Rooted in the parish, in scripture & sacrament and a love of proclaiming Christ.
When I first arrived in the parish just over two years ago it was clear that we needed to focus on the most important things in our life as a community of Christians.
I told you that we should be rooted in the parish, rooted in scripture & sacrament and rooted in a love of proclaiming Christ.
As we have journeyed together we have kept to this simple vision and everything we have done has been rooted in either parish, scripture & sacrament or evangelism.
Through these very simple things we have seen our congregation grow – quite significantly over COVID – then shrink as the omicron variant came for us – and now grow again as we step out in faith once more.
We have attracted new people not because we have a new flashy building or because have new flashing initiates or a new flashy Priest!
No, we have grown because we have kept to the simple love of Christ around us, concentrated on the parish, concentrated on our bibles & our daily prayers and mass and concentrated on simply telling people how amazing a relationship with Jesus is.
As we step forward into the next phase of our life together, as we welcome a second Priest and look to the future we must not lose site of these simple truths.
We are a growing and loving family of Christians who care for one another and those around us because Jesus calls us to do so. It’s that simple.
Next Sunday there will be no 10am Mass in order to give you an opportunity to come to the 4pm Evening Prayer & Benediction service for Fr. Josiah. There will be an 8am BCP Mass in the Lady Chapel.
2nd October at 4pm – we will be licensing and commissioning Fr. Josiah into St. Anselm at a special service of Evening Prayer & Benediction with Bishop Jonathan. I’d like to throw a huge party for him afterwards – Can you please sign up to help provide food on the sheet at the back of church or let Fr. Matthew or Susan know what you can do to help.
Please make sure you’ve given Susan your photo and a short description of who you are for the book she is preparing for Fr. Josiah.
With our new organist starting we need to look to our giving. Strictly speaking we can’t afford Alexander, but we step out in faith and I know that you will look to increase your weekly giving to enjoy his amazing music here at St. Anselm. A small increase of £2.50 will enable us to continue to have live music on a Sunday morning.
Keep an eye on weekday services this week as they’ve moved around a little.
Our Queen has died and that seemed impossible. Her Majesty had somehow claimed immortal status in many of our minds. So her death has caused shock and a great sense of sadness and loss.
I have seen it in the hundreds of people who have come into church this week to light a candle, say a prayer and watch the live stream of Her Majesty lying in state in Westminster Hall.
For many it has reminded us that death is a reality that none of us can avoid.
As a great wit once said, ‘there are only two certainties in life – death and taxes’!
But the thing about the reality of death is that as Christians we know – for certain – that it has no power over us.
Yes we will leave this earthly life, but in doing so we will make our way to the heavenly life (we pray).
That is why it is so vital that we pray for the souls of the dead.
We pray that when they face the final judgment they will be held in the infinite mercy of God our Father and enter His kingdom.
Her Majesty may have left this kingdom, but an even greater one awaits.
Death, hopelessness, despair – they all share the same root – BUT – we destroy them, they have no power over us because we believe in Jesus Christ and in Him we are saved.
Alexander will be returning to church this Sunday (and indeed for the coming Sundays) as our new organist. Please do make him feel welcome and get those singing voices in tune!
2nd October at 4pm – we will be licensing and commissioning Fr. Josiah into St. Anselm at a special service of Evening Prayer & Benediction with Bishop Jonathan. I’d like to throw a huge party for him afterwards – Can you please sign up to help provide food on the sheet at the back of church or let Fr. Matthew or Susan know what you can do to help.
With our new organist starting we need to look to our giving. Strictly speaking we can’t afford Alexander, but we step out in faith and I know that you will look to increase your weekly giving to enjoy his amazing music here at St. Anselm. A small increase of £2.50 will enable us to continue to have live music on a Sunday morning.
Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth has been for so many of us a rock upon which we have felt able to cling to when times are tough. Her death will affect us in many different and profound ways.
Here at St. Anselm we will be offering prayers for her, and for her family as they process this news and start to deal with their own grief.
