Three Churches

Three Communities

Serving One Lord.

Welcome to the website for the brand-new Parish of The Good Samaritan, Burnley, incorporating the churches of Christ the King, St John the Baptist and St Mary of the Assumption. Each of the three churches has its own special character, comprised of, and helping meet the needs of, its own community. We are part of the Diocese of Salford. The parish covers a wide area, encompassing Central Burnley and the semi rural areas of Worsthorne and Cliviger. The oldest church is St Mary's, which has a long history dating back to the nineteenth century, the current church being opened in 1849. St John's church opened in 1881 and the youngster of the three, Christ the King, came into being in 1936. Together the three make a rich and vibrant community, working together to celebrate our Catholic faith and put our relationship with Jesus Christ into action by sharing together in many different ways.

I am delighted at our new three church, one parish website and I trust you will find it easy to move around the site and hopefully find it to be a big help to you. Like all new ventures, a lot of hard work has gone into this new project by a small but dedicated team, to whom I am very grateful. I am also grateful that they have pledged to ensure our web site is kept current and updated regularly, which of course is so imperative. I must also give thanks to the many parishioners who contributed articles large and small for the website – without their articles the website would have little to show our visitors so a big thank you to them!

As well as the team of those involved in running and contributing to the website, there is also a team of clergy who serve the three churches by also working together. In addition to myself, as the Parish Priest based at St Mary’s, there is also Fr Kevin Tierney who is the Assistant Priest, also resident at St Mary’s. The rest of the team comprises Fr Emmanuel Ugwuoke and Fr Lawrence Imoisili, who are Vincentian priests, resident at St John the Baptist presbytery. We meet regularly in order to ensure that things run smoothly.

Much work and thought had gone into the idea of bringing our three parishes together as one, as part of Bishop John’s plan for the reorganisation of all the parishes in the Diocese of Salford published in early 2017. When I arrived in Burnley in July 2018 to begin my role in bringing the three parishes together, I spoke in each of the three churches of the need to move forward at the right pace in order to ensure that everyone is on board with us. I used the phrase: “Festina Lente”, which means “make haste, slowly”. I genuinely feel with this website, our recently launched joint three church Newsletter, as well as many of the other ways that we are finding to collaborate and work together, are all signs that we are making progress, without rushing.

Despite all the responsibilities, I genuinely love being in Burnley; the people here are really appreciative of what we are trying to do and I speak for the clergy team in saying how supported we each feel by the people we serve. There are a lot of very good things going on in each of our three churches, and a good many new things that we are keen to establish as we go forward. Thank you for your interest in our parish communities and please enjoy your visit to this website.

Fr David