Weekly News

Dearest friends, At the end of mass you will hear either myself or Deacon David say ‘Go now, and announce the gospel of the Lord’. I know that many of you will not have heard this before and even Deacon David has to work to remember it!  But when we get to the end of Mass it’s always struck me as rather odd that our dismissal lacks a certain energy and hwyl.  The word ‘Mass’ comes from the final blessing…

Dearest friends, Last week we celebrated the feast of Saints Cyril and Methodius. They were brothers who both entered the service of Christ together. Methodius was a monk and Cyril became a Bishop. Between them they are credited with many wonderful things (not least the invention of an entire alphabet) but at the heart of this celebration is the message of a joint purpose and calling. The brothers were missionaries in the slavic countries and nothing could stop them bringing…

Dearest friends, Last week was the memorial of Our Lady of Lourdes. In 1858 the immaculate Virgin Mary appeared to Bernadette Soubirous in Lourdes, France.  Mary appeared to this poor, 14 year-old girl to call us to change our lives for the better. To pray the rosary and to offer ourselves in service of the poor and the sick. A couple of years ago I had the chance to go to Lourdes on pilgrimage. I must admit I wasn’t expecting…

Dearest friends, Last week Rev’d Dave, Gareth and myself took a team away day at Sheldon Retreat. We spent some time reading and discussing the whole of St Peter’s second letter, praying together and talking about how we might develop a real visible sense that we are one benefice in partnership with St. John’s. As a result, we agreed to do the following things: We’ll also be continuing our town centre outreach (in which we hope to include Bovey soon)…

Dearest friends, This Sunday is Sunday of the Word of God.  In 2019 the Pope established this new day in the calendar, he did this because he wanted us to to revisit, celebrate, study, discern and share our Holy Scripture.  The centrality of scripture to our everyday life can so easily be lost and so this is an annual reminder that it MUST be part of our everyday life and not something that we simply hear on a Sunday (if we’re…

Dearest friends, Next Sunday is often called ‘Bible Sunday’ – we set aside the following week, and in particular that Sunday to consider what scripture means in our lives and perhaps take the opportunity to re-engage with it after a time away. Good news then that our Bible Course starts THIS THURSDAY!  The Bible Course is put together by The Bible Society and will run at Wickham Hall on Thursday evenings for eight weeks. What’s it about? Well, here’s how they…

Dearest friends, Evangelism is not a dirty word. I’m sure that many of you are sick to the back teeth of me going on about evangelism. Or rather, you get sick of me writing, preaching, teaching and telling you to go out and tell people about Jesus.  We pray that more people will come to know Him every day at mass, but we also have to DO it. Pray, then do – that’s how we buld the church and in…

Dearest friends, I want to start the new year by thanking you all. What an amazing Advent and Christmas we have shared.  At moments I felt as if my little feet would never touch the ground! We offered so many carol services and visits for schools – including new schools who have never visited our churches before.  We welcomed new people and old people and people who simply wondered why the bells were ringing, or why the lights were on,…

Dearest friends, As we approach the end of the calendar year we also approach the beginning of the greatest story ever told.  I’ve always enjoyed the dichotomy of the start of something new and wonderful in the birth of Jesus, and in the ending of something in the calendar year. It provokes thoughts of new beginnings and new starts, it encourages us to consider how we live our lives and where we may look to re-direct our lives in the…

Dearest friends, As we enter this final week of Advent all can seem rather busy. There are concerts, carol services, jobs to be done. There are presents to buy, people to see, and food to get in. Who has time for all this Christmas nonsense! It’s easy to get caught up in the business but we must remember that Advent offers us an opportunity to find PEACE.  Jesus tells us that His yoke is easy and His burden light. He…

Dearest friends, This week I’ve had the deep joy of discussing a Rule of Life with two of our parishioners. They are both women of deep faith who will be renewing their Rule of Life at Mass at St. Luke’s this Sunday. There are many ways of answering God’s Call in our lives and Advent is a fine time to consider what that may be. It could be a calling to serve as a Deacon, to live a life consecrated…

Dearest friends, The team behind the Live Nativity at St. Luke’s on Christmas eve met this week and we need your help! We’re going to have five ‘stations’ outside St. Luke’s and we’d like to invite you to volunteer to build and run one of these stations. They are: A script will be written and provided, but we’d really like to invite you to own each station and make it as you see fit. We’ll walk around the stations as…