Dear friends,
As we move through the Easter season, towards Pentecost, we are reminded in this Sunday’s Gospel reading of the power and importance of the Holy Spirit in our Christian lives: Jesus tells his disciples that the Father will send the Holy Spirit to ‘teach [us] all things and bring to [our] remembrance all that [he] has said‘. In our own daily prayers, let us call upon the Holy Spirit frequently, to guide and guard and teach us.
After Mass this Sunday there will be a short planning meeting to begin work on preparations for our summer barbecue: do please stay for this meeting, as there is plenty to be done!
This Sunday is also the final opportunity to contribute to this month’s charity collection for Mary’s Meals: please use the envelopes, (Gift Aid forms) and basket at the back of church. Thank you also very much for raising the amazing sum of £1,526.22 for the Additional Curates Society! (Any outstanding ACS boxes must be returned this Sunday, as we need to close this appeal and transfer the monies raised to the charity.)
There are now just four seats remaining on the coach to The Friars, Aylesford (on Saturday, 21 June): if you have signed up, please now also give payment to me (£20/adults, £5/under-18s).
Over a five-year period, 2023-2028, independent Safeguarding audits are being carried out in every diocese across the Church of England. Each audit results in a report and action plan, to bring us closer to being a truly safe Church for all. A vital part of the independent audit is for as many people as possible in our communities to complete a survey. It’s important for as many voices as possible to be represented, so that the auditors gain a real picture of the culture in our diocese. There are several surveys, each for different groups of people – and you are encouraged to complete as many surveys as are relevant to you. The surveys are anonymous, and you will not be asked to name your church; each survey should only take 10 minutes. Please click here to view and complete the surveys on the INEQE website.
A Fulham priest, Fr Richard Bastable (the Vicar of St Luke, Shepherd’s Bush and St Matthew, Kensington Olympia – to which parishes our friend Fr Joseph Barnes was recently assigned) has recorded a podcast with Dame Sarah Mullaly, the Bishop of London, about the subject of assisted dying. It is an interesting listen, and can be found here.
No fewer than four fliers from Kentish Town are included with this mailing – a quartet of invitations to: the 175th anniversary celebrations at Holy Trinity, Kentish Town; High Mass in the Tridentine Rite for the Solemnity of the Sacred Heart, and details of the St Silas Day patronal celebrations, beginning with First Vespers. There is also an invitation to Holy Redeemer Day in Clerkenwell.
The parish of St Stephen, Gloucester Road (SW7 4RL) is hosting a free art exhibition 2-15 June entitled The Painted Word by Jérémie Queyras – based on T.S. Eliot’s The Four Quartets. Churchwarden at St Stephen’s for 25 years, and the first Anglican poet to be mentioned in a papal document (Pope Francis, 2023), all are warmly invited to come and explore T. S. Eliot’s enduring legacy to the Church, the arts and the world. More information here.
Please hold in your prayers those men preparing for ordination this summer: Bishop Jonathan warmly welcomes the whole Fulham family to join him for the Ordination of Deacons on Saturday, 28 June at 11am, and for the Ordination of Priests on Sunday, 29 June at 5pm (both Masses at St Andrew, Holborn).
May God still give us his blessing / that all the ends of the earth may revere him,
Fr Richard