St Joseph's
Queen's Road, Keighley, BD21 1AT
Mass Times
Saturday - 5.00 pm (Vigil Mass)
Sunday - 9.00 am
Monday - No Mass
Wednesday - 9.30 am
Thursday - 9.30 am
Saturday - 12 noon
The Sacrament of Confession is available on Saturday on request..
Our Lady of Lourdes
"Twinned partnership with St Joseph's, Matli, Pakistan"
Ebor Lane, Haworth BD22 8HR
Mass Times
Sunday - 10.30 am
Tuesday - 6.00 pm
Friday - 9.30 am
Please check the weekly bulletin as these times can occasionally change.
There is also a Facebook Page for the Parish.
Our Lady of Lourdes Twin Parish Partnership with St Josephs’ Parish, Matli, Pakistan.
Our vision : To work together within our own parish , to raise awareness of the needs and interest of our twin parish in Pakistan, through: prayer, advocacy and financial support.
St Josephs’ parish is large and covers an area of 50 kms by 100 kms, located in the Sindh area in the south of Pakistan near Hyderabad. For convenience it was divided into districts, where there were Christians living in or around a town.
Many of the parishioners are poverty stricken and their quality of life is hindered by the caste system and the many health issues that arise within the country, especially TB.
Every day life for many of the parishioners.
Fr Denis Carter of the Columban Fathers who worked in St Josephs’ for many years explains:
“A hard fact of life in Pakistan is the way some people are regarded as not having any real value as humans. Many poor people hire themselves out as labourers to very wealthy and powerful landlords. In truth it is not individuals so much as families that are hired as bonded surfs. Their lives are hard and they are given few, if any, rights. The system seems to protect the rights of the rich over their workers.
The labouring family can expect to be loaned a plot of land to work for the landlord. In return, the family must provide half of the seed for sowing, half of the fertilizer, all of the water, (which is expensive) and all of the labour. In return the family is entitled to as much as a quarter of the produce of the land.
They are often too poor to afford the seed or the fertilizer and so must take a loan from their landlord to buy it from his store. The family must also feed and clothe themselves until the crops come in, so they take out even more loans which must be paid back at harvest time. It is not uncommon to find at harvest time that a family ends up owing the landlord more than they have earned. Some flee to another province, others to a city, searching for a new life. Those who end up in the towns and cities often became sweepers, the untouchables.”
Tuberculosis Outreach work.
According to the provincial TB Control Program, Pakistan has the sixth highest number of TB patients in the world with 300,000 new cases every year. These include approximately 72,000 cases in Sindh province alone.
Pakistan medical reports estimate that around 260,000 people in the country die from the disease annually. TB does not have to result in death and the parish has set up a successful eradication treatment, but this is dependent on patients accessing, paying for and importantly completing their full course of treatment.
Our financial commitment
Our home parish has pledged St Josephs’ £3,000 per year to fund one outreach worker within their TB project. This worker is trained and works under the supervision from the local community and Father Nico who is the Dutch born priest in residence in Matli. It is an effective and productive way of supporting the eradication of TB amongst our partner parish.
In practice, individual parishioners in Haworth have set up direct debits of £10 or £20 per month towards this project. The money is transferred regularly to the Mill Hill Missionaries. This is supplemented by other fund raising projects throughout the year, including gift aid declarations.
However at present we are over £1,000 below out target each year. This situation could be improved if more people were able to give regularly.
For more information please contact us.
Supporting our twin Parish in Pakistan:
Please keep the community of St Joseph’s, Matli in your thought and prayers.
Come along to the next twin parish interest groups meeting (see weekly bulletin for dates).
Support any fund-raising projects through the year.
Commit to a regular direct debit donation to the TB eradication scheme.
Many thanks for your time to read this information leaflet and your continued prayers.
During Fr Nico’s visit to Our Lady of Lourdes, Haworth on Sunday 10th September, he gave a presentation after Mass showing us what life is like in Matli. Click here to see the presentation.