About us

 

  • Welcome

Welcome to Our Lady’s website, we hope that you will find here information about various aspects of parish life as well a little more of what it mean to be a Catholic community in the heart of our local community.

 

 

  • Our Vision and Mission

Our vision is to be Welcoming, Loving and Serving. How we see this lived out is in our Mission which is…

To welcome and share our faith with children and young people and enhance the spiritual growth of our diverse community.

To love God and be His living presence in the community.

To serve others by building relationships, healing brokenness and promoting peace.

By praying, worshiping and celebrating our relationship with Jesus, to evangelise our local community.

To support the worshipping parishioners at every stage of their faith development, throughout their lives.

To inspire all parishioners to share their God given gifts and talents.

 

 

  • Parish Priest

Fr Stephen Pritchard has been Parish Priest since 2015 and combines this role with being chaplain at Liverpool Hope University. Previous to being parish priest he was an Associate Dean at Hope University. For twelve years he was Director of Youth Ministry for the Archdiocese of Liverpool setting up Animate Youth Ministries. He has also served as the Catholic Chaplain to Liverpool City Centre and was part of the Liverpool City Centre Ecumenical Team. In over twenty years of ministry he has also been a school chaplain, hospital chaplain, assistant priest as well as ministering in Kennett prison. He has ministered in various places in the Archdiocese including Fazakerely, Old Swan and St Helens. He has a degree in Theology and Ministry from Durham University, a Masters in Theology and Youth Work and is a professionally qualified Youth and Community Worker. in addition to his post in the Hope University and the parish he is the Dean of the area.

 

 

  • Parish Office

Parish Administrator is Christopher Jennings. The Parish Office is open 9:00am-1:00pm Tuesday to Friday

 

 

  • Schools

The parish has two schools.

Our Lady of the Assumption school aims to develop each child’s potential through high quality teaching and learning. The vision is to ensure all our pupils enjoy their time at Our Lady’s and develop the skills and knowledge required to become confident and enthusiastic learners. The school and the parish work hand in hand to realise this vision and help children become disciples of Jesus Christ.  

Our Lady of the Assumption Primary School

Hedgefield Road

Liverpool

L25 2RW

Telephone: 0151 487 9301

Fax: 0151 487 0024

email: ourladyp-ao@ourlady-pri.liverpool.sch.uk

 

St Gregory’s Catholic Primary School

Montreal Road

Netherley

Liverpool

Merseyside

L27 7AG

Telephone: 0151 498 4313

email: gregory-ao@st-gregorys.liverpool.sch.uk

 

  • Parish Clubs

The parish has two social clubs, Our Lady of the Assumption adjacent to the church and St Cyril’s is on Southbrook Rd.

There are rooms that can be hired for private functions as well as comfortable lounges where you can relax; enjoy a drink and a friendly, safe atmosphere. 

For information about the Centres please phone the Managers:

Our Lady’s (Lynn): 0151 487 3799  -  St Cyril’s (Donna): 0151 487 7422

 

  • History

The parish began after the World War II when many areas of the city were devastated with the bombing and many families were moved to new areas of the city where new homes were being built. A large pre-fabricated estate of some 1,200 dwellings was established in Gateacre and Childwall Valley.

 

In 1947 Richard Downey, Archbishop of Liverpool appointed Fr. Martin Burke to establish a new parish to satisfy the spiritual needs of the large Catholic community that began to take shape.

 

As there was no church for Catholics in the area, it was the vicar of St Stephen’s Church of England Church, Mr Royden who gave permission for Mass to be said in the Church of England school in Gateacre Village. The first Mass took place there on 4th May 1947. A new pre-fabricated Church of Our Lady of the Assumption was blessed and opened by Archbishop Downey on May 29th 1949, on Childwall Valley Road.

 

The 1960’s saw the continued growth of the parish with new houses being built in the Lee Park Estate and Childwall Valley Estate, replacing for the most part the pre-fabricated homes.  Also private homes were a being built in the Gateacre Park Drive estate.

 

The small pre-fabricated church was by then too small for the needs of the large community.  In 1963 Fr Henry McCaffie who would see the church’s opening had asked a parishioner to put the Sunday collection on a horse called Curry; when it promptly won the proceeds of £3000 paid for the land on which the church, parish club and presbytery would all sit. Later, the new church was opened by Archbishop Beck on 29th March seating 750 people and at a cost of £200,000. With the continued growth of the area, the Parish was divided into three and two new parishes were created.  St. Cyril of Jerusalem in 1968 on the Naylorsfield Estate and St. Gregory’s in 1970 on the Netherley Estate.

 

Our Lady’s, St Cyril’s and St Gregory’s parishes were closed in 2005 to form a new parish of St John Almond. In 2008 a further reorganisation took place and a new parish of Our Lady of the Assumption was founded, today the new parish incorporates Netherley, Childwall, Gateacre and Belle Vale with seven thousand houses and a population of fifteen thousand people.

 

Parish Profile: The parish boundaries are very similar to the City Council Ward of Belle Vale*.

Population: 15,423 Belle Vale has a higher proportion of older people 65+ and a lower proportion of working age residents than the Liverpool City average. The ward also has higher levels of Children than the city average

Deprivation and Child Poverty: Belle Vale shows high levels of overall deprivation with 39.9% of the ward falling within the most deprived 5% of neighbourhoods nationally. This suggests that over 9,000 residents live in some of the most deprived areas in England.  In 2009 36.2% of the children in Belle Vale were living in poverty, which is above the Liverpool average (33.1%). In some areas of the ward the number of children living in poverty is up to three times the national average.

Unemployment: Belle Vale had 2,416 workless residents and the worklessness rate (24.7%) is above the Liverpool average (21.9%) and twice the national rate (12.3%).

Housing: More than two fifths of properties in Belle Vale (42.9%) are socially rented, while 57.1% are privately owned.

Crime: The overall crime rate in Belle Vale (55.9 crimes per 1000 residents) is below the city average (99.3). The rate of individual crimes including Domestic Burglary, Violent & Vehicle Crime are all lower that the city average. Overall crime has fallen by 14.5% between 2010 and 2012. There were 185 fewer crimes relating to anti-social behaviour in the ward in 2011/12 than the previous year, a 30.4% decrease

Education: Belle Vale has the lowest educational attainment rates for pupils achieving 5+ A* - C’s of all Liverpool wards. At 61.5%, the proportion of pupils achieving 5+ A* - C grades including Maths and English is also one of the lowest in the city.

*Source http://www.nyci.co.uk/bellevalewardprofile.pdf

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