We had a beautiful Autumnal morning today.

Fr Stephen preached the sermon today.  He talked about the devastating fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris. With the first reports we didn't fully realise the extent of the damage.The French government have now agreed to fund the cost of the rebuild. The total loss of Notre Dame would be unimaginable. Our rich tradition of church music started in Notre Dame during medieval times. We know about the destruction of Herod's temple in Jerusalem, but its potential loss foretold by Jesus  was unthinkable by the Jews in Jerusalem. But in a few years it had gone leaving only the foundations, now the Wailing Wall. That sense of loss has been real in recent years in parts of the Middle East and Africa due to war. It is shattering to the faithful.  Jesus had been a faithful pilgrim, but knew not to put his trust into buildings, but in God.

The devastating fire at Notre-Dame - Wikipedia

Notre Dame was built so beautifully to represent Heaven, not to be worshipped for itself.

Religious art and architecture are much loved by Fr Stephen, but churches are there for us to be able to worship in relative comfort so we are not rained upon.  We cannot consider the loss of our church building, but it likely to come to an end eventually.





The Sunday School had also been very busy, learning about God being always with us.

Today our service started later at 10.45am, so that we could observe the two minutes' silence at 11am.  We had a packed church today, but the sun shone so we weren't too chilly when we moved out to the war memorial at the end of the service for the laying of the commemorative wreaths.

Although Fr Stephen officiated, Fr Roger gave the sermon. He told us that the first reading was from the beginning of the bible and told of Abram (later to be called Abraham).  God told him to go into the unknown about 4000 years ago. He heads towards the Holy Land and retreats to Egypt, when he seems to go off the rails a little. He returns to the Holy Land a rich and prosperous man and becomes embroiled in war. Abraham divides his lands with Lot. Lot has spotted the rich plains around the plains of Jordan and claims them. He then gets in with a bad crowd and is captured and loses all the best land. Abraham get a force of his men and friends and they rescue Lot and his family. Abraham finds he is good at war, and wonders if that is the path God has planned for him? However he decides against it. Abraham refuses this share of the spoils of war.  A stranger appears who is a priest of God Most High and offers Abraham gifts of bread and wine.  He accepts these rather than gold, reflecting the bread and wine which are to come. Jesus joined in with the life of the people around him, but kept himself apart from the badness of people.
We also have to try and make these distinctions.
Belief tends to arise when society becomes organised and civilised. We need a shared belief in God for society to hold together. As belief lessens, society starts to fracture. Jews, Christians and Muslims all come from Abraham and should unite in our similarities rather than fight over our differences. A British architect is designing for the UAE, a church, synagogue and mosque on the same site, with a shared garden when the people of the three different faiths can mingle.

Video of  trio of temple designs for multifaith complex in Abu Dhabi

We remember today the meaning of peace. We relate to people of God. We think of the members of our armed forces who put themselves in harm's way for our benefit.

Representatives of various organisations from Sidlesham laid their wreaths at the memorial.  The children of the Sunday School had painted poppies onto rocks which were also laid at the end of the service.

This morning at our Family Eucharist we celebrated All Saints day with a presentation by the Children's Church on St George. They told us that he wasn't English, but came from present day Turkey, that he was a roman soldier and not a knight, he was a martyr and that the story of the dragon was added in medieval times!
The Choir sang Oh for the Wings of Faith by Bulloch as the anthem. There was coffee after the service

At 6 pm, after an afternoon rehearsal, A Eucharist of Remembrance for All Souls Day was held. As in previous years Faure's Requiem was sung Liturgically and the names of those to be remembered were placed on the alter during the service, and votive candles were lit for them. We were fortunate to have our good friend Peter Webster as the baritone soloist and Sarah Amos from St Mary's choir sang the Pie Jesus during communion.

This service was particularly important to the choir who recently lost one of their number, and was greatly appreciated by all who attended.

Peter and Sarah our soloists with James one of the basses.

Joanna, oranist and choir leader

Today we had a splendid sunny day after the gloom and greyness of the last week. The church was resplendent as usual with lovely flower arrangements in the church.




Father Roger gave us the sermon his week and rushed off immediately afterwards as his ministry was needed elsewhere.

