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Peace, Peace, Peace.  A simple but powerful prayer.

As my father and I were driving across Poland to reach the Ukraine boarder it became very clear that things had changed.

We left Germany (and the very fast motorway) behind us, and slowed down to make sure we were within the new speed limit. As we slowed we started to notice more around us. 

Instead of the blur of green we started to see small shrines dedicated to Our Lady. We saw bill boards at the side of the motorway dedicated to prayer and time and time again we saw this bill board. 

It reads ‘Peace, Peace, Peace’ and had an image of Our Lady of Medjugorje on the left hand side. 

This poster appeared time and time again. I stopped counting after 100 and started timing how soon it would be before I saw it again.

As I sat in my hotel room that night I turned on the TV and on their equivalent of BBC One was a live broadcast of the Angelus. 

This public proclamation of prayer, of dedication to Jesus and to His Mother served as a constant reminder to pray and to live life within the boundless love of the Holy Family.

I found it deeply comforting and profoundly inspiring. 

Just five miles from where this photograph was taken is a country plunged into war in the face of a relentless aggressor. But in the face of that relentless aggression and evil the response – first and last – should always be prayer.

So pray this week, pray Peace, Peace, Peace and consider how you can show your faith to the world and inspire others to know Jesus.

Fr. Matthew

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24th July

31st July

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I will be away on holiday for the next two Sundays and Frs Leslie and Nigel will be here to look after you. Please do give them your usual warm and loving welcome. 

BBQ at the vicarage on the 20th August, midday to 4pm. More details soon.

Thank you for all the foodbank donations, please keep them coming in whilst I’m away.

From Saturday 30th July the church (inside and out) will be being cleaned and cleared by the Community Pay Back teams – this will be every Saturday from now on. 

An exciting moment. Welcome Fr. Josiah!

After two years of hard work we have found a Mission Priest for St. Anselm.

Fr. Josiah will licensed by Bishop Jonathan at a special service at 4pm on the 2nd October later this year, subject to the usual legal checks.

A few words of introduction from Fr. Josiah: 

Born in Cape Coast, Ghana. I was educated in Adisadel College, an all male Anglican College established in 1910 by the then Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG). 

After completing I did voluntary work for three years and was later given admission to the St. Nicholas Seminary in Cape Coast, Ghana. I was ordained into the diaconate in June 2007 and priested in the following year.

I served as a parish priest in three different parishes in Ghana within a period of 10 years and have now served as Assistant Priest in St. Matthew Ashford and St. Mary Stanwell since October 2019. 

It is a real joy to be part of this wonderful ministry in Hayes specifically in St. Anselm to partner with Fr. Matthew to pray, discern, learn, share and allow our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ to direct all of us through the power of the Holy Spirit. My main goal is to serve and help bring the love and special grace of God to you and the good people of Hayes and to help in the mission and vision of St. Anselm through team work and love for all. 

I am married to Gertrude and we have been blessed with three children, Emmanuel, Josiah and Abadua. 

I love classical music, football, reading and movies.

Fr. Josiah & Fr. Matthew

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Thank you to you all for bringing food in for the foodbank, we are once again up to full stock – but be ready for the next appeal! Consider bringing in the odd tin each week, that will help us keep topped up. 

Summer BBQ at the vicarage. Catherine, Edmund and I will be hosting a BBQ at the vicarage on the 20th August from midday until 4pm. You are all very warmly invited. 

A quiet week, due in part to training on Wednesday & Thursday, and also because I’m leaving for holiday (2 weeks) on Friday.  I’ve also decided to cancel daily mass on Monday and Tuesday due to the extreme heat that is forecast, please do focus on saying your offices at home and praying for those who will struggle. 

I will be away on holiday for the next two Sundays and Frs Leslie and Nigel will be here to look after you. Please do give them your usual warm and loving welcome. 

Sent out, but never alone.

Our Gospel this Sunday tells us of Jesus sending out the 72 disciples ahead of him.

