News & Events - Parish News

May's Pastoral Letter from the Vicar

Witnesses for Christ

Posted on Thursday 1 May 2025 at 7:00am

Fr Nicholas

Although I’m writing this – late, again! – on the Monday of Easter Week, a little bleary-eyed much like the first disciples, I’m charged with the responsibility of saying something helpful and coherent for this May edition of St Matthew’s Mail. Well, on Thursday 29 May, forty days on from Easter Day, we celebrate the Feast of Christ’s Ascension into heaven – Ascension Day (Sung Mass at 7.30pm). There is much that could be said. Christ’s is a strange path to glory. I could write about ‘presence’ and ‘absence’, but I'm going for a more developed understanding of what it is for each of us to see ourselves as witnesses for Christ, as surely as those actually present with Christ and on the day of his ascension were witnesses.

Before leaving his apostles, Jesus commissioned them to preach the Gospel to the whole world. In order to help them carry out that mission he promised to send them the Holy Spirit. On Pentecost day he fulfilled that promise.

The task of preaching the Gospel to the world now depends on us. We are Christ’s witnesses. It’s a great privilege but a daunting task. However, we also can rely on the help of the Holy Spirit. But how are we to witness?

There is the witness of words. We witness by professing our faith. This could include explaining it and defending it.

There is the witness of deeds. An apple tree that never produced an apple would be a poor witness for the orchard. Even one good apple speaks. ‘Never recommend anything unless you can provide a sample of it’, wrote Thoreau.

Then there is the witness of one’s life. Trees witness to life just by being. Tall, straight, motionless, they are silent yet eloquent witnesses to life. Flowers bear witness to beauty simply be being what they are. And Christians bear witness by what they are. The most eloquent sermon is the silent sermon for example. Today people no longer want to listen to sermons on faith. They want to see the Gospel in action.

The witness of a Christian life is more powerful than any argument. There are those whose lives bear radiant witness to the transforming power of the faith. In their lives the faith is a bright flame, whereas in the lives of others it is a dim glow or an occasional spark. The person who, despite all his/her human limitations and defects, lives a simple life, taking Christ as the model, is a sign of God and of transcendent realities.

The evangelical witness which the world finds most appealing is that of concern for people and of charity towards the poor, the weak, and those who suffer. Pope Francis, who died this morning, was an outstanding example of that, a compassionate Shepherd. May he inherit the eternal reward. The generosity underlying this attitude and these actions stands in marked contrast to human selfishness. It raises precise questions which lead to God and to the Gospel. A commitment to peace, to justice, to human rights, is a witness to the Gospel.

There is a fourth degree of witness, namely, to bear witness with one’s death. But this is not granted to or asked of everyone. What is asked of each of us is to witness with our lives. This is no soft, easy way, but a way that calls for a special kind of toughness, strength and courage.

There is a hunger in the world today for the Christ of the Gospels. Jesus said to the apostles, “Stay in the city, until you are clothed with power from on high.” The power in question was the power of the Holy Spirit. We need that same power, individually and as a community, if we are to witness to Jesus here in Northampton. Those who witness will share in his glory.

May you joyfully witness to Christ far beyond this Easter and Ascension-tide.

Your sincere friend and parish priest,
Fr Nicholas

April's Pastoral Letter from the Vicar - Part 1

Palm Sunday - witnessing to Christ in public

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2025 at 7:00am

Fr Nicholas

On Palm Sunday Jesus’ disciples openly acknowledged their belief in him and loyalty to him. What made their display of support all the more praiseworthy was the fact that it was carried out in the teeth of bitter opposition from the Pharisees. When some Pharisees came to Jesus to protest he said, “If they kept silent, the very stones would cry out.”

There are occasions when a public demonstration is called for. This was one of them. It was the only time that Jesus accepted something akin to hero-worship from the people. He knew that his disciples had a right and a need to express publicly their belief in him. But one has a doubt about the commitment to those disciples. Not that one doubts their sincerity. But it was a mass response, and a mass response is often more loud and deep.

It’s easy to witness to Jesus in church. We are among our own. But it’s not so easy to witness to him out in an indifferent and sometimes hostile world.

There are times when we too need to profess our faith in Jesus publicly. And there are times when the occasion cries out for it.

The stones will not speak out. Only humans can do that. Let us not remain silent when a word cries out to be said: a word of support in defence of someone who is being treated unjustly; a word of praise to someone whose contribution is being forgotten; a word of truth when deliberate lies are being told. But it’s not easy to speak out. It’s far easier and safer to stay silent.

So let us be careful while we profess our faith in Christ in church, that we do not ignore him or deny him in the marketplace. Christ says to us, “Anyone who acknowledges me before others, I also will acknowledge before my Father in heaven.”

We can draw inspiration from the first disciples of Jesus. They are revealed in the Gospels as people who were not afraid to admit their doubts, their needs, their lack of faith. Yet on the first Palm Sunday they were strong and bold in their witness to Jesus.

