Dear Friends,

It’s been lovely this week seeing more sunshine and feeling that the days are getting a bit longer again. There are snowdrops in the churchyard and there is the real sniff of Spring in the air-though I wish the temperature was a bit higher!

As we near the end of the Candlemas octave we also reach the end of the period of celebration and reflection that started back with Lent. I will miss the specialness of the services and the music but am also looking forward to what is to come. However, change is bittersweet., It’s endings as well as beginnings, and our Candlemas text reminds us of a moment of change and transfer. The Old Covenant becomes the New, with Jesus handed into the care of the aged Simeon to be blessed, knowing that at this supreme moment his role on this earth is completed, and he steps out of the narrative. Later, John the Baptist will do the same, notwithstanding the mix of drama and chronicle that ends his story.

This is a meeting of the human and divine, grounded in family and community. Jesus is explicitly anchored in his society, but Simeon prophecies that that same community will be fractured and reassembled to be a new thing by what is to come. He will expand and transform Judaism, embrace the Gentile, create something new but also that contains and continues what is right from what already exists. Luke very specifically reminds us that Jesus is Jewish and remains Jewish. All that he becomes-all that he does-needs to be interpreted in this context.

This Sunday 4th Sunday before Lent08.00am - Holy Communion – All Saints10:00am – Sung Holy Communion with Candlemas Procession - St. Mary’s10:30am – Muddy Messy Church – All Saints7:15pm – Generations – All Saints Link

The week ahead

Monday 10th - 10.30am - Tiny Tots – All SaintsTuesday 11th 10:30am – M4T - St. Mary’sWeds 12th 9:00am - Celtic Morning Prayer – All SaintsThursday 13th 10:00am – Holy Communion - St. Mary’s 1.00pm - Funeral – St MarysFriday 14th 12.30pm - Concert – St MarysSaturday 15th 12.00 – 2:00pm - Saturday Lunches – St Mary’s 3pm – Interment of Judith West followed by refreshments

Next Sunday 16th Third Sunday before Lent

10:00am - Holy Communion – St Marys10.30am Holy Communion – All Saints

May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with us all evermore. Amen

Blessings Fr Kester de Oliveira