Merry Christmas!

Preparations for Christmas are well underway. Finishing touches are being made to the crib and the trees in time for the crib service and this evening’s midnight mass, which takes place at 11.30 tonight after carols in the church at 11pm. Tomorrow’s services are mass of the dawn at 9am and family communion at 11am.

It feels unseasonably mild at the moment, rather than ‘deep and crisp and even’! I shall be having a quiet Christmas (once all the service sheets are done!) and will be posting again in the New Year.

Happy Christmas!

Carol Service

A Festival of Nine Lessons & Carols at 6pm this Sunday - the traditional 'carols by candlelight'.

Advent - a time of preparation

A very busy time in the office, of course, which is why I haven't posted lately. This week the Christmas cards should be ready and will be distributed from this Sunday (they contain details of all our Christmas services).

Coming up this weekend, we have a quiet day on Saturday, starting at 10am. On Sunday our visiting preacher in the 'cathedrals' series will be Robin Osbourne.

An online Advent calendar worth visiting is here and meditation and readings for the first week of advent can be found here.

Parish Anniversary celebrations

It has been a very busy morning in the office, preparing for this Sunday's celebration of the 120th anniversary of the parish. We are having a guest preacher, The Revd George Nairn Briggs who used to be curate here and went on to be Dean of Wakefield Cathedral. Following the service there is going to be a reception where other guests (including local representatives from other faiths) will be giving speeches, before we have lunch together.

At the moment the printer is churning away, producing the service sheets (which I shall be folding after lunch!). The flower ladies are in, making the church look beautiful; microphones have been checked; our gardener, Julie, has been tidying the flower borders and sweeping up leaves.

The menu has been arranged, and 'the team' will be in bright and early on Sunday to start cooking. The wine and glasses are due to arrive this afternoon.

I have checked stock of all those things that always run out at the most inopportune moments, such as photocopier toner, batteries for the microphones, giving envelopes etc. No doubt there will be something I haven't thought of!

Never post in haste ....

Our choir are indeed back, but of course it was The Lambeth Singers who treated us to a wonderful evening for All Saints - oops!

Choir on tour!

Our choir were in Amsterdam over the weekend, bringing a little bit of Catford to our European friends! On Friday and Saturday they sang concerts, and on Sunday they sung at St Cornelius Church, Beuningen, near Utrecht. Here's what they sang at mass:

Introit - Ave Verum (Elgar)
Kyrie & Gloria - Missa de Angelis
Gradual - Litany to the Holy Spirit & Gloria tibi Domine
Offertory - Let us break bread together
Communion - Praise to thee Lord Jesus (Schutz)
Lords Prayer (Sanger)
at the end - O God thou art my God (Purcell)

It wasn't all work, though, as there was a free afternoon on the Saturday. After a canal trip, the adults had free time to explore the various places to visit, and the children went on a supervised shopping trip.

Luckily for us, they are back on duty here tomorrow night at 8pm, singing Missa Brevis (Palestrina) at the sung mass for All Saints day!

Celebrations in St Laurence Centre

I have just returned from a very enjoyable lunch with the Turkish Elders Club, who meet in our halls twice a week. Today they were celebrating Ramadam Bayram 84th Anniversary of the Republic of Turkey. I joined the other representatives from various groups and voluntary organisations from the local area for this event (including the Catford Safer Neighbourhood Team - the "boys (and girls) in blue" - as the Turkish Elders made this positive effort to get to know other groups. To quote from their letter "Our group believes that we must involve ourselves with other voluntary organisations and the council to work together, to support each other and provide a united voice on issues that affect the community".

Free concert!

I've just found out that our choir will be giving a concert in church this Tuesday evening at 7.30pm, prior to their trip to Amsterdam later in the week. It will be our chance to hear their tour repertoire, and there will be a retiring collection to help towards the expenses of the trip (they've promised to tell me all about it when they get back). Everyone very welcome, of course, to come along and support our young people (and the not-so-young ones too).

Harvest

Here is the altar ready for last Sunday (photo is a bit dark). And below, one of our harvest flower arrangements, complete with fruit!

Harvest Festival

This Sunday we celebrate Harvest Festival with a special family service at 10am, when we give thanks to God for the fruits of his creation and pray to be able to take better care of the earth he has put into our charge. You will be given a full service booklet (I did eventually finish printing them!) which explains what is happening and includes the words of the hymns. It also has the notices on the back which tells you what's coming up, so you can take it home with you afterwards to read again and refer to. Not that you have to, you understand, but I did spend ages and ages putting it all together .....!

Tea and coffee will be served in the hall after the service, and we're also having a parish lunch so do join us for a cuppa and/or a meal if you'd like to.

