News & Events - Parish News

October Pastoral Letter from the Vicar

When the world comes to our doorstep

Posted on Thursday 1 October 2026 at 7:00am

Fr Nicholas

There is something rather strange about living in an interconnected world. A conflict can be taking place thousands of miles away, and yet somehow it manages to find its way into our own homes.

The Strait of Hormuz is a narrow stretch of water between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. It is not somewhere most of us will ever visit, and until recently I suspect that many of us would have struggled to locate it on a map. Yet it has become a familiar name. A very large proportion of the world’s oil and gas passes through it, and disruption there quickly affects energy prices, transport costs and, ultimately, the price of things we buy.

It is one of the uncomfortable realities of modern life: a decision made, or a bomb dropped, on the other side of the world can affect what it costs us to fill the car or heat the house. And there is an even more uncomfortable truth. For us, the consequences may be measured in pounds and pence. For people living in the midst of the conflict, they are measured in livelihoods lost, homes destroyed, families separated and lives ended. The economic statistics can make suffering sound remarkably tidy. “Inflationary pressures.” “Supply disruption.” “Market volatility.” Behind each of those rather bloodless expressions are human beings trying to feed their families and wondering what tomorrow will bring.

The Christian response is not to imagine that we can solve problems which are well beyond our control. Nor is it to pretend that complicated international conflicts have simple answers. But neither should we allow distance to make us indifferent.

Prayer does something rather important here. It refuses to allow other people’s suffering to become merely an item in the news. When we pray for peace in Iran, for people caught up in the fighting, for those whose livelihoods are threatened, and for leaders who carry enormous responsibilities, we are acknowledging that these people are not abstractions. They are our fellow human beings. There is a wonderful phrase in the First Letter of John: “Let us love, not in word or speech, but in truth and action.” Christian compassion has always had to negotiate the awkward distance between what we feel and what we do. Sometimes what we can do will seem very small. We can give. We can pray. We can support those who are helping refugees and the victims of war. We can be careful about the language we use about people with whom we disagree. We can resist the temptation to turn complicated human situations into simplistic stories about heroes and villains.

And we can perhaps learn to be a little more grateful for the things we too easily take for granted.

The world may feel increasingly uncertain, but the Christian faith does not ask us to live in fear. It asks us to live faithfully. We are not promised that the world will always be peaceful or prosperous. We are promised something rather different: that God has not abandoned his creation. That is why the Church continues to pray for peace, even when peace seems impossibly distant. We pray because hope is not optimism. Hope is the stubborn Christian conviction that God is still at work, even when we cannot see what he is doing. And perhaps, in a world in which events in a distant strait can suddenly arrive on our doorstep, that is something worth remembering.

We may not be able to control the course of events in Tehran, Washington, Jerusalem or anywhere else. But we can decide what kind of people we will be here in Northampton: people who are grateful rather than entitled, compassionate rather than indifferent, prayerful rather than cynical, and hopeful rather than despairing.

It is not everything. But it is a beginning.

Your sincere friend and parish priest,

Fr Nicholas

September Pastoral Letter from the Vicar

Posted on Tuesday 1 September 2026 at 6:00pm

Fr Nicholas

Dear Friends,

There is something quietly distinctive about September. The brilliance of high summer begins almost imperceptibly to soften. The evenings draw in a little earlier, the mornings carry a freshness that hints at the changing season, and before long the first leaves will begin their annual transformation. It is a month of transition, as families return from holidays, schools reopen, and familiar rhythms of daily life are gently restored.

Yet if the natural world suggests that the year is beginning to turn, the life of the Church often tells a rather different story. At St Matthew’s, September has long felt less like an ending than a beginning. As daylight gradually diminishes, our common life gathers renewed energy and purpose. Choir returns to its stalls, Junior Church resumes, our uniformed organisations begin another year together, and the familiar pattern of worship and fellowship is restored. There is a quiet sense that we are setting out once again on the journey of faith together.

Perhaps that is because September is, in many ways, the great festival month of our parish. Within the space of little more than a week we celebrate our Patronal Festival, the Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham, our Dedication Festival and Michaelmas. At first sight they are very different occasions, yet they are united by a single, joyful truth: each reminds us that God is not distant, but wonderfully present among his people.

St Matthew reminds us that Christ still calls ordinary women and men to follow him, just as he called the tax collector from his counting table two thousand years ago. The Feast of Our Lady of Walsingham proclaims the mystery of the Incarnation: that in Jesus Christ, God chose to dwell among us, sharing our humanity that we might share his divine life. Our Dedication Festival gives thanks for this beautiful church, set apart for God’s worship, whilst reminding us that the true temple is the people whom Christ is continually building into his living Body. Michaelmas, in turn, lifts our eyes beyond what we can see, assuring us that our worship on earth is joined to that of angels and archangels and all the company of heaven.

These festivals do more than commemorate events of the past. They remind us who we are today. We are a people called by Christ, gathered around his altar, strengthened by his sacraments and sent out into the world to bear witness to his love. That calling belongs not only to previous generations, whose faith established this parish, but to us who have inherited their stewardship, and to those who will one day follow after us.

It is no coincidence, therefore, that September also brings opportunities for new beginnings. In October Bishop Andrew Proud will visit us for our Parish Confirmation, and I hope there may be those who feel that now is the right moment to take that next step in their own Christian pilgrimage. Confirmation is not the end of a journey but another beginning – a deeper commitment to the life of Christ and his Church.

