News of the parachute jump on the 26 September is spreading, and it seems that people are quite keen for Fr Daniel and Br Oliver to jump out of a plane!
The current total is £5,091.26. If you want to add your own voice of encouragement, you can sponsor online at www.justgiving.com/Oratory-Jump or in person after any of the Sunday Masses.
We are sorry to disappoint those of you who have asked, but the company running the jump do not allow people to jump in cassocks...
At 0900 hours on 26 September, Fr Daniel:
...and Br Oliver:
...will jump out of an aeroplane at an altitude of over 10,000 feet.
When the parachute opens, they will be plummeting to the ground at a speed of 120mph.
Sponsor them by visiting www.justgiving.com/Oratory-Jump or in person at the Porter's Lodge. All proceeds going to the fundraising Campaign, to pay for the new building.
Yesterday was the official ‘handover’ date for the new building. Here we can see Fr Nicholas receiving the keys from Dave, who has been in charge of the builders.
It took a while...
Stepnell will still be on site for a few more days. They are just adding the finishing touches and doing a final clean of the whole building. Some furniture has already been moved in. More news to follow soon.
Here we see the parish hall nearing completion. The floors are in the process of being sanded and polished.
The lights match those in the library:
And here we can see the highly polished floor of the top-floor bedroom:
The new front door to the public areas looks like this:
Notice that the new doors have windows now, so the whole area should be brighter than before. We also have a way of answering the door bell:
These are the stairs up to the bedrooms:
And on the top-floor landing, we can see the lift as well.
More concrete arrived last week...
...and was pumped across the yard...
...past a mound of earth...
...into the foundations of ‘Phase 2’ — the Newman Chapel etc. It made sense to do the foundations now, while everything was being dug up for the drains, pipes and cables that have just been laid.
This door is in the corner of the Parish centre, behind where the bar used to be. As you can see, it now lets in light...
...and gives us access to the outside, where we have a new view of the building, with the Sacred Heart chapel in the foreground.
Here are some close-ups of the new Parish kitchen.
And here, leaning on the new bar and practising taking orders, is one of the new barmen!
The most disruptive stage of the building work so far is now over—anyone visiting the church over the last few weeks can't have helped noticing the large trenches criss-crossing the yard outside. They are now all covered up, with the relevant pipes, drains and cables inside. There was a lot of soil to put back:
The library gallery has had its temporary barrier fitted. This will be in place until we raise the money for the library shelving. The permanent barrier will consist of lockable, swivelling bookshelves that will make the most of the space we have.
Here we have another glimpse of the new kitchen for the Parish centre.
And here is one of the bedrooms: painted and with all its electrical fittings, just awaiting the finishing touches.
After some difficult drilling and digging, the new water supply and drains are in place. The electricity should be connected soon.
The underfloor heating is fitted in the library, and work on the floor continues:
The bedrooms and bathrooms are nearly finished:
And we have a glimpse of the new parish kitchen:
The trench for the new drains, water pipes and cables has now crossed the courtyard. Here you can see it growing:
The scaffolding has come down in the library, giving a better idea of what the gallery looks like, and making the whole room feel much bigger.
Plastering of the walls and ceilings continues:
The bathrooms are tiled:
And the floor of the top bedroom is in place:
A new, easy way to support the building project — donating by text message.
Just text ORAT13 followed by your amount: £2, £5, or £10 to 70070.
Your donation will be added to your bill (or taken out of your credit) and there are no additional charges — if you donate £5, we get £5, and you only pay £5.
Anyone remember all the fuss about shower trays a few months ago?
We can now provide photographs of the most famous shower trays in the history of the Catholic Church. Here they are in their packaging:
And here's one in place:
As you can see, and as we said, they cost much less than £2000!
A view of the Parish centre, with wires going in:
Above that, on the first floor, the lower part of the library, standing underneath the new gallery:
On the gallery level, you can see some of the decorative plasterwork on the ceiling:
Some of the windows and doors:
The new bedrooms are all plastered:
The trench for cables, pipes and drains is being dug at the moment, and has almost reached the yard in front of the Church.
The boiler arrived...
...and has been installed:
An (early) finishing touch:
And the building as seen from Little Clarendon Street:
