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Author: Fr. Matthew

  • Announcement & News

    A season for everything.

    A sad goodbye.

    This is not an easy letter to write. But when God calls, we must answer. 

    A few weeks ago the Bishop of Plymouth invited me to take up the post of Vicar of Bovey Tracey St John with Heathfield and Team Vicar in the Newton Abbot Team Ministry with special responsibility for the parish of St Luke, Milber in the Diocese of Exeter. I have accepted this offer and subject to the completion of all legal formalities will be leaving St. Anselm on Easter Sunday before taking up my new post in mid-April. 

    This news was shared at mass on Sunday in both St. Anselm and in the parishes in Exeter Diocese, you can read the full announcement below. 

    Catherine, Edmund and I have shared the most amazing 4 and a bit years with you. I was writing letters and covering masses from October 2019 and was put in officially in July 2020 in between lockdowns. 

    It was a tough old time for everyone, but we pulled together and over the last 3 years in particular have seen a huge resurgence in St. Anselm. 

    We have re-grown the congregation and worshiping community to over 100 people, we have sorted the finances, we have two new amazing church wardens and a keen PCC. We have a new Mission Priest and we have ‘unsuspended’ the parish – meaning a new Vicar will be with you after I leave.

    St. Anslem is in a strong place and I know that my departure will open up new opportunities, ideas, and thinking. 

    We love you all very much and look forward to sharing the next few months together; celebrating what has been achieved and working to look to the next season of praising God at St. Anselm – where will the Holy Spirit take us next!?

    Fr. Matthew, Catherine & Edmund. x 

    The following letter was read out in all parishes on Sunday 7th January.

    AnnouncementDownload

    Notices for this week

    If you would like to read at Church on Sunday Mornings please be in touch with Susan Chick. We’ve loved hearing from new people and hearing new languages. There is a rota on the display board at the back of church to sign up. 

    Sunday School returns for the new year NEXT week (14th). We’re so grateful to our volunteers but it would be really helpful for others to help out. If you’ve got ideas on more we can be doing to encourage children to be a fuller member of our family, please be in touch with Fr. Josiah or Susan Chick. 

    Fr. Matthew will be offering home blessings this coming week as we celebrate Epiphany. If you would like your home blessed please be in touch with him directly or use the sign up sheet at the back of church. 

    Please support the church generously through your giving via – stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 7th JanuaryDownload

    Readings for Sunday.

  • News for 7th January

    Notices for this week

    There will be an announcement at Mass this Sunday.

    If you would like to read at Church on Sunday Mornings please be in touch with Susan Chick. We’ve loved hearing from new people and hearing new languages. There is a rota on the display board at the back of church to sign up. 

    Sunday School returns for the new year NEXT week (14th). We’re so grateful to our volunteers but it would be really helpful for others to help out. If you’ve got ideas on more we can be doing to encourage children to be a fuller member of our family, please be in touch with Fr. Josiah or Susan Chick. 

    Fr. Matthew will be offering home blessings this coming week as we celebrate Epiphany. If you would like your home blessed please be in touch with him directly or use the sign up sheet at the back of church. 

    Please support the church generously through your giving via – stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 7th January Download

    Readings for Sunday.

  • News for Christmas & New Year

    The Holy Family, a model of love.

    A new year means turning over a new leaf.

    When I was younger I remember thinking that we had to go our and find a leaf to turn over. I was irritated because I couldn’t write on the leaf and physically turn it over. So I made my own leaf and wrote on it all the things I was going to do that year.

    I was going to be better behaved. I was going to stop ‘answering back’. I was going to be a better son. 

    In many ways my behaviour in those years was born out of the fact my family was broken through divorce. I lived out the reality of hurt and pain that for years coloured my understanding of what a family was supposed to be. 

    When people talked abut the perfect family I would laugh at them, “there’s no such thing”. Even though I went to chapel every week nobody ever told me we had the perfect model of  family before us all the time – The Holy Family. 

    A model of motherly love, of fatherly sacrifice, of a family who held together in the darkness and for whom God (quite literally!) was a the centre of all things.

    Our families are all different. They are broken in many ways, they are big and small, over the top, quiet, difficult, fun. Loud, noisy, difficult, quiet.  The Holy Family experienced all of these things and endured them. 

    Sometimes that is what we must do as well. Endure. Be obedient and open to what God is calling us to do in our families and make sure above all things God is right in the heart of them. 

    It doesn’t matter that we don’t always get it right, what matters is that God is there in the middle of it all. 

    Then, when things do go wrong, there’s a chance that something beautiful may come out of it. 

    Fr. Matthew

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 24th December – 7th JanuaryDownload

    Readings for Sunday 24th December

    Readings for Sunday 31st December

    Other news

    Services for the next two weeks and for Christmas Day are listed on the pew sheet and on the website. Do try to come to the carols and crib service at 3pm on Christmas Eve. It’s a lovely service that will warm your heart ahead of the big day.

    Midnight mass will be as usual at 11:30pm on Christmas Eve – a powerful service to welcome and celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ!

    All of us at St. Anselm wish you a very merry Christmas and a prosperous and blessed New Year. 

    There will be a special announcement at Mass on the 7th January.

    Please support the church generously this Advent through your giving. stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving

  • News for 17th December

    Carols, & powerful joy of Jesus!

    As I sit to write this week I am smiling as I think of singing out loudly at the Ace Cafe this morning.

    We left St. Anselm at 8am and arrived at the Ace to tea, coffee, and bacon sandwiches (well I did!)

    A group of people who had never met congregated and started to practice Hark The Herald Angels Sing 

    We were lucky to have a great guitar player with us and even luckier to find someone who could play the drum. I say drum… it was an upside down empty tub of Hellmann’s mayonnaise!

    We did not sound glorious. 

    We were not note perfect, we were gruff, out of tune and by any professional standard – a very poor choir. 

    But the smiles on our faces were enormous! The simple act of singing together brought out joy that was hidden somewhere deep down inside. Somehow, singing of the coming of Jesus enabled us to see one another in this joyful light and to put aside the usual London reserve. 

    People watched us as they munched their own breakfasts and builders and businessmen alike looked up and smiled – and even joined in!

    The reason we were singing was part of a BBC Radio London series on carol choirs across London and how they make people smile and feel included.

    I love these moments of pure Christian joy when the love of Jesus is shown in it’s simplest form… joy.

    Be joyful this week amongst the business ahead. If you feel yourself getting grumpy… just sing a carol!

    Fr. Matthew

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 17th DecemberDownload

    Readings for Sunday 17th December

    Other news

    The Indian Orthodox church who use the church on Sunday afternoons have invited us to join them for carols by their children and some refreshments THIS Sunday 17th December, 3pm – 5:30pm. Fr. Matthew & Fr. Josiah will be in attendance.

    Holy Hour will be at 5pm on Sunday and I really encourage you to come to this last one before Christmas. An hour in front of the Blessed Sacrament will put you in exactly the right place for the busy period ahead.

    Services for next Sunday and for Christmas Day are listed on the pew sheet and on the website. Do try to come to the carols and crib service at 3pm on Christmas Eve. It’s a lovely service that will warm your heart ahead of the big day.

    Midnight mass will be as usual at 11:30pm on Christmas Eve – a power service to welcome and celebrate the incarnation of Jesus Christ!

    Please support the church generously this Advent through your giving. stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving

  • Advent & Christmas ’23

    We have a wonderful collection of services and events over the Advent and Christmas season this year. Please do join us for these, and many other services this year.

    17th December

    • 10am – Children’s Christmas Mass
    • 3pm – Carols with St. Mary’s Indian Orthodox Church at St. Anselm

    Christmas Eve

    • 10am – Parish Mass
    • 3pm – Crib & Carol Service
    • 11:30pm – Midnight Mass

    Christmas Day

    • 10am, Christmas Day Mass

  • News for 10th December

    Holy Hour, desiring God.

    Last week we began our Advent dedication of Holy Hour on Sunday evenings. 

    It was really lovely to share an hour of silence with you all before the Blessed Sacrament and to pray in earnest for the life of the parish. 

    As I sat and prayed I was moved by a prayer of St. Anselm that I commend to you all this second week of Advent.

    “Let me seek you by desiring you, and desire you by seeking you; Let me find you by loving you, and love you in finding you.”

    Prayer is a DOING task. It is not something we do when all else fails, but something we DO expecting it the change things. 

    In praying we expect God to turn up. 

    I think a lot of people struggle with that part of prayer. 

    Prayer can sometimes feel like shouting into the void, but time and time again scripture shows us the great and real power of prayer. 

    The only way to understand the power of prayer – and the deep love that God has for you – is to DO it, and to DO it desiring what God has planned for you and those around you.

    Holy Hour is not a time to sit quietly and collect your thoughts – good though that can be.

    It is a time to concentrate on desiring God, of seeking God in your life and in that desire and seeking – in prayer – finding God’s love (and plan) for YOU.

    Fr. Matthew

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 10th DecemberDownload

    Readings for Sunday 10th December

    Other News

    During Advent we will hold a ‘holy hour’ before the Blessed Sacrament this Sunday at 5pm (please note the time change). 

    NEXT week is our special mass led by our wonderful Children. They will offer the readings, the prayers and a little something especially for Christmas. Please do come along and support them, and maybe bring some new friends.

    The Indian Orthodox church who use the church on Sunday afternoons have invited us to join them for carols by their children and some refreshments THIS Sunday 17th December, 3pm – 5:30pm. Fr. Matthew & Fr. Josiah will be in attendance.

