-
Letter for December 2018/January 2019
Like most children, my favourite time of year was Christmas. I had lots of favourite times, but Christmas was that bit extra special. It was because we had an open coal fire blazing in the hearth making the house toasty warm. We had extra special food like turkey and Christmas pudding, and if I was…
-
Letter for November 2018
It would be interesting to ask a group of people to say a word which they associate with each month of the year. I am sure that for the month of November the word “remember” or remembrance” would feature. The month begins with the Christian festival of All Saints or All Hallows on 1st November…
-
Letter for October 2018
October sees us celebrating harvest (and everyone at St Peter’s is welcome to the St Anne’s harvest supper on Saturday 13th October at 6.30pm!), which is many people’s favourite festival of the church year. It’s a relatively recent addition to the church calendar, being a Victorian invention. The inventors of the harvest festival were drawing…
-
Letter for September 2018
For those of you who haven’t met me, I’m Jonathan, the parish priest responsible for St Mary Magdalene’s Outwood, and an associate priest in the benefice of Outwood, Stanley and Wrenthorpe. Over the next few months, the three churches in the team and St Paul’s Alverthorpe will be working more closely together as we look…
-
Letter for July/August 2018
We hear a lot about “community”. We talk a lot about “community”. Family, church, village, school are all examples of community. Apparently there are five different types of communities and every one can be classified by the purpose that brings them together, for example: interest, action, place, practice and circumstance. So why is community important? …
-
Letter for June 2018
“Repay no one evil for evil…..live peaceably with all. Never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, “Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord.” If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink; for by so doing you will…
-
David’s Letter for April 2018
Here at St Peter’s, we have been very fortunate. For the last 24 years we have had a dedicated and committed priest in Bill Henderson and in his wife Viv. Together they have made a wonderful team dedicated to bringing the Gospels to life in the church and supporting the community here in Stanley. Things…
-
Bill’s Letter for March 2018
It is a very strange feeling beginning to write my last magazine letter here in Stanley. I am grateful for the many messages of encouragement about the opportunities in retirement. Time to visit family and friends and do the things that full time work makes impossible. Never the less there is also a real sense…
-
Bill’s Letter for February 2018
I began the February 2017 magazine wishing everyone a happy New Year and welcoming Jo and Jonathan to Outwood and Wrenthorpe. I begin this one preparing to say goodbye. We arrived as a young fresh faced family in 1993, little knowing that we would still be here 24 very special years later. Seen here with…
-
Bill’s Letter for December 2017/January 2018
As we enter into the Christmas season we also move into a time of shorter days and longer dark nights. It is a time when the symbol of Jesus, the Light of the World is particularly powerful. We experience the darkness of the world in many different ways and the news highlights some for us…