The Priory Church of St Mary and the Holy Cross is open daily between 10am and 4.00pm for individual prayer in line with social distancing and  hand hygiene guidelines.

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

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,

We enter now the Winter Season, this is Advent, which is the Coming of Our Lord as a baby at Bethlehem, and a month of Preparation for the Great Feast of Christmas, which marks the Beginning of our walk with the Saviour of the World.  There is no present like it.

And how do we keep in touch?  We pray.

All must pray to somebody or something.  As Homer wrote (Odyssey 3:48), Everyone needs the gods.  The word comes from precari, to beg or entreat.  Luis of Grenada (1504 – 88), the Dominican authority, wrote:

‘Prayer, properly speaking, is a petition which we make to God for the things which pertain to our salvation.  But it is also taken in another, broader sense to mean any raising of the heart of God.’  As Bishop Jeremy Taylor (loathed Northern Ireland and the rain, ungrateful man) says, ‘prayer is “the assent of the mind to God”.’

Let us pray for peace, forgiveness, contentment; and enjoy after the strictures of Advent, the Celebration of Christmas.

May I wish you a thoughtful December and a Glorious Christmas and New Year.

Yours truly,

Ian Whittle.

 

 

A trapped bird

A wrecked ship

An empty cup

  A withered tree

Is he

Who scorns the will of the King above.

 

Pure gold

Bright sun

Filled wine-cup

Happy beautiful holy

 Is he

Who does the will of the King of love.

Brendan Kennelly