Priest leaves Grantham catholic church after five years
St Mary’s Catholic Church will have a new priest after Reverend Cannon Chris O’Connor announced that he will be moving on.
Father O’Connor took over at St Mary’s from Father Anthony Dolan who retired in 2015.
He will move on to serve the catholic community in Market Harborough, with Father Kevin Gradwell taking on the role of priest at St Mary’s. Father Gradwell will arrive in Grantham having previously served parishes in the High Peaks of Derbyshire.
Fr O’Connor wishes his successor the very best. He said: “I’m totally delighted that Father Kevin is coming in to replace me and I hope he will be as happy here as I have been. Please God that everybody keeps safe in the coming weeks and months.
“I don’t know how to put it, five years is too short a time to be in Grantham! I’ve been very happy here and a big thank you to all the parishioners and to my fellow Christians in the other churches to whom I wish well with Grantham Passage and the ARCH.
“To everybody, thank you for having me. It’s been a privilege to have been in Grantham.”
Father O’Connor was presented with a special gift from St Mary’s Catholic Primary School.
He added: “Thank you to the school for their care of me at St Mary’s. They gave me a beautiful present. We had a socially distanced presentation on the playground where they gave me a priest’s stole with everybody at the school’s finger print on it.
“It’s one of these strange things where we can only have a limited number of people in church so we can’t say goodbye properly. There’s so many people that I wanted to say goodbye to, like the vulnerable people who I can’t see.”
Father O’Connor offered his thoughts for those who are housebound and isolating, as well as those in care homes.