Weekly Letter from St Luke's - 1st March 2024

Dear Parish Friends

Firstly, I have much delight in reporting that the contract for our redevelopment project has been signed! This is a great milestone reached. The builders will be starting on site on Monday 4th March.

Then it is with sadness that I let you know that Loane Lilley died this week. Her funeral will be held at George Hartnett Funerals, 42 Gaza Road, Holland Park West at 10am on Monday 11th March. Loane was a long standing member of our congregation, and just 2 months short of her 102nd birthday. Please keep her family in your prayers at this time.

Our gospel reading this Sunday is the account from John's gospel of Jesus clearing the temple precincts of animal sellers and money changers. These were the trappings that had built up to support the temple worship over the years, so much so that the purpose behind them had been forgotten. The ritual had clouded the devotion, and Jesus protested against it, as had the prophets of old. As Anglicans the ritual (the liturgy and how we order our services) is important to us, but we must strive to see this as helping rather than obscuring our worship of God.

Sunday morning's services will be as usual at 7am (Holy Communion) and 9am (Family Communion with Zoom streaming). The notice paper and 9am service sheet are available via the links below. To mark this as a more solemn season, I encourage you to arrive early for the services, Five minutes before the service starts I will ring the bell and read the sentence of the day and we will then sit in silence for prayer before the bell is rung again and we sing the opening hymn.

Yours in Christ

Rev'd Timothy