Blog

 Walsingham
 26^th May 2020

Dear people of St. Anselm’s,

I am delighted to have this opportunity to write to you at Fr Matthew’s invitation, and to send you greetings from the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham.

At this time of the year the Shrine would usually be a very busy place with groups of pilgrims, visitors and tourists enjoying the spiritual and physical beauty of this holy place. The Shrine Shop would be filled with people wanting to purchase a souvenir, a book, a statue, a rosary or perhaps even some Norfolk Lavender Talc! Norton’s Café in the Shrine Grounds would be buzzing with those enjoying a coffee and a Nelson’s Slice (one of our speciality cakes), or perhaps a bottle of our recently launched Pilgrim Pale Ale. Most importantly, the Shrine Church would be open for all to enter for prayer and worship, to light a candle or to be sprinkled with water from the Well, following in the footsteps of countless pilgrims down the ages.

However, due to the coronavirus pandemic the gates and doors of the Shrine have been firmly and very sadly closed. The stillness and silence both in the Shrine and in the village has been strange and at times eerie. This was particularly so yesterday (Monday 25^th May) which would have been the day of the annual National Pilgrimage. The cancellation of the National was a huge disappointment to the thousands who love to attend. For once the weather was absolutely perfect which somehow made the fact that it wasn’t happening all the more difficult to comprehend.

Everyone in the country has been affected in some way by Covid-19 and the restrictions accompanying it, many in very serious and tragic ways.

The situation has been the focus of prayer for millions of Christians who, though unable to worship in their churches, have been faithfully offering their prayers at home. 

Here at the Shrine too, the work of prayer has continued. A Mass has been offered daily and every evening at 6pm Shrine Prayers has taken place in the Holy House. This has been particularly significant as Shrine Prayers have been offered daily without interruption since they were introduced by Fr Hope Patten , the restorer of the Shrine, in 1922. Throughout every war, every crisis, every major political and historical moment in our nation, this chain of prayer has remained unbroken. An additional blessing in recent months has been the ability for us to live-stream Shrine Prayers. This has enabled pilgrims all over the world to see on the screens of their devices the much-venerated Image of Our Lady of Walsingham in the Holy House and to join in the prayers with myself or Fr Andreas, the Shrine Priest, leading them.

History was made yesterday as the National Pilgrimage Mass was also live-streamed from the Shrine Church. The latest viewing figures suggest that over 10,000 pilgrims joined in the celebration. 

None of these benefits, though, can ever substitute being physically present in England’s Nazareth. The closure of churches and places of pilgrimages has been a bereavement experience for millions of Christians, an experience shared by those of other faiths around the world. It has touched on the very real need we have for places that are set apart for worship and prayer, for holy ground, for sacred space. Our church buildings are visible signs of our faith and of our belief in the mystery of the incarnation. “The Word was made flesh and dwelt among us” (John 1:14). Shrines and places of holiness powerfully remind us of the purpose of life and the destination of our earthly pilgrimage. Our churches remind us and our communities of the presence of God who dwells among us, and who has let his glory be seen in the face of Jesus Christ, born of Mary.

The Latin motto of the Shrine is “Domus Dei. Porta Coeli” which translated means House of God, Gate of Heaven. It is a motto which expresses in very few words how places like Walsingham touch the hearts of so many. They are words which can also apply to our own more local places of pilgrimages, not least our parish churches, houses of God set apart in our communities for his glory and praise and to inspire us to serve him more faithfully in our daily lives.

It is interesting to learn from Fr Matthew that Walsingham has a special place in the memory of St Anselm’s. I’m told you have a number of statues of Our Lady of Walsingham and many stories of great pilgrimages in the past. You also have in Fr Matthew a priest who is himself a regular pilgrim and so I very much look forward to welcoming St Anselm’s to Walsingham on many more pilgrimages in the future. 

It is a unique and special place, a real gift to us all, and you can be sure of a warm welcome from all who have the great privilege of working at the Shrine.

May God bless you in your witness to the Gospel, in your lives of faith and prayer, and may Our Lady of Walsingham pray for you.

Fr Kevin Smith

Priest Administrator

Dear Parishioners of S Anselm’s in Hayes Town

I am very grateful to Father Matthew for his kind invitation to write to you at this particular period of difficulty and uncertainty for all of us in this time of pandemic.

