It was a great delight to celebrate Monsignor Gordon Read's 60th birthday with him and over on hundred other friends from the Kelvedon Catholic Parish this past weekend. Father Gordon, who has now served the parish for eight years and also serves as chancellor for the Diocese of Brentwood, first offered a Mass of Thanksgiving before a Ritz-style tea party was thrown for him by the parishioners.
A delicious spread of sandwiches, scones, cakes and other sweet bites were voluntarily prepared by different members of the parish and were enjoyed with many a cup of tea! Fr. Gordon was especially taken aback by the birthday cake - on which a photo of him as a child had been printed. After cutting the cake, he joked "I will never understand how they do that. It must be a special kind of printer - I mean, you can't put a cake that size through your normal inkjet printer, can you?!"
I would also like to thank Specialities Tea Rooms in Stisted who helped us out by baking half of the one hundred scones needed for the tea party! That's service for you!
The time of year has come when the parish will also be able to enjoy some of Fr. Gordon's own cooking at the annual curry night in support of the senior citizens Christmas lunch and the young people making their pilgrimage to Lourdes in the summer - but I'll tell you how that goes after Friday evening!
For more information about this lively parish community, covering thirteen villages in the Braintree District, click here.
Gareth Talbot
www.thebestof.co.uk/braintree
braintree@thebestof.co.uk
07738 073043
