In memory of a priest who died suddenly over Christmas

It is a year since Fr Joe Williams went out shopping, a youngish priest at 42, after a very happy celebration of Christmas in his parish of St Martin de Porres in Luton. We know he died in his car in the local supermarket car park on 27 December from natural causes. The parish and pastoral area will gather to celebrate Mass for him, and to remember his family, on the feast of St John the Evangelist, the disciple who leaned close to Christ at the Last Supper. Sadly he was not found until three days later, by coincidence the day after the feast of Thomas of Canterbury, the patron of parish clergy. Ironically, the two saints frame his life. He had served in several parishes as a priest for the people, and while unassuming and shy in many ways, he came alive when he preached and celebrated