May the Lord take pity on us, his timid and fearful disciples, and give us courage so that our lives may bear witness to the faith we profess with our lips. May that faith, that witness be our companion as we journey through the climactic events Holy Week and rediscover the meaning of life.

Your sincere friend and parish priest,
Fr Nicholas

The Easter Triduum

A visiting preacher

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2025 at 7:00am

Bishop Peter Eagles

The Triduum, or The Three Great Days of Easter from Maundy Thursday until Easter, contains the most significant acts of Christian worship set within Holy Week, the most important week of the year. This year, I am delighted to inform you that Bishop Peter Eagles, formally Bishop of Sodor and Man 2017-2023, and now retired and living in Walsingham, will be with us during this precious time, and preaching at each of the liturgies. Bishop Peter will be joined by his wife Gail.

Bishop Peter Eagles was educated at the Royal Grammar School, an all-boys private school in Guildford, Surrey. He studied German and Russian at King’s College, London, and graduated in 1982 with a first class degree. He went on to become an assistant master at Tonbridge School, and also worked as a freelance translator. In 1986, he entered St Stephen’s House, Oxford, to train for holy orders and study theology, graduating in 1989.

Bishop Peter was made a deacon at Petertide that year by Graham Leonard, Bishop of London, at St Paul’s Cathedral and ordained a priest the following Petertide by Tom Butler, Bishop of Willesden, at his title church. From 1989 to 1992, he served his curacy at St Martin’s Church, Ruislip.

On 27 January 1990, he was commissioned into the Royal Army Chaplains’ Department of the British Army as a Chaplain to the Forces 4th Class (equivalent in rank to captain). He was promoted to Chaplain to the Forces 3rd Class (equivalent in rank to major) on 27 January 1998, and to Chaplain to the Forces 2nd Class on 5 September 2005 (equivalent in rank to lieutenant colonel). From 2007 to 2008, he was Chaplain of the Royal Military Chapel (Guards Chapel) at Wellington Barracks in London.

On 28 January 2008, Peter was promoted to Chaplain to the Forces 1st Class (equivalent in rank to colonel) and appointed an Assistant Chaplain General. On 28 July 2011, he was collated and licensed as the Archdeacon for the Army, the most senior Anglican chaplain in the British Army, during a service at Lambeth Palace Chapel; as such he was a member of the General Synod of the Church of England. From 2013 to 2014, he attended the Royal College of Defence Studies to prepare for further promotion. On 14 July 2014, he was appointed the Deputy Chaplain General (equivalent in rank to brigadier), thereby becoming the second most senior chaplain in the British Army.

During his military career, Father Peter undertook multiple tours of duty. These included postings to Northern Ireland during The Troubles, with the United Nations in Kosovo, to Iraq as senior chaplain to the 12 Mechanised Brigade and to Helmand Province, Afghanistan as senior chaplain to the 16 Air Assault Brigade. He officially retired from the British Army on 6 July 2017.

Fr Peter was consecrated a bishop on 22 June 2017 during a service at York Minster, by John Sentamu, Archbishop of York. He was installed at the Cathedral Church of St German in Peel, Isle of Man on 30 September. As Bishop of Sodor and Man, he has an ex-officio seat on the Legislative Council of the Isle of Man which he took up upon his installation as bishop.

In March 2023, it was announced that Bishop Peter would retire as Bishop of Sodor and Man after six years in the post in October 2023. His farewell service was followed by the laying down of his crozier, symbolically ending his time as bishop.

An Opportunity…

Does being a School Governor interest you?

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2025 at 7:00am

Victoria Linthwaite, Executive Assistant and Governance Officer for the David Ross Education Trust is encouraging people to join their Academy Scrutiny Committees as School Governors at their schools across Northamptonshire.

Being a Governor within a Multi Academy Trust is not like traditional school governance where Governors set budgets, write policy etc, it’s more of a scrutinising and checking role. The commitment is fairly minimal (5 meetings a year, all in term time, with the occasional optional review panel) but volunteers get Board experience to put on their CV, networking opportunities both within education and with other Governors, as well as learning about finance, education, HR etc.

If this is something of interest to you, please contact Victoria at vlinthwaite@dret.co.uk for further information or visit www.dret.co.uk

April's Pastoral Letter from the Vicar - Part 2

Easter morning – standing at the grave

Posted on Tuesday 1 April 2025 at 7:00am

Fr Nicholas

On Easter morning the women went to the tomb where Jesus had been bur- ied. They had a sad task to perform – to complete the embalming of his body. But that was not the only reason they were going to the tomb. They wanted to be near the one who had filled their lives, and whose death plunged them into an inconsolable grief.

We’ve often done the same thing ourselves. When someone we love dies, we find it hard to accept that he/she is gone from us for ever. We feel a need to maintain a link with the one who died. One of the ways we meet this need is by visits to the grave. However, far from easing the pain of our loss, this may exacerbate it. It tends to make the dead even more dead, because no- where do we become so sure that our loved one is dead as at the grave.

