February 2012 Letter	Past letters
2012 will be an historic year for St Cross as we welcome Trish Cope as our Curate! Many of you will remember when Trish was on placement with us for three months 2010-2011; she is to be ordained Deacon on Sunday 1st July at Chester Cathedral and we shall welcome her to St Cross on the day of our Patronal Festival - 16th September - at our 10 o'clock service. Please keep both dates in your diaries and try to avoid being on holiday at these times as it would be lovely if as many of us as possible could support Trish at her Ordination and then be here to welcome her in September. Watch this space for more about Trish in the coming months! 2012 is also the 350th anniversary year of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. We enjoyed marking the 400th anniversary of the KJV last year with an exhibition, a visit to the Cathedral Library and a meeting about Translations of the Bible. Plans are in hand for the BCP celebration; if you have any ideas about how to mark this anniversary please speak to me or a member of the PCC. I have been reflecting lately on the way that we can be seemingly invisible in certain situations and how sad and isolated this can make us feel. At Chester Cathedral last week, as I waited to shake hands with the Archbishop of York at the north door, I was asked by a clergy colleague if I had ever met John Sentamu before. My answer was 'no', but sadly, if I had been asked the same question after shaking his hand, my answer would have been the same for he had not looked at me, but past me to the next in line. Doubtless he had met many people on his busy schedule of the day, but how sad that we had both missed an opportunity here. In my disappointment I have found myself wondering about the many people we encounter every day who perhaps feel they are invisible to us. What of the bus driver, the guard on the train who watches us as we get on and off to ensure our safety, the person on the cash till at Booths or Tesco, the young person who stands at the door of the film theatre? Admittedly, it is difficult to acknowledge the person who is on their mobile 'phone or busy texting, but so far as we can, let us make sure that no one is invisible to us and let us see in every encounter the potential for a meeting with Christ who dwells in each and every one of us. I went to see the film 'Warhorse' yesterday and one of the scenes shows the horse caught up in barbed wire in the No Man's Land between the German and the British Front at the Battle of the Somme. A soldier from each side goes out to free the horse and their encounter with each other through their mutual care and compassion for the horse is moving indeed - clearly inspired by the tales we all know of the brief cease fire that occurred on the Western Front in Belgium at Christmas 1914 and that led to the singing of carols together and the playing of football. The men encountered one another as those sharing a common humanity, and for a while the peace of Christ reigned. May we recognise and celebrate the presence of Christ with us in all our encounters with one another and with all whom we meet in our everyday lives. Rev. Jayne Shepherd, Vicar of St. Cross

February 2012 Letter

Past letters

2012 will be an historic year for St Cross as we welcome Trish Cope as our Curate! Many of you will remember when Trish was on placement with us for three months 2010-2011; she is to be ordained Deacon on Sunday 1st July at Chester Cathedral and we shall welcome her to St Cross on the day of our Patronal Festival - 16th September - at our 10 o'clock service. Please keep both dates in your diaries and try to avoid being on holiday at these times as it would be lovely if as many of us as possible could support Trish at her Ordination and then be here to welcome her in September. Watch this space for more about Trish in the coming months!

2012 is also the 350th anniversary year of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer. We enjoyed marking the 400th anniversary of the KJV last year with an exhibition, a visit to the Cathedral Library and a meeting about Translations of the Bible. Plans are in hand for the BCP celebration; if you have any ideas about how to mark this anniversary please speak to me or a member of the PCC.

I have been reflecting lately on the way that we can be seemingly invisible in certain situations and how sad and isolated this can make us feel. At Chester Cathedral last week, as I waited to shake hands with the Archbishop of York at the north door, I was asked by a clergy colleague if I had ever met John Sentamu before. My answer was 'no', but sadly, if I had been asked the same question after shaking his hand, my answer would have been the same for he had not looked at me, but past me to the next in line. Doubtless he had met many people on his busy schedule of the day, but how sad that we had both missed an opportunity here. In my disappointment I have found myself wondering about the many people we encounter every day who perhaps feel they are invisible to us. What of the bus driver, the guard on the train who watches us as we get on and off to ensure our safety, the person on the cash till at Booths or Tesco, the young person who stands at the door of the film theatre? Admittedly, it is difficult to acknowledge the person who is on their mobile 'phone or busy texting, but so far as we can, let us make sure that no one is invisible to us and let us see in every encounter the potential for a meeting with Christ who dwells in each and every one of us.

I went to see the film 'Warhorse' yesterday and one of the scenes shows the horse caught up in barbed wire in the No Man's Land between the German and the British Front at the Battle of the Somme. A soldier from each side goes out to free the horse and their encounter with each other through their mutual care and compassion for the horse is moving indeed - clearly inspired by the tales we all know of the brief cease fire that occurred on the Western Front in Belgium at Christmas 1914 and that led to the singing of carols together and the playing of football. The men encountered one another as those sharing a common humanity, and for a while the peace of Christ reigned.

May we recognise and celebrate the presence of Christ with us in all our encounters with one another and with all whom we meet in our everyday lives.

Rev. Jayne Shepherd, Vicar of St. Cross