The Seasonal Pantomime stamps are on sale from 4 November, along with the two Christmas ‘Madonna and Child’ stamps (1st and 2nd class) from last year – available only to those who specifically ask for them. So do.

With victories on St Luke’s Day & Trafalgar Day the footballing wing of FiF, AFC Wimbledon, go top of the Conference (South).

17 November will mark the 450th anniversary of the death of Queen Mary, ‘By the Grace of God, Queen of England, France, and Ireland, Defender of the Faith, and on Earth Supreme Head of the Church of England and Ireland’ in 1558. It was in the early morning, after a long and serious illness that she died, during the celebration of the Holy Mass.

On 17 October Sony withdrew its new video game LittleBigPlanet one week before its worldwide release, after complaints from Muslims that one of the background music tracks contained two phrases from the Koran; and all credit to them for doing so. In 2007 another Sony game Resistance: Fall of Man was not withdrawn after complaints from the Dean that it used the inside of Manchester Cathedral as the setting for a gun battle; it was later short listed for a BAFTA Video Game Award (though it did not win its category).

For those who complain that ND is too often difficult to understand, try this latest item from the Inclusive Church Newsletter. It begins, ‘When Jesus went cruising down by the quayside among those rough and hunky fisherman to groom for disciples he only came across men. This fact however clearly tells us little about our Lord’s choice of recruitment assessment centre, his preferred psychometric job profiling methodology or the gender selection imperatives of the person profile for his new priesthood.’

The Archbishop of Canterbury is leading a day of pilgrimage and prayer on the Feast of Our Lady’s Conception, Monday 8 December, in Coventry Cathedral, 10.30 to 16.00.

This day for ‘catholic bishops, priests and mission leaders’ will focus on the opportunities and challenges of forming fresh expressions of the church within the catholic tradition of the CofE.

In commending the Marian day pilgrimage Archbishop Rowan writes: Each of us promises in the Anglican formularies to proclaim the faith afresh in each generation by the grace of the living God at work within us. To do this well in our own day involves a willingness to go to every part of our changing culture and, often, to work with the Spirit to form new communities of word and sacrament in fresh and imaginative ways. I hope and pray that people from every part of the anglo-catholic tradition will be able to join me in this day of prayer and pilgrimage as we seek God’s renewal in our common mission.

Further details on , or from Fr John Twisleton who is a member of the organizing team.