Sunday 14 September 2008

The Exaltation of the Holy Cross







Holy Cross was truly celebrated in style!
Fr Mark celebrated and preached at the 8am Mass, he then presided over Lauds. Bishop David Silk arrived and after going through the liturgy of the day all was prepared for the Pontifical Concelebrated Mass.
All banners were used in the procession as it made its way to the High Altar. The Vexilla Regis was sung to focus our thoughts. Mass today was celebrated facing east and a relic of the True Cross was exposed on the altar.
Bishop David preached a very engaging sermon about the day’s liturgy. After Mass he was thanked by me and also by Jim Cheesman, an old friend of the bishop, who presented him with a small gift from the congregation.
During the notices I also announced that envelopes were to be given out to collect funds for the fourth window on the south wall. The third window (the Ascension) is paid from a bequest by the late Fr Donald Pharoah. The fourth window (Pentecost) will be by subscription from the congregation. The total money needed is around £7000 and we already have around a £1000. After Mass a member of the congregation approached me and donated £10,000 for the fifth window! I will approach the designer this week to start thinking about this window (the Assumption of the BVM) which will include some features that the donor would like to see. Many thanks for this generous donation! It will encourage us all to find the necessary funds for the Pentecost window.
After Mass Bishop David spent time with the congregation in the hall. It was great to have him with us today, a day which was holy, memorable and showed once again the commitment and devotion of this great Anglo-Catholic congregation.

1 comment:

Andrew Teather said...

A very inspirational man, Bishop David. He gave me great strength.