This Thursday (28th February) at 7.30pm, Andy Harrison is performing his one-man play 'The Way' in the side hall at St Luke's. It's a great opportunity to experience this 40 minute monologue which confronts with searing honesty some of the harder questions about the suffering and the struggles integral to the journey of faith and Life. And it's free! So don't miss it.
One-off Performance - This Thursday
016 Mr Darwins Tree
St Luke's Lent Course
We're hosting five informal evening gatherings on Wednesday in Lent, asking 'Who Is Our Neighbour?' including: Who Is My Neighbour in London ? Who Is My Neighbour In the World? Who Is My Neighbour on My Street?
Each week a different member of our community at St Luke's will lead a short presentation and then we'll share our own experiences.
On our opening night, Wednesday Feb 20th, Kurt Wilson will be asking if the life and organisation of the humble honey bee has lessons for neighbourliness in the communities we share. 'Connection, communication and the spirit of the hive - who is our neighbour.'
We'll meet at 7.45 in the small hall at the side of the church, break for tea and coffee and make time to talk to each other in smaller groups about what's happening in our lives - and how we can support each other.
An Idea For Lent
'You have some money in a savings account earning virtually no interest.You decide instead that you will invest this as a series of micro-loans which will help start-up businesses in the poorest countries. Alice in Liberia needs a loan to buy flour for her bakery. Mohammed in Palestine needs a loan to buy a hoover for his car-washing business. In that savings account earning almost no interest you have £150. Each week in Lent you commit to make a loan of £25 to a different person or community around the world. By the time Lent arrives next year each of those people has repaid your loan. All the money is all back in your account. You have earned no interest on your £150 but you helped Recho in Kenya buy a motorbike and her business selling cereals has taken off. Your Lenten discipline in 2013 was to use your resources to help transform the life of someone you will never meet...'
This is one of the ideas for Lent from a talk by Martin last Sunday. If you're interested in finding out more about this idea, check out Kiva - Loans That Change Lives.
Mr Darwin's Tree
Faith, science and doubt meet as Andy Harrison becomes Charles Darwin - for one night only. Friday. 8pm £5.
Having premiered at Westminster Abbey and toured nationally and at The Edinburgh Festival, Murray Watts' one-man show, 'Mr.Darwin's Tree' featuring Andy Harrison, returns for one night only this Friday in the small hall.
Tickets £5. Running time 75 mins.
Auction Action
The auction to raise funds for the Organ Restoration and Vox Holloway's Community work was a grat success and we achieved our target.Many thanks to all involved - donors, volunteers, prformers and to everyone who came and enjoyed the evening and bought the wonderful array of lots.
All Souls Service of Remembrance
All Soul's Day is the traditional time in the church calendar when we remember our departed loved ones. This Sunday, 4th November, we hold our annual All Souls Service of Remembrance at 4pm, where we read out the names of those we have lost and miss. If you would like a name read out in the service, please contact Pat - patriciatomlinson@mac.com
Auction Action - 9th November 2012 - 7 pm at St Luke's
To see the Fantastic Lots copy the link into your browser: saintlukeschurch.org.uk/auction - Tickets are now on sale - email: lukevoxholloway@gmail.com - Bring your friends
£15, concs. £10 – includes dinner and a glass of wine/beer; Musical Interludes, Licenced Bar - The auction is in aid of St Luke’s Organ Restoration, Vox Holloway Community Choir and St Anne and All Saints, South Lambeth
The Gospel According To Sam Murphy
It's been said that ‘The Church is the Fifth Gospel’ and in our services at St Luke's we sometimes feature an additional Gospel reading – from the Gospel of this Church.
This past Sunday we heard a reading from the Gospel of St Luke’s West Holloway, according to Sam Murphy.
'I’d say I’ve been part of this church since about 1980, so that would be more than thirty years. I started coming along after I moved to the Clocktower Estate and never really stopped.
It was nearly 20 years before that, in 1962, when I came across to London from Ireland. I grew up in County Carlow but I’d been working as a gardener in Bray and then in Dublin. I was getting about £3 a week. You can get that much for an hour these days. A relative introduced me to this posh Irish man who had a landscape gardening firm in London. I met him on the Friday and I was on the boat on the Monday. The money was better, £9 a week, and better still when I got a job in Regents Park. That was £13 a week and I worked there for four years, looking after the rose gardens.
I’ve always loved the gardening but there was so little money in it and eventually I got some classes to learn to be an electrician and that’s how I ended up working for the Post Office, all over the City of London.
My Gran was a real Bible reader, who prayed a lot, but for me it wasn’t until my twenties that faith came to mean something deeper, when I understood about Jesus dying and about how we’re forgiven.
When I first came to St Luke’s, there was a Deaconess, Patsy, living in the vicarage while Tim, the vicar, lived up near me in the flat above St Francis on North Road. Then there was only a handful of us in services, we used to start the hymns with a tape-recorder.
Tim organized a day to work in the garden and I said that I’d do this area over by the front wall. He looked at me with a smile and said, ‘You can do more if you like!’ I did end up doing more. I’ve been doing it ever since. I just like looking after the gardens, I enjoy it. To me, being close to nature, can be like being close to God, like in the best gardens you have this serene state, this peaceful state. I remember when I first when to Iona, I heard it described as a thin place, where the distance between earth and heaven is not much. A few times I’ve been in the garden of St Luke’s and felt it is also a thin place.
Sometimes people want to pray in the church: one woman, who couldn’t speak English, would only go as far as the doorway, no further – she just stood there. And I asked God to grant her whatever she was praying for.
We used to have a Bible Study and we had home groups. Why they petered out I don’t know.We used to sit and debate, although that got a bit iffy sometimes if you ask me.
If this church wasn’t here I’d miss it. It’s like someone who’s been married for thirty years, you might have some arguments but if they were gone you’d miss them.
I like being with the earth and watching God send the sun and the rain and then seeing how everything grows. Sometimes I just like to look at the roses and marvel at them.’
The Gospel According to Sam is one of 12 stories collected in The Gospel According to Everyone by Martin Wroe.
Harvest at St Luke's
This Sunday morning we will be celebrating harvest. We invite you to bring toiletries for the Night Shelter (preferably of the mini variety). The SoulSpace service at 7pm will also centre on the harvest theme with a simple harvest supper (veg chilli - cooked by Dave's fair hand!) interspersed with the usual SoulSpace style prayers, music and films. Newcomers to SS very welcome.