Parish visits: pray for vocations

QUICK SUMMARY

Open days for groups to visit the seminary to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

Who?

Parish groups or similar.

What?

Welcome from the Rector
Teas and coffees
Tour of the seminary
Holy Hour to pray for vocations
Solemn Vespers and Benediction with the seminary community

When?

Open days are held, by arrangement, once a month on Sunday afternoons from 3.30pm till 5.45pm.

Find out more...

For more information or to arrange a visit, please contact the Domestic Bursar, Helena Duckett.

To coincide with the 50th anniversary of the consecration of our Chapel at Allen Hall we have launched a programme of public Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament allowing parish groups to come to join us at Allen Hall on one Sunday each month. This is at the invitation of H.E. Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor in response to a request by the Congregation for Clergy that dioceses throughout the world set aside centres of adoration to pray for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life.

The first of these open days took place on Sunday 18th January when we were visited by parishioners from Holy Apostle’s Church, Pimlico. After a cup of tea and a chance to talk to members of the formation team and several seminarians, our visitors are given a tour of Allen Hall. As well as having the opportunity to see where seminarians live, tours of Allen Hall are also a great history lesson. The seminary was founded in France in 1568, where men trained to go "on mission" to England, and many were subsequently martyred for their faith. The seminary then moved to England in 1793 to Old Hall Green, in Hertfordshire and nearly two hundred years later moved into London to its current site in Chelsea.

The present location of Allen Hall is also rich in history. Here, on the bank of the Thames, was situated the estate owned by St Thomas More, where he lived as Chancellor, and from where he was taken to the Tower of London to be executed. On the tour groups are able to see the remains of Thomas More’s garden wall and a Mulberry tree said to have been planted at the time he lived in the house.

More recently from the late nineteenth century the building in which we now reside was the convent of the Adoration Réparatrice Sisters who were committed to Perpetual Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament. With this history in mind, our Chapel is dedicated to the Blessed Sacrament and St Thomas More, and it is very appropriate that we finish our afternoons together with time in front of the Blessed Sacrament dedicating our prayers for vocations to the priesthood and consecrated life. We conclude our time of prayer with sung Solemn Vespers and Benediction.

These afternoons are a wonderful opportunity for visitors from parishes both to see the diocesan seminary and to meet some of their future priests. It is also a chance for us to welcome people from across the Diocese to our home and join with them in prayer for more men to join us at Allen Hall.

By Andrew Gallagher

At the time of writing Andrew is a fourth year student for the Diocese of Westminster and the Allen Hall "guestmaster", with the responsibility of welcoming and looking after guests at the seminary.