Dear friends When I wrote to you on Wednesday, detailing the steps we were taking to keep St John’s safe while we remained open, I said “We will continue to monitor the situation and will respond appropriately and quickly if and when any changes to the above become necessary or desirable.” Yesterday afternoon, the Mayor […]
Author Archive | Andrew Gaitskell
Christmas Eve – Midnight Mass Services
9pm and 11.30pm Christmas Eve – MIDNIGHT MASS SERVICES The tradition of keeping a Mass in the evening before Christmas Day began in the East, and was observed in the late fourth century in Jerusalem by a Christian woman named Egeria on the night of January 5. The tradition reached the Western world in the […]
Welcome Children, Families and Carers to our Christmas Eve Crib Service
On Christmas Eve it will be wonderful to welcome children and their families or carers to St John’s Church and to our Crib Services at 2pm and 4pm. You all know that it’s going to look different this year… but the story is the same: that God loves us so much he comes to us […]
Christmas Carol Services at St John’s
Many things have been different this year and St John’s Christmas Carol Services are no exception. This year we will have three Christmas Carol Services to ensure that we have enough space to invite everyone who wants to join us for these special services. We are extremely blessed to have found three amazing choirs who […]
Advent Course – Race and Hope
Advent is a time of hope and anticipation, but also a time of reflection and this year we take the theme Race and Hope. Some of us may find it difficult to talk about race because of the historical dominance of western, European culture. But we have chosen this theme because of events during the course of this […]
LMP back for their Christmas Concert ‘Christmas Comfort and Joy’
The London Mozart Players are back at St John’s for their annual Christmas concert ‘Christmas Comfort and Joy’ on 12 December at 4:30pm and 7:00pm. The festive programme brings together the music we all love at Christmas, from traditional carols, to yuletide songs and classical favourites: Vivaldi’s ‘Winter’ from The Four Seasons will have your […]
Dispell the darkness and let us worship together on Advent Sunday
For the first time in the church’s history we will celebrate the beginning of the church year apart from each other. Advent is a season like no other. Filled with words of hope and encouragement, but also of warning. It is the season for us to not only prepare for the coming of the Christ […]
The Bell, the bell!!
For several years the tolling bell of St John’s has been silenced, as the weather of nearly seven decades at last took its toll on the exposed frame, and as you can see from the attached photograph, caused the mechanism which holds the bell and allows it to swing and in turn be struck to […]
Zoom in to Junior Disciples on Sunday
Last Sunday we started our Junior Disciples session on Zoom for the first time. For those of you with children or grandchildren who aren’t aware, Junior Disciples is our Sunday school for children over 7. Claudia Young and Fr Tom led the Zoom Junior Disciples and it all went very well: they talked about the […]
Let us pray for the liberation of all
As parliament votes today on our second lockdown, it looks as though many expected things planned for this time of year will either go ‘online’ or be deferred until next year or simply not happen. When it comes to worship of course this will continue, but its public participation will be translated to online engagement. […]
