Dear Friends,

Most feasts throughout the Church's calendar are shared by every parish throughout the Church of England - indeed, in many cases, with other denominations too. However, each parish gets a Patronal Feast which is particular to them, the feast of the parish's patron saint, and here at St Bene't's ours - St Benedict's Day - is this week.

Our devotional connection to Saint Benedict of Nursia goes far deeper than just our name, however: as a parish, our charism (meaning our particular gift as a community) is one of extending a genuine welcome to all people, and this is no accident, for St Benedict's famous rule of life places a high importance on hospitality and welcome. As we reflect on this week's readings, we are encouraged to ask ourselves what our Christian hospitality and welcome ought to look like in a world of division and inequality.

To celebrate our Patronal Festival, we will be having lunch together after the 10am Eucharist on Sunday and this will be served by our neighbours, Bread and Meat.  Bread and Meat have a note of our food choices from the sign-up sheets previously completed and so we just need to bring our own drinks. Weather permitting, we will be in the church garden with Corpus kindly providing a gazebo that will give some welcome shade in what we hope will be a sunny day.

On Friday 14 July, at 7pm, Reverend Dr James Gardom will be licensed as our Priest-in-Charge for the next year.  This licensing service will be led by Bishop Stephen with both Archdeacon Alex and our Rural Dean Rachel also attending; following the service there will be refreshments.  Please do make every effort to attend, if you are able to, so that we can provide as warm a welcome as possible to both James and his wife Judith.

As we look forward to James guiding us through the remainder of our vacancy, we also start to prepare our Parish Profile and go through the process of appointing a new vicar. We will be consulting the congregation widely on the Parish Profile with further details from Sunday 23 July.

Ed’s last Sunday with us will be 23 July when he will be both presiding and preaching at the 10am Eucharist. On this Sunday we will also be thanking Ed for his contributions to our worship and life at St. Bene’t’s. If you would like to contribute to a leaving gift, please do so by using the ‘Donate’ link on the parish website and indicate ‘Ed’s Leaving Gift’ in the message box.

Finally, as we continue to remember Anna, we remember her birthday next week on 15 July. If you wish to make a donation in her memory to the Lady Peel Trust, please see further details below in Tidings.

With our love and prayers,
The St Bene’t’s Team