The Priory Church of St Mary and the Holy Cross is open daily between 10am and 4.00pm for individual prayer and contemplation.

The Priory Church of St Mary and the Holy Cross is open for worship  as listed under Services.

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ZOOM SERVICES

Zoom Services on Sundays will continue on a monthly basis  – the first Sunday of the month at 5pm.

To participate please telephone Ian Newton on 01328 830947 or email iannewton46@ gmail.com. You will be warmly welcomed.

 

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Revd Ian Whittle’s  LETTER

Dear Friends and Parishioners,

A hard thing to keep before us is the darkness of the world.  Of course when we face disaster we admit that all is not well.  But by and large, we find this life sweet, and we call death an enemy, and so it is.  Nevertheless, if we are to THINK God’s way we must get hold of the reality of the GLORY which is beyond the grave, or the incinerator.  How do we get there?  Let us imagine for ourselves a quiet exit.  A trim little boat called by our own name, beached on a sand-bank.  Then the friendly flood heaves beneath the keel and the prow is set straight to the shore of home; and the pilot stands on board, and as he takes the helm, all is well.  She’s gone!

So death is not so much something which happens to the christian, as something which God works for him.  The death of a christian is precious to God.  It is not a haphazard or chance thing, but part and parcel of his plan for his child.

Paul’s letters to the Corinthians display this truth wonderfully, and in verse 20 of chapter 15 Paul says that a whole new age has dawned with the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead: he is the first fruits of an immense harvest, consisting of all those who are in Christ.  If Christ was raised from the dead, it is clear that all those who, through the grace of God, are now IN Christ will also be raised from the dead.

The believer is promised rest, first of all, from the hardness of this life.  But our ultimate hope is that we will be given our resurrection bodies.  At death these old clothes are left behind and the soul enters the rest of the Lord’s immediate presence.  And at the second coming of Jesus there will be a body made to match the new life.

That body will be related to the present body as a flower is to its own seed, and it will be as transformed as when a seed issues in a flower.  The resurrection body, carefully chosen for each individual by the Master-Gardener will display that full maturity and perfection of each of our characters in Christ Jesus; and wonderfully transformed we will know each other.

But the climax is still to come!  It is the glory of Christ himself.  All heaven revolves around the Christ of Calvary – Jesus still bearing the marks of his death for us.  Those marks, in a sense, decorate our passport to that place where he is.  And if we would travel there, humble acceptance will be the only recognised currency of exchange.

 Yours very truly,

Ian Whittle

‘Story’   Jennifer Dines   20^th century

For us there are no certainties, no star

blazing our journey, no decisive dream

to reassure hurt hearts or warn us when

it’s time to move.  The shepherds, harassed men,

are given answers to the questions they

have never thought to ask.  Told where to go

and what to look for.  We try out our way

unlit with angels, wondering ‘How far?’

Yet in the story we find who we are:

the baby is told nothing, left to grow

slowly to vision through the coloured scheme

of touch, taste, sound; by needing learns to pray,

and makes the way of the flesh, dark stratagem

by which God is and offers all we know.