Author: Leigh Hatts

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Candlemas: 2 February

Candlemas today is the final day we enjoy Christmas in real time as we note Mary and Joseph leaving Bethlehem with Baby Jesus to go up to the Temple in Jerusalem. The name Candlemas is appropriate for we say that Jesus is the Light of the World. Today’s candle procession in church, representing Christ being […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Week of Prayer for Christian Unity 2018

From today Thursday 18 January until St Paul’s Day on Thursday 25 January  Christians are both praying for the unity of churches and sharing services and social events. The idea of the annual prayer for unity came in 1907 from Spencer Jones, the Rector of St David’s Moreton -in-Marsh in Gloucestershire, and was suggested as […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Plough or Lost Monday: Back to work

Today, the Monday after The Epiphany, is known as Plough Monday since it was the day workers returned to the land after the twelve day Christmas holiday. They did so slowly by spending this first working day dressing up and touring around villages collecting money. Some of this went to the parish church. In Belgium […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Sunday 7 January: What day is it?

What is today? The Epiphany, Baptism Sunday or Plough Sunday? This time Advent and  Christmas has been difficult to follow with so many special days falling unusually on a Sunday. Now The Epiphany was yesterday which was a Saturday. This caused the Roman Catholic Church and some Anglican Churches to postpone observing The Epiphany to […]

Leigh Hatts 
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The Epiphany: 6 January

Today we recall the Three Kings arriving to see the Christ Child in Bethlehem. By tradition they are  said to come with their gifts from different lands and so represent the first showing of Jesus to non-Jews. Further manifestations of Christ came thirty years later including Christ’s baptism. Some churches will remember the Baptism on […]

Leigh Hatts 
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New Year’s Day: 8th Day of Christmas

New Year’s Day is marked by the Solemnity of Mary and World Day of Prayer for Peace. So today, the 8th Day of Christmas and the first day of 2018, is dedicated to Jesus’ Mother. Pope Francis has chosen as this year’s Peace theme: Migrants and refugees: men and women in search of peace. Many […]

Leigh Hatts 
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Holy Family: 7th Day of Christmas

As the 7th Day of Christmas is a Sunday so the Holy Family takes precedence over St Sylvester’s Day which falls on New Year’s Eve. On the Sunday of Christmas week we think of Mary, Joseph and Baby Jesus still in the Bethlehem stable. We can also recall them as Jesus grows up in the […]

Leigh Hatts 
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St Thomas Becket: 5th Day of Christmas

On this day in 1170 Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral. The attack came just as Vespers was starting so today during 3.15pm evensong at Canterbury Cathedral there is a procession to the Martyrdom site. His shrine inspired the great pilgrimage in England which has been compared with the camino of St James […]

Leigh Hatts 
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