Welcome to the English Martyrs Didcot and St John Wallingford parish website. We are two neighbouring churches within the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth. We currently have about five hundred regular parishioners and many activities.



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English Martyrs Church Didcot is open daily for private prayers between 8am and 5pm.
St John the Evangelist Church Wallingford is open daily for private prayers between 8am and 6pm.
The Nativity of St. John the Baptist

Tuesday, 24th June is the Solemnity of the Nativity of St. John the Baptist, the Forerunner of Christ. John the Baptist is the only figure other than the Blessed Mother and Jesus Himself whose birth is celebrated in the Church’s liturgy and whose feastday is ranked as a solemnity. This is because he had the unique vocation of being The Forerunner, the one whose preaching and witness prepared the way for Christ. He had the amazing privilege of baptising the Lord and was later called to anticipate Christ’s Passion by shedding his own blood for the truth. Pope Francis said: “Let us learn from the one who was the forerunner of Jesus the ability to bear witness to the Gospel with courage.” The Mass of the day contains a very fine Preface: It is truly right and just, our duty and our salvation, always and everywhere to give you thanks, Lord, holy Father, almighty and eternal God, through Christ our Lord. In his Precursor, Saint John the Baptist, we praise your great glory, for you consecrated him for a single honour among those born of women. His birth brought great rejoicing; even in the womb he leapt for joy at the coming of human salvation. He alone of all the prophets pointed out the Lamb of redemption. And to make holy the flowing waters he baptised the very author of Baptism and was privileged to bear him the supreme witness by the shedding of his blood. And so, with the powers of heaven, we worship you constantly on earth, and before your majesty without end we acclaim: Tuesday, let us pray for ourselves that when we meet others, we may pave the way for the Lord’s coming to them. [Image: Wikimedia Commons][Portsmouth Diocese e-News]
June, the Month of the Sacred Heart

