Last Saturday Pope Francis was laid to rest in Rome. Jorge Bergoglio, his real name from birth in Argentina, was a fan of his local football club San Lorenzo. In fact, he was a card-carrying member of the club. The eagle eyed among you will spot that Pope Francis was 88 when he died at 2.35am Buenos Aires time. His membership card number? 88235. The Lord moves in mysterious ways.
Our Annual Parochial Church Meeting will take place in Dunsfold Church on Thursday, May 1st at 7.30pm.This is your chance to see the reports of the church activities for the past year and, if you're on the Church Electoral Roll, vote for officers who run church affairs and get more closely involved in the life of our church. We need new members and welcome new ideas.We need two churchwardens, a church treasurer and new members of of Parochial Church Council. A group that meets six times a-year.If you are interested in any of the roles please contact Father Shane, the churchwardens or the church treasurer for more information.Fr Shane Griffiths (Rector) 01483 435099Sheila Jones (Churchwarden) 01483 200204Jan Richardson (Churchwarden) 01483 200519Brenda Jenner (Treasurer) 01483 200379
A huge thank you to all the people who joined this year’s Lent course.It ran over six weeks with the meetings taking place following a meal in the Sun Inn. We had a small contingent of faithful followers from St Peter’s Church, Hascombe but the bulk of the attendees came from Dunsfold - and the great news was that many of them were new to devotional meetings here.The basis for our get-togethers was the Lent course and videos put together by Fr Stephen Wang, Rector of the Venerable English College in Rome, and his young team at Sycamore FM. Their promptings helped us have some fine discussions about among other things the Existence of God, the Gift of Faith, the Power of Prayer and Finding True Freedom.Fr Stephen even sent our group a personal video message of commendation. In the past our Lent courses have attracted perhaps ten to twelve stalwarts. This year we had 28 people signed up but did sustain a blow when our leader, David Rivett, was forced to withdraw after suffering a hip fracture in a fall at home. Thankfully, David has bounced back and will be around for our next study group later in the year. Watch this space.
The Archbishop of York has issued a statement following the news of the death of Pope Francis today.‘Let us walk together, work together, pray together.’ These are the words Pope Francis said to me when we met in 2023. They sum up his vision for the church, both the Roman Catholic Church but also ecumenically.Francis’s whole life and ministry was centred on Jesus who comes among us not to be served, but to serve. We saw that compellingly in Francis’s service of the poor, his love of neighbour especially the displaced, migrant, the asylum seeker, his deep compassion for the well-being of the earth and his desire to lead and build the church in new ways. Francis showed us how to follow Jesus and encouraged us to go and do likewise.His encyclicals, writings and teachings, were supported by his deeds and actions. In their humility and focus on those in the margins, those actions, his whole life, was instantly recognisable as those of one who followed Jesus.Pope Francis was acutely aware of the divisions between our churches and how they stand in the way of seeing Jesus Christ more fully. I remember the powerful work the Pope did with the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, and the Moderator of the Church of Scotland in promoting peacebuilding in South Sudan.He was a listening Pope whose commitment to the principle and the process of synodality will be a permanent legacy to the Roman Catholic Church and to all of us.I remember, in the brief times I spent with him, how this holy man of God was also very human. He was witty, lively, good to be with, and the warmth of his personality and interest in others shone out from him.May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
