...and a personal welcome from me. I hope you’re finding our website useful and enjoyable. I have been parish priest at St Mary’s since August 2007, so a little over three years. As you may know, St Mary’s has been served by the Benedictine monks of Ampleforth since its foundation in 1877. At one time there was a small community of three or four monks here living in the old priory next door. Now it’s just me, living in the new priory. As a boy I was educated by the Benedictines at Ampleforth. After leaving school and university I joined the monastic community in 1986. Since then I have taught in our school for 12 years, and was housemaster of one of our boarding houses for seven of those years. After that I did a three year stint as monastic choirmaster before being appointed to St Mary’s.

One of my main interests in recent years has been John Paul II’s Theology of the Body. Through researching, writing and teaching I have had the pleasure of sharing this beautiful and, I think, important legacy of JP2. I’m delighted to hear that some of you have found the following resources helpful, so I’m including them again here on our redesigned website. They are a series of talks I gave here in the parish, giving an overview and explanation of the Theology of the Body. So here they are again: Theology of the Body.

Here in the parish we have a comprehensive sacramental programme that has been developed over the last three years. I have a team of people who help me to deliver this service. Click here for more information on the programme and on personnel involved.

St Mary’s is an important centre for Saturday confessions, so I’ve also tried to give some guidance on celebrating the Sacrament of Reconciliation, ie coming to Confession, because I know we all find it difficult. Click here for what I hope might be helpful.


Father William