Compared to Bishop Michael Colclough, whose connection with your parish goes back over forty years, I am, I appreciate, still a relative new boy in these parts!

My first memories of S Anselm’s date back just over a decade. I arrived in North Hillingdon in September 2009 and had to learn my way around this part of West London. Eventually, I had to travel to Hayes to meet the son of a lady resident in this parish, who had recently died, and found myself locked into the Hayes Town one-way system(!!), which took me past what looked like a derelict church building on Station Road. I since learned that this was S Anselm’s. I learned too that the parish had had a difficult history and had no full-time priest.

Our Hillingdon Deanery Clergy Chapter met at S Anselm’s on 3 February 2011, thanks to the good offices of Father Simon Evans, then Area Dean. Over the coffee-cups, I learned that a couple wanted to get married at S Anselm’s later that year, but that no priest had been found to conduct the wedding. So I volunteered – and the offer was taken up with considerable alacrity. The wedding took place at S Anselm’s on 14 May. It was the first that had happened there for many years and was, very properly, an occasion of great rejoicing!

Since then, I have been very pleased to assist you in various ways, most recently in arranging suitable cover during the recent Interregnum, following Father Geoffrey’s departure for a parish in the Diocese of Derby at Eastertide in 2019. I have much enjoyed both my occasional Sunday visits to you for the Parish Mass and also the Low Masses I have been able to cover on a Thursday morning. It is really good that you specifically asked that these be kept going, even in the absence of a full-time priest!

We are not yet quite sure when it will be possible for our churches to re-open for public worship, even though we look forward to that time with increasing impatience. You are most fortunate in having Father Matthew as your new Parish Priest and whether or not it will be possible for him to be licensed publicly on the Feast of S Mary Magdalene in July (which also happens to be an important birthday for Father Matthew, but don’t tell anyone!), I am sure that a way will be found for the legal necessities to be completed, so that he actually becomes your Parish Priest on that day and so begins with you a fresh chapter in the life of S Anselm’s. As Bishop Michael’s recent letter to you indicates, life at S Anselm’s has rarely been easy and I guess that the immediate future will present its own difficulties and problems for all of us. As a parish, S Anselm’s has shown a remarkable degree of resilience over the years and I wish you all both happiness and success as you look forward to sharing with Father Matthew in the life, mission and ministry of S Anselm’s in Hayes Town, both in the coming weeks and months, as we strive to move from the present ‘lock-down’ and into what some have described as the ‘new normal’ (whatever that may mean).

Our Lady of Walsingham: Pray for us.
S Anselm: Pray for us.

With prayers and every good wish to you all.

Father Desmond

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ

Alleluia! Christ is Risen

This is an Easter season which none of us could have expected, and the like of which none of us has seen before. You are all so much in my prayers. I pray for health and wellbeing for you and your loved ones, and that you may find joy and hope in the resurrection of Our Lord Jesus Christ even in  this time of trial.

The second reading at Mass last Sunday was taken from the First Letter of St Peter. St Peter is writing to young Christians, to those newly baptised, fresh in the faith but also it seems facing the threat of persecution and uncertainty. St Peter encourages these new-born disciples of Jesus Christ with these ringing and resonant words:

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation, a people set apart to sing the praises of God who called you out of the darkness into his wonderful light

A chosen race, a royal priesthood, a consecrated nation – these are all words and phrases which were once applied to the people of Israel. But what was once true of God’s first people, the Jews, is now true of us, because we have been called into the fellowship and communion of Christ’s universal Church. We who were once (as St Peter continues) no people are now the people of God.

What a cause for rejoicing! Even in times of trial – especially in times of trial – we know that we are God’s people and that Jesus Christ is our shepherd, teacher, Saviour, and friend. And what are God’s people to do? At all times, in every circumstance, we are to sing the praises of God. We are called to worship. In the well known phrase of St Augustine, we are an Easter people, and Alleluia is our song!

As we travel through lockdown we look forward to the restoration of public worship in our churches, including of course at St Anselm’s. That is still some way off, though it may be that the church building may at least be open again for prayer after a few more weeks have passed. Meanwhile, I am grateful for all that you are doing to maintain a sense of being together as God’s people in Hayes Town. I am very grateful indeed that Fr Matthew Cashmore, your parish-priest designate, is now offering valuable help to you in doing just that. 

