Dear friends,
The Body of Christ is broken only in order to be shared, and then to be re-united in the fellowship of believers: as we continue to celebrate the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity, I invite all members of our parish family to join with our brother and sister Christians from other local churches and congregations for tomorrow (Friday) evening’s Service of Prayer for Christian Unity at 7pm at St Anselm’s Church, Belmont (HA7 2HU). Please speak to me if you can contribute a (sweet or savoury, vegetarian, finger food) dish to the refreshments after the service. Please make every effort to prioritise this important act of common worship and witness.
This coming Sunday, the Third Sunday in Ordinary Time, is also the Sunday of the Word of God, instituted by Pope Francis in 2019 as a day devoted to the celebration and study of Sacred Scripture – part of our common inheritance with other Christians. It is a time for us to reconsider the place of God’s Word in our own lives as Christians, and perhaps also to ask whether we might offer ourselves in service as readers at Sunday Mass: speak to one of the clergy or churchwardens if you feel called to this ministry. Dom Mauro-Giuseppe Lepori OCist observes that it was the pagan centurion in Matthew 8 who perhaps best understood the power of God’s Word: ‘after pleading with Jesus to heal his sick servant, in the face of the Lord’s immediate willingness, [yet he] declared himself unworthy for Him to go to his house, and said to Jesus, ‘Only say the Word, and my servant will be healed’ (Matt. 8.8). One word from Christ was enough for him to have a sure hope in the salvation He had wrought.’
Our guest preacher at Mass on Sunday will be the Rev’d Alexander McGregor, Associate Priest at Pusey House in Oxford, and Head of the Church of England Legal Office; Chief Legal Adviser to the Archbishops’ Council and the General Synod, and Official Solicitor to the Church Commissioners. Sunday’s Mass will be followed by drinks, in celebration of my own thirty-seventh birthday.
Our next Youth Group outing will be to Houdini’s Escape Room Experience at Acton Tenpin, on Saturday, 15 February at 2.30pm. It is essential that those wishing to attend both sign up on the list in church; complete and return a registration form, and pay £10pp (either to me or to Ryan), to secure a place. Places are strictly limited to ten young people, and all are welcome.
Kenton West Safer Neighbourhoods Team invite local residents to a Women’s Safety Session tomorrow at 10am at the Kenton Road Post Office; and to a drop-in surgery this afternoon at Kenton Library 2-2.45pm.
Please note that Evening Prayer next week on Friday, 31 January will be said publicly, at 4pm. Please find attached a copy of the latest draft of the Parish Calendar for the year, plus an invitation from Bishop Jonathan to Solemn Pontifical Mass in honour of St Agatha, at 7pm on Wednesday, 5 February, at St Andrew, Holborn.
May the Holy Spirit grant to each of us the grace to collaborate in simplicity and joy for the proclamation of God’s Word, to the glory of His Name,
Fr Richard