Dear friends,
Last week, on annual leave, I attended Sunday Mass at the Church of the Immaculate Conception and St Egwin, in Evesham, Worcestershire. This parish is twinned with another parish nearby, and a process of formal amalgamation is underway currently. What could be an occasion for sadness at the end of one chapter in these parishes’ independent existences is instead seen by their parish priest as an opportunity for missionary recalibration. In their newsletter, he wrote, ‘this union is not about administration for its own sake… but about ensuring that parish life remains ordered towards its true purpose: that Christ may be known, worshipped, and proclaimed.’ He went on, ‘Seen in the light of the Gospel, this moment is not merely organisational. It is spiritual. It is an invitation to behold the Lamb of God anew, and to trust that re-ordering parish life around Him is not loss, but grace.’ What is true corporately for the Church resonates also in our own, individual lives as Christian believers: we must all constantly reassess whether our lives are ordered towards the knowledge, worship and proclamation of Jesus Christ – and be unafraid to embrace change and development where we perceive that they are not. We must place Jesus at the centre of everything, and so experience his grace afresh.
A reminder that all are welcome to share in our Confirmation classes, even if already confirmed: the next classes (in the Vicarage) are on Saturday 24 and Saturday, 31 January, after the 9.30am Mass in church: please let me know if you are coming. These classes present an ideal opportunity to renew our understanding of the Faith. The Confirmation Mass itself is on Sunday, 8 February: please mark the date in your diaries and pray for our candidates; and please let Pat know what you can bring to share at the parish lunch after Mass. She would also be pleased to note the names of anyone who can help set up the Hall and/or clear away after the party.
This Sunday after Mass I invite you to raise a glass with me in the Hall, in anticipation of my thirty-eighth(!) birthday on Monday. I give God thanks for His guidance and goodness.
There will be a Youth Group outing during the February half-term holiday, to FlipOut Watford, the afternoon of Shrove Tuesday, 17 February. Please sign up in church (by 8 February), and complete and return a registration form – with £10pp, to include food and drink.
Please now also return last year’s palm crosses, to be burned to generate the ash for Ash Wednesday, 18 February – when there will be Masses at 9.30am and 6pm.
Included with this mailing are fliers for the Walsingham Children’s Pilgrimage (for ages 7-11), 6-8 March (please speak to me if you would like to go, and would appreciate financial assistance from the parish with the cost); for the Bishop of Fulham’s Lay Congress, on Saturday, 21 March (with Bishop Lindsay Urwin: please let me know if you plan to attend); from St Luke’s Hospice, seeking to recruit Bereavement Support Volunteers, and from Harrow Council, with information about bystander intervention.
I am also pleased to report that our roster of guest preachers this year is growing! We will welcome:
on Lent 2, the Rev’d James Chegwidden (Assistant Priest, St Paul Knightsbridge) (tbc);
on Lent 3, the Rev’d Simon Walsh (PTO, Diocese of London);
for the Triduum and on Easter Day the Rt Rev’d Norman Banks (sometime Bishop of Richborough);
on Easter 3, the Rev’d Joseph Barnes (Assistant Curate, St Luke Uxbridge Road and St Matthew Sinclair Road);
for the May Devotion, the Rt Rev’d the Lord Bishop of Fulham;
on St Peter & St Paul, the Rev’d Benjamin Eadon (Priest-Administrator, the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham);
for our Patronal Festival, the Rt Rev’d Anthony Robinson (sometime Bishop of Pontefract);
for the 90th Anniversary of the Dedication of St Mary’s, the Rev’d Christopher Trundle (Vicar, Our Most Holy Redeemer Clerkenwell),
and on Advent 3, the Rev’d Stuart Thomson (Chaplain, the King’s School Ely).
Please note that Harrow Council’s “Drop and Go” service in the car park on Saturday, 28 February has been cancelled. An updated parish calendar will be circulated next week.
Wait for the Lord: be strong; be stout-hearted, and wait for the Lord!
Fr Richard