The annual national ecumenical service to mark the 41st anniversary of St Oscar Romero's martyrdom was held at St Martin-in-the-Fields Church in London last Saturday. It took the theme Let Us Dream – Unmasking a Post-Covid Future with St Oscar Romero.
Nearly 200 people watched it live online and a further 800 viewed within the next two days on the Romero Trust website. “It was a beautiful service and being online enabled viewers from around the world to join in and we have had many positive messages,” said Julian Filochowski, chair of the Romero Trust.
The service was led by Rev Richard Carter and opened with a spirited singing of The impossible dream by Canon Pat Browne, parish priest of Holy Apostles Church in Pimlico.
In her address, Sr Gemma Simmonds CJ said: “You and I may not be called upon to die as martyrs, but we are most certainly called upon to live as martyrs, that is, as witnesses to the call of Christ in the poor and the marginalised.” She added: “If we need a companion to help us on our way, then, in the Saint of El Salvador we could not find a better one.”
The service was organised by the Romero Trust, in conjunction with the Conference of Religious, CAFOD, Christian Aid, Missio, NJPN and Pax Christi.
On Saturday 27 March at 12.30, there will be a Romero Mass in St George's Cathedral, Southwark. Archbishop John Wilson will preside and preach on the theme, Unchanging Truth in Changing Times. The Archbishop will 'commission' four Guardians of the Cathedral's Romero Shrine – Mgr John O'Toole, Canon Alan McLean, Kathleen O'Brien and Julian Filochowski. They will have responsibility to foster devotion to St Oscar Romero and to oversee the Shrine. The Mass can be attended in person and will be live streamed and available on the Romero Trust website.
Outside London, on 23 March, the new Parish of St Oscar Romero in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, which serves communities of Seaforth and Waterloo, will host the annual Archdiocesan Romero Mass at 7pm. Liverpool Archdiocese is the only place in the world, apart from El Salvador itself, that has had a Mass celebrated for Oscar Romero every year since his martyrdom in 1980. Attendance can be in person or online.
Later in the year, on 14 October, the third anniversary of Oscar Romero’s canonisation, the Metropolitan Cathedral of Christ the King in Liverpool will receive a first-class relic of Romero, which will be placed next to the bust of the saint already housed by the Cathedral.
Links:
Sr Gemma Simmonds address on 13 March:
http://www.romerotrust.org.uk/sites/default/files/AnniversaryService2021_GemmaSimmonds.pdf
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