From the Vicar…
Dear Friends,
We are fortunate to have the Labour Day public holiday at this beautiful time of year. I hope that all of you can make the most of the holiday weekend to enjoy the beauty of our city in its most striking season. Every day I am enjoying the blossoms and the new green on the trees. It will be good when the gentle sunshine becomes more stable, and the icy southerlies begin to leave us alone. A warm welcome to any of you who are visiting Christchurch and S. Michael’s at this time.
Thank you for the welcome you gave S. Luke’s people as they joined us last Sunday morning while celebrating their sesquicentenary. The re-enactment walk to S. Luke’s went very well, and it was good also to join them as the Bishop of Christchurch presided over their Festival Mass in the evening,
The sermons of the day drew attention to the particular contributions of S. Luke ‘whose praise is in the Gospel’. In a few weeks we shall start reading the Gospel of Luke again Sunday by Sunday, and we shall be able to get into the brilliant Christian mind and imagination of this writer, whom God has used so powerfully.
Among many other things, I am very conscious of the pains that that Gospel writer took to show that the good news of Jesus Christ is for absolutely everyone. If anyone is excluded from the promise of the Gospel, then it cannot be good news at all. Despite the tendency among some Christians in our time to proclaim it in a very conditional way, God’s acceptance and love are unconditional.
Next Sunday is All Saints’ Day, when at all our services we shall praise and thank God for the lives of those the Church honours for their remarkable lives. On Monday, All Souls’ Day, we remember with love our own faithful departed.
At this time of year, we again invite anyone interested in participating in some sessions of Christian enquiry to get in touch with me or the Revd Lynne Horwood. You may be moved by curiosity, or by a desire to be baptised, or in order to be prepared for renewal of your baptismal commitments. Does your life need some spiritual strengthening at its centre? Does your church membership need some resourcing and encouraging? Do you want a new springtime in your life? This may be your opportunity.
May God bless you all.
Fr Peter Williams
All Souls’ Day, 2 November
There will be a said Requiem Mass at 8:00 am and Solemn Sung Requiem at 6:30 pm.
The lists of names of the departed are at the back of the church and in the hall today. Please check these for accuracy and indicate which names are to be remembered at 8:00 am. All others will be read at 6:30 pm. There is space for additional names.
If you wish to a name to be read at one of the Masses on All Souls’ Day, either add the name to the list in the church or contact the Trumpet (03) 981 7582 or trumpet@smaa.clear.net.nz before midday on Friday 30 October.
