Praising God in Devon

Dearest friends, On Monday, 12 October, we keep the feast of St Wilfrid, Bishop and Missionary. Together with St Hilda, he is patron of The Society, to which both St John’s and St Luke’s belong. Our parishes have passed resolutions making provision for episcopal oversight within the Catholic tradition of the Church of England. This feast gives us an opportunity to reflect on the inheritance entrusted to us, and what we’re called to do with it. Our Catholic heritage shapes…

Dearest friends, On Friday 9th October we mark the feast of St John Henry Newman, priest and Doctor of the Church. The word “Doctor” means teacher, recognising someone whose teaching helps the whole Church understand and live the Christian faith. Newman received that title last November, and his life gives us particular reason, as Anglicans, to give thanks. Before he became a Roman Catholic, Newman spent more than twenty years as an Anglican clergyman. He was one of the leading…

Dearest friends, Church vestments can sometimes look, from the outside, like little more than ecclesiastical decoration – colour, fabric, embroidery, lace, and layers of clothing from another age. But they are much more interesting than that. The Church has always understood worship to involve the whole person. We hear the Scriptures, speak and sing, stand and kneel, receive bread and wine, see candles, colour, movement, and beauty. Vestments belong within that same language. They help tell us what kind of…