We offer a place of calm and peace for all to come and offer prayers, light a candle and sign a book of condolence.
You are warmly invited to come to St. Anselm during this difficult time; to sit, to be quiet, to reflect, to pray.
Services in the days ahead
We are open every day this week between 9am and 7pm for public mourning. Morning Prayer & Mass is at 9:45am each day and Evening Prayer is 6pm (except Friday).
We will be live streaming the funeral on the big screens in church on Monday. More details will be posted here. There will be no Live Stream of services on our webcam on the Monday of the funeral.
A special mass following the death of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Following the heartbreaking news of the death of our dear Lady Queen Elizabeth II our service this Sunday will be a special Holy Communion remembering her life and work, her dedication and service and above all things – her faith.
We will hold her and her family before Almighty God and pray for peace and comfort.
We are happy that an organist will be with us and we will be able to celebrate together with live music. Please do make a special effort to attend in person.
We will be welcoming Alexander to church this Sunday. He is coming to play the organ and see if this may be somewhere he’d like to play more regularly. I know we’ll give him a wonderful welcome.
A message from +Jonathan:
The sung mass for Holy Cross Day at St Andrew Holborn on Wednesday 14th September will be replaced by a Sung Mass of Requiem; you are all warmly invited to join me and to bring any of your congregations who may wish to attend. Refreshments will be simple.
Please note Rosary will be on Thursday evening this week.
2nd October at 4pm – we will be licensing and commissioning Fr. Josiah into St. Anselm at a special service of Evening Prayer & Benediction with Bishop Jonathan. I’d like to throw a huge party for him afterwards – can you please let me know if you’d like to help organise it – it would be great to have a huge spread and make him and his family feel really really welcome.
This article was first published in the April 2020 copy of Ave Magazine – the magazine of The Society of Mary. It’s re-published here today as the relics of St. Bernadette arrive at the Immaculate Heart of Mary RC church in Hayes.
Lourdes has always been near the top of my list of places to visit. A special place that I had read about, heard people talk about and had seen in films and TV documentaries over many years. The barrier – always – was that when you start talking to people about Lourdes you’re told – quite clearly – that it is the Disney Land of the Catholic world. That simple description put me off for longer than it should. Finally, after a dear friend convinced me the time was right, we booked tickets (thank you Ryan Air) and an AirBnB (don’t book one at the top of the hill) and off we set.
They were right. We landed and it became apparent immediately that Lourdes is big business. Tours, busses, busy pilgrim groups, posters, noise, shops, noise, so many people. It was utterly overwhelming. The energy of the place is palpable and as we arrived at our apartment late at night there was a great sense of expectation and energy for our retreat. Exactly the same kind of energy and expectation that I had experienced as a child arriving at Pontins. This was hardly the right kind of spiritual preparation that the shrine deserved, and I went to sleep that night berating myself for this lack of decorum.
We woke the following day, both a little more collected in our thoughts as we put on our cassocks and prepared to walk down the hill to the shrine complex. All my fears were confirmed as we walked the mile or so through Lourdes, we passed shop after shop selling tacky, tawdry trinkets. Glow in the dark statues of Our Lady, glass statues filled with multi-coloured sand, rosaries with beads the size of tennis balls. We were, of course, above such things and kept our minds firmly on visiting the grotto where the story of Our Lady of Lourdes began.
Fighting our way through the crowds in the square in front of the basilica we made it to the grotto – well, we made it to the queue for the grotto. It remained out of site beyond a line of tourists – iPhones and selfie sticks out, gossiping and laughing as they waited to visit one of the most holy places in Western Europe.
Everything I had come to expect of the place was true. The noise, the tackiness, the tourists – all of it. But then, as the line started to enter the grotto a peculiar thing happened. The iPhones were put away, the selfie sticks collapsed. The gossiping stopped and a still calm surrounded us. We walked slowly through the grotto, our hands on the walls. Praying, smiling at others – slightly embarrassed by this public display of subdued prayer – and as we left the place we fell to our knees in the small outdoor chapel in front of the grotto. Nothing to say to one another, nothing to explain, just silence and prayer in this extraordinary place.