Alongside these larger celebrations, the quieter rhythms of parish life continue faithfully: our Healing Mass, the ministry of prayer and anointing, House Group, and the countless acts of kindness, generosity and friendship that often pass unnoticed but are no less signs of God’s grace at work among us. It is in these ordinary moments, of alongside-ness, as much as in the great festivals, that Christ continues to make himself known.

As September unfolds, the days may gradually become shorter, but the light of Christ does not diminish. Indeed, the Church has always known that his light shines most clearly when it is received, cherished and reflected by his people. For well over a century that light has burned brightly at St Matthew’s, passed faithfully from one generation to another. It is now our privilege to receive it afresh, to rejoice in it together, and, by God’s grace, to carry it into the lives of those around us.

May this new season bring to each of us a renewed sense of God’s presence, a deeper love for his Church, and fresh confidence in the hope to which he calls us.

Your sincere friend and parish priest,

Fr Nicholas

The Church’s Relationship with Brewers

by Gary Drinkwater

Posted on Tuesday 1 September 2026 at 7:09pm

Pickering Phipps Snr. (Pickering Phipps II)

Some of you may know that my paid job is as a Bar Manager and one of my other voluntary interests is as a Pub Liaison Officer for the Campaign for Real Ale. This involves visiting pubs and drinking beer! I’m often asked how I reconcile these with my church life as many people see them as being poles apart. However, this is not the case.

Historically, the relationship between the church and brewing was shaped by the social, economic, and devotional functions of ecclesiastical institutions. In medieval Europe, monasteries were significant centres of production and hospitality and brewing formed part of their wider responsibility to sustain religious communities, receive travellers and pilgrims, and provide charity to the poor. In regions where grain-based drinks were more practical than wine, beer and ale occupied an important place in monastic and communal life. Monastic record-keeping and regulated production also contributed to the standardisation and refinement of brewing practices.

The connection between ecclesiastical life and brewing extended beyond monasteries into the parish economy. In late medieval and early modern Britain, ‘church ales’ functioned as communal fundraising events, with the sale or distribution of ale helping to finance church repairs, parish expenses, and charitable activities. Such practices indicate that brewing was embedded within local systems of sociability and obligation, rather than existing solely as a commercial or recreational activity.

From the early modern period onward, this relationship became increasingly ambivalent. As brewing developed into a more commercialised industry and alehouses became prominent spaces of popular sociability, church authorities often distinguished between legitimate production and the moral dangers associated with excessive drinking, disorder, and neglect of religious duties. This distinction became more pronounced in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when evangelical reform and temperance movements encouraged many Christian groups to adopt a more critical stance toward alcohol consumption.

Consequently, the church’s historical relationship with brewers should not be understood as uniformly supportive or oppositional. Rather, it evolved in response to changing institutional priorities, economic structures, and moral concerns. The church could act as producer, patron, regulator, critic, and reforming voice, reflecting the broader place of alcohol within religious and social history.

Our connection with brewers here at St Matthew’s is that our building was a gift from the family of Sir Pickering Phipps, a local brewer.

The 1895 Walker Organ in St Matthew’s

by Tom Moore, Director of Music

Posted on Sunday 19 April 2026 at 8:40pm

The 1895 Walker Organ in St Matthew’s

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the rebuilding of the grand Walker Organ in St Matthew’s.

It is well documented that the instrument, considered a masterpiece of Walker’s work and of international significance due to its largely original specification and unaltered pipework, was by the early 2000s starting to become unreliable and difficult to maintain due to age and component parts simply having worn out. The organ needed a major rebuild, and the Vicar and PCC at the time saw fit to invest some £360,000 into its complete renovation. The organ underwent major ‘surgery’ in 2005/2006 and was ultimately restored, rebuilt and rededicated at the Dedication Festival in September 2006.

To mark this 20 year milestone, we are planning a number of events and recitals this year to showcase the organ, and to give those who have an interest in the instrument an education in how the instrument works, how the pipes make sound, and to show you around the instrument into parts of the organ that you never see from your seats in the nave. It is a fascinat- ing instrument and can very easily be taken for granted each time we come for services where the organ is in use. We expect to be able to turn it on, for the organist to sit at it, and for music to come out; but its unbelievably complicated systems mean that it is a pure wonder that such a thing ever makes the beautiful sounds we hear and appreciate each week.

The celebration of this organ which St Matthew’s and its people should feel so rightly proud of will initially take on the form of a series of recitals by organists who have a connection to St Matthew’s, which will take place on certain Sunday evenings after Choral Evensongs. Later in the year, we are planning a ‘meet the organ’ event and, at St Matthew-tide, a silent movie will be presented where the organ will be used to accompany a film on a big screen. Keep an eye out for dates being released soon.

A reminder that we need your consent

Live-streaming, GDPR and Your Consent

Posted on Monday 16 September 2024 at 11:30am

Online live-streaming of services

Some of St Matthew's services (most Sunday mornings and some special services) are live-streamed or recorded for those who cannot attend church in person. Under GDPR, the church must gain the consent of anyone whose image may be captured, as this constitutes collection of "personal data". This includes clergy, readers/intercessors, musicians and congregation.

Whilst every attempt is made not to capture the faces of members of the congregation, this may occasionally happen if people turn around or move around the church during the service. The exception is communion, when the congregation is not filmed. The side aisles and back of the nave are so far as possible film-free areas not covered by the camera. Anyone whose personal data is collected must give their consent. Consent forms are available in church and online . The full policy can be read on our parish website or on the noticeboards in church.

Please read Our Privacy Policy - Filming & Photography and if you are happy to, give your consent by downloading, printing, signing, and handing in the form to a church representative or the Parish Office on your next visit. The consent form can be found at the bottom of the page.

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