Church Micro 2869...Orton Malborne
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Mass was first celebrated regularly for the Orton Catholic community in the early 1970’s. At that time the community hired the Church Hall in Glebe Close, Orton Waterville. In succession, Father Pat Lynch, Father Arnold Sloots and Father Michael Griffin served the community. In about 1975 the Peterborough Development Corporation started building the New Orton Township as part of the Greater Peterborough expansion. Work started with Orton Malborne. In September, 1977, the regular Sunday Mass moved from Orton Waterville to the Herlington Centre, Orton Malborne where it remained until August 13th this year. In 1978 Fr. Michael Griffin moved into 48 Bodesway as the first resident RC priest in this part of Peterborough. Early in 1981, as the work on Orton Goldhay and Orton Centre progressed, Father Michael transferred to 2 Riseholme. In both of these houses Father Michael had a small chapel in which daily Mass was celebrated and the Blessed Sacrament reserved for the sick and for private prayer. Orton Catholic Community and area council meetings were also held in the houses. By living in the Ortons, Father Michael, as well as being more readily available, was more easily able to visit the Orton community, while at the same time continuing his role as hospital chaplain and his other responsibilities in the Peterborough area. Father Michael was assisted in his work by some of the sisters of the order of the Daughters of Charity, who had a house in Park Road, Peterborough, until it was closed in May 1982 when the order left Peterborough. By August 1981, to cater for the growing needs of the congregation, a Saturday evening Vigil Mass for Sunday had started at St. John’s Church of England School in Orton Centre. At the end of September 1981 Father Michael moved to Hadleigh in Suffolk as parish priest. Unfortunately the diocese was unable to replace Father Michael with another resident priest in the Ortons, as at that time there was a severe shortage of priests in the diocese. Over the next couple of years the shortage deteriorated still further. Whereas in 1980 there were nine Catholic priests serving Peterborough, by 1985 there were only five. This led to the establishment of the Peterborough Confederation of Parishes in the summer of 1983. Co-operation under the leadership of Father Paul Hypher enabled the entire area to be served with Mass and the sacraments and pastoral care to almost the same level as previously without placing undue strain on the priests, although there were far fewer of them. Following Father Michael’s departure for Hadleigh, Father Paul Hypher and Father Olindo Cramaro together took on pastoral care of the Ortons from All Souls, while continuing with their other parish and diocesan responsibilities. The Orton Catholic community tried to continue to run 2 Riseholme as a community house. However about 9 months later this too had to be given up and returned to the Development Corporation. This was a disappointing and stressful time in the history of Orton’s Roman Catholic community. It coincided with a time when the development of Orton itself was in the doldrums because the building of further Development Corporation housing had been stopped by the Government and it was not yet clear what commitment private developers would make to the Ortons. In 1983 Father Stephen Porter, working from All Souls, took on the pastoral care of the Ortons as part of his general pastoral work in Peterborough and in the diocese. Over the next six years the community built up steadily from a weekly congregation of about 130 to one of nearly three times that number. Community structures were developed and relationships to the rest of the Confederation and with the other Christian Churches in the Ortons were firmly established. By 1987 it became clear that the provision of a ‘facility’ was essential. In the summer of that year the diocese of East Anglia decided to go ahead with building a church for the Orton community, to be dedicated to St. Luke. St. Luke was chosen as patron because like St. John the Evangelist, the patron of St. John’s school and worship centre in Orton Goldhay, and St. Barnabas, the patron of one of the other Orton Township communities, he is ‘biblical’. St. Luke was the ‘writer’ of the third Gospel and of the Book of the Acts of the Apostles. He was the travelling companion of St. Paul on his missionary journeys. He seemed, therefore, to be an excellent choice as patron for a new church in a new area, in which the essentials of the Gospels and of Christian community building, described so vividly in his two writings, are so important. By the summer of 1988 plans were finalised and contracts signed. Accordingly on 17th July, Bishop Alan Clark cut the first turf. At the time he asked Father Stephen to move to the Ortons, consequently St. Luke’s House at 109 Blackmead was opened. In October of 1990, St. Luke’s, Orton will be formally erected as a fully fledged parish with a weekly churchgoing population of 400, or more. By then its known Roman Catholic population will make it already the tenth largest parish in the diocese. In September 1989 Father Stephen moves from Orton to the diocese of San Bernardino in California as a ‘fidel donum’ priest from the Diocese of East Anglia. The new Code of Canon Law allows bishops to lend priests to help meet the needs of dioceses elsewhere in the world. In October Father Gary Dowsey will be coming from Poringland to take over as Resident Priest, with a view to his becoming the first Parish Priest of St. Luke’s, Orton in 1990.
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