Alnmouth Friary held its 60th anniversary celebrations at the weekend! The Bishop of Newcastle, Christine Hardman, joined proceedings and preached at an outdoor eucharist in the friary garden. Celebrations continued after the service with a buffet and picnic.
Franciscans on tour! Finnian will be leading Scriptural Rosary sessions at Liverpool Anglican Cathedral later this month.
He will be based in the Lady Chapel at the Cathedral from Tuesday 17th to Saturday 21st August, and will begin the prayers at 12.45pm every day.
Booking is not necessary and beads are provided if you want them. If you are based in that part of the country do join him!
We have a couple of important anniversaries coming up! Later this month we will be celebrating 60 years of Franciscan witness at Alnmouth Friary. Towards the end of the year, Hilfield will be marking its centenary! We will keep you updated with all the events surrounding these two joyful occasions.
During the course of the pandemic we have all had to make substantial adjustments to the way we live whilst trying to maintain as much ‘normality’ as possible. For many Sisters and Brothers this has meant getting to grips with communication platforms like Zoom or Skype. Br Joe (currently on extended sick leave) has enjoyed being able to use this technology to preach, lead quiet days, give spiritual accompaniment and, much to his delight, to provide input for collective worship for a group of schools in Oxfordshire – and all from his study in Edinburgh. He looks forward to speaking to them about St Francis as part of their collective worship (also via Zoom)!
The Church Times reports today (15th July) that those who racially abused members of the England football squad have been condemned strongly by the Archbishops of Canterbury and York and General Synod. A statement issued by Synod reads: “… we wish to express our deep disappointment and concern that the achievement [of the England team] has been marred by disgraceful racial abuse.”
The Sisters and Brothers unequivocally endorse this statement and uphold in prayer all who stand against racism and discrimination. Here is a picture of our Bishop Protector (Bishop Christopher of Southwark)’ ‘taking the knee’ in Walworth last year following the tragic murder of George Floyd.
Br Samuel has written ‘Reflections on Sabbath Wisdom for a Post-pandemic World’ for the St Paul’s Cathedral Adult Learning website:
https://www.stpauls.co.uk/learning-faith/adult-learning/daily-reflections
This week the Brothers at Plaistow have been hosting Irfeel and Katarina from the Community of Saint Anselm. Yesterday Sam and Tobias took them to visit Emmanuel Church in Forest Gate. Rev’d Dr Chigor Chike and Father Barnabas Matloob told us about Faithful Friends, a wonderful interfaith project in that part of Newham.
This was followed by a visit to the Minhaj-ul-Quran mosque just across the street. Muhammad Zeeshan Qadri is the director of the mosque, and he spoke about the various projects close to his heart, particularly the importance of interfaith friendship, countering extremism and fostering mutual respect. It was inspirational to see the many welfare projects run by the mosque, including offering their space to host a weekly Covid vaccination clinic.
