New Year Greetings to you from all involved in Columban Mission here in Britain. We hope and pray that you’ll have a wonderfully happy and fruitful 2026.
When I was on overseas mission in Lima, Peru, a comment I often heard was, “you Columbans, you’re different, you’re not like the rest”. This was meant as a compliment. People seemed to feel that Columbans were “special” because of the way we associated with them, accompanied them, sympathized and identified with them, all this in the context of some of the poorest parts of the city. They often remarked on what they recognized as our flexibility, informality and good humour. Maybe they saw us as being approachable, in a way that other sectors of the Church were not.
These sentiments have always stayed with me. They make me proud to be a Columban. They convince me that there is such a thing as “Columban-ness”, a particular spirit that embraces, not only Columban Missionaries, but also those we serve and who support us.
We are different, in the best sense of the word. We continue to offer our service to parts of the world considered to be poverty-stricken, dangerous, even “off-limits”. At home and abroad, we proclaim the Good News of Jesus, even when this might make us unpopular.
We stand for the rights of migrants, refugees and displaced persons, in the teeth of a rising wave of xenophobia and populism. We support measures to combat climate change. We work for the protection and promotion of biodiversity (for example, in the grounds of our central house in Solihull). We look to a future that is prosperous, fair and sustainable.
This is who we are. We’ll continue to be so in 2026 when we will visit parishes in the dioceses of Hexham & Newcastle and Arundel & Brighton. We know you are with us, and this gives us strength to carry on.
Thank you. God Bless and Happy New Year!
Fr. John Boles
