Dear Friends,
I am glad that Dr Marla Hughes is leaving the children and preaching to the grown-ups at this morning’s Sung Mass. We appreciate her leading of the Sunday School and her preparing of the School baptismal candidates, but it is also good to use the experience she gained as a preacher in her former Episcopal Church in Washington DC.
Thank you to the Ginger Group and those who made last Saturday’s Midwinter Mingle such a success. Even I, half dead with a cold, was caught up in the activities and really enjoyed it. We look forward to the next one.
The S. Michael’s Church School Board has recently received the resignation of the Revd Lynne Horwood as Deputy Principal and Year 8 Teacher, to take effect at the end of the year. I leave it to her to tell you of her plans, but we are not expecting any change in the near future in her much appreciated ministry in S. Michael’s Parish.
As I write this in what can only be glorious spring sunshine, I am recovering from our celebration of Holy Baptism in which 14 young people of the School were baptised, and welcomed into the Church. The annual offer of baptism to School pupils leads to a lot of preparatory work, all of which is amply rewarded in the joy in the children’s faces as they carry their candles from the font to the altar. I am grateful to Lynne Horwood and Marla Hughes for their contribution, and for the whole community as it supports these young people.
On Tuesday we farewelled Dorothy Pratt, who has been a faithful (more recently house-bound) parishioner since the 1960s. May she rest in peace.
The Diocesan Synod will meet on Saturday 4 September, from 8:30 am until 9:00 pm. The new venue this year is the Christian Cullen Lounge at the Addington Events Centre, Twigger Street, Addington. The Synod Eucharist will be at the Cathedral at 7:00 pm on the preceding evening. You are welcome to attend this Eucharist and to visit the Synod if you wish.
That Saturday, 4 September, is the 100th anniversary of the Induction of the Revd H.D. Burton as Vicar of S. Michael’s. He had arrived from England with his wife and daughters two weeks before, aboard the Runic. We shall make much more of this anniversary at All Saintstide with our Affirming Catholics weekend.
This evening Evensong will be led by the Chamber Choir The Ten, a young people’s choir directed by Paul Ellis. And next Sunday at Evensong, with music in praise of God, we shall especially remember the late John Middleton, who was a former Director of Music here.
May God bless you all.
Fr Peter Williams
