St John of Beverley Parish had a special day of celebration on the Feast of Pentecost, 11th May. This year, Pentecost fell on the nearest Sunday to the Feast of our Patron, St John of Beverley, 7th May, and so there was two-fold cause for the Parish lunch, in honour of St John, held in our Primary School.
What few people knew in advance was that there was yet another reason for the celebration on that day; the presentation to John Wilkinson, Parish Sacristan, of the Gold Medal of the Archconfraternity of St Stephen, which is awarded for over fifty years of service at the Altar.
No-one was more surprised than John himself, the last to be let in on the secret! Family members had put in some sterling undercover work finding and dating the photographic evidence, from 1946, of John’s serving career. Sixty two years serving at the same Altar is an impressive achievement and it has equipped John as probably the most knowledgeable Sacristan and server in the Diocese. He is the first Guild member in the Diocese of Middlesbrough to be granted this prestigious award by the Central Council of the Archconfraternity and that, too, is fitting because we believe that St John of Beverley Parish was the first parish in our Diocese in which the Guild was formally established in February 1945 under the late Canon Stephen O’Brien. Fr Joseph O’Mahoney became John’s mentor in all things liturgical, and both John and his younger brother Bill became devoted servers and Guild members.
Bill, who now lives in Bristol, and John’s sister Angela from Cardiff joined the whole of John’s family at the 10.30 Mass without John having any idea that something special was about to happen. Properly attentive to his duties as thurifer, he didn’t even notice anything unusual about the composition of the congregation until he became the centre of attention. For John and his wife, Joyce, their children Philip and Pamela, with their partners and children and, indeed, for the whole parish family at St John’s, it was a very special moment.
At the festive lunch which followed in the Parish Primary School, John and Joyce cut the celebration cake and were presented with a cheque by way of thanks from the parish, and congratulated by Fr William Massie, our Diocesan Director of the Archconfraternity. Lunch was followed by a musical entertainment (the musicians ranging in age from 6 to 87!) and by much happy meeting and conversation. The food, the music and the fellowship were all excellent and the fine weather encouraged the families out into the delightful school grounds to play games, to enjoy the new wildlife area and to admire the school vegetable garden.
On Monday morning John was back on duty!