Welcome to Our Parish Website

Welcome and thank you for visiting the web site of both of our parish churches. We invite you to explore our site and hope that you will find plenty to interest you in the life of our community.

For quick access to parish information such as telephone numbers, mass times or to contact us, please see the box at the top right of the screen, for all other information please feel free to browse the sections from the menu on the left of our site.

Who Are We?

We at St Aidan's and St Bernadette's are a growing faith community located in Wallsend, an area of North Tyneside, Tyne & Wear, England.  Wallsend is best known for its position as the point at which Hadrian’s Wall ends.  In Roman times Wallsend hosted the fort Segedunum, a defensive structure built to protect England from northern raids. However, unlike the Romans and under the leadership of our parish priest, Fr John McElhone, our parish communities are invited to place a strong emphasis on welcoming.

We endeavour to be Catholic in the truest sense of the word, not only growing and living our faith within the parish community but also embracing our role within the larger church and world by supporting diocesan initiatives as well as a variety of local and worldwide charitable organisations.   

We don't just belong to parishes; we are linked very closely with the Diocese where there are major plans afoot to streamline activities. On th 16th July 2014 at the Cardinal Hume School, Bishop Seamus gave details of the plan 'to develop an active, empowered and engaged Catholic Community' throughout the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle. 

In the summer of 2015, as part of Forward Together in Hope, each parish community was asked to carry out a self-evaluation by answering the big question- 'What makes a flourishing Catholic community.”  In common with every other community in the diocese, we completed a detailed questionnaire, sending our response to the diocese at the beginning of Advent.  Diocesan observations on our responses have been received and we are now ready to embark on the next stage of the Forward Together In Hope journey.

From Parish to Partnership is the next stage of the consultation process. As communities we are asked to explore ways in which we can move from thinking of ourselves as a separate entity called a parish, to thinking of ourselves in partnership with other parishes in the diocese.

For all of us, it a time to communicate with other parishes, to think of ways in which we can pool resources, to work together on projects which may be too large for any one parish to handle.  Go to our “Forward Together in Faith  - The Responses” section and see what’s happening not only in our parishes but in the surrounding ones too, It’s a huge ask, but an exciting one!