From Rev. Helen

I hope you all have had a blessed summer! As you all know, I took a short sabbatical, mostly to enable me to visit my ever-expanding family and take a Camino pilgrimage with my husband. By now, you will have…

And here we are at Holy week again! The week that commemorates the last eight days of Jesus’ life. Somehow, this sacred time fits well into the seasons of both the northern and southern hemispheres when new life is happening…

During Epiphany, you have been hearing me talk a lot about ‘rooted discipleship’ and the practices of prayer, study, giving, sharing, and serving. We also had the opportunity to attend the showing of ‘A Case for Love,’ a documentary film…

Happy New Year all! We enter the season of Epiphany from January 6 through to Ash Wednesday on February 14. It is well to consider who Jesus was and is as Son of God, Son of Man, Emmanuel, God with…

“Our business is building bridges with our questions of one another and the world.” This is a quote from Rowan Williams, the previous Archbishop of Canterbury. You heard it in a recent sermon and it has stuck with me since.…

Dear St. Raphaelites and Friends! I’m writing this before Holy week and the journey of the Triduum through to Easter Sunday, the feast of Christ’s resurrection, has not yet happened! I learnt in Durham last year that the Venerable Bede,…

Dear beloved community, Well, here we are again at the Ash Wednesday kick off a two-season cycle: the 40 days of Lent & the 50 days of Easter. It is a cycle of reflection and reliving Jesus’ journey toward his…

Summer is a good time to kick back a bit, visit family and friends, take some time out. I may be attending General Convention in Baltimore and the Lambeth Conference in the UK this summer, but I know I shall…

We are now entering the longest season of the year: Pentecost. The season of discipleship – of learning and growth, seeing and believing, walking in faith. Right through to Christ the King on November 20. The lectionary readings follow a…

Easter: the feast of Christ's resurrection. The early church overlaid traditional religious customs as Christianity moved through North Africa to Europe and around the world, reinterpreting those customs in the light of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. According to Bede,…