St Luke's 11am Service Broadcast

Dear All, 

The PCC had a meeting on Wednesday 26 January 2022 and has agreed that in order to both create camera free services at 11am and ensure a provision of Sunday morning services for those unable to attend in person, livestreaming will alternate between the 9.15am and 11am services.

Summary of services up to the next PCC meeting: 

Sunday 30th January 11am service will be livestreamed.

Sunday 6th Feb 9.15 service will be livestreamed (not the 11am)

Sunday 13th Feb 11am service livestreamed

Sunday 20th Feb 9.15 service livestreamed

Sunday 27th Feb 11am service livestreamed

The services can be accessed via the St Luke’s Church website 

These arrangements will be in place until reviewed at the next PCC meeting on 2 March 2022. 

All Souls Sermon 2021

The first three minutes of the existence of our universe went something like this:

In the beginning, there was an infinitely small, infinitely dense point of light. There was nothing, and then the nothing began to grow, quantum fluctuations resulted in forces, and infinitesimal particles.

These particles danced around each other, growing colder and closer to one another until they merged, holding on to one another in the darkness of the universe. These particulate clusters grew and cooled,
and grew and cooled.

Until *poof* a light in the darkness.

The first star. From there, the physical laws of the universe pushed into motion an endless dance of elements and forces, particles and energy which grew more and more complicated until life began. And now, you and I spend our time trying to understand what on earth all of this business is about.

William Penn, the Quaker wrote in 1693, long before we understood the cosmological origins of the universe that

“They that love beyond the World, cannot be separated by it.  Death cannot kill what never dies. Nor can Spirits ever be divided that love and live in the same Divine Principle…  Death is but crossing the World, as Friends do the Seas; they live in one another still.  For they must needs be present that love and live in that which is Omnipresent.”      

(William Penn, Some Fruits of Solitude, 1693)

There’s a type of theology that I studied when I was training for ordination called Process theology that suggests that every part of the universe, every person, every event, every emotion and decision is gathered in God’s memory and affects the way that the universe proceeds. What I gather from that is both that those that we love who have died are with us in the heart and memory of God, but also that they still affect our lives, and the lives of everyone they loved. They are still fundamentally part of the universe, but even more, they are now living within the creator of that universe.

I don’t know about you, but I’m sometimes left cold by traditional Christian interpretations of Heaven. I can’t get my head around the idea that we will all meet up again in some far-off heavenly realm.

But, here and now? That’s more comprehensible to me – perhaps I can’t imagine those that I’ve loved and lost away somewhere hanging out with Jesus – but I can feel that they are still with us in some sense.

Carl Sagan, the famous science communicator and astrophysicist once said “We are star stuff” and that is, literally the case. Everything that you are, everything that I am was present at the moment of the Big Bang.

We have changed from energy to matter, from particle to galaxy, from dead to alive -without ever losing a single piece of energy from that initial point of light. We are quite literally, the Big Bang trying to understand itself, we are a part of God’s plan for the universe – and that doesn’t cease to be the case even after death.

And so, when we are faced with the intolerability of grief. The brokenness of our mortal lives and every sadness, every bereavement and every dreadfully missed loved one in this room – we can take some comfort in the knowledge that, scientifically and theologically nothing is ever lost from the universe.

Amen

• Revd Lizzie Campbell

Are We Including You? Inclusion Survey Report

In 2020 we formed an Inclusion Group tasked with improving the justice and inclusivity for our Church family. The group meets approximately once a month online.

The group is - Naomi Jacobs, Mike Poole, Bobby Baker, Meg Wroe, Joy Hinson, Garry Rutter, Jean Wilson and Brian Jackson. We are a blend of people from a range of backgrounds and life experiences.

From our experiences we hope to bring the necessary ingredients required to evolve St Luke’s into as wide a table as possible, where all can come to share freely and equally, in God’s rich diversity of life.

In March 2021 we created a survey questionnaire reaching out to our community and asking ‘Are We Including You?’ Thanks to everyone who completed this survey about how inclusive you feel St Luke’s is.

Our thanks especially to Dr Naomi Lawson Jacobs, who has kindly analysed the data and created a report (May 2021) which you can read in full here:

Inclusion Survey Report


Naomi sums up the many positive aspects from the survey:

There is a sense that people see St Luke’s as an inclusive church, blessed with gifted people using their talents for the benefit of the church. Many value the church’s ethos of social justice, rooted in its radical, progressive theology and expressed through inclusive liturgy. For some, St Luke’s is a place where it is safe to doubt, and to come wherever they are in their faith.

Many people have appreciated the livestreamed services and online groups, helping to keep the community together in new and creative ways during lockdown. Some said the strong St Luke’s community is caring. Several enjoy the down-to-earth feel of St Luke’s.

But the survey also highlighted some of the barriers we still need to overcome:

Many people talked about finding it hard to break into the St Luke’s community (11 comments), especially socially. Several mentioned not feeling like they belong.

Some of these people found informal socialising hard, e.g. after-church coffee – especially if they are new, or do not know many people, or come to church alone (7 comments).

This is really helpful for us to know, so thanks for the honest responses. We are all part of St Lukes together and want to grow to be a place where everyone feels they belong. The inclusion group are meeting regularly  to discuss the findings and work out our response, we aim to come up with a plan of action to take to John our vicar and the PCC and to roll out at St Lukes as soon as possible.

The Desert ‘A place that shapes you…'

Read at St Luke’s in September 2021

The Desert

It goes by many names – darkness, chaos, desert, liminality, the wilderness, gethsemane, the dark forest. But the journey to the new invariably seems to go through this place. It would be much easier all round if it was possible to jump from the old to the new in one sweet move with no pain. But it rarely is.

It’s a place of being stripped of certainty.

A place of insecurity.

A place of unknowing.

A place where you have let go of the old but you can’t yet see the way ahead.

A place of self-doubt.

A place where your internal critic goes into overdrive.

A place where you feel like giving up.

A place of wondering why on earth you embarked on this journey.


It can also be a creative place.

A place of learning.

A place for deep questions about who you are and what you are about.

A place that shapes you.

A place to be silent and listen.

A place you are alone with God.

A place of prayer.

A place of new resolve.


If you find yourself in that place it’s normal. 

Try not to run from it too quickly.


Published in Pioneer Practice by Jonny Baker

https://jonnybaker.blogs.com/jonnybaker/

https://www.getsidetracked.co/


Join Live (or Catch Up) On Facebook

Over the summer we’ll be carrying our Sunday morning services on Facebook.

If you can’t be in north London to join us in the building, join us online - and if you can’t tune in at 11am, catch up with the service later.

With lots of people away, the broadcast will be cheap and cheerful…up close and personal with whoever is leading, speaking or presiding

Wherever you are in the world or in your life, you’re welcome at St Luke’s.

____
Sunday 11:00am Facebook Live
https://www.facebook.com/StLukesHolloway/

Catch up on Easter

Miss some of the services over the Easter period? Here’s a quick guide to catching up.

See all the beautiful artworks exploring ‘inspiring people’ in our Good Friday service of meditation and watch the whole 30 minute service produced and directed by Jif, Millie and Meg.

Watch Free As A Bird by Charlie Shepherd, a short film directed by Adrian Pearson and listen to Bobby Baker remembering her friend and one-time tutor, the painter Albert Herbert.

On Good Friday evening John and the choir led a beautiful Good Friday ‘light into dark’ service and on Easter Sunday we celebrated the good news that Christ is Risen.