WHEN this church first opened the unsinkable Titanic was about to set sail, the Republic of China had just been founded and King George V was on the throne.

Now, 100 years later, SS Gregory and Augustine Roman Catholic Church in Woodstock Road, Oxford, is celebrating its centenary with a thriving multicultural congregation.

There are about 600 Roman Catholics living within the catchment area of the church, which has an average weekend congregation of 150.

Today it will mark its centenary with a special mass on the feast day of one of the church’s patronal saints, St Gregory, and a packed church is expected.

Fr John Saward, who will celebrate the mass, said: “We want to mark the first days of SS Gregory and Augustine in a special way.

“What is additionally special is that we have found a poster of a high mass in 1941 with a list of the songs that were sung and we are going to do exactly the same at our centenary mass.”

The poster records that the choir of the Oratory School, then at Caversham led the singing, and as Fr John is a governor of the school which is now in Woodcote, he has recruited the current choir to sing tonight.

Famous past members of the congregation included author JRR Tolkein, who used to worship there, and novelist Graham Greene also lived in the parish.

Fr John said congregation numbers were similar to when the church started, but one of the key differences was there were now families from at least 38 different countries worshipping there.

He said: “The other thing that is different from 1912 is not only the number of nationalities but the fact it is a very fluid population.

“We have old stalwarts of the parish but we also have people coming from overseas to study and work for a number of years – some may put down permanent roots but many do not.”

In terms of physical changes to the site, the priest’s house dates from the 1920s and the parish hall was built in the 1940s.

A series of paintings of the church’s patronal saints, the Virgin Mary and other saints was completed in 2009.

As well as the high latin mass, which starts at 6pm, two pilgrimages are planned with links to St Gregory and St Augustine, to Rome in September and to Ramsgate in May.

Fr John said: “It has always been a small, modest parish that has just gone on very quietly and we have always had a traditional approach to celebrating the liturgy.”

Fr Richard Duffield will preach at tonight’s mass.

fbardsley@oxfordmail.co.uk