Holy holidays: making travelling pilgrims welcome

The last newsletter coincided with the Advent preparations for Christmas. With this one, we are fast approaching Lent. Ash Wednesday is on February 22. Easter is April 9.

Christmas was well-celebrated in our various churches. It was good to see a church full of children at the annual Christmas pageant at St Thomas’ and to see a few families enjoy the Christmas Eve Crib service. How do we nourish the spiritual lives of these families between times? We are busy people, and children have busy lives. If there is any way we can help the parents of busy children, we would love to know.

The only service I am wondering about is the midnight mass. Twenty people attended. When you discount the celebrant, the organist, readers and the lay minister, one wonders at the wisdom of inflicting a late night on an ageing congregation (not to mention an aging priest). Feedback would be appreciated.

“God of mission who alone brings growth to your Church, send your Holy Spirit to give vision to our planning, wisdom to our actions, and power to our witness. Help our Church to grow in numbers, in spiritual commitment to you, and in service to our local community, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.”

This little prayer for revival, which our archdeacon Mark Chamberlain shared with us, is beautifully concise and theologically balanced. In it, we say we want to offer spiritual commitment and service, as well as grow our numbers. The hospitality of our churches goes a little way towards those aspirations.

Our various churches are oases of calm in a busy world. The visitor books testify to the importance of these places for those who visit. We are now keeping St Mary’s open during the day too. There is a prayer station in front of the altar where visitors are invited to light a candle or write a prayer. About three or four tea lights are lit every day, and four or five prayer requests are made each week which we bring before God each Sunday. If we help some tourists become pilgrims and their holidays become holy days, then we are performing an important service.

The grounds at St Mary’s are, in my view, an important aspect of our hospitality. Over the last few weeks, we have seen a number of young families picnicking on our grass under the shade of our large trees. We were even privileged to meet Christ in the person of a member of the Caversham branch of the Mongrel Mob. “Often, often, comes the Christ in the guise of a stranger.” I wonder about providing a couple of picnic tables as a way of inviting people to enjoy our space. I have an even bigger idea which I will share at some stage.

Lenten devotions and study

On Sundays, during Lent at 4pm at St Mary’s, we will provide a short contemplative service in the manner of Taizé. Unlike hymns, which according to John Wesley, should be sung “lustily and with good courage”, the repetitive chants in a Taizé service are sung quietly, and people can join in or drop out as they please, allowing the chant to put them in a space where they can draw near to God.

There are a number of opportunities to take part in the study A Holy Church: Becoming the Communities We are Called to Be, which is being promoted by the diocese

| Mondays 1.30pm contact Esther Paddon estherpaddon@gmail.com for details

| Tuesdays 7pm (apart from vestry nights) at 24 Hislop Street commencing 21 February

| Fridays 10.00am at 19 Williamson Place commencing 17 February

The AAW tell me that the World Day of Prayer is Friday 3 March - details to come in the Mustard Seed

Let us pray for one another that this Lent may prepare us for the work God has in store for us.

Blessings.

Rev Hugh McCafferty PRIEST-IN-CHARGE