Later that day we visited the mill where St. Bernadette had lived with her family and spoke to her great-great-great-great (ish) nephew who smiled awkwardly at us as we asked what it was like being related to a saint. At the end of our tour we asked if we could pray at her bedside – he closed the museum and opened up the glass shutters protecting her bedroom and watched as we knelt at her bed and prayed the rosary exactly where she had.
Leaving the museum, again wrapped in our own silence and stillness we stopped at a shop selling antique medals and sifted through a basket full of old bits of tin. Pilgrim badges, saints, scapulars… we could find every saint except Bernadette. Finally, after spending the better part of twenty minutes searching this basket and spreading the medals out in the shop – we found the only two medals of St. Bernadette knelt in front of Our Lady. The shop owner had been watching us closely and as we discovered the medals, she could see the joy on our faces and refused to take payment – she then attached the medals to the rosaries we had just prayed with at St. Bernadette’s bedside.
We told her the story – she knew the family of old – and related just how unusual this was. The museum was never closed… it meant lost money! She asked where we were from and we told her our story, how we – as Anglicans – were visiting on pilgrimage and what a special time we were having. Caught up in our excitement and in this special moment she dragged us up the road to her friend’s shop which had just opened and had not yet been blessed by a Priest. We explained… we’re Anglicans, not Roman Catholics. She didn’t care and marched us into the shop, introduced us to her slightly shocked friend who then produced water and salt. Prayers were quickly found on the iPhone and my friend and I walked around the shop liberally sprinkling water and praying for blessing and protection. They were delighted and it attracted a small crowd who I’m sure then blessed the shop with their Visa cards.
Our pilgrimage continued to be marked by these special encounters. With other pilgrims, with Our Lady, with St. Bernadette and with the very special people who visit and make Lourdes what it is – because that is what Lourdes really is. It’s a place of connection that trades on the fact it’s an incredibly ‘thin place’. If you can work your way past the tacky shops, the crowds and the noise you can find true peace and through that peace you start to discover that the people around you are not tourists, but pilgrims on a different journey. That the noise is a joyful noise of prayer. That the tacky shops are… well, the tacky shops are tacky, but there is beauty there was well – not in the sand filled glass crosses – but in the people who run them, the encounters that happen in and around them and maybe, just maybe… you will get that glow in the dark statue of Our Lady and put it on your bookshelf for people to giggle at.
I can’t wait to return to Lourdes. To discover more about Our Lady and how she takes us to Christ through this noisy, tacky world.
Earlier this week I went to St. Edmund’s to pick up some crates of food for our foodbank. St. Edmund’s have always been huge supporters of our church larder and foodbank and without them we’d really struggle.
Week in week out I meet with Fr. Peter and he, Edmund, and I load food into the back of the car and bring it into church for those most in need.
I really enjoy my visits – not just because of the brilliant help and support Fr. Peter offers but because each time I go he always has something profound and helpful to say.
This week I was talking about how restful we’ve found August and that the reduced service times have really allowed for a time of rest and reset and has sparked all sorts of new ideas for the next term.
He nodded sagely (as he always does) and reminded me that we work from rest, and we should not simply rest from work.
Humans were created on the sixth day and on the seventh God rested. The first day of our week is a day of rest – not a day of work.
So, as I look to the next term and the exciting times ahead (Fr. Josiah joining us, our first church plant out into the community, a new coffee stand open during the week, the renewal and re-planting of our outdoor space, parent and toddler group 2.0… to name just a few) I am encouraged and refreshed – and I hope that you feel the same too.
Find some time as the children return to school for some peace and be ready for this next exciting phase at St. Anselm.
We are very grateful for the continued support of St. Edmund’s and the Southall West Sai Centre with the foodbank. As Autumn and Winter appear the demand is expected to rise and now is the time to build up stock for the most in need.
