Dear friends,
Today, the Church celebrates with joy the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham – which we shall keep in this parish, with protracted pleasure, on Sunday morning at Mass for our Patronal Festival. Our guest preacher, and principal celebrant, will be the Rt Rev’d Tony Robinson SSC, Emeritus Bishop of Wakefield: Bishop Tony served his curacy in Tottenham, before moving to Leicester and thereafter continuing his ministry in Pontefract. He has held office as the chairman of Forward in Faith, and as chairman of the Council of Bishops of The Society. He is the patron of Street Angels – Christian Nightlife Initiatives. Our Mass on Sunday will include the Liturgy of Sprinkling with water from the Walsingham well; individual bottles of the same will be available to take home, afterwards.
Similarly after Mass, there will be a bring-and-share parish lunch: volunteers are kindly requested to help set up for this, after the Vigil Mass on Saturday (around 6.45pm) – and then also to help clear up, after lunch on Sunday.
As the website of the Community of Our Lady of Walsingham explains, ‘Our Blessed Mother wanted [a]shrine to be established at Walsingham, so that all who come there can share in the joy she experienced at the Annunciation… [A pilgrimage to Walsingham is also] about returning home changed… As Christ becomes more incarnate in us, so those around us can come to know the joy and beauty of knowing him, and the peace that comes from living in union with the Father who created us.’ Our Patronal Festival Mass allows us to make a little pilgrimage of the heart to Walsingham, England’s Nazareth – and to experience some of the graces which flow with such ready faithfulness from that holy place.
This weekend will also be the final opportunity to contribute to this month’s appeal, in aid of Macmillan Cancer Care: for any remaining donations by cash or cheque, please use one of the green and white envelopes in church, and place into the basket at the back; there will also be raffle tickets on sale in the Hall, and the prize draw over lunch, on Sunday; and any final online donations may be made here.
Please also use one of the brown envelopes available in church, to contribute – in thanksgiving for God’s blessings – to this year’s stewardship campaign, towards the cost (£7,020) of sanding and resealing the church floor, in time for our ninetieth anniversary in December.
A week on Sunday, 4 October, we will celebrate our Harvest Festival – and we warmly invite you to bring to church your donations of food and other goods, for distribution by the Harrow Food Bank: in particular this year, they require jam and marmalade; peanut butter; honey; chocolate spread; 1-litre bottles of cooking oil; tinned soup; tinned fruit; chocolates and sweets; packet soups, and pasta. (There will also be a PCC meeting after Mass on Sunday, 4 October.)
Please find also herewith attached an invitation to the Patronal festivities at St Luke, Kingston (on Sunday, 18 October) – marking also the retirement of their parish priest, Fr Martin Hislop, after twenty-six years’ ministry in that parish; and details of the 2026 Laing Lecture (on Tuesday, 3 November) – organised by the London School of Theology – in which Dr Michael Burdett (Associate Professor of Christian Theology at the University of Nottingham, and Director of the Centre for Theology, Philosophy and Religion) will consider “Being Human in an Age of Rapid Technological Change”.
My soul proclaims the greatness of the Lord,
Fr Richard