The Gospel According To Everyone

How come in Church we only ever hear the gospels of four men in Palestine 2,000 years ago? What if we heard a reading from a Fifth Gospel, from the stories of the people sitting next to us? The woman who gave up her child for adoption. The gardener who notices God in the roses. The gay man shunned by his children. The atheist who found he'd become a believer. What if we heard from The Gospel According To Everyone? Every few weeks at St Luke's one of the readings in our morning service is from the Gospel of our own community and  twelve of these stories have now been published in a small collection, The Gospel According To Everyone.  With layout and design by Rob Pepper, accompanying each story in the book (and e-book)  is a portrait by the artist Meg Wroe. If you're at St Luke's in the next few weeks you can buy a copy after a service (£5) but if you're not you can buy The Gospel According To Everyone online at Lulu.com or in the iBook Store.

Short stories of faith and doubt, of love and longing, if you've ever been part of  St Luke's, West Holloway in north London you might recognise these people ... and if you haven't you may recognise them anyway.

This Sunday - The Big Lunch

In June, our church lunch is changed and will be held early on 5th so that we can join in with the national BIG LUNCH. The Big Lunch is a very simple idea from the Eden Project. The aim is to get as many people as possible across the whole of the UK to have lunch with their neighbours in a simple act of community, friendship and fun. So please come, bring some food to share as usual, and invite your friends or neighbours as well. If the weather is good, we'll eat in the garden. Do check out the Big Lunch website to see what it's all about at www.thebiglunch.com.

Olympic spirit

We have a potential Olympic champion in our community at St Luke's and we want to help raise funds for the vital training and competition that could pave the way to the podium. Can you help?

Curtis Miller, who lives less than a hundred yards from St Luke's, has been part of our gang of young people since they were all infants. Now 19 he's  a British Champion Fencer. From the age of 11 Curt has been consistently ranked either first or second in the country for his age group - but now it's make or break time ahead of Olympic selection.

Still a junior fencer, Curtis has begun competing in international senior competitions in order to move up the rankings. Earlier this year he was in the Junior World Championships in Jordan, beaten by only 15 points to 14 by the fencer who came second. This month (May) he put in such a good performance at the Men's Sabre World Cup that he's won  selection for competitions in Warsaw and New York - which means he's  in a strong position to be selected for all the competitions necessary to get Olympic qualifying points.

But none of this comes free: the cost of travelling and accomodation, kit and training are more than he and Allison his mum can afford. That's why St Luke's wants to help. We've set up a special Curtis Miller Olympic Appeal and we're aiming to raise £3-£4,000 from an appeal within the church and our friends.  For example the cost of a Sabre alone is £30 and Curtis gets through nine a year - maybe you could donate one.

If you can make a donation please make it payable to St Luke's PCC and mark it 'Curtis Miller Appeal' . (For bank transfers the account to send the money to is : Payee name: ST LUKES PCC / Account number:16948653 / Sort code:60-11-14

As well as fund-raising in and around St Luke's, Bernadette Cagnoni is co-ordinating a small group exploring how to raise bigger funds in the Olympic run-up from trusts, charities and commercial opportunities. If you have ideas or experience or routes to funds, she'd love to hear from you - email Be at stlukespcc@hotmail.com

We'll be bringing you more news about Curtis in the weeks to come. Thanks for reading. On your marks, get set....

Rachmaninoff Vespers

Mon 25th - Easter Monday -  20.00

Community choral society Vox Holloway performs this stunning acapella setting of the Easter Vigil with candlelight, incense, ikons and 11-part harmonies. Tickets £12/£8 concs. voxholloway@gmail.com

Of Gods and Men

"Stunningly serious and passionate" - The Guardian. Don't miss a St Luke's showing of this BAFTA nominated, wonderful film on Sunday at 7.30pm.  Inspired by true events, this film tells the moving story of a group of Cistercian monks living in the remote mountains of North Africa who face a devastating decision when faced with radical and violent terrorists. The result is an award-winning masterpiece.

SoulSpace - Tomorrow 7pm

This Sunday (10th April) at 7pm, SoulSpace is a meditation in preparation for Palm Sunday that focuses on the ambiguities between Ash Wednesday and Christ's triumphal entrance into Jerusalem. You're welcome!

Oh My God!

Peter Rodgers' fascinating film OH MY GOD is showing in the side hall at St Luke's tonight at 8pm as part of our Lent programme. Rodgers spent two and a half years filming in 23 countries trying to get to the bottom of who and what people of different cultures and religions think God is. The outcome is a beautiful film with amazing insights from people around the world. It's free - and you are very welcome!

Service of Ashing

Ash Wednesday Service Traditional, with beautiful music

Wednesday 9th March

8pm

This Is Fairtrade Fortnight

The  Coffee of Courage or The Loo Roll of Resistance or The Muesli of Mutuality or The Sugar of Sweet Solidarity or  The Rice of Revolution or  The Pasta of Popular Uprising or The Olive Oil for Troubled Waters or  The Sweet Honey  of the Kingdom of God or The Kitchen Roll of Righteousness.... Why not make Lent  a fast of trade justice in solidarity with the poorest people in our world ?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ontjhRKU3JQ

VOX HOLLOWAY sings Rachmaninov’s Vespers

Easter Monday April 25th  - evening performance -

Rehearsals start at St Luke's on  Tuesday Feb 15th 7.30pm–9.45pm, then every Tuesday til April 5th ..  then tbc.

This is a stunning acapella setting of hymns, chants and prayers of the Russian Orthodox Church in celebration of Easter.

Easy to learn, breathtaking harmonies.  All singers welcome.