If things had gone as expected that first Easter morning, the women would have embalmed the body of Jesus, closed the tomb again, and come away more convinced than ever that what happened on Friday was not a bad dream but a terrible reality. But things did not go according to plan.

At the tomb they meet two angels who said to them, “Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” It was to these faithful women disciples that the Easter message was first given: Jesus is not dead; he is alive. So they must not waste their time looking for him at the tomb.

All of us have stood forlornly in graveyards or cemeteries, where everything speaks of death. Yet it was precisely in such a place that the resurrection was first announced. It was fitting that it was here, where death seems to reign supreme, that the good news of Jesus’ resurrection was first an- nounced.

Through the voice of the liturgy, the same message is given to us: Do not look for your loved one in the grave. He/she is not there. Jesus overcame death, not just for himself, but for all of us. He is the first to rise from the dead, but we will follow him. For a Christian, then, there is no such thing as death in the sense of final extinction. Our dead are not dead. They are alive, and live a more real and beautiful life than ours. And they are not far from us. Those who die in grace go no further from us than God, and God is very near.

Let us continue to pray for our dead in case they still need our help. And let us continue to visit the graveyard or cemetery if it helps to keep their memory alive. But let us not look for them there. And if sadness persists in our hearts, because of what happened on Easter morning, a quiet hope is mingled with our sadness.

Your sincere friend and parish priest,
Fr Nicholas

March's Pastoral Letter from the Vicar

Time for reflection

Posted on Saturday 1 March 2025 at 7:00am

Fr Nicholas

On Ash Wednesday the Church invites us to embark on a journey, the journey of Lent, which is a journey towards Easter. We are a baptised people but haven’t yet lived fully the life of a Christian. Lent calls us to a change of heart and a fuller living of the Gospel. How might we respond and fulfil our vocation?

Jesus spent forty days in the desert, reflecting and praying. The desert may be a harsh place, but it’s an ideal place for prayer and reflection.

This desert experience came at a crucial moment in the life of Jesus, a time of great awakening. As a result he grew to love solitude, and made a habit of seeking it at difficult moments in his life. When people and events threatened to engulf him, he would steal off to a lonely place to recover and rededicate himself to the Father. What he was doing was deepening this first desert experience.

We too need a lonely place for reflection. Often we live foolishly and unspiritually, driven on by stupid desires and imprisoned by selfish habits. We are surrounded by noise and constant activity. We get our priorities wrong. We are unable or unwilling to be alone, to be silent, to be still. And we wonder why we aren’t happy, why we don’t find it easy to get on with others, and why we can’t pray.

We need solitude. In solitude we begin to stand on our own feet before God and the world, and accept full responsibility for our own lives. The hermit goes into the desert, not to lose himself, but to find himself. In solitude we meet our demons, our addictions, our lust, our anger, and our need for recognition and approval.

And we don’t go into the wilderness to escape from others, but to find them in God. ‘Only in solitude and silence can I find the gentleness with which I can love my brothers and sisters.’ (Thomas Merton)

Lent is a precious and essential time given to us in order that we may reorientate our lives, change our priorities, and draw ever closer to Christ and his loving purpose in us. May we resolve to use it well.

Your sincere friend and parish priest,
Fr Nicholas

Cathedral in Crisis

Posted on Monday 27 January 2025 at 10:37am

The Very Revd Chris Dalliston
(Dean of Peterborough)

Dear Friends,

Safeguarding concerns have presented a big challenge for the Church of England nationally, but, nearer to home, the now well- publicised financial issues facing our Cathedral have helped to bring home the challenge we are all facing, whether as individuals or as parishes, to make ends meet or to fund properly the ministry and mission of our church. Jesus said, “the poor you have with you always” – and it can sometimes seem as if we are always poor! From a Cathedral perspective it’s disappointing to be facing yet another financial pinch point when we’ve done so much to improve our financial management, and been so creative in the delivery of a fantastic array of exhibitions, events and activities. But like every other business, we’ve all of us been facing the same issues; Covid, the cost of living crisis, the rising costs of fuel and employment – they’ve all continued to pile pressure on our balance sheets.

We have launched an emergency appeal here, and we pray that that may be fruitful. But “we are afflicted but not crushed, perplexed, but not driven to despair” writes St Paul in 2 Corinthians, and Jesus again and again called us not to be afraid or anxious because “your heavenly Father knows you need all these things”. The real challenge for us all is not one of systems, or process, or finance or funding – but faith.

Whatever we face as individuals or as communities – and we need to be responsible in our stewardship and disciplined in our actions – but above all we need to renew our trust in the living God: “strive first for the kingdom of God... and all these things shall be given to you as well”. (Matthew 6.33)

The Very Revd Chris Dalliston
Dean of Peterborough

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