From the Parish Priest
Dear Friends,
Christmas and Easter are celebrated by all Christians and all churches and communities. Occasionally there are more local celebrations that become a priority in a particular area. As I write this, not only are we looking forward to all the celebrations around our Lord’s birth: Advent, Christmas, Epiphany etc. and looking forward to all the hopes and possibilities of a new year, but this January also sees the start of the Centenary Celebrations of Sabine Baring-Gould at Lewtrenchard, which we can all join support and join in with.
Baring-Gould was, and still is, a major figure in our national life, and it is quite right that we are celebrating his life and legacy here at what was his home.
We may be tempted to look back at him, and his eccentric Victorian ways with certain fondness, amusement and bewilderment, but we must remember as we start a new year in our time, that Baring-Gould was living in his time and working to proclaim the Kingdom of God in the best and most relevant way possible. No doubt, in one hundred years’ time, our Great, Great grand children will look back at us with fond bewilderment at some of our ways, and yet we are only trying to do the same thing that Sabine Baring-Gould was in his lifetime.
The celebrations and commemorations for my illustrious predecessor will begin on the 2nd January and are attended to elsewhere on this website. Please do read and discover all about them and then come and join.
At the heart of Baring-Gould’s faith was a deep veneration of Jesus, the word made flesh, whose birth we celebrate in December, and we are reminded of the great feast of the Epiphany every time we look towards the East in St. Peter’s. As we celebrate his legacy this year let us also celebrate and proclaim God’s great love for us all.
May I wish you a very Happy Christmas and a peaceful, prosperous, and happy new year.
With love and prayers,
Philip