Leaves scatter on the road to St Anselm’s Church. The trees are winter-bare. The church sits squat on the street, its utilitarian exterior unlike any church one finds in Goa. Steadily the church fills up. Strains of Konkani can be heard from the sea of those seated. The doorway too, is submerged with gathering crowds, thick as walls, so numerous they spill onto the adjoining parking lot. A procession of young altar boys starts at the far end, the people part like waves to let them through. The violinist steps forward and the choir begins to sing the rising notes of a Konkani hymn. At the tail-end of the procession is Bishop Filipe Neri Ferrão, splendid in a mane of embroidered gold and a head-dress of green, making his way to the altar. Somewhere in the distance is the wail of a siren, reminding us all, we are in Southall, London.
During Bishop Neri Ferrão’s recent visit to the UK, he was told by the Roman Catholic church authorities, that churches in London are experiencing a revival in numbers, largely because of a swell in Goan parishioners. This is not entirely surprising. The church has always been central to the life of Goans. Wherever Goans emigrated, to Bombay, Karachi, Zanzibar, Mombasa or Nairobi, Goans have built churches and even magnificent cathedrals, which serve communities to this day. When the first wave of Goan immigrants arrived in England, in the 1960s, mostly from East Africa, they sought to recreate the sense of community which grows around a church. But in England, it proved difficult to claim one specific church as a ‘Goan church.’
Nonetheless, attempts were made over the decades. In the seventies, the Westminster dioceses considered letting the Church of St Peter and St Edward on Palace Street, Westminster, to the Goan Association, UK (G.O.A). In 1980, the G.O.A made a provisional offer of £35,000 to the church authorities for the purchase of a long term lease on the Lady Margaret Church on Chatham Street, Elephant and Castle. These attempts did not prove successful, because the cost of upkeep proved prohibitive.
The need to come together in prayer as a community, at least occasionally, persisted, and so Westminster Cathedral became a favoured parish for Goans to attend mass, and hold the odd wedding reception or Christmas Tree party at the Westminster Cathedral Conference Centre. It was here, that the annual mass for St Francis Xavier was celebrated, with beautiful singing from the choir loft.
As it so happened, Cardinal Basil Hume, who prior to becoming cardinal was archbishop of Westminster, took a special interest in these devote Catholic Goans. He was of the opinion that new immigrants would assimilate quicker into society if they were supported by the church. In the words of Deacon Menezes, during the Asian Pilgrimage of Prayer in 1983, they were ‘living in a world of strangers, estranged from their own past culture and country, from their neighbours, friends and family.’
The Goan priest Father Arthur Thomas Moraes, was at the time serving in Acton as assistant priest at the Church of Our Lady of Lourdes, and had sought to, in 1980, to form a London Association of Catholics from India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. He had been asked by Bishop Mahon, Bishop of West London to study the Asian communities in the Westminster dioceses.
Father Moraes was born in Goa, and attended Rachol Seminary. Later he studied at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome where he obtained a doctorate in canon law. In 1959, he was posted in Pakistan, where he served as secretary to the Bishop of Rawalpindi. Upon first coming to England, he worked in various London parishes, and the International Catholic Students Chaplaincy. He spent the 1970s in India, working with the Diocese of Bhopal but returned to England in May, 1979. In 1980, the Westminster diocese established the Asian Chaplaincy operating from St Peter and St Edward Church, and appointed Father Moraes to head it. From then on, a close relationship persisted between the Goan Association UK and the Asian Chaplaincy.
The year 1987, marked a first for Goan community worship. The St Francis Xavier’s feast was celebrated on G.O.A premises, who by then had built a club house at Beckenham, Kent, which in later years, often became a place of worship. (The club house burnt down in 1998). Some details of that first mass celebrating St Francis Xavier’s feast have been recorded: ‘Members in their Sunday best, admired the chapel-like setting, around the improvised altar. The celebrant was Father Arthur Moraes from the Asian Chaplaincy. The select choir of ‘The Goan Cultural Group’ (leader and conductor Jovito Dias) gave a melodious Konkani rendition of the Kyrie, the Gloria, the Offertory hymn, the Sanctus and the Communion hymn.’ These traditions, of worship, song and community define Goans throughout the world.
Today, Britain and particularly the London boroughs are fortunate to have a Goan Chaplaincy. The Presbytery was established as a Local House of the Pilar Fathers on March 24, 2008. The parish of St Peter’s and St Paul’s Catholic Church in Mitcham is the base from which the Goan Chaplaincy operates. It provides pastoral care as far as Reading and Swindon, with its large concentration of Goan population. Father Lucas Rodrigues is the local superior, Father Patrick D’Souza is the chaplain to the Goan Community.
The Goan Association, U.K, continues to have a number of religious functions on its calendar – pilgrimage to Lourdes, the St Francis Xavier’s feast day Mass, the Mass for the deceased members, and the beautifully sung Mass which opens the annual Goan festival.
(The writer is the Author of Goan Pioneers of
East Africa)
