Category: Vicar’s Letters

Vicar’s Letter: February 2022

Counting Blessings My dear friends, You will imagine the missed emotions with which I write these words as I prepare to leave Cuckfield after seven years as vicar. It has simply been the greatest privilege of my life to serve such a wonderful community. Many of you have allowed me to journey with you in…
Vicar’s Letter: January 2022

Ring out, wild bells! My dear friends, Thus writes Alfred Lord Tennyson from his poem In Memoriam in which, using wonderful imagery, he conjures up the sense of renewed life and hope a new year represents. Ring out the old, ring in the new,Ring, happy bells, across the snow:The year is going, let him go!…
Vicar’s letter: Christmas 2021

My dear Friends, Before the paling of the stars, Before the winter morn, Before the earliest cock crow, Jesus Christ was born With this wonderful imagery, Christina Rossetti starts one of her Christmas poems and we are pointed towards the stable of Bethlehem. Was it a cave or a timber structure? In a sense it…
Vicar’s Letter: November 2021

New Oracles? Dear Friends, I found a newspaper article from The Times I saved over a decade years ago, penned by the Nigerian author, Ben Okri. The title was striking; ‘Our false oracles have failed. We need a new vision to live by.’ He uses striking imagery to conjure up what he sees as the…
Vicar’s letter: October 2021

Respect Dear Friends, We have had various spats recorded in the press recently concerning various politicians using language which to my mind should never be used within political discourse. Both those on the right and left (and every shade between) have the responsibility to call out failures and shortcomings of the ‘other,’ and yes, in…
September 2021

What a wonderful world! My dear friends, The words above will bring a tune to mind for many people, and really, when we consider the world, this is primarily how we should view it. God’s creation; ours to treasure and care for. But – you may respond – what about the terrible things going on…
August 2021

FREEDOM My dear friends, By the time you read this we will have some idea of the sort of freedom we will experience on our continued journey through Covid-World. Masks? Sanitizers? Distancing? Track and Trace? Travel restrictions? All have been part of our lives for these many months, and I am sure that the opinions…
July 2021

The Living Flame My dear friends, As the continuing situation in regard to Covid seems never ending, I have been struck over many months by the number of candles alight on our ‘Tree of Light’ in church; sometimes a solitary flame, sometimes ablaze with many. There is no doubt that it has provided a way…
June 2021

My dear friends, The diocese has asked every parish in the diocese to engage with a Deanery Mission Action Plan and poses four aspects to which questions are linked: More Open – How will your church provide worship and sustain faith? More converted – How will your church nurture and grow the faith of your church community?…