2nd October at 4pm – we will be licensing and commissioning Fr. Josiah into St. Anselm at a special service of Evening Prayer & Benediction with Bishop Jonathan. I’d like to throw a huge party for him afterwards – can you please let me know if you’d like to help organise it – it would be great to have a huge spread and make him and his family fell really really welcome.
We return to a more usual patter of worship this week with Mass each day, a return of evening prayer & rosary and Tuesday evening prayer. Our online streaming schedule also returns to normal.
The prayer list has been refreshed this week, if you’ve spotted someone who should be on it, or someone who can come off it, please speak to Susan.
Sometimes praying for one person to come to know Jesus is the most powerful prayer there is.
As I sit to write this weeks newsletter we celebrate the life and work of St. Monica. She is one of the lesser know saints – which is a huge shame because the example of her life and her prayers are vital to our understanding of what being a christian is all about.
She was born in Africa to a Christian family and married quite young to non-Christian family. She retained her faith and had several children. One of those children was called Augustine.
Augustine was a very intelligent child, but as he grew his morals came more from his father than his mother. He was… shall we say… wayward.
Monica watched her son and cried for him. Through those tears she prayed that her son would come to know Jesus and would leave his wayward life behind.
She didn’t just pray for a short while. She didn’t pray for him during lent or advent. She didn’t offer a novena for him. She prayed for him each and every day, several times a day every day of his life.
Shortly before she died Augustine came to her and offered himself to Jesus. He converted to Christianity on her deathbed and in that moment her prayers were answered.
Thanks to her unceasing prayer for the conversion of one man The Church was given one of its greatest thinkers, theologians and apologists. Without her love for her son and her faith in prayer we would be so much poorer.
Thanks to everyone who helped with the parish BBQ. We had a lovely afternoon with much food consumed, much conversation, and lots of fun. We’re looking forward to the next one, perhaps a harvest supper?
The prayer list will be refreshed for next Sunday. If you’d like someone to stay on the list or someone you’d like to add, please speak to Susan.
We are very short of plastic bags / paper bags for the foodbank. Can you please bring some in on Sunday. Thank you.
2nd October at 4pm – we will be licensing and commissioning Fr. Josiah into St. Anselm at a special service of Evening Prayer & Benediction with Bishop Jonathan. I’d like to throw a huge party for him afterwards – can you please let me know if you’d like to help organise it – it would be great to have a huge spread and make him and his family feel really really welcome.
We continue in our light August model as we take a breath ahead of a new term next week. We’ll return to the normal timetable next week alongside the standard streaming schedule.
When you’re a Priest people always turn to you at that moment in a pub quiz when a question about the bible or history comes up.
Inevitably you have to come up with how many books are in the bible (73 including the apocrypha – but the answer every quiz master wants to hear is 66). Or, you have to list the Disciples in alphabetical order… and that always brings me to St. Bartholomew because I always, without fail, forget him.
I’m not sure why because he was a remarkable man and died a remarkable death in service to the Gospel.
After the Resurrection and Ascension (which he witnessed) Bartholomew travelled to India and Armenia – where he is credited with bringing Christianity in the 1st Century.
He wasn’t welcome and ultimately met his death by being skinned alive – and for good measure – beheaded.
St. Bartholomew was a man who travelled widely and taught the faith – there are multiple early writings from India and Armenia from non Christians that tell his story and how diligently he worked to tell people about what he had been taught and what he had seen with his friend and saviour, Jesus.
It always leaves me feeling a little ashamed. I wonder how far I would really go to teach and bring people to Jesus.
Fortunately it’s not a question I’ve had to answer, but there are so many Christians around the world who do – particularly in India and Armenia.
I think I need to put more effort into remembering this remarkable Saint and imitating his witness.
Parish BBQ at the vicarage – this Saturday (20th August) 4pm-7pm. There’ll be burgers and sausages available, please do bring something to drink and a deck chair. Everyone is very welcome indeed.