On the 22^nd July, Fr Matthew will be licensed as your new Priest-in-Charge. Whether that can happen in church we must wait and see. But whatever the circumstances of his licensing, the day will mark an exciting moment in the life and mission of the parish. I am convinced that God has great things in store for you, and that, through your witness, the power of the risen Christ will be made known to many.

Brothers and sisters, I long to be able to celebrate the Mass with you and for you. Until that time, in these strange days, please keep singing the praises of God. Keep hopeful and keep faithful, and may the love of God warm your hearts and nourish your souls.

May Our Blessed Lady, Our Lady of Walsingham, pray for you.

May St Anselm and all the saints of God pray for you.

May His holy angels watch over you and keep you safe.

Thank you for your witness and your courage

With every blessing

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ at St Anselm’s

I am so delighted to be invited by Father Matthew to write to you as Area Dean of Hillingdon, to encourage you and to assure you of my prayers.

I hope that you and your loved ones have been able to keep safe and well in your homes during the Coronavirus lockdown.  It’s a tough time, isn’t it, but I have been encouraged over the last few weeks by the words of Psalm 46 which speak so powerfully into the challenging times that we face:

God is our refuge and strength,
a very present help in trouble.
Therefore we will not fear,
though the earth should change,
though the mountains shake in the heart of the sea;
though its waters roar and foam,
though the mountains tremble with its tumult.

The Psalm concludes:

Be still and know that I am God!
I am exalted among the nations, I am exalted in the earth.

Psalm 46 verse 10.

I hope that, although you are sadly unable to meet together for Mass at the moment, you are still able to find your own space and time to be in God’s presence, for worship, prayer and reading the bible.  It is so often in the stillness that we discover for ourselves the psalm’s promises that God is indeed our refuge and strength.  I am therefore particularly grateful for the way that Father Matthew, and the rest of the team at St Mary’s Kenton, are supporting you pastorally, including providing you with access to their amazing online worship. 

As Bishop Michael recognised in his recent letter to you, it is fair to say that life at St Anselm’s has been become rather fragile over recent years.  However, I really do think that there are grounds for great hope that you are about to enter a new season of renewal, growth and blessing.  First, you are about to receive a wonderful new priest in Father Matthew.  I know from having met him that he will come to you full of faith, passion and vision for the future of St Anselm’s.  Can I therefore encourage you to pray for Father Matthew and his family, to welcome them with open arms and then work collaboratively with him to discern God’s direction for St Anselm’s in the years ahead.  

Secondly, Hillingdon Deanery is right behind you as you embark on this exciting journey.  It has been really striking over the last year that, although as a Deanery we face many challenges and demands on our resources, the Deanery clergy all agree that providing St Anselm’s with the resources you need to bring renewal to the life of the church is our number one priority. The first piece of the jigsaw was to appoint a new incumbent who is a missional and entrepreneurial Catholic – we believe we have achieved that in Father Matthew.  But we also feel that to give you a fighting chance of being properly equipped to serve your rapidly changing community, you need other resources too.  We are therefore hoping to be able to reallocate additional resources to St Anselm’s from elsewhere in the Deanery as they become available.  All being well, this may include a salary and housing for someone to work with Father Matthew to develop midweek community ministry based in St Anselm’s.  We also hope to be able to provide some capital funds to kickstart a project to renew your building so that it is capable of being used flexibly to host a whole range of church and community groups and activities.  The Southall group of churches are also available to help you to think about how you can connect with the incredibly diverse and vibrant community of which you are a part. 

So, despite all the troubles of the present time, this is also a time to be hopeful and prayerful.   I think that we have cause to be really encouraged about what God has in store for St Anselm’s and for the people of Hayes Town in the years ahead.  In the coming weeks and months please do devote yourselves to prayer, as I and my colleagues in the Deanery pray for you.  As psalm 46 urges, take time to be still before God, and listen for what the Lord has to say to you about your part in God’s plan to new life to St Anselm’s.  You will discover that the Lord is indeed a refuge and strength but he is also the God of new life. 

May God bless you and those you love.

The Revd Richard Young
Area Dean of Hillingdon