As it says on the sheet: "In the evening, why not come back at 6pm for a glorious choral evensong, which is a perfect opportunity to come and give thanks to God and lift the spirits for the week ahead." Can't think of a more uplifting way to start the week! (Well, yes I may be biased, but you know what I mean.)

Getting ready for Autumn

The choir is back, and weekday masses are back to our usual frequency (every day except Saturday).

There is lots going on at the moment - First Communion classes start soon; housegroup is meeting fortnightly on Wednesday evenings, looking at the life and travels of St Paul; Mothers' Union are holding a bingo evening and an Autumn dance in October; Harvest Festival on 7 October .....

On Sunday 30 September we will be taking part in 'Back to Church Sunday', and we will start giving out invitations this week. If you used to go to church but haven't been for some time, why not come along to the 10am service to see what we get up to?! (No obligation and no awkward questions, we promise.) I'm reliably informed there will be balloons outside to help you find us!

This week at St Laurence's

Coming up ....
tomorrow (Weds 29th): mass with hymns at 10.30am, followed by tea/coffee and biscuits - everyone welcome, of course!

Next Sunday will be the 22nd in ordinary time, with masses at 8am and 10am, and choral evensong at 6pm to celebrate the beginning of the autumn term after the summer holidays.

The following Sunday, September 9th is the deadline for articles for the 'Harvest' edition of the parish magazine, so bring in anything you'd like to see included in the magazine. I'll be adding any relevant information from the Parish Office, and maybe an article too .... we'll have to see!

I shall be back in the office tomorrow, hoping that the Bank Holiday hasn't resulted in too much extra work piling up while I wasn't there!

Coming up this week ...

Mass on Tuesday at 7.30pm, and on Wednesday at 10.30am (followed by tea/coffee).

There are still some copies of the Summer parish magazine left - do pop in and pick one up if you haven't got one.

On Saturday it's the parish barbeque from 6pm to 11pm (social event of the Summer, of course!). Tickets are £6 adults and £3 children.

Here in the office I have just spent the morning doing some therapeutic paper shredding and clearing out the cupboard in the office - most satisfying, I must say. I was doing pretty much the same at home yesterday afternoon too. While I'm going through this phase, don't leave anything lying around as you may find I've shredded/recycled/binned it by the time you return!

Recycling

Being a bit of a recycling nerd, I was really excited to read that at long last we are going to be able to recycle locally all those cartons that hold juice and what-have-you. The locations of the recycling bins are here. Whoopee!

Of farming, floods and foot and mouth ....

Although there may not be much by way of farming in Catford nowadays, of course these issues do affect us all. I was looking at a map the other evening because my other half has been sent to work in the Farnham area a couple of times recently. In fact he has been very close to the area of the suspected foot and mouth outbreak. No-one who saw the interview with the farmer who was in tears after his animals had been culled could fail to be moved by his situation. Likewise, people trying to repair homes and businesses after the floods.

I had a look to find what the Church of England's response to these crises was, and you can read an article here. Whilst reading, I also found the following prayers. Prayer being a ministry that we can all take part in without the need for any special skills or outlay, this means that all of us who want to do something to help can hold these situations before God in our prayer.

Creator God,
Hear our prayers for our farmers and for all who are deeply affected by the recent outbreak of Foot and Mouth Disease in Surrey.
Bless all efforts to prevent the spread of the disease.
To those who are stressed and anxious bring comfort and hope;
to those entrusted with the decision-making give wisdom and discernment;
to your Church in its ministry to all, grant a watchful eye, a loving heart
and a prophetic voice in the service of your Kingdom;
through Jesus Christ our Lord.
Amen.


Lord of Order and all Goodness,
We pray for those whose lives have been made even more uncertain by the Foot and Mouth incident in Surrey.
May all livestock farmers act wisely and calmly, and may they know that we who value their work and the food they produce for our good support them by our prayers. We pray too for those who have to enforce difficult regulations to safeguard the farm animals of this country.
And finally we pray for local churches whose members will be supporting the farming families in their anxiety.
We ask these things, being confident of your love for all your creation, expressed in the life of Jesus Christ, our Saviour.
Amen.

The Transfiguration of the Lord

Jesus took with him Peter and John and James and went up the mountain to pray. As he prayed, the aspect of his face was changed and his clothing became brilliant as lightning. Suddenly there were two men there talking to him; they were Moses and Elijah appearing in glory, and they were speaking of his passing which he was to accomplish in Jerusalem. Peter and his companions were heavy with sleep, but they kept awake and saw his glory and the two men standing with him. As these were leaving him, Peter said to Jesus, 'Master, it is wonderful for us to be here, so let us make three tents, one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah' - he did not know what he was saying. As he spoke, a cloud came and covered them with shadow; and when they went into the cloud the disciples were afraid. And a voice came from the cloud, saying, 'This is my Son, the Chosen One. Listen to him.' And after the voice had spoken, Jesus was found alone. The disciples kept silence and, at that time, told no one what they had seen.

