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Dear Parish Friends The third Sunday of Advent, and our readings are once again focussed on Jesus' mission, rather than his incarnation. In our gospel passage from Matthew 11, Jesus tells John the Baptist's disciples that he is indeed the one about whom John spoke. Then our readings from the prophet Isaiah, and Mary's Song (the Magnificat) remind us of the promises of God that are fulfilled in Jesus. Services on Sunday Morning are as as usual at 7am and 9am, with Zoom stream

Dear Parish Friends On the second Sunday of Advent, our focus is on the preaching of John the Baptist, the voice in the wilderness proclaiming that the Kingdom of God is near. In his time it was a proclamation that the one for whom they had long waited was at hand. God was acting in a powerful way in creation through Jesus, and John had to tell everyone about it. It is a timely reminded for us as we wait in Advent for both the celebration of Jesus' first coming and in anticip

The September issue of 'Church News has been published. Read it here.

Details of our special services this month...

Dear Parish Friends This Sunday is Advent Sunday, and the start of a new church year, so our gospel readings switch from Luke to Matthew. Advent means 'coming' and so this season is a time for reflecting on both Jesus' first coming in the incarnation, and his promised second coming at the end of time. Our readings this week particularly relate to the latter of these and ask us to question how we live in these in between times, when we have the assurance of the cumulation of K

Dear Parish Friends On this last Sunday of the church's year, the feast of Christ the King. It seems a fitting end to a cycle where we celebrated Jesus' incarnation, his life, his death, his resurrection and his ascension - finally his reigning on high. As we reflect on what saying Christ is King means, we see that he brings this kingdom from heaven to earth, from eternity to our time, and so we look forward to restarting the liturgical cycle next week with Advent, looking fo

Dear Parish Friends As the church year nears its end, we have a reading, from Luke 21, about dire predictions of destruction and persecution, before the 'end of times'. But the passage is not so much about predicting the future - Luke was writing after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD70 and so much of what was described had already happened. Rather it is a message of what people of faith should do in such circumstances. There are two things that we are reminded of: God's pr

Dear Parish Friends As the church year moves to its conclusion later this month, we are up to the 22nd Sunday after Pentecost and our readings focus on 'what happens next'. The prophet Haggai assures his hearers that God's spirit continues to abide with them - they need not fear. Paul, to the Thessalonians, implores them to stand firm, sure in the knowledge of their salvation. Then in Luke's gospel, Jesus responds to a question about life after death by telling his listeners

Dear Parish Friends Saturday 1st November is All Saints Day (hence today, 31st October is All Hallows Eve, 'All Hallows being an old name for 'All Saints') and 2nd November is All Souls Day. Both these celebrations encourage us to reflect on the whole church on earth and in heaven. All Saints Day originated in the 4th century as there were so many that the church wanted to honour that there were not enough days in the year! Following St Paul, we take this as cause to give tha

Dear Parish Friends After our patronal festival last week, this weekend we look forward to growing our church in its 102nd year. Yes, it is our desire to see more people come to follow Jesus, but, as the particular way in which we play out our mission is through St Luke's Ekibin, we need to focus on what that means. We need to seek ways in which we can offer an inclusive welcome, ways in which we can engender spiritual growth in young and old, and also ways to enable the plac