Parish Priest : Rev Bruce Barnes. MA STL FRSA

Dear Friends,

I am so pleased to be able to come as your Parish Priest and to work with you in this well-known and important Parish of Sacred Heart, Bournemouth.

You might be interested to know a little bit about me as I hope to get to know you. I was born in Portsmouth in 1952 and trained initially as an Anglican priest at St Stephen's House, Oxford. After several appointments I returned to Portsmouth where I was the Vicar of Paulsgrove (Church of England) for five and a half years.

My Faith journey led me to seek full Communion with the Catholic Church before the issue of the ordination of women to the priesthood. I was sent to Rome where I studied both at the Beda and the Ven English College. I was ordained a Catholic Priest in the VEC on the 21 st December 1997. I obtained my STL at the Dominican Angelicum University in Rome. I returned to England and became briefly (4 months) curate of Holy Ghost, Basingstoke. I was appointed Parish Priest of Newport and Totland on the Isle of Wight and then Dean of the Island. I have been Parish Priest of Christ the King Reading for three years.

My interests are music – I play the piano and the organ – travel, local history and cooking. I have a great little puppy called Warren who will one day soon mature into a great big Mastiff. So, from both of us we can say that we look forward to meeting you and I hope you will call at the Presbytery and introduce yourselves.

Fr Bruce Barnes
27/08/2010