Friends may be aware that Anne Mortimer has been poorly and in hospital for the past week or so.It’s so very sad to say that she died on Sunday 10 April 2022 during the mid-morning in NGH, and whilst Graham was called in, she had passed by the time he got there.I know the affection in which both Anne and Graham are held in our church, parish, community and beyond, and was in touch with Graham and his family through the day and the weeks before.Revd Andrea was with the family on Sunday, supporting them and praying with them, and they are now working through all the things that follow a death in the family, and setting funeral arrangements which will be announced when confirmed. The PCC is deeply shocked and saddened by this news. Our thoughts and prayers for Anne and Graham will be all the more powerful as we move through Holy Week and into Easter where we experience suffering and pain before the promise of the great Easter message of resurrection which brings solace to so many of us.May Anne now rest in peace, free from suffering, and rise in glorySAM DOBBSChurchwardenSt Andrew’s, Harlestone
ST ANDREWS, HARLESTONEThe pictures say what I need to say this month, alongside this hymn we have been singing in church to the tune ‘Love divine’. Anything else seems trivial other than to say, please pray for Ukraine? You can use the hymn if it helps. The words, by Richard Lucas have stirred and haunted many of us. To the dark place, bring a candle,To the cold place, bring a flame,In the night of our despairing,Light and warmth shall come again.For the candle in the darkness Is the light that shines the way,And the flame that burns within usIs the hope that brings the day.To the helpless and bewildered,to the victims of the gun,bring the suffering, dying Jesus,bring God's broken, murdered Son;he who brings no easy answerto the heart that will not mendsuffers in us and beside usand is with us to the end. To the ones whose love lies buried‘midst the bombs as freedom cowers,bring the calm that rests the war-tornin the darkest of all hours;he, who in the tomb lay brokentravels with us through our night,by his word of love once spokenbrings the candle-glow of light. To us, as the storm-clouds gather,in the skies of west and east, to us, fearful of the future,of the threat of war unleashed, to our world, of peace despairing, to our world of threat and blameto our dark place bring a candle,to our cold place bring a flame.
