and Joseph! More candidates will join our house of discernment in Preston in November, where they will learn French, community life and spirituality of the Institute of Christ the King.

Finally, we have the great joy to announce the foundation of a new Apostolate of the ICKSP in Shrewsbury Diocese: Bishop Mark Davies has invited a Canon of the Institute to reside permanently in his episcopal city (Shrewsbury), where our priest (and a seminarian) will live the canonical life (according to the Constitution of the ICKSP) and celebrate daily Mass. The mission will resume in October, more details to come. Thank you again for your prayers to support this new foundation!

Restoration of the sanctuary & the dome

Seven years ago, Ss Peter & Paul and St Philomena’s Church was closed, leaking and full of rubbish. Today, two thirds of the roofs have been restored with a fourth restoration project funded by Heritage Lottery Fund (HLF) about to start; and the community is growing.

Bishop Davies’ vision was for a Shrine Church for the whole diocese, based on the traditional Mass and daily Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament which he entrusted to the Institute of Christ the King.

Canon Montjean puts the success down to God’s grace. He comments, “Once daily Adoration had been established, everything else seemed to fall into place. Not that it’s been easy…but many people have helped.”

The church, has had three successful restoration projects under HLF Grants for Places of Worship, with match-funding from National Churches Trust and Latin Mass Society. Projects have developed ‘Activities’ to broaden public access, beginning modestly in 2013 with a volunteer-led Heritage Tour and a Guide book and culminating in a national award-winning Audio Tour as part of a Primary Education Pack.

Canon Montjean added, “All the Activities highlight the building as a Place of Worship but have welcomed everyone with charity, as St Francis de Sales, our patron, advises.”

With the closure of the HLF Grants for Places of Worship in 2017, Canon Montjean’s team decided to apply for a larger Heritage Grant, in order to complete the restoration of the main sanctuary and the dome roofs. Preparation for this next project began over a year ago, Canon Montjean was delighted to be awarded a First Round Pass for £ 72,000, despite stiff competition. This amount will be used to develop the project and prepare for second round application. Thirteen projects applied at First Round, with only three successful, the Dome being one of them.

HLF require successive projects to engage more people and diff erent audiences. ­ e new project proposes a variety of Activities such as collecting memories for a dementia-friendly, Interactive Photo Album, to digitise significant life events such as Baptisms, First Holy Communions and Weddings; an intergenerational event to help children discover grandparents’ personal heritage; Scaffolding Tours for architects, surveyors and students; a Sector Learning conference event aimed at churches interested in submitting grant applications and a ‘Big-Choir Community Heritage Hymn Sing’.