Dearest friends,
Next Sunday we celebrate the great feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross.
John Calvin once said that if you added up all the genuine relics of the True Cross you’d have enough to fill a ship.
People have always laughed at those of us ‘stupid’ enough to sit and pray in front of so-called relics of the True Cross (there is one in Walsingham in the Holy Cross Chapel which I shall be praying in front of this week).
‘How stupid!’ they decry. But, as ever the story is far more complex.
In about 324AD St. Helena (mother of Constantine the Great) travelled to the Holy Land and returned with several relics of Jesus – amongst them parts of the True Cross.
Small parts of the Cross were already circulating in Christian lands and St. Helena’s discovery added to this already large number.
So then, was Calvin right?
A few years ago a historian set about charting all known relics of the True Cross. He included those whose provenance was unknown and couldn’t be traced back to either St. Helena or some of those earlier pieces. He hugely over estimated how many pieces there were.
Then he set about measuring them all and comparing the combined volume of wood with a Roman Crucifix of the time. And you know what? He discovered that if you add them all together you still only end up with about a third of a crucifix – not a ship full.
So, perhaps we’re not so silly after all, and perhaps those small pieces of wood can transport us back to the foot of the Cross.
Fr. Matthew
Notices
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:am on Saturday 6th. We will meet in Glastonbury at 11am outside the Roman Catholic Church – we must enter the Abbey Grounds together as a parish.
Service Times
From this Sunday 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.
St. John’s Joint Service & BBQ
Thank you to everyone who helped make last Sunday such a wonderful success! Wonderful worship and singing and wonderful food alongside wonderful fellowship. What a joy it was to be together! A particular thanks must go to Linda, Janice, and Elizabeth for organising the food so beautifully.
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. 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.
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.
Sunday 7th September
23rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 🟢
9am – Sung Parish Mass [SJ]
11:15am – Sung Parish Mass [SL]
Divine Office Psalter Week 3, C(I), Trinity 12, Proper 18
Upcoming Dates
September
3rd – St. Luke’s PCC Meeting, 7pm [SL]
6th – Pilgrimage to Glastonbury, leave SL at 9am
8th – 12th – Diocese Pilgrimage to Walsingham
25th – Autumn / Christmas Planning Meeting, 7pm, [WH]
October
1st – SL Ladies Group, 2pm
SL PCC, 7pm
5th – 1st Explorers, 3pm, St. Catherine’s School, Heathfield
10th – Bingo [SL], 7pm
St. Luke’s Men’s Group meets every Friday for mass at 10am anddiscussion afterwards. [SL]