Vicar’s Window March 2019

Dear friends, So Lent is finally upon us! Not quite as late as it could be but not far off – all to do with the calculation of the phases of the moon. Before we look at Lent, what about the keeping of Candlemass last month? That great Feast of Light was celebrated with devotion … Read more

Vicar’s Window February 2019

Dear friends, I declare this “Vicar’s Window” a Brexit-free zone. Last month we celebrated the memorial of S. Francis de Sales. He was a Roman Catholic bishop who sought to encourage a spirituality appropriate to the lifestyle of the person concerned. He rightly discerned that the praying-pattern of a monk could not be the same … Read more

Vicar’s Window January 2019

Dear friends, Barbara Roberts, our church treasurer, received a lovely present from the Diocese of Lichfield just before Christmass. It was the notification that the parish share for Sneyd Parish has now increased by 5% for 2019. This is an increase of £1,248, bringing the total to £26,244 per annum. We have to find £2,187 … Read more

Vicar’s Window December 2018

Dear friends, The holy season of Advent is upon us in a few days time. A short Advent because Christmass Day falls on a Tuesday so there is barely time between Advent Four (23rd) and Christmass Eve (24th). At long last, the weather has turned colder and I forget how much I enjoy celebrating mass … Read more

Vicar’s Window November 2018

Dear friends, I never approved of THE referendum – but I did vote, albeit with mixed feelings. What was interesting was the response of my fellow residents. People came out in their droves. Why they did so is not for me to comment, other than to say that it made me think that proportional representation … Read more

Vicar’s Window October 2018

Dear friends, October is a wonderfully quiet month. No major feast days and time to catch up on all sorts of stuff ignored or pushed aside during the rest of the year. Who knows, we might even have a new mass book with all the different settings we use. The new rite for mass has … Read more

Vicar’s Window September 2018

Dear friends, The Church Catholic does seem to have gotten itself into a real mess during the past decades. The Pope’s visit to Ireland was a prolonged declaration of regret and sorrow for the sins of the clergy since the 1950s. This was certainly how it came across in the newspaper reports. The poor man … Read more

Vicar’s Window July 2018

Dear friends, Last month’s letter certainly produced responses from various quarters – all in agreement and not all from the elderly like myself. I even had an e-mail from a man who said that he followed by articles and agreed with everything I said. “You say what a lot of people are thinking and are … Read more

Vicar’s Window June 2018

Dear friends, June is a month with only two major feast days – the Birthday of S. John the Baptist (24th) and the Feast of the Holy Apostles Peter and Paul (29th). The former falls, fortuitously, on a Sunday. It is, of course, the feast day for the Mother Town. Burslem Wakes used to take … Read more