Priest’s Blog ~ July 2020 Trinity 4 Dear friends, Friends old and new. Another week has rolled on and covid-19 is still very much with us, our guard must remain up. Please keep doing what you have been doing. That is keeping safe and well. We can now see a return to Holy Communion on the distant horizon. Rochester Cathedral … Read More
Priest’s Blog ~ June 2020 ASK: Trinity 2 Dear Friends, Well it has happened, Gordon has gone from our everyday lives. Gone but will return for the real leaving and the presents and the party. We wish him, Jessica and Maria well in their new life in Rochester and in their new home. Life, as they say, must go on, … Read More
Priest’s Blog ~ June 2020ASK: Trinity 1 Dear friends, I hope the past week has been good for you and that you remain safe and well. Apart from pounding the pavements of Bush Hill Park ours has been much the same as every other in this very strange time. But there have been a couple of little highlights. On Monday … Read More
Vicar’s Blog ~ May 2020 ASK: Pentecost Dear friends, Nearly twenty years ago, just after the Millennium had inspired us in all sorts of ways, folk began to notice that over the horizon was the year 2020. Not quite palindromic, it is a double number, of promise, and of course, of vision. With eyesight so much in the news this … Read More
Vicar’s Blog ~ May 2020 ASK Easter 7 Dear Friends, Another Bank Holiday weekend at home arrives swiftly on the tails of the last one. I do hope you can enjoy it in some way. Last week I talked about inching forward – perhaps this was ambitious and I should have used the lesser measurement of a centimetre, Brexit notwithstanding! … Read More
Vicar’s Blog ~ May 2020 ASK: Easter 6 Dear friends, Another week of lockdown passes, and we now hear that London has moved from being one of the worst-infected areas of the country to the lower end of the scale of suffering. We can be thankful for small mercies, without complacency or lack or realism. As with everything else we … Read More
Vicar’s Blog ~ May 2020 Easter 5 Dear Friends, I hope and pray the bank holiday is treating you well and you are getting some sunshine! This has become a weekly weekend missive, and now we have passed forty days and nights of lockdown, we are becoming used to being a parish church connected more virtually than physically. The fact … Read More
The Collect of the Day is said or sung. Almighty God, who through your only-begotten Son Jesus Christ have overcome death and opened to us the gate of everlasting life: grant that, as by your grace going before us you put into our minds good desires, so by your continual help we may bring them to good effect; through Jesus … Read More
Jayne Buckland is having a tough time in and out of hospital, but has had some remarkable healing as well as illness. She sends this greeting to us all: Thank you to the Care and Prayer Group and friends at St Mary Magdalene who have kindly included me in their prayers. The past weeks in hospital have been challenging, it helps … Read More
The Magazine is available on the Church Website here. If you know of anyone who would like a hard copy, please let me know. The Sermon is at: https://stmarymagdalene.church/sermons/ If you would like to join in with a daily prayer video for a minute or so each day, then I commend to you the ‘Daily Prayer’ on the Rochester Cathedral … Read More
Collects and Readings Prayer for the Week Almighty God, whose Son Jesus Christ is the resurrection and the life: raise us, who trust in him, from the death of sin to the life of righteousness, that we may seek those things which are above, where he reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and … Read More
Vicar’s Blog ~ May 2020ASK Easter 4 Dear Friends, Perhaps this saying is familiar to you: God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom to know the difference. The prayer this is based on was composed by American theologian Reinhold Niebuhr sometime around 1932. It has been … Read More
Collect Almighty Father, who in your great mercy gladdened the disciples with the sight of the risen Lord: give us such knowledge of his presence with us, that we may be strengthened and sustained by his risen life and serve you continually in righteousness and truth; through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord, who is alive and reigns with you, … Read More
Notices: Mo’s Sermon (text and recording) for this Sunday is uploaded at the usual place: https://stmarymagdalene.church/sermons/ CHRISTIAN AID WEEK is by no means cancelled, and we will be letting you know in the forthcoming magazine how it will work this year. Any donations received through our website will go to Christian Aid. OBERAMMERGAU folk – do not worry, your money is safe, … Read More
Vicar’s Blog ~ April 2020ASK – Easter 3 Dear friends, I don’t often quote a bank, but the phrase used by Barclays this week, ‘we may be further apart but we have never been closer’ has special resonance, not only at this time, but for us the community of Christ. We have always felt close to others from whom we … Read More
Collect Almighty Father, you have given your only Son to die for our sins and to rise again for our justification: grant us so to put away the leaven of malice and wickedness that we may always serve you in pureness of living and truth; through the merits of your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who is alive and reigns … Read More
Vicar’s Blog ~ April 2020Ask: Lock down Christ is risen: Alleluia! He is risen indeed! Alleluia! Dear friends, The lock down has been extended, which comes as no surprise really. Perhaps we are getting used to it in a strange way. I hope and pray that everyone is well and coping. Jayne B is in hospital (not with the virus), so … Read More
Collect Lord of all life and power, who through the mighty resurrection of your Son overcame the old order of sin and death to make all things new in him: grant that we, being dead to sin and alive to you in Jesus Christ, may reign with him in glory; to whom with you and the Holy Spirit be praise … Read More
NoticesOn Maundy Thursday (7.30pm), there is a ‘liturgy’ for celebrating an Agape meal at home yourselves. It works even for one person. It is not Communion, but it will unite us. The Agape Meal material is here. If you would like to join in the keeping of the Gospel of the Watch after supper on Maundy Thursday (9pm), then you … Read More
Stewardship letter 2020 Dear friends, Two years have gone by and it is time to write to you again about Stewardship. It is, of course, the continued commitment of time, talents and money that you all give so freely and generously that allows us to survive and I thank you all for that. We live, as the Chinese curse has … Read More