One of the most striking things about the passage is that he sent them out in pairs. 

We often talk about being sent out into the world to proclaim the Gospel – it’s what I tell you to do at the end of mass each day ‘Go and proclaim the Gospel of Our Lord’. 

What we don’t often consider is that we are never sent alone. We are sent in pairs just as Jesus sent out the disciples. 

The question is who are we sent with? Who is the person who walks alongside us as we head into the harvest?

I’ve often reflected that we all need a ‘holy friend’. Someone who we are able to have good conversations with about our faith and about how Jesus is working in our lives.

In those conversations it becomes easier to talk about Jesus and in that ease between two friends we grow in confidence to share our love of Jesus with others outside our immediate group of friends or those who don’t come to church. 

I’m very fortunate in that I have a friend in Fr. Sam Cross who I can call up, or message and ask honest questions about my faith, about scripture, about my place and calling from God.

But who is your friend? Who can you turn to and ask these questions of? 

Have a look around you at church this week and if you can’t immediately answer that question then think about who it could be and go and speak to them over coffee. Ask them if they’d be your ‘holy friend’. Build one another up in the Love of God.

Fr. Matthew

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Items needed for Food Bank & Church Larder: Tins of meat & fish, baked beans, soup, cereal, coffee, sugar, deodorants (especially mens), sanitary pads, incontinence pads, nappies (esp newborn to size 2). (THESE ARE QUITE URGENTLY NEEDED NOW PLEASE DO DIG DEEP!)

After mass on the 3rd July Fr. Matthew will be driving to the Polish / Ukraine border to take a car-load of needed items to a refugee camp. He will be returning with two refugees who will be living at the vicarage with his family. Thank you to everyone for your support of cash for fuel and also for donations of flip-flops. We need more candy and fruit juice! Please bring them on Sunday.

No mid-week services as Fr. Matthew will be driving to the Poland / Ukraine border. Please do join in with St. Mary’s, Hayes or St. Edmund’s.

Mass this Sunday (26th) is at St. Mary’s in Hayes with Bishop Jonathan who will be Confirming our own Isabelle Cummings. Please do make every effort to attend and support her on this important step in her journey with God. Mass is at 10am, there is lots of parking and an easy bus route. There will be some nibbles afterwards.  There is no mass at St. Anselm this Sunday.

Confirmation,  the next step in our own journey with God.

This Sunday we will gather not in St. Anselm, but with our dear brothers and sisters in Christ at St. Mary’s in Hayes (on Church Road).

Fr. Nicholas is an old friend of the parish and in times past our confirmations have often happened at St. Mary’s. 

We are two parishes who have a shared theology and a shared understanding of what it means to live out a life in Christ in Hayes and so it makes so much sense for us to do more things together in this way. 

Next year we’ll have a procession from St. Mary’s to St. Anselm (with Bishop Jonathan) for Corpus Christi; before then there will more events that we come together for. 

These shared moments are a decision we make deliberately to be together to celebrate our lives and journey in Christ with our nearest brothers and sisters. 

It is joyful therefore that our first joint event is a confirmation. 

A decision to step forward in a life as a Christian made by a young person in their own right and in their own strength. 

A moment where they stand and say to everyone, ‘I am a Christian!’

Please do make a special effort to come to St. Mary’s this Sunday and to share in that joyous moment and to be part of our wider family in Hayes.

Fr. Matthew 

(P.S. do bring some treats for afterwards!)

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Mass this Sunday (26th) is at St. Mary’s in Hayes with Bishop Jonathan who will be Confirming our own Isabelle Cummings. Please do make every effort to attend and support her on this important step in her journey with God. Mass is at 10am, there is lots of parking and an easy bus route. There will be some nibbles afterwards.  There is no mass at St. Anselm this Sunday.

After mass on the 3rd July Fr. Matthew will be driving to northern Poland to take a car-load of needed items to a refugee camp. He will be returning with two refugees who will be living at the vicarage with his family. If you would be able to support the petrol / ferry costs for this trip that would be an enormous help. The total cost will be in excess of £600. Please email/phone Fr. Matthew with any offers.

