DEANERY WIDE: As has been mentioned, Fr. Charles Howell will be leaving Effingham and Fetcham for a sabbatical, and given there are no other priest to take his place, Mass times across all the churches in the Epsom Deanery are having to be adjusted to accommodate the situation, given the shortage of priests.
Work is continuing to make the best provision possible, and it is hoped that details of adjustments will be available by the end of October, with the new Mass times coming into effect as of the first weekend of Advent.
Two fundamental principles of the adjusted Mass times are that a priest will celebrate a maximum of three Sunday Masses over the weekend and there will need to be a two hour gap between the start of one Mass being celebrated by a particular priest and the next Mass he would be celebrating. The two hours between the start times affords time for travel from one church to another, but more importantly, for the priest to be available, even though, for only a short time, to speak with people of the parish.