Good progress is being made on the new High Altar – the major outstanding piece of work to the Community Church. Thanks to generous support from our friends, we have been able to buy the stone (Mandale fossil limestone, quarried in the Peak District), and James Elliott, the chosen craftsman, is poised to begin work.

The aim is to finish and install the Altar in time for the celebration of the 80th anniversary of the completion of the Community Church in July 2018. If you would be interested in supporting this work, or if you have suggestions of charitable trusts or other avenues we might explore, please do be in touch.

The leaders of Anglican religious communities had their annual conference at Mirfield again, and had an excellent day on leadership led by Dr Loveday Alexander and Sr Josephine Miller, a Cistercian Superior. On the second day one session was led by a solicitor from Anthony Collins, a firm specialising in advising church bodies. He gave guidance related to the quagmire of legal requirements now taking up so much of the time of superiors and those responsible for the running of communities. The law is now almost impossible to keep up with, and it is becoming increasingly easy to fall foul of something in employment law, or use of volunteers, health and safety, and so on. The Conference joined CR in our worship and our meals, in a joyful celebration of life in the Lord together, which is what our life is about.

George CR

Our friends will know that we have long been twinned with the Roman Catholic Benedictine Abbey of St Matthias in Trier, Germany. In order to mark the approaching 50^th anniversary of our brotherhood together, and the 500^th anniversary of the Reformation, we jointly organised a small conference at Trier for three Anglican bishops and three German Roman Catholic bishops, on the reckoning that in all our ecumenical relationships neither side had much experience of the other. Two brethren from Trier participated and also Fr George and Fr Thomas from Mirfield, together with Dr Jennifer Cooper from the College. The meeting was an unexpected success, in which the German bishops were fascinated to learn at first hand something about Anglicanism, and the Anglican bishops likewise in the opposite direction. The Anglican bishops were +Robert Innes, Bishop in Europe, +John Inge of Worcester, and +Stephen Platten, now in London Diocese. The meeting produced a communiqué which was passed on to the Vatican by the Archbishop of Birmingham, and the question of relations with Anglicans is being raised at the next meeting of the German Bishops’ Conference. So we look forward to what may happen next.

We are back in business. I was doubtful when I decided to hold another auction. I wasn’t sure that we could go for a fifth one. In fact I have been pleasantly surprised. There are now 175 lots in the catalogue and if everything that is promised turns up we will have over 200 lots before December. This bodes very well for an event that is still eight months ahead. There is something for everyone and something to suit every purse:- jewellery, paintings, militaria, memorabilia, ecclesiastical items, collectables, books, stamps coins medals and more!

And we haven’t finished. I want to thank everyone who has contributed and those who have given their support in other ways such as collecting and delivering and not least by prayer and encouragement. At the same time I want to go on asking people to think of us. The auction will be on 23 June 2018. You may know someone who is downsizing, we have even undertaken house clearances! You may have something in your attic or cellar or at the back of a drawer that has been gathering dust – it could make a difference. I’m aiming high, and every little helps.

Contact me jgribben@mirfield.org.uk

 

 

 John CR

 

 

 

 

From 1908 to 1976 CR ran the Hostel of the Resurrection in Leeds, a kind of hall of residence-cum-priory for students, most of whom were preparing for ordination. Former students recently raised money to pay for two panels of St Wilfrid and St Cuthbert, in the arches of the old piscina in the Resurrection Chapel, and these will be dedicated at the eucharist on 13 December in the presence of former Hostel students. The panels were painted by Lorraine Lamond. Former students of the Hostel will be most welcome to the event, and to the lunch afterwards. Please do contact us if you would like more details.

 

 

Jane Kennedy, a leading church architect who has responsibility for several cathedrals, gave an illustrated lecture on how and how not to furnish churches. We had moved the time from the morning to the evening, with a supper available, and as a result the attendance was the highest yet. There was great appreciation of the lecture, and many questions at the end, some of them from people engaged in particular struggles in their own parishes! A Cathedral architect needs to know every inch of the building; I said to Jane Kennedy that it must be a challenge to climb over every inch of something like Ely Cathedral, and she replied that that was the best bit!

George CR

“The Tent of Meeting” Quiet Day on October 28 offered those who came time to reflect on images and quotations that helped to expand an understanding of “Tents of Meeting” in our “ordinary” lives today. Maggie Jackson (CR Poet in Residence) shared some of her poems with the group and some participants wrote their own poems during the day which was experienced by many as a “Tent of Meeting” itself – a place to listen, regain strength, be inspired, be “at home.”

Maggie is now looking forward to the Poetry Salon on November 16 and has some new poems “in progress!”

As our new students begin to settle into College life, one student shares his experience of arriving at College and explains how he has settled into the routine;

‘I arrived on a grey afternoon, the famous Yorkshire silver skies were in evidence. My Mum and Dad had gone ahead by about ten minutes in the car as I was going by motorbike. All the way there it didn’t seem real that I was finally going. I had only left work the week before and even that had yet to sink in. I had been waiting to start at Mirfield for nearly a year, so it was such a relief to finally be here. The first week was a little strange as there was very little to do. I was grateful for that as it allowed me time to get used to my new surroundings. After living in the same house for eighteen years and having done the same job for eleven, I really needed that space. I knew that in the years to come I’d be kept very busy. For the returning students it must have been quite a shock for all us newcomers to suddenly arrive. There are seventeen of us, and thirteen of them! They made us feel very welcome and helped us get used to life here. Each day I thank God for the Community of the Resurrection and for the College.’

Paul Wheeler, Ordinand CoR