    As we move towards planting a new church at The Ace Cafe in the new year we’ve been asked to provide a choir for BBC News on the 14th December at 9am at The Ace to sing out the morning news with Hark The Herald Angels Sing. There will be a minibus leaving St. Anselm at 8am on Thursday and we will have breakfast together after the carols before returning to Hayes.

  • News for 3rd December

    Holy Hour, time before Christ.

    As we start Advent we’re introducing a new service on Sunday afternoons at 4pm. Holy Hour. 

    What is a Holy Hour? Why is it important? How can it help us connect with Jesus?

    A Holy Hour is a time of silence in prayer and contemplation before the Blessed Sacrament. 

    It was a Bishop in the USA who first introduced me to the idea of a Holy Hour,

    Bishop Fulton Sheen said that the purpose of the Holy Hour—a sustained, uninterrupted hour of prayer in the presence of the Blessed Sacrament—is to encourage a deep personal encounter with Christ. 

    “Looking at the Eucharistic Lord for an hour,” he wrote, “transforms the heart in a mysterious way.” 

    In Advent we wait, we hope, and we look. 

    The Holy Hour enables all three of these things and trains our hearts to wait on the Lord, to hope in the Lord and to Look upon the Lord. 

    For each one of us those things will manifest in a different way. 

    What does waiting on the Lord mean to you? Ask this question before the Blessed Sacrament. 

    What does hoping in the Lord feel like for you? Ask this question before the Blessed Sacrament.

    What does looking on the Lord prompt you to pray for? Ask this question before the Blessed Sacrament.

    You’ll be able to join in this special time online as well as in person, but do try to find at least one Sunday in Advent to come in person and experience the powerful presence of Jesus.

    Fr. Matthew

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 3rd DecemberDownload

    Readings for Sunday 3rd December

    Other news

    Christmas concert with The Yiewsley and West Drayton Band is on Friday 1st December at 8pm, in St. Anselm. Ticket costs £5 and are available on the website.   

    During Advent we will hold a ‘holy hour’ before the Blessed Sacrament each Sunday at 4pm. 

    NEXT week is Sunday School and we are planning to present a special children’s mass on the 17th December so we will need all the children NEXT Sunday at 11:30am.

    Thursday Fun & Fellowship this Thursday! Come along and play some games and get to know new people. 

    The Indian Orthodox church who use the church on Sunday afternoons have invited us to join them for carols by their children and some refreshments on Sunday 17th December, 3pm – 5:30pm. Fr. Matthew & Fr. Josiah will be in attendance.

    As we move towards planting a new church at The Ace Cafe in the new year we’ve been asked to provide a choir for BBC News on the 14th December at 9am at The Ace to sing out the morning news with Hark The Herald Angels Sing. If you’d like to be part of this please speak to Fr. Matthew. 

    Please support the church generously this Advent through your giving. stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving 

  • News for 26th November

    Christ the King.

    When we think of Jesus as King I often wonder if we are missing a great deal of His teaching. 

    Jesus told us time and time again that He wasn’t the King that the Jewish people were expecting – coming with horses and chariots to free them from the rule of the Romans.

    He entered Jerusalem in triumph on Palm Sunday not with horses and chariots – but on the back of a donkey. 

    So why then do we enthrone Him on this very special Sunday? Why do we show him upon a throne, decked out in regal attire and ruling over us as an earthly King?

    The point of this elevation is to highlight Jesus as ‘Christ’ which in itself is a royal title meaning ‘King’ – although of course not in the way that the secular world understands (even Pilate misunderstands it when he called Jesus ‘King of the Jews’).

    It is a way of understanding Jesus as King of Heaven and the world to come. He sits enthroned on David’s throne (Lk 1:30-32) as promised by the Angel Gabriel. 

    The feast today marks the end of Ordinary Time, next Sunday we begin Advent and the start of another liturgical year.

    We end Ordinary Time on a high – with a Feast and a celebration of Jesus Kingship – and a reminder of what Jesus commands us to do in scripture. 

    Jesus commands us to feed the hungry to give drink to the thirsty, to clothe the naked, to harbour the harbourless, to visit the sick, to ransom the captive and to bury the dead.

    How will you respond to Jesus command this advent?

    Fr. Matthew

    Downloads

    26th-November-2023Download

    Readings for Sunday 26th November

    Other news

    Christmas concert with The Yiewsley and West Drayton Band is on Friday 1st December at 8pm, in St. Anselm. Ticket costs £5 and is available on the website.   

    THIS week is Sunday School and we are planning to present a surprise package in December so we will need all the children THIS Sunday at 11:30am.

    Children’s Mass for Winter Term will be on Sunday 17th December at 10am. 

