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Letter for March 2020
Dear Friends, As I was preparing for the season of Lent I came upon a ‘Charlie Brown’ cartoon which has little Linus, looking very forlorn, asking Lucy, ‘Why are you always so anxious to criticize me?’ Lucy looking very self-righteous replies: ‘I just think I have the knack for seeing other people’s faults’. Linus turns…
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Letter for February 2020
For me one of the most moving feasts in the Church’s calendar is Candlemas on the 2nd February every year. It arrives forty days after the birth of Jesus but is not as well known as Christmas and Easter. Candlemas tells the story of Jesus being presented in the Temple by Mary and Joseph to…
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Letter for November 2019
Dear friends, one of the joys of being a Vicar is baptising babies and even though I have baptised many over the years, I have never lost the wonder and joy of holding new life and sharing in a family’s thanksgiving to God for the gift of their child. Very often those being baptised are very…
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Letter for October 2019
Dear Friends, You do not need me to tell you that Brexit has dominated our political life as a nation for well over three years now. Looking back to when the referendum took place in June 2016 there was a real sense that things would be done and dusted in a comparatively short time. How…
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Letter for July/August 2019
Dear Friends, it is lovely to have finally arrived and start to settle into life here in Outwood, Stanley, Wrenthorpe and Alverthorpe. First of all a big thankyou for your warm welcome to Angela and myself and for your support at my licensing service in early June. We are both thrilled and excited to be…
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Letter for June 2019
For Christmas we have the build-up of Advent, and Easter Day is preceded by Holy Week. But when it comes to Whit Sunday, it just arrives! Yet Pentecost is all about the birth of the Christian church and the coming of the Holy Spirit. Surely, that is something to get excited about! For forty days…
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Letter for May 2019
Easter is now a distant memory for many. Kids are back at school, parents are back at work and the world goes on, except it doesn’t for 300+ people who lost their lives in Sri Lanka. Easter is a time for Christians to celebrate. It is a time when we remember that death is no…
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Letter for April 2019
You may have heard the news that we will soon be welcoming our new vicar to Stanley. The Rev Glenn Coggins has been appointed as vicar of Stanley, Outwood and Wrenthorpe and priest in charge of Alverthorpe. Rev Coggins is currently based in East Ardsley and will be licensed as lead vicar for our United…
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Letter for March 2019
How will you remember March 2019? For some people it will be a birth, a marriage or a death. For others it will be redundancy or a new job, an illness or a recovery, a falling out or a reconciliation. Or even the holiday of a lifetime. The question of Brexit will be foremost in…
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Letter for February 2019
“Should I stay or should I go?” (The Clash). Since the Referendum in June 2016, we have seen families, our nation and Parliament divided by different opinions over Europe. But—as written in a statement by CofE Bishops in December 2018—”at the heart of the Christian message is Jesus’ command to love our neighbour. This includes…