Dearest friends,
Next week lots of people from across the diocese will be heading to Walsingham for the annual pilgrimage of Our Lady of Walsingham.
Walsingham holds a very special and very dear place in my heart. I head off to North Norfolk several times a year – sometimes just for the day – oftentimes for a few.
It is a ‘thin place’. What do I mean by that? Well, it’s a place that has been prayed in for such a long time that the veil that separates us from the saints has worn rather thin.
It somehow feels as if you can sense the company of saints around you as you reach out in prayer, as you walk around the gardens, as you attend mass or go to confession, they are more viscerally there with you – holding your hand on this great race of life! It is a place of great healing and hope.
In medieval Europe it was one of the very few premier pilgrimage sites – serving thousands of pilgrims every month. One record tells us that there were 60 hostelries in this small Norfolk village!
Our kings and queens were regular visitors and Henry the VIII’s father (and even Henry himself early in his reign) were significant benefactors to the shrine. But alas, destruction came with the dissolution and the destruction was very complete for such a large and famous shrine.
But pilgrims returned in 1922 as Fr. Hope Patten, Anglican vicar of Walsingham, restored the shrine and once again welcomed visitors to pray and visit this thin place.
Fr. Matthew.
Notices
Joint Mass – THIS SUNDAY!
Don’t forget that this Sunday (31st August) we have a joint mass at St. John’s at 10am followed by a BBQ and shared meal. It’s a great opportunity to get to know one another and to experience each others churches and some fellowship.
Explorers
Thank you to everyone who has come forward to help with Explorers. We have a solid core team who will help put up tables, arrange the craft, help teach and lead, and talk to the parents and families who come in. We now have a group of five people who have agreed to pray for the church each month via a WhatsApp Group. If you’d like to join that prayer group please do let me know.
Glastonbury Pilgrimage
Thanks to everyone who has given me money and signed up. We still have places if you’d like to come. We’ll be leaving St. Luke’s at 9:30am on Saturday 6th. There are still places in cars if people need a lift.
Service Times
From Sunday 7th September service times will move to 9am and St. John’s and 11:15am at St. Luke’s. I continue to work on a solution that would allow both churches to return to a 10am mass.Thank you for your support in making this work.
Autumn / Christmas Meeting
On the 25th September at 7pm in Wickham Hall we’ll hold our termly planning meeting for the Autumn Term and for Christmas services. We learnt much last year and I’ll publish those notes ahead of the meeting. If you would like to see something happen over the Autumn or have ideas of what kind of services you’d like over Christmas, this is a must attend meeting.
Refreshing the prayer list
It’s good to refresh the prayer list about once a term, this allows us to refocus our prayers and get an update on what people need prayer for. Please do be in touch if you’d like to add anyone to the list.
Sunday 31st August
21st Sunday in Ordinary Time 🟢
10am – Joint Mass at St. John’s [SJ]
12pm – Summer BBQ at Wickham Hall
5:30pm – Evensong, West Ogwell Church
Divine Office Psalter Week 2, C(I), Trinity 11, Proper 17
Upcoming Dates
August
31st – Joint Mass, 10am [SJ]
Summer BBQ, 12pm – 5pm [SJ]
Evensong, West Ogwell Church (TQ12 6EW), 5:30pm
September
3rd – St. Luke’s PCC Meeting, 7pm [SL]
6th – Pilgrimage to Glastonbury, leave SL at 9:30am
8th – 12th – Diocese Pilgrimage to Walsingham
25th – Autumn / Christmas Planning Meeting, 7pm, [WH]
St. Luke’s Men’s Group meets every Friday for mass at 10am anddiscussion afterwards. [SL]