Items needed for Food Bank & Church Larder: Tins of meat & fish, baked beans, soup, cereal, coffee, sugar, deodorants (especially mens), sanitary pads, incontinence pads, nappies (esp newborn to size 2).

A father’s love  comes from his Father in heaven.

As we progressed through the lectionary over Easter and into Pentecost is was clear that the central theme of scripture was the love that exists between the Father and the Son, the Son and His disciples, the the love that should therefore exits between each of us as Christians. 

The model of a Father’s love for his children comes up several times in scripture – but it is the love that God the Father has for His Son that is the shining example of what that relationship – father & child – should be.

We are often very dismissive of talking about the relationship between father and child. We claim that it is difficult and that many people have had bad experiences of that relationship. 

We snark that it is a ‘made up holiday’, that only exists to make card companies money. 

The reality is that mothers day is exactly the same – yet – we don’t snark at that holiday or shy from celebrating mothers – so why do we do so on Father’s day. 

There are no flowers for the fathers, no small gifts from the congregation to say thank you.

There is no celebration of all that is wonderful in being a father to our children – in fact to be a father is to be constantly criticised, judged and ostracised for not being exactly what society claims you to be – and even if you are – you are still treated with suspicion and fear. 

This needs to stop. We need to celebrate our fathers and to recognise in them the love of God the Father for His son.

Fr. Matthew

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Items needed for Food Bank & Church Larder: Tins of meat & fish, baked beans, soup, cereal, coffee, sugar, deodorants (especially mens), sanitary pads, incontinence pads, nappies (esp newborn to size 2).

22nd – 26th August, 10am-4pm. We are lucky enough that five people have volunteered to be leaders for our summer holiday club. We’re now looking for people who can commit to a few hours to help with things like making tea & coffee, tidying up at the end of each day and other assisting tasks. Please speak to Fr. Matthew or Julie Estep (Sunday School Leader) or sign up on the sheet in church. 

12th July, 10:30am-6pm. I’m still looking for volunteers for the 12th July to meet with  Priests applying for our new Mission Priest job (interviews with +Jonathan on the 13th July). If you’d like to meet the applicants or help with showing them around the parish please be in touch. 

The father, son & Holy Spirit.

Just a week after we celebrate the decent of the Holy Spirit into the room filled with Jesus disciples we take a moment to praise and pray for a deeper understanding of the Holy Trinity.

The Trinity pervades every aspect of our faith – it is one of the central planks of our faith – everything we do, everything we are sent out to do is done in the power of the Father, Son & Holy Spirit.

It is possible, I think, to overthink this. 

To try to figure out HOW this trinity of God works. We are human and modern humans attempt to understand the world through the lens of science and ‘reason’.

The issue of course is that creation is rather more complex and difficult than we can understand.

We are not God and we are reaching and trying as hard as we can to understand things that He created and put into place.

It’s just not possible. 

This is not to say that we shouldn’t try – that we shouldn’t engage in trying to understand the the universe through science and ‘reason’; but rather to accept that there are things that we can not neatly fit into categories of science that are central to how we exist in the universe. 

We are not God. 

Sometimes we need to accept that it is wiser to exist and simply appreciate and give thanks for what God has made – and our part in it.

Fr. Matthew

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22nd – 26th August, 10am-4pm. We are lucky enough that five people have volunteered to be leaders for our summer holiday club. We’re now looking for people who can commit to a few hours to help with things like making tea & coffee, tidying up at the end of each day and other assisting tasks. Please speak to Fr. Matthew or Julie Estep (Sunday School Leader) or sign up on the sheet in church. 

12th July, 10:30am-6pm. I’m still looking for volunteers for the 12th July to meet with  Priests applying for our new Mission Priest job (interviews with +Jonathan on the 13th July). If you’d like to meet the applicants or help with showing them around the parish please be in touch. 

