Nicolas Spicer is the Vicar of Worksop Priory.
John Richardson can be followed on his blog The Ugley Vicar
Rodney Marshall is the Vicar of St Helen’s, Athersley and the Chairman of SSWSH Wakefield.
At the recent meeting of the General Synod amidst the hustle and bustle and back room dealings a group of priests from the Wakefield Diocese were to be seen handing out prayer cards to Synod members exhorting them to pray for the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
We must continue to hold the Synod and in particular the Catholic Group in our prayers:
God, who as at this time taught the hearts of your faithful people by sending to them the light of your Holy Spirit: grant us by the same Spirit to have a right judgement in all things and evermore to rejoice in his holy comfort; through the merits of Christ Jesus our Saviour, who is alive and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and for ever.
STOP PRESS
Just as the presses were about to roll we received this encouraging letter from Mrs Pat Springett of Stamford, Lincolnshire:
Well, Hallelujah! Praise the Lord for Emily Gent and her article in your July issue. It is so encouraging as a member of the ‘opposition’ and a woman to boot to find such a charitable, Christian woman Ordinand. As a member of Forward in Faith in Lincoln Diocese it is extra difficult to find people of the same Faith let alone one who belongs to the ‘other side’ who is sympathetic. She asks whether it might be ‘an impossibility or an idealistic dream’ that we might be able to stay in the same Church but surely that is what Christ prayed for? I quote from W.H. Turton’s lovely hymn:
For all thy Church O Lord we intercede;
Make thou our sad divisions soon to cease;
Draw us the nearer each to each, we plead,
By drawing all to thee, O Prince of Peace;
Thus may we all one Bread, one Body be,
One through this Sacrament of unity. ND