We are now in the month of June, a month which customarily is devoted to the Heart of Christ. The Sacred Heart is among the most familiar and moving of Catholic devotional images. But its symbolism can also be strange. Here is a look at the explanation behind some of the features of the Sacred Heart. The Sacred Heart most obviously brings to mind the Passion of Christ on the cross. There is the crown of thorns, the cross, usually atop the heart, and the wound from the spear that pierced His side. But why is the Sacred Heart always shown as if it’s on fire? That certainly did not happen at the crucifixion. There are three reasons behind this. First, we have to remember that Christ’s self-offering on the cross was the one-time perfect consummation of all the sacrifices of the Old Testament. This necessarily includes burnt offerings, which were the highest form of sacrifices in ancient Israel, according to The Jewish Encyclopedia. An early form of such sacrifices was what Abraham set out to do with Isaac, hence the wood he had his son collect beforehand. Second, fire is always associated with the essence of divinity in the Old Testament. Think back to the burning bush that spoke to Moses, the cloud of fire that settled on Sinai, and the flames from above that consumed the sacrifice of Elijah. This explanation fits with the gospel account of the crucifixion, in which the piercing of Christ’s side revealed His heart at the same time that the curtain of the temple was torn, unveiling the holy of holies where God was present. Finally, the image of fire associated with heart represents Christ’s passionate love for humankind. One 19th-century French devotional card has these words arched above the Sacred Heart—Voilà ce Cœur qui a tant aimé les hommes, which roughly translates to: “Here is the heart that loved men so much.” One traditional exclamation is, “Sacred Heart of Jesus, burning with love of us, inflame our hearts with love of Thee.” We see this actually happen in the gospels, where the disciples on the road to Emmaus realized that their hearts had been “burning” after their encounter with Jesus. Look closer at the image of the Sacred Heart. There is something else framing it besides the flames. They are rays of light. In John 8:12, Christ declares that He is the “light of the world.” In Revelation 21:23, we are told that in the new Jerusalem at the end of times there will be no light from the sun or moon because the Lamb of God—that is, Jesus—will be its source of light. Light, like fire, is a symbol of divinity. Think of the Transfiguration and the blinding light that Paul experienced on the road to Damascus. As the light of the world, Christ is also the one who “enlightens” us, revealing God to us. The Sacred Heart constitutes the climax of divine self-revelation, showing us the depths of God’s love for us. The crown of thorns and the spear make sense. But sometimes the Sacred Heart is also depicted with arrows. Again, that’s not something we find in the gospels. One explanation is that the arrow represents sin. This is reportedly what our Lord Himself said in a private revelation to St. Mary of St. Peter. The arrow could also draw upon an ancient Roman metaphor for love, which, according to ancient myth, occurred when the god Cupid shot an arrow through the hearts of lovers. Unlike the arrows, the crown of thorns is reported in the gospels. But in traditional images it encircles the Sacred Heart, whereas in Scripture the crown was fixed to Jesus’ head. One traditional account offers this interpretation, describing those who are devoted to it: “They saw the crown transferred from His head to His heart; they felt that its sharp points had always pierced there; they understood that the Passion was the crucifixion of a heart” (The Heart of the Gospel: Traits of the Sacred Heart by Francis Patrick Donnelly, published in 1911 by the Apostleship of Prayer). In other words, wrapping the crown around the heart emphasizes the fact that Christ felt His wounds to the depths of His heart. Moreover, after the resurrection, the crown of thorns becomes a crown of victory. Donnelly hints at this as well: “From the weapons of His enemy, from cross and crown and opened Heart, our conquering leader fashioned a trophy which was the best testimony of His love.” In ancient gladiatorial contests, the victor was crowned. In the Revelation 19:12, Christ wears “many crowns” and believers who are victorious over sin and Satan will receive the “crown of life” (Revelation 2:10). Finally, according to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque, the seventeenth French nun who helped start the devotion, the points of the thorns are the many individual sins of people, pricking the heart of Jesus. As she put it in a letter, recounting the personal vision she had received, “I saw this divine Heart as on a throne of flames, more brilliant than the sun and transparent as crystal. It had Its adorable wound and was encircled with a crown of thorns, which signified the pricks our sins caused Him.” Like the thorns, the cross is both rooted in the gospels but also displayed in a way that does not follow them in every detail. There is almost an inversion of the crucifixion. In the gospels, Christ hung on the cross, His heart correspondingly dwarfed by its beams. But in images of the Sacred Heart, it is now enlarged and the cross has shrunk. Moreover, rather than the heart being nailed to the cross, the cross now seems ‘planted’ in the heart — as St. Margaret Mary Alacoque put it —if to say to us that the entire reality of the crucifixion derives its meaning from and—cannot be understood apart from—the heart of Jesus. As Donnelly wrote, “The Heart [is] … forever supporting the weight of a Cross.” Truly, it is the heart of Jesus that makes the cross meaningful for us today. [Image: Rusty Clark | CC BY 2.0][Portsmouth Diocese e-News]
News Update
Visit to Oxfordshire Pastoral Area - from Bishop Philip 17th June 2025 (Portsmouth Diocese e-News)
Last Thursday evening, I made a visitation to the Oxfordshire Pastoral Area (PA) to discuss the diocesan ten-year mission-plan You Will be My Witnesses and its implementation. The meeting was hosted by Fr. Jamie McGrath at Our Lady and St. Edmund’s Abingdon (pictured). It was an impressive gathering with all the clergy and lay representatives from each parish who are moving ahead with the plan. The Oxfordshire PA has six priests (Fr. Jamie the Dean, Fr. Claro Conde, Fr. Daniel Lloyd, Fr. David O’Sullivan, Fr. Dominic Adeiza and Fr. Matthew Topham) and twelve churches: Sr. Edmund’s in Abingdon, Bl. Hugh Faringdon in Faringdon, English Martyrs Didcot, St. Mary’s in East Hendred, St. Patrick’s East Ilsley, St. Amand in Hendred House, Holy Rood Oxford, Our Lady of the Rosary in Botley, St. Thomas More’s Boar’s Hill, St. John’s in Wallingford, St. John Vianney Wantage and Sacred Heart Lambourne. There are two primary schools – St. Edmund’s and St. Amand’s - and an independent Catholic secondary school: Our Lady’s Abingdon. The Carmelites are at Boar’s Hill and Opus Dei at Folley Bridge. There are hospitals, numerous care homes and clinics. This is a growing, semi-rural but populated area with shops and industries, railways, motorways, commuters and so on, focused on the City of Oxford, but with much growth around Didcot and the Harwell Science and Innovation Campus. During the evening, we heard about the exciting plans being developed in the parishes and across the Pastoral Area to renew the Church and to reach out in mission and service. The area itself is growing and by 2040, its population will have increased by 50%. The parishes vary in size but are vibrant with groups, volunteers and staff and many can-do Catholics. Moreover, Mass attendance is increasing, and is now 10% higher than it was in 2015.
It was great to hear the various plans afoot and to sense the enthusiasm of the community. Abingdon and South Oxford is a place with huge potential for the Church and her mission. Please keep the clergy and faithful in your prayers.
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Where to find us
English Martyrs Church, Didcot
15 Manor Crescent, Didcot, Oxon OX11 7AJ
Telephone: 01235 812338
St John the Evangelist Church
Market Place, Wallingford, Oxon OX10 0EG
(All correspondence to English Martyrs Church Didcot)