Dear Friends,
Thank you all for the efficient and good-humoured AGM of Parishioners last Sunday. The new Vestry which you elected appears to be in a mood for growth and renewal. Today at the Sung Mass they, with the Wardens and Synod Representatives, will be commissioned for service through the year ahead.
For the last year, S. Michael’s has been providing some financial support for the ministry of S. Chad’s Church, which is serving its local community of Linwood imaginatively and vigorously. At the Vestry meeting on Tuesday this support was confirmed for the year ahead.
Next Thursday is Ascension Day, the fortieth day of Easter. The principal Mass of the day will be at S. Luke’s Church, Manchester Street, at 7:30 pm. The Vicar and parishioners of S. Luke’s have invited us all to join them there for this celebration, as has become our custom. The Masses at S. Michael’s Church will be at 8:40 am (School Mass, to which all are invited), and 12:15 pm (with laying-on of hands and anointing for healing).
Michael Leunig has a prayer:
Let us live in such a way
that when we die
our love will survive
and continue to grow. Amen.
That simple prayer sums up the vocation of every Christian person. At this time of the Christian year, near the end of the great fifty days of Easter, we turn from Jesus Christ and his story of victory over death and all that spoils human life, to the lives of all of us who seek, at his invitation, to live in his way. That which in Jesus’ life and death is expressive of the nature of God, is poured into us and expressed in our lives, by the power of the Holy Spirit. In other words, when we are faithful, we ourselves are part of the wonderful process of his love surviving and continuing to grow.
It is customary from Ascension Day until Pentecost to pray for the unity of Christians. This is not just a desirable extra, but the very measure of our faithfulness and credibility.
May God bless you all.
Fr Peter Williams
S. Michael’s Vestry 2010
Vicar: Fr Peter Williams
Priest Assistant: Revd Lynne Horwood
Churchwardens: Robert Maclagan Claire Anstice
Synodspeople: Tim Hill Michael Graveston
Elected Members: Dorothy Burrows Denis Coulter
Peter Daniels John De la Bere
Jane Evans John Fowler
Michae
Peter Troon
