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

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

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Dear Friends and Parishioners,

In my growing up years I very much enjoyed Patrick Leigh Fermor’s “A Time of Gifts’; his diary of an encounter-filled walk, between the wars, from London to Constantinople.  So many people gave him so very much in all sorts of ways.  I’d recommend it to you.

In the days of my getting better after recent pneumonia and in these days of spring and summer re-sowing, his title ‘A Time of Gifts’ seems an apt theme, and not just for me.  We are not properly defined by what we have, but rather by how we gift.  A bunch of buttercups given with love has more of gold about them than the costliest thing given coldly.  A cup of tea proffered with love is better than the finest meal prompted by guilt or pride.  Simplicity and a warm heart always win.  What a relief for the poor and kind!  And what an opportunity for us all to do good and bring pleasure where we can.  In my weeks of relative incapacity I have been touched by so many acts of kindness: offers of help, delicious meals, lovely flowers, colleagues taking services; and both wedding couples and bereaved families being very tolerant of the poor parson creeping along with his occasional groan.  At home, I  have been cared for wonderfully well.

A few summers ago I remember lying on a warm bank looking at the great, powerful Roman aqueduct which has stood for two and a half thousand years in the south of France; and in front of this monumental, even grim, structure two yellow butterflies danced before the Pont du Gard, the sky blue, the air scented.  Simplicity and kindness.  What gifts!

Yours very truly,

Ian Whittle.

The Call

Come, my Way, my Truth, my Life:/ Such a Way, as gives us breath:/ Such a Truth as ends all strife:/ Such a Life, as killeth death.

 Come, my Light, my Feast, my Strength:/ Such a Light, as shows a feast:/ Such a Feast, as mends in length:/ Such a Strength, as makes his guest.

Come, my Joy, my Love, my Heart:/ Such a Joy, as none can move:/ Such a Love, as none can part:/ Such a Heart, as joyes in love.

George Herbert 17^th c.