Our weekly ‘From the Vicar’ letter will resume in September. In the meantime, you can download the current Weekly Sheet here:
Category Archives: Weekly Letter
Steady as We Go
Last week, I warned that I may need to be a bit of a wet blanket with regard to ‘Freedom Day’. This week, I’m able to set out the positive steps we are now taking in the direction of a more familiar pattern of worship.
Freedom and Kindness
I expect that most people attending church this weekend will have one question towards the front of their minds. ‘Is this the last Sunday when we have to put up with all these restrictions?’
Feelings about Football
I wonder how many different attitudes and feelings are inspired by this weekend’s European Championship final?
Fullness of Life
I hope to be indulged this week in mentioning a few major landmarks in my personal and family life over the last few days.
The Miracle We Need
The image that I’ve used in this weekend’s e-Church is one that I’ve found myself returning to over and over again since the first lockdown. It is an ancient and simple wall painting of a woman kneeling and reaching out to touch the hem of Jesus’ garment. It depicts the scene described in the gospel reading for this morning, the story of a woman healed of an illness of many years’ duration.
Diversity and the Mystery of God
A major international football tournament is just what we needed to get that feeling of a normal English summer back, don’t you think?
Celebrating Hymn Makers
Last week the church celebrated two hymn writers in its calendar. On Tuesday, it was the 17th Century English Bishop, Thomas Ken. This week’s e-Church video features one of Ken’s hymns, ‘Awake, my soul, and with the sun’ for this reason. On Wednesday it was the 4th Century deacon St Ephrem the Syrian. Ephrem’s best known hymn in England is ‘Strengthen for service, Lord, the hands’, which by popular acclaim will now be making a comeback at St Nicholas.
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As I said at the Eucharist on Wednesday, music is important in the life of faith. Hymns are important. Music writes the words of our faith on our hearts in a way that nothing else can accomplish. Many of us may remember the words of hymns we learned as children and find them surfacing in our prayers to this day.
The Body of Christ
Last week I wrote here about the importance of an embodied faith. This belief, that God makes himself known to us in a direct and personal encounter, is central to the Christian tradition.
An Embodied Faith
I begin this week with thanks to our curate, Mthr Alice Jolley, for preaching and presiding at both of our morning services this week while I am at St George’s, Swallowbeck, and to Fr Alan Moses, who will be preaching and presiding at our service on Wednesday while I am on leave.