Our Clergy

We wish our former Assistant Priest Father Brett Adams well. On September 30th 2010, Fr. Brett joined the Basildon Team Ministry serving 3 churches, 4 schools, a General Hospital and a Hospice. The Parish Priest is Fr. Dominic Howarth and there are two parish sisters (Ursulines) who do great work in the parish.

Father Anthony McKentey

Fr Anthony McKentey was appointed Parish Priest of Colchester in October 2009.

Fr Tony, as he is usually known, was born in Chelmsford in 1950. He attended St Philip Priory School there, and then Campion School, Hornchurch, when it first opened in 1962. After school, he worked for a short time at the Prudential Insurance Company in Holborn. In the summer of 1970 he paid his first visit to Lourdes which was a turning point in his life, and on his return applied to Bishop Casey to study for the priesthood.

He began his seminary studies at St Edmunds College, Ware, in September 1970 and was ordained in the College Chapel there as a Deacon on the 29th June 1975. He served as a Deacon in St Mary’s, Hornchurch and was ordained to the Priesthood in his home parish of Blessed Sacrament, Chelmsford, on March 27th 1976. He served as Assistant Priest in Holy Family, Benfleet, from 1976 to 1979; St Augustine’s, Barkingside from 1979 to 1983 and Brentwood Cathedral from 1983 to 1988. In 1988, he went back to St Augustine’s, Barkingside, as Parish Priest when it became a “one-man” parish, and remained there until his Silver Jubilee in 2001. During his time there funds were raised to set up a Parish Youth Centre and one of the parishioners, Paul Fox, was ordained there in 1998. In 2001, Fr Tony was appointed to Our Lady Queen of Peace, Braintree, where he spent eight happy years until the Bishop asked him to become Parish Priest of Colchester.

Fr Tony looks forward to learning about the life stories of his parishioners whilst he is with us.

Father Neil Brett

Fr. Neil Brett joined us as Assistant Priest September 30th 2010.

Fr Neil was born just outside the Roman Empire; just north of Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He was brought up in an Evangelical tradition. His parents gave him a knowledge and love of scripture and a strong sense of the distinctive nature of being a Christian in a secular society. He began his teaching career in a Catholic school in East London. He was received into the Church at Farm Street in 1993. After working in Westcliff on Sea, he took the post of headmaster at a school in Portsmouth.

A few years later he was confronted by his spiritual director with the question “Have you thought about being a priest?” Neil accepted this as a call from God. Studying in Rome, he has witnessed some memorable and historic moments. Prominent amongst these were the edifying last months of the life of John Paul II. The election of Benedict XVI was a moment of great joy for the seminarians present.

It was a great privilege to be ordained so close to the beatification of John Henry Cardinal Newman. Newman was a doughty opponent of the relativism which plagues our society today. He rejected “the doctrine that there is no truth in religion, but that one creed is as good as another”.
Neil asks for your prayers and Our Lady’s intercession as he stands in persona Christi at the altars here in the parish.

Father Philip Willenbrock

Apart from my father, several other people have had a profound influence on my spiritual life. At Christ’s Hospital (the Blue Coat School near Horsham) I came under the influence of the Anglican Chaplain who later became a monk at Ampleforth.

At Keble College the Warden, Dr Austin Farrer a great Anglican theologian, gave me encouragement and friendship. While working in Cornwall as a GP the Anglican Bishop of Truro, the late Mgr Graham Leonard, told me that he thought I should be ordained and continue working as a GP. This happened in 1982.

Later I moved with my family to Essex having trained as a teacher. In 1992 I was received into the Catholic Church. Having undergone formation at Wonersh, I was ordained priest during 1997 in Brentwood Cathedral together with three other former Anglicans.

Since then I have ministered in St James the less and until 2007 continued to teach at St Benedict’s College.