St Mary’s Magazine – Christmas 2024
Welcome to the Christmas 2024 edition of the St Mary’s Magazine.
Please note that there will still be a print version available of the magazine for those who want one. But now you are here, why not read on?
Merry Christmas everyone!
Christmas 2024
I think most of us could have been forgiven, in December in each of the last few years, for thinking that we were glad to be rid of the past year and focused on looking forward to something better in the next. In this decade we have had Covid, and political turmoil, and climate-related challenges,…
Jesus, Know You are Loved and Adored
1 John 4:9 “We love because he first loved us.” I totally adore the Icon print of ‘Mother of Tenderness’ by Kelly Dillard. What draws me into the loving relationship is the mutual gazing taking place between Mary and Jesus – personally, I would describe this as loving adoration, mother for child and child for…
Poem
This poem, of which an elderly handwritten version fell out of one of the diocesan library books when they were being packed, is attributed to several different people on the internet, including a nameless 19 year old English girl in service. A good thought, though, as we labour over Christmas catering! Lord of all pots…
Book Review
The Stranger, by Joy Margetts There is a great sense of place and time here, and we are drawn quickly into Silas’ world and his mental struggles. Silas runs away from his monastery feeling he has failed in trying to establish its daughter house in a hostile environment. On his travels he is the stranger,…
2025 – International Year of …
The Fenwick Weavers’ Society, in Ayrshire, is considered to be the earliest known co-operative in the world for which full records exist. The foundation charter, now in the National Library of Scotland, is dated 14 March 1761. The first modern-style co-operative was founded by millworkers in the north of England in 1844, and since then the…