    Thursday Fun & Fellowship this Thursday! Come along and play some games and get to know new people. 

    The funeral of Norma Pigott will take place here at St. Anselm this Wednesday November at 11am.

    The Indian Orthodox church who use the church on Sunday afternoons have invited us to join them for carols by their children and some refreshments on Sunday 17th December, 3pm – 5:30pm. Fr. Matthew & Fr. Josiah will be in attendance. 

    Please be aware that mass will be in the evening on Tuesday and Wednesday this week.

    The prayer list will be re-published next Sunday. If you would like to remain / have a name on the list please be in touch with Susan this week. 

    Please support the church generously this Advent through your giving. stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving 

  • News for November 12th

    Remembrance & service.

    Last week I spoke about the sacrifice of service. How in service to God we are called to serve one another and that service often comes with sacrifice.

    In the case of St. Martin he sacrificed his cloak in service to the poor – and in doing so attracted the attention of God who made his cloak whole again.

    On Remembrance Sunday we remember all those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the service of our country and of God. All those men and women who have laid down their lives that we may live in a free and fair society.

    We remember the young men who fought in the trenches of World War 1. 

    We remember the young men who threw themselves at the evil of fascism in the Second World War.

    We remember all those families who lost their loved ones, who lost people through physical injuries or through the pain and torment of mental ill health upon their return.

    We remember that sometimes it is our duty to stand up and to fight for what is right. To stand in the face of evil and to say no.

    The thing about service is that any damage, any loss, is always made whole again by God. 

    Just as an angel made whole St. Martin’s cloak so too will He make our brokenness whole.

    He heals us, He brings us peace, He calls us all to be with Him in Heaven if we’re willing to hear Him and believe in His Son.

    We will remember them. We will be healed.

    Fr. Matthew

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 12th NovemberDownload

    Readings are available in the special order of service for this Sunday in church.

    Other news

    Sunday School THIS WEEK.

    Thursday Fun & Fellowship is back this Thursday! Come along and play some games and get to know new people. 

    The funeral of Norma Pigott will take place here at St. Anselm on Wednesday 29th November at 11am.

    The Christmas Tree and Town Lights turn on will once again take place at St. Anselm, this year on the 16th November at 4pm with a joint primary schools choir concert and the switch on at 4:30pm. The mayor will be with us once again.

    Please sign up for Parish Giving (which is a wonderful way to support St. Anselm and helps us claim more money from the government) Go to stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving or call the Parish Giving Team directly on 0333 002 1271 quoting our parish number, which is: 230 623 503.

  • News for 5th November

    Service involves sacrifice.

    When I was small I loved the story of St. Martin. A man who when he met a beggar without clothes in the middle of winter used his sword to cut his own cloak in half to clothe this poor man – an act of instinctive love.

    He was a Roman soldier and became a Christian at a young age. He left the military in the years before 361AD and joined the church. He became Bishop of Tours in 371AD and was known for his opposition to the violent oppression of those who disagreed with the State.

    But, it’s the story of the cloak that continues to grab the attention. After he had cut his cloak he went to bed that night and experienced a vision – Jesus came to him in his dream dressed in the cloak that he had given to the beggar and said “Martin, who is still but a catechumen, clothed me with this robe”. He woke to find that his robe had been restored to its full and complete length. 

    This vision profoundly affected St. Martin (who wouldn’t be!?) and he was baptised at 18. 

    An interesting historical side note is the impact this cloak had on our language. Priests who cared for the relic of the actual cloak that St. Martin wore were called ‘cappellanu’ and subsequently all Priests who served in the army were called ‘cappellani’ or in French – ‘chapelains’ which is where our word for ‘chaplain’ comes from. 

    Also, the little churches that were set up to care for the ‘little cloak’ when it was on tour were called ‘capella’. Ultimately those small churches lost their association with the cloak – and became ‘chapels’. 

    All this from a cloak cut in half to care for the poorest. All this from an act of instinctive love. 

    Inspiring stuff. Who will we serve this week? What sacrifice will we make that will be repaid a 100 times by Jesus?

    Fr. Matthew

    Downloads

    Bulletin for 5th NovemberDownload

    Readings for 5th November

    Other news

    Sunday School NEXT WEEK.

    No Thursday Fun & Fellowship this week.

    The funeral of Norma Pigott will take place here at St. Anselm on Wednesday 29th November at 11am.

    The Christmas Tree and Town Lights turn on will once again take place at St. Anselm, this year on the 16th November at 4pm with a joint primary schools choir concert and the switch on at 4:30pm. The mayor will be with us once again.

    Please sign up for Parish Giving (which is a wonderful way to support St. Anselm and helps us claim more money from the government) Go to stanselm.matthewcashmore.com/giving or call the Parish Giving Team directly on 0333 002 1271 quoting our parish number, which is: 230 623 503.