The parish was started from St. Joseph's in Fishponds and in the early 1960's Fr (later Mgr) Tom Hughes paid £16,000 for the land, which now houses the Church, Presbytery, Hall, School and playing fields. Fr Bart Collins was given the task of building the Church and Fr Frank Daly was appointed as its first Parish Priest. Fr Daly did tremendous work here from 1967-1993 and laid the foundations of the current community and its spirit of willingness to work for the good of the parish. He was followed by Mgr Pat McCoy who worked hard in the parish from 1993 to 1996. Fr Bernard Massey followed him in 1996. He had previously been a chaplain in the army. He served ten years,and moved to Gloucester in the summer of 2006. He was succeeded by Fr Alexander Redman, who served for two years before taking up a permanent Chaplaincy post within the Prison Service. The Parish is now in the capable hands of Fr Frank Bermingham who joined in February 2009 from Holy Cross in Bedminster. Fr Frank is assisted by Deacon Peter Hinchey, Deacon Michael Belt & Deacon John Scanlon.

The parish also looks after Ashfield Young Offenders prison. The parish has a primary school and Charity Preschool. With groups ranging from Bumps, Babies and Toddles to the Not-so-Young parish life covers all ages. This, combined with the range of spiritual groups from Charismatic Prayer to the Legion of Mary as well as social action groups from Soup Run to S.V.P. means that we deal with a vast array of different needs and wants in a parish community. Added to all this is the evangelisation work done by a number of different bodies. We strive to reach out to everyone in this locality. In doing so we desire to bring to them the love of God as mediated through the Church His Son founded.

At the centre of all we do and are is the celebration of the Sacraments of the Church and in particular the sacrifice of the Mass. There is also a well-organised Children's Liturgy of the Word. There are four musical groups and several organists so the music is varied. We are not solely a child centred parish and have a number of social events and trips designed to meet the needs of adults of all ages. We also arrange regular pilgrimages.

DEANERY
The Diocese is split into a number of small groupings of parishes and these are called a deanery. Our parish is part of the Bristol East Deanery. The Dean is Fr Gregory Grant VF, Parish Priest of St Patrick's Redfield. As a deanery the parishes try to work together where possible and so we have an annual celebration of the Sacrament of Confirmation for the Deanery. Each Church in the Deanery has Clergy details together with the Mass & Confession times, for each Parish.

PARISHES TOGETHER IN COMMUNION
From September 2010 St Augustine's, Downend, St John Fisher, Frenchay, Our Lady of Lourdes, Kingswood, St Paul's, Yate, and St Lawrence, Chipping Sodbury are now Parishes together in Communion.
If you need details of weekend or weekday Mass times or confession times etc please check with the individual Parish as times may vary:
St Paul’s and St Lawrence:  01454 312161 or check their online newsletter on our website or on www.stlawrenceandstpaul.co.uk
and for Our Lady of Lourdes  0117 9498743.