Among the many privileges of being a Parish Priest is surely parish visiting. Here at St John's we look at it as a wave of prayer. Visiting to meet, to get to know each other better and to pray together. It depends on arrangements but an icon of the Blessed Virgin preceeds the visit for three days or is left there for the following three days to be a focus of prayer from home to home. I am really moved by the blessings that this is bestowing upon us. It is moving to see people prepering a little altar for the image, flowers, candles, family embroidered cloths. One family arranged photographs of all members of the family and left a prominent place for the icon in the middle, so that Our Lady blesses the family and gives them joy.

There are pics above of one of a visit I have done this week.
This morning one of the churchwardens and myself spent some time in church with Caroline Benyon who is gracing our church with new and artistic windows depicting the mysteries of our salvation. Thank you Caroline! We look forward for the penultimate window which we hope will be installed by the beginning of the Autumn. The next window depicting Pentecost will be a memorial of our Sesquicentenary - the Year of Grace. Below is the photograph of the artist with her latest work.