Claygate

It's lovely to be back here in Claygate.

Thank you very much indeed to Patrick and the team for the invitation.

I bring greetings from Annabelle and from Sam and James who are scattered around the country and from your brothers and sisters in Christ at Durham Cathedral where they're worshipping this morning.

And yet Edward Reynolds wrote a prayer about giving thanks, which, by the skin of its teeth, made it into the Book of Common Prayer when it was reissued in 1662 and became one of the best-loved prayers ever.

Generations learned it off by heart.

When I served here as vicar in Claygate and I used to do visiting, I would use it with people saying, who perhaps could remember little else, but when I started the words, Almighty God, Father of all mercies, they would join in.

In fact, I love the prayer so much, I wrote a book about it.

The thing about the prayer is it addresses two key questions in the Christian life.

So what else you got going on? It's a busy month.

We have coming up Claygate, our local one, the lovely Claygate Village Hall.

You mentioned Hollyoaks earlier on.

I did.

The Claygate MC is James Redmond, who played Finn back in Hollyoaks.

He's been in Hollyoaks and Casualty.

So James is our MC over in Claygate.

And the headliner is the fabulous Johnny Orson.

Thirdly, prayerfully consider where to give.

Hopefully, one of the ways God blesses you is through his church here in Claygate, Holy Trinity.

And I've just noticed that we actually have not just our current treasurer with us this evening, but our former treasurer as well.

And the treasurer's role is to take this wonderful figure, the five circles and the... red and white at the back there, and figure out how to make that happen with the generosity that we've all given.

This father of faith was being faithful and it blessed the people like us that he would never imagine or meet.

We, the church family of Holy Trinity, Claygate, are rooted in this same faith, in the same faithful God.

We, however, are part of something, unlike Abraham, that stretches backwards and forwards through all generations.

We've received this faith and a place to worship that's been passed on from those who've come before us and have a responsibility to hand it on.

Come from a different faith background.

Watched an alpha, I think, in Sunderland online during lockdown.

Lives in Claygate.

Lord, let us baptise her.

And how has that been going for you? Tell us about some of the highlights so far.

Um, o-one of the highlights was actually on Saturday when I went to a 100th birthday party for a lovely lady called Christina in Claygate.

Did you post something on this?

Yes, I did.

And from there you go to about Cowley Sale, turn around, come back.

That's 5K.

We've got the Claygate, um, Scout Band are going to be playing at the turning point.

We've also got Roger Black, the athlete-