Dear friends,
St Andrew of Crete wrote of the coming celebration, ‘We are celebrating the feast of the cross which drove away darkness and brought in the light. As we keep this feast, we are lifted up with the crucified Christ, leaving behind us earth and sin so that we may gain the things above. So great and outstanding a possession is the cross, that he who wins it has won a treasure. Rightly could I call this treasure the fairest of all fair things and the costliest, in fact as well as in name, for on it and through it and for its sake the riches of salvation that had been lost were restored to us.’
This weekend indeed we celebrate the Feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross: please wear something red to Mass. Our guest preacher on Sunday will be Fr Stephen Gallagher, the Bishop of Fulham’s Missioner, who will remain with us after Mass for a parish lunch and conversation, during which we will attempt humbly to discern God’s will for our parish in the coming months and years. Thank you to those who have signed up to participate in this conversation – there is likely room for one or two more guests at table!
Please likewise this weekend speak to Pat to confirm your contribution of (sweet or savoury) finger food to a bring-and-share parish lunch after Mass on Sunday week, 21 September, as we celebrate our Patronal Festival, in honour of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Volunteers are required to help set up the Hall for these two parish lunches, on Saturdays 13 and 20 September respectively, from 7pm. We would likewise be grateful for help setting up the church, on Fridays 12 and 19 September respectively, after the 9.30am Mass.
On Sunday, 5 October we will celebrate our Harvest Festival, and receive your kind donations of food, toiletries and household goods, for distribution by Harrow Food Bank. Please pick up a shopping list in church, as also a flier for our Macmillan Coffee Morning, in the Hall on Saturday, 4 October. Please also note that we are now registered to distribute e-vouchers for the Food Bank, to those in need: please see Fr Richard.
Our parish outing on Sunday, 12 October will depart from Harrow-on-the-Hill station at 3.15pm, and take in afternoon tea (approx £6.50pp) at St Martin-in-the-Fields’ Cafe in the Crypt, before joining in Choral Evensong at 5pm: we will return to Harrow-on-the-Hill around 6.30pm – please sign up in church.
The next Youth Group outing will be to the Prehistoric Planet: Discovering Dinosaurs exhibition, on Saturday, 25 October – an immersive experience carrying one into the heart of the prehistoric world. Places are limited: please sign up in church, and collect and return an application form, as well as £10pp to secure a place (this cost includes lunch, at McDonalds).
Please find attached to this mailing invitations to a Community Theology series in Perivale, and the Patronal Festival celebrations in Abbey Wood – as well as the opportunity for our talented young people to assist with the Harrow Christmas lights “switch-on” at the end of November.
This Sunday’s incense is Byzantium.
We should glory in the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, for he is our salvation, our life and our resurrection: through him we are saved and made free,
Fr Richard