Tongues of fire, filled with the Holy Spirit.

It is hard not to read the description of Pentecost Sunday in Acts and not be moved. The language is emotive and powerful.

…when suddenly they heard what sounded like a powerful wind from heaven, the noise of which filled the entire house in which they were sitting; and something appeared to them that seemed like tongues of fire; these separated and came to rest on the head of each of them. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and began to speak foreign languages as the Spirit gave them the gift of speech.

Acts 2:2-4

We have been watching and waiting for the coming of the Holy Spirit for the last two weeks – knowing that the Helper was on his way – but how many of the disciples expected him to arrive with such power, such authority and such gifts!

The wind roared – reaching back to the sound of the Holy Spirit roaring over the waves in creation.

The fire descended and rested on each one of them… giving them the gift of tongues.

Importantly this gift is the ability to speak foreign languages  – a gift that enables them to go out into the world and proclaim the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 

That is what we celebrate today – the powerful gifts that the Holy Spirit gives each one of us to proclaim the Gospel. It’s different for each one of us – but it is our duty as Christians to identify it  and to deploy it to bring new people to the feet of Jesus. 

Fr. Matthew

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Bring and share lunch! Don’t forget that after mass this week there will be a bring and share lunch and party for Pentecost immediately after mass – wear something red!

Thank you very much to Fr. Leslie for covering for me last Sunday, what a beautiful service. Also a huge thank you to Susan, Cynthia, Louise, Frank, Shirley, Trevor and the rest of the Foodbank team for keeping the most in need in food. 

22nd – 26th August, 10am-4pm. We are lucky enough that five people have volunteered to be leaders for our summer holiday club. We’re now looking for people who can commit to a few hours to help with things like making tea & coffee, tidying up at the end of each day and other assisting tasks. Please speak to Fr. Matthew or Julie Estep (Sunday School Leader) or sign up on the sheet in church. 

12th July, 10:30am-6pm. I’m still looking for volunteers for the 12th July to meet with  Priests applying for our new Mission Priest job (interviews with +Jonathan on the 13th July). If you’d like to meet the applicants or help with showing them around the parish please be in touch. 

Evangelising  England.

On Tuesdays we pray for the evangelisation of England. We pray that everyone in this country will come to know the deep love of Jesus Christ and come to faith in His Father.

We’re not the first to make that prayer. 

In the early part of the sixth century the wife of King Æthelberht (St. Bertha) prayed that her then pagan husband would become Christian (as she was). 

She wrote to the Pope and asked him to send a mission to England and in 595 that’s exactly what he did. 

He asked Augustine (then a prior of a monastery in Rome) to lead this mission and in 597 he arrived in England, landing in Thanet. 

(I’ve visited the church in Rome from which St. Gregory sent St. Augustine to England and even sat in his papal throne!)

After he landed, Augustine made his way to Canterbury and converted the King to Christianity and from there the English church as we now know it was born. 

Over the coming years St. Augustine converted thousands of pagans to Christianity. At one famous mass on Christmas Day 597 several thousand people converted and were baptised at the same time. 

At St. Anselm’s (named after a successor of St. Augustine) we share in the gift of the mission to convert England. To bring people to Jesus. 

I’m not sure we’ll convert thousands at one mass – but let’s do our very best! 

Fr. Matthew

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Our APCM will be on Sunday 22nd May immediately after Mass. If you would like to stand for the PCC please speak to Fr. Matthew or one of the Church Wardens. 

We are lucky enough that five people have volunteered to be leaders for our summer holiday club. We’re now looking for people who can commit to a few hours to help with things like making tea & coffee, tidying up at the end of each day and other assisting tasks. Please speak to Fr. Matthew or Julie Estep (Sunday School Leader). 

I’m still looking for volunteers for the 12th July to meet with  Priests applying for our new Mission Priest job (interviews with +Jonathan on the 13th July). If you’d like to meet the applicants or help with showing them around the parish please be in touch.