Anthony is with us this Sunday! Come and join in with some wonderful hymns – all chosen by you. A nice little note… it was this Sunday last year that Anthony joined us for the first time.
We are very short of plastic bags / paper bags for the foodbank. Can you please bring some in on Sunday. Thank you.
We continue in our light August model as we take a breath ahead of a new term in September.
This Sunday is a very special day indeed. We celebrate the solemnity (a feast day of the highest rank) of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary – the day on which she was bodily taken up into heaven.
In the eastern church this feast is celebrated as the ‘Dormition of the Theotokos’ – the ‘falling asleep of the mother of God’ – which I think is a beautiful way to describe it.
In the western church we teach that Mary was taken fully up into Heaven and that her body was not corrupted by death.
“Having completed the course of her earthly life, [she] was assumed body and soul into heavenly glory”
This teaching is connected with our understanding of Mary as the second Eve. This running parallel to the teaching of Jesus as the second Adam.
This is the final part of the four-fold teaching on Mary that we hold.
1 – Mary was the Mother of God (Theotokos).
2 – Mary had an immaculate conception.
3 – Mary had perpetual virginity.
4 – Mary was assumed into Heaven.
These ‘dogmas’ (teachings revealed to the Church by God) form the basis of our veneration of Our Lady.
We set Mary aside as special because only she can fully comprehend what a relationship with Jesus as fully man, and fully God entails. Through her example we can find a way to deepen and further our own relationship with God.
Mary is special because she takes us to her Son in all things. Ask Her for support when your faith is feeling thin.
Parish BBQ at the vicarage – this Saturday (20th August) 4pm-7pm. There’ll be burgers and sausages available, please do bring something to drink and a deck chair. Everyone is very welcome indeed.
We are very short of plastic bags / paper bags for the foodbank. Can you please bring some in on Sunday. Thank you.
We continue in our light August model as we take a breath ahead of a new term in September.
Next Sunday (21st) Anthony will be with us again playing the organ, if you’ve got a favourite hymn you’d like to request now is the time to do so!
Over the last two years I’ve been a blur of business and action. Enthusiasm and passion come very easily to me and St. Anselm needed that when I first arrived.
We’ve worked hard through various lock downs, various set backs and through significant building projects.
But now, we enter a new season. It’s a season that we will share with a larger community. A season that will call for more calm and more peace.
Calm and peace are earned. Calm and peace are not simply the absence of noise and action, but are given to us after we have put in place things that enable that space to occur.
We have worked hard over the last two years to get to a place where that calm and that peace can now start to enter in to the life of this community.
We have a building that is cared for and doesn’t need any major emergency work. We have a community of people who step forward to help get things done and are willing to try new and different things. We have relationships with people like the Community Payback team which means our more difficult projects are taken care of.
We can now turn our eyes to more peaceful paths to deepen our relationship with God and each other.
As part of that new season, we’ll be introducing a new 8am said mass and a 6pm said evensong after Fr. Josiah joins us in October.
An huge thank you to Frs. Leslie and Nigel for saying mass whilst I was away on holiday. I know they love to be here with us and your wonderful welcome is a big reason for that; thank you all for taking such wonderful care of them both.
You’ll notice the outside of church is significantly tidier. This is due to the hard work of the Community Payback team who spend 8 hours with us each Saturday. Julie & Mark have been supervising the work each Saturday and directing the team to the important areas that need work. There is much still left to do and several jobs that are in progress (the railings!) Thank you to everyone who has made this work possible.
Thank you to Susan for steering the good ship St. Anselm over the last two weeks. Phone calls, emails, vicarage keys and access for works – it’s all vital stuff that keeps things going. Thank you.
Change to the time for the BBQ at the vicarage on the 20th August: We will now be meeting 4pm – 7pm as Fr. Matthew has been asked to cover a wedding in Ruslip.
Thank you for all the foodbank donations, please keep them coming in, the cost of living crisis is really starting to bite those most in need.
