Meet Alfie Anil, a computer science student who has helped to revolutionise the way the St Edward the Confessor parish operates.

Alfie,19, became part of the St Edward the Confessor parish when Sacred Heart and St Cuthbert merged back in 2017.

He always had an interest in the church from a young age.

He said: “I grew up in my local parish, which was Sacred Heart, which {has} now merged with St. Cuthbert's Church in the St. Edward's parish.

“After my first Holy Communion, in year four, I started as an altar server. While I was an altar server, I would attend daily Mass if possible.

“I learnt more from the parish priest, and I got to understand what happens in church. Different sacraments, I would go to observe baptisms, marriages, funerals”.

“I was also quite interested in helping the parish priest and my parish with any anything that I could do.”

Alfie had an interest in computers and computer science and was able to find a way he could use his interest to help the parish.

He added: “I was interested in IT, computer science, and technology. So, I set up the parishes Facebook page, I think I was when I was 11, I did build the website as well. And then I oversaw all things online and technology in the Parish”.

“And then around Wigan, if priests needed any help with the technology, they would call me, and I would go and sort it out for them. Or if they wanted help with making an Excel spreadsheet, just simple things. I would go and help them out.”

After a couple of years volunteering for the church, Alfie was then able to get a role with his local parish as an administrator. It was from there he was really able to implement his ideas.

He said: “In March, the opportunity came for me to be a parish administrator in my local parish, which I took up because I was familiar with almost everyone in the parish because I grew up there and so and because I was helping with various activities, I got to know who does what”.

“So, I currently work as the parish administrator, managing the finances, funerals, the sacraments like first Holy communions and baptisms.

“We now also have volunteers in what we call the parish hub, which is basically the parish office so I kind of lead them and help them to understand the administrative tasks.”

Whilst there, he was able to create an app/software called ParishNavigator, to help both him and volunteers manage the parish efficiently.

He said: “To make parish administration and management easier, I developed an app which basically allows parishes to manage parish members, track queries, such as contact us forms and sacrament applications.

“I developed that because I currently study computer science in university and after working in the parish offices as an administrator for a few months, I understood that software could make some of the parish administration tasks a lot easier.

Whenever I had any problems, or things that I thought I could simplify, I would note them down and solve them in the software, and I implemented the software in the parish with the help of the parish priest.

“Now all the volunteers have their own account with the lower access level to help them understand the software.”

Whilst doing all of this, Alfie is also a student at the University of Lancaster. Despite balancing this with his university work, he hopes to be able to remain with the parish for as long as possible.

He added: “I go to university in Lancaster, so I'm based in Wigan, so what I do is I commute to Lancaster University every day.

“I stay at home and the parish is my home parish. I make the commute because I like my home community, my home parish, so I hope to stay within the parish as long as I can.”