Local Links
The parishes of St Paul and St Timothy serve the local community in West Derby in several ways (eg Education and Ecumenism) and is also part of the wider Catholic community. This page looks at the relationship between the parishes and the deanery, the archdiocese and the local religious communities.
Deaneries
Early in 2022 , there was a change to Deaneries from Pastoral Areas in the Archdiocese. You will find the Deanery names in the current Archdiocesan Directory.
Our two parishes (St Paul and St Timothy) now belong to the North Liverpool Deanery. Some of the parishes that were in the Liverpool North Pastoral Area between 2018 and 2022 have now joined the Central Liverpool Deanery.
Currently the parishes in North Liverpool Deanery are the following:
Blessed Sacrament, St Cecilia’s, Holy Name, St Margaret Mary’s, St Matthew’s, Our Lady & St Philomena, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs & St Swithin’s, St Oswald’s, St Paul’s, St Sebastian’s, St Teresa’s, St Timothy’s.
After the Synod 2020 in the Archdiocese of Liverpool, it was decided to have Synodal Councils in each Deanery. Their main task is to set up Families of Parishes, where we can work together to share the mission of Christ.
Each Council has a Dean and a Chair plus a secretary. In addition one lay member from each parish (so we have 2 lay people because St Paul and St Timothy are not amalgamated), three clergy of whom one must be a deacon and one person representing all the schools in the deanery.
In our deanery, the DSC membership was formed in October 2022 and the first meeting was December 2022.
In the North Liverpool Deanery Synodal Council, the Dean is Fr John Southworth and we have two representatives (Chris Kelly for St Paul’s and Collette Peaker for St Timothy’s). In February 2024, it was announced that the Deanery Synodal Council had recommended a plan for the Families of Parishes to send to the Archbishop of Liverpool.
Family 1: Blessed Sacrament, Holy Name, Our Lady & St Philomena
Family 2: St Matthew’s, St Teresa’s, Our Lady Queen of Martyrs & St Swithin’s
Family 3: St Cecilia’s, St Oswald’s, St Sebastian’s
Family 4: St Paul’s, St Timothy’s, St Margaret Mary’s
We were asked to read the statement and to make comments on the plan for the families of parishes. Watch this space.
We used to have a list showing Mass Times for some local churches at the back of both Churches. However, it is safer to find their websites and look at their newsletters. Here is a list of websites for the parishes which are near us:
St Cecilia’s: Home (matthewandcecilia.org.uk)
St Margaret Mary’s: Parish of St Margaret Mary (stmargaretmarys.org.uk)
St Matthew’s: Home (matthewandcecilia.org.uk)
Our Lady Queen of Martyrs: Our Lady Queen of Martyrs Church | Stonebridge Lane, Croxteth, Liverpool, L11 9AZ
Archdiocese
A coach is organised to take a limited number of parishioners to the Metropolitan Cathedral on the Wednesday in Holy Week each year for the Chrism Mass. This Mass is well attended by people and priests from every corner of the Archdiocese and is a solemn but joyful occasion. There are other special occasions when a coach may be booked to take a number of parishioners from the parish to the Cathedral.
For more information on the Archdiocese, go to their website.
Local religious communities
The Sisters of Mercy, used to live at Broughton Hall Convent in Yew Tree Lane have now moved from West Derby to other areas of the country. We had a Mass in July 2023 to thank them for their long service in the parish. One of them (SisterSavio) has been allowed to stay locally.
The Congregation of Christian Brothers, in St Timothy's Parish House on Rockwell Road, occasionally arrange a series of meetings one evening a month for people to reflect on their lives in a quiet and peaceful atmosphere and share their insights.