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.
On Saturday we were visited by a group from our friends at St Barnabas Bethnal Green who chose to visit St Mary's for one of their regular pilgrimages.We held a special Mass to welcome them, followed by a tour of St Mary's and a history of the church.The pilgrims joined us for lunch in the church hall and then rounded off the afternoon by visiting the Cable Street mural.It was wonderful to welcome the group and we hope that we can plan some trips together soon.
Our chosen charity for our Lent appeal this year is the London Churches Refugee Fund. LCRF is an ecumenical Christian-based charity supporting the relief of destitute refugees and those in the asylum system. The charity provides grants to frontline refugee projects in London which are then used for food, phone credit, travel cards, nappies, toiletries and other essential items for destitute refugees and asylum seekers.Since its creation in 2007, the Fund has provided 638 grants totalling £500,000 to 107 refugee projects in London.You can find out more about their work by visiting their website Charity | London Churches Refugee Fund | London
