Praising God in Devon

Dearest friends, There’s a small sentence in the reading for St Luke’s day which is easy to pass over. Paul is writing about people who’ve gone elsewhere, and the difficulties surrounding him. Then he says, “Luke alone is with me.” Five words, and behind them the quiet gift of someone who stayed. We know Luke as an evangelist, the writer whose Gospel gives us the Good Samaritan and the Prodigal Son. We hear his account of the shepherds at Christmas,…

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…