Our Church Warden, Bethan Lant, will run the Great North Run, 13.1 miles, on Sunday 7 September to raise money for the London Churches Refugee Fund.Bethan, who is also a trustee of the fund, says, "the Fund enables organisations working with those in the asylum system to provide direct, practical support to those most in need in the form of small cash grants for travel cards, phone credit, food, toiletries, and other essential items". If you would like to sponsor Bethan's efforts you can do so via Just Giving here .Unfortunately, as Bethan is also our live-streamer, the 11am Mass on Sunday 7 September (the first Sunday of the month) will not be live-streamed.
The WaSh Wombles, a community interest company dedicated to picking up litter from our neighbourhoods, is now running a community litter-pick from St Mary's on the last Saturday of each month.You can join us from 11am to 1pm, working together to make our neighbourhoods a more beautiful place. All equipment is provided.
At the end of May we celebrated our Dedication Festival, the anniversary of the consecration of the church, as usual. Since St Mary's was consecrated on 22 May 1850, this is our 175th anniversary.We were pleased to welcome Fr Philip Kennedy of The Ascension Lavender Hill to delivery the address. Fr Philip is an old friend of St Mary's having spent some time with us as a curate.We also prepared a display of the history of St Mary's. The picture in this article is the oldest known image of St Mary's from 1868. The display also covered some lesser known aspects of St Mary's history such as our appearance in a 1968 thriller, A Dandy in Aspic , starring amongst others, Laurence Harvey and Mia Farrow.All attendees at the service were given a prayer card:Remember, O most gracious Virgin Mary,that never was it known that anyonewho fled to thy protection,implored thy help, or sought they intercessionwas left unaided.Inspired with this confidenceI fly to thee, O Virgin of virgins, my Mother:To thee do I come: before thee I stand,sinful and sorrowful.O Mother of the Word Incarnate,despise not my petitions,but in they mercy, hear and answer me.Amen.
As usual, St Mary's opened up our church hall to share hospitality with those supporting London Marathon. We were able to provide refreshments, toilet facilities, and a chance to sit down and rest for hundreds of people.One person wrote to say "just a short note to say thank you for the kindness which was shown by your church community yesterday. We were supporting friends in the marathon and stumbled across you as we walked between cheer points. What a great thing you were doing, such a friendly atmosphere and great to see a church community welcoming people."Our efforts raised around £1200 in donations.
