Sunday 24th May 2026

Dear friends,

This Sunday we celebrate Pentecost, one of the great feasts of the Church’s year — the day when the Holy Spirit is poured out, not on perfect people, but on very human ones.

I will be preaching at our Holy Communion service, as we think about the risen Jesus standing among his disciples, speaking peace into their fear, and sending them out in the power of the Spirit. Pentecost reminds us that the Church begins not with confidence, strategy, or even tidiness, but with grace: ordinary people caught up in the life of God.

So do come this Sunday, and perhaps bring someone with you. Pentecost is a good reminder that faith is not only for the sorted and sensible. The Spirit has always had a fondness for unlikely candidates.

Don’t forget, too, that at 4.00pm we will be hosting a Confirmation Service here at St John’s, joined by the Bishop of Reading, the Rt Revd Mary Gregory. Please do come and support those from our church who are being confirmed. It is a lovely Pentecost-shaped thing: ordinary Christians, strengthened by the Spirit, saying their yes to Christ in the company of the Church.

Every blessing. Mark