Latest News

“Incredible”

When I look around the grounds and church I am truly blessed.  Gratitude, especially to Lulu and all who help me in the churches is extremely helpful.  I hope I can do better to help our parish to continue to develop and grow.

I have had to respond a lot to the needs of our time, and listening to people in real need who get in touch either calling at the door or on the phone, this has been demanding.  Watching the news coming from the war and destruction that is happening in the Ukraine; after two years of the pandemic means that we are all more brittle, and living with greater stress.  I am very blessed by all the help and support, and the Easter Services have been a great blessing.  Following on our response to the Synod, our meeting on Tuesday evening was very encouraging.  So let us continue to pray constantly and never lose heart.

What is truly incredible is this season of God’s grace.  After the crucifixion of our Devine Lord, the early disciples i.e. the church was in a great state of confusion and distress.  As the stories of the resurrection began to circulate there is a change.  More stories emerge that begin to show them how they should respond.  Let us too become more prepared to respond and progress as the Synod continues to happen.  Soon we will be celebrating the Feast of the Ascension, and the time that follows is the greatest time in the whole year “When the day of Pentecost came the disciples were gathered”.   At the time when I was ordained there was a great Pentecost Renewal and I had some great experiences a that time.

So please God, there will be a reawakening and renewal as we recover again after the pandemic.  I look forward to the minutes of our parish meeting, hoping to see the initial development from seeds that were sown, alongside the other analogy of the fresh foundations that are being laid, so it is a truly important time and at the heart of it prayer.  “Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of your faithful and fill us with the fire of your love”.

To be continued.

Again and again I return to what is most important “PRAYER”.

Abba Father please send your Holy Spirit, come Lord Jesus live in me.

The reality of life is often focused upon trials, and from my home when I was growing up came the response “These are the trials through which we triumph by the power of Him who loves us”.

After two years of the pandemic, which has made us all very brittle, my hope was that it would be ending and that things would feel very much better.  Some things are very much better, it is very much easier to travel.  This illness though very serious is not as fatal as it was in the beginning.

In the life of our parish we have the challenge of life, now focused by the shortage of priests.  So we need to grow and develop as a parish community that does not rely upon having priests, this will entail the care of the elderly, responsibility for ecumenism, the constant care for mass and the sacraments, payments for maintenance of church and property, funding for the administration and financial needs of the parish.  There will be other responsibilities.  We have an important opportunity to develop and grow in response to these requirements.  With the help of God a very important meeting will take place for our parish communities at 6pm in the Presbytery (or in hall if needed) on Tuesday 3rd May.  This is following up upon the work that was done in response to the Synod.  It is providing a firm foundation and a real challenge.  A early comment “there is no support after Baptism or any of the other sacraments”.

Helpful to all our work will be “Core Groups” to identify and to commit to helping with the identified challenge in order to provide for a good outcome. 

On the horizon are projects for celebrating the Queen’s Jubilee, our Centenary Year at St Wilfrid’s, with the first class work that has taken place at St George’s in their confirmation preparation program.  With the help of God we may bear fruit, fruit that will last.  Let us continue to plant seeds and nurture those already beginning to grow.