Congratulations to Bill Mawdsley (93) who has been awarded the Archdiocesan Medal for outstanding service to the Church.
He has been an altar server for an incredible 80 years!
Archbishop Cushley celebrated Mass at St John’s Church in Corstorphine on Saturday and awarded the medal to Bill. And today, on the Feast of the Holy Family, Bill and Margaret celebrate their 70th wedding anniversary!
Bill (William) started Altar Serving at St Margaret’s Church in South Queensferry at the age of eight from 1940 to 1950
He served for an RAF Regiment for three years in Egypt and was serving at Mass there too.
He returned home in 1954 and married Margaret Rudden (both above at a previous Archdiocesan event) at St Mary’s Star of the Sea, in Leith, on 28 December 1955.
He joined the Catholic Men’s Society in 1955 and continued to serve at the Altar at St Mary’s.
Bill and Margaret moved home and became parishioners at St John the Baptist in 1964 and he has served as an acolyte between St Kentigern’s and St John for 61 years.
He became an Extraordinary Minister of Holy Communion in 1985 and continues doing that ministry.
Fr Binu Palakapally nominated Bill for the Archdiocesan medal for his longstanding and “inspiring” service to the Church, where he continues to serve the as an acolyte.
Title image from left: Fr Binu Palakapally IC (parish administrator at St John the Baptist & St Kentigern RC Parish, Edinburgh), William, Archbishop Cushley, Margaret, and Fr Paul Henderson (assistant priest). The Archdiocesan Medal was established in 1975 by Cardinal Gordon Joseph Gray to recognise individuals for their outstanding and dedicated voluntary service to the Catholic Church in the Archdiocese.