Luke 9:28-36

A Quiet Day with a difference

Several of us will be visiting Southwark Cathedral on Wednesday for a day called "Godwatch - a quiet day with a difference!". It will also be my "anniversary" as it was at a similar event last year that I first met the St Laurence's crowd!

Details of the event are here.


Meanwhile, back here at St Laurence's there is a healing mass at 7.30pm on Tuesday, with anointing and laying on of hands.

Some of the organisations that use our centre are on their summer break, but the office is still open as usual on Thursday evenings from 6.30 to 7.30 for hall bookings. (And I'm here during the day dealing with parish stuff.)

Next Sunday is our patronal festival when the church remembers St Laurence, deacon and martyr, the man himself!

Services this summer

Starting this week and until the end of August, mass will be at the following times:

Sundays at 8am (said) and at 10am (sung)
Tuesdays at 7.30pm (said)
Wednesdays at 10.30am (said, with hymns) - followed by coffee and biscuits


Diary dates:

Tuesday 7th August: Healing mass with anointing and laying on of hands at 7.30pm
Sunday 12th August: Patronal Festival (St Laurence)
Saturday 25th August: Parish barbeque - tickets on sale now from Mothers' Union members!

Services this week

Sunday 22nd July - Dedication Festival (our 39th birthday on the present site!). Said mass at 8am, sung mass at 10am.

Weekdays: said mass at the following times -
Monday 23rd - 7.30am (S Bridget)
Tuesday 24th - 7.30pm
Wednesday 25th - 10.30am S JAMES (followed by coffee and biscuits)
Thursday 26th - 9.30am (S Joachim & Anne)
Friday 27th - 6.30pm

St Benedict

We celebrated the feast day of St Benedict this week, who is widely regarded as the father of western monasticism. It just so happened that I was away a few days ago and visited the Benedictine Prinknash Abbey in Gloucestershire (and also the gift shop, and tea shop of course!). You can read about Benedict and how the monks live here: Prinknash Abbey

Services this week

There is one weekday mass this week:

Wednesday 20th June at 10.30am, followed by tea/coffee/biscuits
(St Alban)

and then Sunday as usual:

said mass 8am
sung mass 10am

Looking ahead to next week .... on Monday 25th June there will be a special mass at 8pm to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Fr Charles' ordination to the priesthood.

From Tuesday 26th we resume our normal pattern for mass on weekdays:

Tuesday: 7.30pm
Wednesday: 10.30am followed by coffee
Thursday: 9.30am
Friday: 6.30pm

Quiet space in Catford

Today I've been busy getting ready for next week's 'Quiet days'. This year we have joined in with a national initiative of the Retreat Association and Churches Together in Britain to create some quiet space in the working week on Friday lunchtime, and a quiet morning on the Saturday. Here's a bit about it from their website:

Since the Retreat Association suggested setting aside the third Saturday in June each year as an annual Quiet Day, the idea has grown. In towns, cities and villages around the UK groups of Christians from many denominations gather together to hold a variety of Quiet Days. Many of these days are organised by Councils of Churches and are open to all comers.
Each event is different, but all will have the same purpose - to help people, particularly those for whom this is a new experience, appreciate the opportunity to be still and enjoy the benefits that stillness brings. In quietness people can become aware of the presence of God in their lives.
This year we are particularly encouraging people on the Friday to find a way to Stop! in the name of God in the workplace. Amidst the noise and pace of workers, shoppers, taxis, tourists, beggars, road works, buses, police sirens, speeding ambulances etc. one can often still hear the chime of a church clock or tolling bell. Could there be here a call to another way of being in the midst of all the rushing energy of contemporary city living?
http://www.retreats.org.uk

and that's what we're aiming to offer here on Friday 15 June between 12 noon and 2pm, and on Saturday 16 June between 10am and 12 noon. We've deliberately kept plans simple, to make it possible for people to just drop in for a while, or to stay longer. We'll have information available to give us some ideas for how to start, to relax, to pray, and leaflets we can take away afterwards. (Note to fellow bloggers - we won't have to be away from our computers for too long, I promise!)

Church blog training

Someone very kindly sent me this cartoon when I told them about the new blog - hope we're all paying attention, now!













(thanks to http://www.cartoonchurch.com/blog)

Welcome!

Welcome to the virtual version of St Laurence's!

Details of what's happening will appear here soon and I hope everyone with an interest in St Laurence's will feel free to contribute to the development of this site.