PARISHIONERS from all three churches within the Catholic parish of St John the Baptist, Andover, staged a barbecue and picnic in the church grounds to say farewell to their three priests.

The outgoing parish priest, Fr Kieran Flynn, arrived in 1993 and took the parish priest mantle in 1995, but has been forced to take a sabbatical to recover from a back operation.

Assistant priest Fr Jack Blaney, who was initially in the Andover area between 1974 and 1977, returned in 1998, but has suffered a series of heart attacks in the past 18 months.

Fr Gerry Mackrell, initially in the area from 1986 to 1988, returned in 1989 with primary responsibility for leading retreats as well as assisting in the ministry of the parish. Covering more than 4,000 square miles of the north-west corner of Hampshire, the parish is one of the largest in the Catholic Diocese of Portsmouth and encompasses three churches in Andover, Stockbridge and Whitchurch.

The congregation between the three is 800 to 900.

With the decline in the number of priests available the parish would almost certainly have had to be amalgamated with another, but the Montfort Missiona-ries, who have served the parish since 1974, have provided a replacement parish priest, who will start in August.

He is Fr Des Connelly who served his deaconate and subsequently as assistant priest in the Andover parish from 1992 to 1994.