Fr Roger told us that his 55 years of meetings with church hierarchy usually do not go well. This was also the theme of the Gospel reading of the Pharisee and tax collector. The Pharisee is a man at the top of his game, he is well respected in his religion.  The Tax collector is almost a betrayer of his people, a Jew who works for the Roman conquerors, collecting money from his neighbours. The Pharisee goes above and beyond what his religion requires.  He fasts more than he needs, he gives away more alms than is required and sticks absolutely to all the rites of his religion.  The tax collector is nowhere near as devout. At the start of the parable, people would think that the Pharisee is  the "good guy" of the tale, but he is boastful when he prays to God in the temple. He glorifies his wonderful behaviour.  He focuses on himself and how he looks. He is not leading his people. His attitude is incorrect. The Tax collector on the other hand, knows he is falling short of what God wants from him and humbly appeals to God. His attitude is correct.

St Paul says we should be justified by faith and not by works.


Next week as well as our Family Communion at 10am we also have a special service for All Souls at 6pm.  There is a Requiem for All Souls' with Fauré's Requiem setting. There is a list of names in church.  Please add the names of those you wish to be remembered during the service.  The list will be placed on the High Altar during the service.  Also after receiving communion, you will have the opportunity to light a candle of remembrance adjacent to the sanctuary.

This Morning our 10:00 am service was Mattins. Father Stephen took the service, and preached the sermon. The lesson from the Old Testament concerned the story of Jacob wrestling with the Angel of the Lord, and having his hip dislocated, and the New Testament reading was about the dishonest Judge who gave a Judgement to the lady who pestered him. In the sermon Father Stephen spoke about the lesson from St Luke that God would always listen to our prayers and that we should bring things to him, because if the corrupt judge listened eventually, how much more would our Loving Father listen to us.

The Choir sang The Te Deum in the setting by C V Stanford in B flat. and the anthem 'O Lord increase our Faith' by Henry Loosemore.

There was coffee after the service.

In the Afternoon at 3:00pm we were treated to a fantastic concert of piano music by Tom Cooper. Tom played works by Bach, Clementi and Beethoven, but the main focus of the afternoon was the work of Chopin. Tom's virtuoso performance of some extremely complex works was a delight to all who heard him. We were give a real treat. This was followed by a traditional Sidlesham Tea, also a treat of a different type. We were very grateful to Tom for coming to play and were able to dedicate this concert to the memory of Guy Borer, a choir member who recently died.

We met for our 10 am Eucharist on a very wet and windy day, one of a very wet and windy week! Today we have many Saints to remember, St Edward the Confessor, St Wilfrid, and today a new British Saint St John Henry Newman.

Our readings this morning were from St Paul's letter to Timothy and the Gospel told the story of Jesus curing the 10 lepers, of which only one came back to say thank you. In his Sermon, Father Stephen told us of the significance of this story. Jesus and his disciples were travelling in the border country between Israel and Samaria. The Jewish people were enemies of the Samaritans, whom they considered to be  blasphemous pagans. The group of people with leprosy were both Jewish and Samaritan and Jesus cured them all, but the man who came back to say thank you was a Samaritan. We all need to be aware of the great gifts we have received and be thankful.

The anthem was 'Let thy merciful ears O Lord' by Thomas Mudd. there was coffee after the service.

Do come and join us for the piano recital by Tom Cooper next Sunday at 3:00pm. This concert is dedicated to the memory of Guy Borer, a long standing member of our Choir who died last week. There will be tea after the concert so do come along, retiring collection for the Church to improve the path from the car park to the church, which is much needed

More wonderful autumnal flowers

This morning we came together at 10 am for a Parish Eucharist, as we had held our family service last week for harvest. After some very wet weather we had a beautiful autumn morning with a clear blue sky.

We received the sad news that our friend and stalwart of the bass section of the choir, Guy had died on Friday Morning after a short illness. We prayed for the repose of his soul and for his Mother and Brothers and Sisters in their loss.

The readings today, from Paul's letter to Timothy and St Luke's Gospel focused on the ways to increase our faith, and in his sermon Father Stephen spoke about this, and the importance for those who have been bought up in the church to constantly refresh our joy and enthusiasm for our beliefs and the inspiration they bring.

The Choir sang the Ave Verum in the setting by W A Mozart as the anthem.

We were very happy to be able to celebrate with Chris Field, who yesterday received the St Richard's medal at a service in the Cathedral, as a mark of the many years of unflagging service to St Mary's . This was the first time the medal has been awarded, and the 40 or so people who were honoured, were given an individual lapel badge to mark their achievement.

After the service we had coffee in the new rooms.

The Concert on the 20th of October by Tom Cooper, will be dedicated to Guy, and a retiring collection will go towards improving the path from the car park to the rooms, which is rather rough under foot. Do come along, the concert will be followed by tea in the rooms.

The Sunday School have been looking at sheep for harvest