Our Parish Priest

I am a Nigerian British. I belong to the Missionary Society of Saint Paul, MSP, an Institute of Apostolic Life founded in Nigeria in 1977. I was ordained a missionary priest in 1994.

After my ordination, I served for four months as a Parish Administrator in Ijebu-Ode Diocese in Nigeria. I was then appointed the Acting Editor of Ambassador Publications, the book publishing arm of the missionary institute. From there, I was appointed the Dean of Students of The National Missionary Seminary of Saint Paul where my institute’s future missionaries all undergo their 9-year missionary formation before becoming priests. I also lectured there in philosophy and theology.

In October 1997, I began a Master’s Degree programme of studies in Philosophy in Dublin, Ireland. Upon the completion of the studies, I studied for a Bachelor’s Degree in Civil Law, and later for a postgraduate diploma in Public Relations.

When I returned to Nigeria in 2003, I was appointed the Registrar of The National Missionary Seminary of Saint Paul and a Philosophy lecturer. After eight (8) years of service in those capacities, a local bishop invited me to start both his diocesan major seminary and his Institute of Philosophy as the Rector of both institutes.

In 2015 I arrived in the UK for my mission in the country. I served for over a year as the Chaplain to the University of Hertfordshire and as the Assistant Priest of the two parishes of Hatfield. I became the Parish Priest of the two parishes in 2017. I then went to Aylesbury where I served as the Parish Priest of one of its parishes. From there, I went to serve as a Parish Priest at Ashtead in Surrey. I arrived at Northfleet in September 2023 to continue my ministry, and I look forward to a fruitful service here.

Fr Livie ONYEBUCHI msp

Our Church

The mission at Northfleet was founded from Greenhithe. The Greenhithe mission had been founded in 1863 by Fr Maurice of Cossato, a Capuchin friar from Piedmont, and the first Mass said on Christmas Day 1863 at the Carmelite convent. The church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel was built in the 1870s by the architect J. Lewis Andre of Horsham, Sussex, with the builder, Mr Sharp. It was served by Capuchin friars until 1880, when the mission was handed over  to the diocese. The first mission priest at Greenhithe was Fr Thomas Moynihan. In the 1880s the missions of Greenhithe and Northfleet were united. In 1904 they were separated again and Greenhithe was served first from Walworth, then from 1907 from Dartford. In 1970 the mission at Greenhithe was closed and the church demolished in 1973.

The first church at Northfleet was dedicated to Our Immaculate Mother and St Joseph; it was in Rose Street (now Station Road), and was built in 1867. It was used as a school during the week and as a church on Sundays. (The disused building still survives today.) The first resident priest, Fr Lancelot Scott, arrived in 1898.

The current church, Our Lady of the Assumption, was designed by (Sir) Giles Gilbert Scott in 1913. The new site was the former horse-drawn tram depot, which had closed in 1901. The former tram manager’s house became the presbytery. Alfred Tolhurst, a Catholic convert, lawyer, local politician and owner of the Red Lion cement works, donated a piece of adjoining land. A public appeal had been planned to raise funds for the building work; however, the children of Alfred (died 1913) and Sarah (died 1911) Tolhurst made a donation of about £8,000 as a memorial to their parents which covered the costs. Building work started in 1914 and was completed in 1916. The builder was J. B. Lingham.

The church was consecrated on 5 December 1929. Scott added several furnishings in the following decades, including the Lady Chapel altar and reredos (1923-4) and the main reredos (1953-4). There used to be a small hall between church and presbytery; however, this was demolished following the discovery of asbestos and was not replaced. Between 2000 and 2003, Thomas Ford & Partners carried out structural repairs. The church was reopened on 5 December 2003 by Archbishop Michael Bowen, the 74th anniversary of its consecration.