MGR KEITH NEWTON....

...of the Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham will be opening the 2014 TOWARDS ADVENT Festival at Westminster Cathedral Hall on sat November 22nd.

And he'll be blessing a specially-made portrait of St John Paul the Great, which will be carried on pilgrimage to Walsingham in 2015.

The hand-embroirdered picture will be displayed at TOWARDS ADVENT after the blessing, which will take place as parrt of the Opening Ceremony.

The pilgrimage is the John Paul II Walking Pilgrimage for the New Evangelisation, organised annually by the Dominican Sisters of St Joseph, and involving people from all ages from across Britain.  It starts with an open-air Mass at the ancient Abbey at Bury st Edmunds - where Magna Carta was first drawn up - and finishes three days later at the national shrine of Our Lady in Walsingham.

The pilgrimage began in 2005, the year that St John Paul went "to the house of his Father", and so 2015 is its 10th anniversary year. The pilgrimage starts on Aug 6th and finishes at 12 noon with Mass at the Shrine in Walsingham. Walkers covers approximately 20 miles a day, along the Norfolk fields and lanes.

The Blessing of the St John Paul picture will form part of the ceremonies at Towards Advent, which also include music from the choir of the John Fisher School, Purley. By tradition, the Opening Ceremony concludes with everyone singing "O Come O come Emmanuel".

Catholic groups and organisations of all sorts will be at the Festival - from the Knights of St Columba to EWTN, from the Ladies Orfdinariate Group to the Catenians. Entry to the Festival is free and the doors open at 10am. To find the Cathedral Hall, just walk down Ambrosden Avenue, along the side of the Cathedral. Nearest tube: VICTORIA.

All welcome...

...no need to book - just turn up! Come at 10.30am for the GRAND OPENING CEREMONY...and come ready to sing, as the ceremony finishes with a massed singing of "O come O come Emmanuel..." the hall filled with glorious song...