St Edward the Confessor

The bible which stands at the East end of the church is the one used in the church for its consecration on the 16th November 1859. That book is kept in a place of honour not only because of its history but above all because here at St John’s we take the bible very seriously. This is the Word of God, we say after each proclamation of any part of it. The Word of God who is Jesus; the Word of God also in the Sacred Scripture. Listening to these words and living them is the only path to eternal life. We live in a church where some members, very sadly, want to unchurch others who do what Christians have done always and everywhere: follow the Bible.

It is to enable us to reflect upon the centrality of God’s word that last Sunday we kept Bible Sunday. Members from the local branch of Gideons International joined us. They set up a very informative stall in our hall which attracted a lot of interest. We were very fortunate in having their member Roy Goodship to speak to us about Jesus as the central focus of Scriptures and also to share with us information about the work of Gideons.

Following on from that theme, I led an assembly yesterday at Sevenoaks Primary School about the Bible and presented to each pupil a personal bible provided through the kindness of the charity “Bibles for Children”. The pupils really enjoyed receiving a bible. One my way out of school, a couple of hours after assembly a very young girl in the corridor stops me and says that she looked at the bible and she really likes it: “I will read it Fr Ivan!” How wonderful! This was followed by the RE lesson for both classes of Year 6, yesterday looking at Abraham and using the new bibles. It is always a joy to be at that school, the pupils are so well behaved, polite and hard working and the head teacher and staff are a delight.

The day came to an end with the Fabric Committee at the Vicarage. A solid group of committed people who really work for the glory of God and the furtherance of his kingdom here in Sevenoaks, may His name be blessed and their efforts rewarded. It was a very good meeting indeed.

This morning I opened the web cam of the Shrine of Our Lady in Fatima to see the holy place of the apparitions today being the anniversary of the last apparition. The devotion in that holy shrine is legendary; please offer a decade of your Rosary today  to the work of that shrine. You can find the shrine’s web cam here and press the top right hand tab that reads transmissoes.

My new role as chair of governors at our school demands that I walk up the hill now to a meeting of the Premises Committee. We have just been granted a substantial sum of money by the Diocesan Board of Education towards new buildings, so there is a lot to talk about today. After that, today being my day of rest, I am off to London to see the Little Flower at Westminster Cathedral. I will say a prayer for all those who read and follow this blog.