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.
It was great to see the Guardian prominently featured on its front page a photograph from the Wintershall performance of the Passion of Jesus played out in Trafalgar Square on Good Friday.The photo presentation was vivid and for those of us who believe mainstream media see Christianity - and our major festivals - as of little interest, the Guardian’s editorial judgment was indeed a pleasant surprise.However, there was a drawback. There was no article in Saturday’s paper about the powerful event - just that large colour photograph on page 1. So the photo caption was all the readers were given to explain the event. Given an editor decided it was a page one photo, surely it merited some editorial content too?
Our Lady of Walsingham is a title given to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who is the patron saint of our parish church.The title 'Our Lady of Walsingham' refers to an apparition of Mary that was experienced by Richeldis de Faverches, a devout English noblewoman, in 1061 in the village of Walsingham, Norfolk.According to tradition, Lady Richeldis was instructed to build a replica of the Holy House—the home of the Holy Family in Nazareth. This structure became a shrine and a significant site of pilgrimage, later entrusted to the Canons Regular of Saint Augustine sometime between 1146 and 1174.Our Lady of Walsingham is venerated by Anglicans and Roman Catholics.
