Parish Magazine Article - March 2023
I have been delighted to see how many people have already engaged with events in our year of prayer. Not only, that but parishes across the diocese are organising their own programmes
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I have been delighted to see how many people have already engaged with events in our year of prayer. Not only, that but parishes across the diocese are organising their own programmes
One of the most moving services I have ever attended took place on Ash Wednesday 2009, in Westminster Abbey. I was an ordinand, in training for ministry, and was on placement at the Abbey.
Most years when I was a parish priest in Sussex a group of us used to go Carol singing. We’d visit homes and the local pubs. Rather than asking for money for a charity or Church funds we would finish by giving out mince pies.
November seems to be the month for remembering. All Souls at the beginning of the month is a chance to remember with thankfulness those whom we have loved but see no more.
Pentecost or more traditionally Whitsun is I think the Cinderella of Christian festivals, it has never really had the impact of Christmas and Easter.
I've lost count of the number of times people have said to me, everything happens for a reason.
As I write this we are approaching the start of Lent. Easter this year falls very early and it feels like only yesterday that we finished celebrating Christmas.
Most human beings have a natural sense of justice. We don't think it right that people can commit crime and get away with it. It was important at the end of WWII that those guilty of war crimes were seen to be punished.
I write this as the view from my window is looking very autumnal. The leaves are turning and the nights are drawing in, the warmth of summer is slowly ebbing away. This time of year marks a change in the churches year as we move away from Easter and Pentecost and begin to prepare for Advent.