Wednesday 28 September 2011

Updated at last

Life is proving exceptionally busy at the moment - hence the lack of posts on this Blog.

This one is appearing simply to say there have been some updates on the other pages of this blog (accessed by the tabs further up the page) - including the Calendar and Magazine link. The new October issue of the Parish Magazine can be accessed directly by this link; there's lots to read! And our original parish website is also up-dated here.

Monday 12 September 2011

9/11 - and a fresh start

Yesterday was a strange day for me: the regular pattern of services at St. Cuthbert's, but with the unavoidable recognition of the 10th Anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks upon the United States; and then in the evening my licensing to an additional new ministry as Priest-in-Charge of the Parish of St. John the Evangelist, Castleside.



You can read what I preached in the morning by clicking here. Sorry I don't have the Bishop's excellent homily to share. But the licensing went well - the only hiccough being an opportunity for a slight detour into Music Hall mode. I was grateful for all the support - and there was a marvellous spread at the Reception. Thanks to all concerned.

Service times at both churches need to change with immediate effect - check this blog page and the links to our websites.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

All you need is love...

... that's the theme running through last Sunday's sermon preached by our Reader, Rosie Junemann. I missed it, but it's well worth reading and you can find it here. Links to lots more recent homilies are bundled up together with online versions of the Parish Magazine on the dedicated page of this blog.



I took last weekend off following a reading week, but I was at home so I took the opportunity to go to Durham Cathedral. It has its own particular celebration of the Feast of the Translation of the Relics of St. Cuthbert - which happily falls that day, 4th September. The main Feast of St. Cuthbert is 20th March. The Translation relates to the burial of his body in his present grave after the building of the Cathedral and following centuries during which the monks of his community moved from place to place following their displacement from Lindisfarne by the Viking raids and invasion. It was all very well done (pilgrimage procession to the Feretory / shrine) of course and you can probably find the Succentor's excellent sermon on the Cathedral's website. He took as his starting point the British Museum's current exhibition of relics and reliquaries, Treasures of Heaven, which I was glad to see a few weeks ago. We didn't actually venerate any relics on Sunday. But we were certainly put in mind of the call to holiness and the example of those who have gone before us.



Meanwhile... life resumes in this parish, and I'm about to take on responsibility also for the Parish of St. John, Castleside. This coming weekend will be busy: Northumbria Historic Churches Trust Steeplechase on Saturday; St. Cuthbert's Art Exhibition on Saturday and Sunday; and on Sunday services here will be for the last time at 8a.m. and 10a.m. At 6.30p.m. I'll be licensed in Castleside. Thereafter (from 18 September), St. Cuthbert's Sunday Sung Eucharist will be move to 10.30a.m. - with an 8a.m. BCP Eucharist on second Sundays of the month. Hopefully people will cope with the changes which will allow me to preside at a 9a.m. Eucharist in Castleside - though I'm already thinking about the problems that ice and snow may bring...

Join us for any of these if you can - and keep us in your prayers.