14 February 2024
Ash Wednesday
To all Priests and People in the See of Beverley
Dear Friends,
This pastoral letter comes to you in the name of Jesus Christ who, through His Incarnation, accompanied and redeemed humanity and who, through the liturgical seasons, accompanies and redeems us as we make our pilgrim journey through this earthly realm towards the eternal and heavenly realm.
Lent
I pray that each of us will make the most of the gift of Lent to engage more fully with Christ’s redeeming love and salvific Passion. If you have been unable to attend an Ash Wednesday service in Church please ensure that you begin the season in prayerful contemplation, perhaps making use of online material, such as this from the Diocese of Blackburn Journey to Freedom Lent 2024 that has material to guide you all the way through to Holy Week.
Here are a couple of prayers for you for you to say every day if necessary:
Father in Heaven,
Protect us in our struggle against evil.
As we enter into the discipline of Lent,
make this season holy by our self-denial.
Grant this through our Lord Jesus Christ
who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit;
God, for ever and ever. Amen
Almighty and everlasting God,
you hate nothing you have made
and forgive the sins of all who are penitent:
Create and make in us new and contrite hearts,
that we, worthily lamenting our sins
and acknowledging our wretchedness,
may obtain of you, the God of all mercy,
perfect remission and forgiveness;
through Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns
with you and the Holy Spirit, God, for ever and ever. Amen.
Please, following on from Ash Wednesday, make the most of the Lenten season to grow more deeply in love with God, who enables us to love because He first loved us (1 John 4 v 19).
To assist me in this endeavour, my chosen reading for Lent is “The Joy of God: Collected Writings” Sister Mary David, Bloomsbury Continuum 2019.
Children and Youth Ministry Adviser
I am really pleased that I have been able to appoint a Children’s and Youth Ministry Adviser to assist me in my ministry to, with and amongst you as your Bishop. On my visits around the See of Beverley many people have spoken of their desire to engage with children, young adults and families in a new or refreshed way. This role is initially for six months only, for six hours per week, with the hope that it will expand and develop into something greater if the need for it to do so becomes evident. If you would like help in this area of ministry, please do be in touch with me.
‘Come, we have found the Messiah!’
No, this isn’t an invitation to a performance of Handel’s famous work! Rather, it’s a reminder of the account in the first chapter of John’s Gospel recalling the moment that Andrew encouraged his brother, Simon Peter, to follow Jesus. I took this short invitational phrase as my own “mission statement” when I was called to episcopal ministry. It remains with me as a daily reminder of what it is that we are about. My deepest and dearest hope is that through us and our witness others will hear this same invitation. We need to regain the courage to invite people to meet Jesus: people meet Jesus primarily through our church worship and social gatherings (although some will have individual “Damascus Road” experiences). To have the courage to invite people we need to learn or re-learn how to talk about our own faith story. Perhaps during Lent you might start planning events where, in small groups, you can begin talking more freely about your own faith with people you already know, so that you may have the confidence to talk about it with others and, in time, in your own way say to them, “Come, we have found the one who is the answer to your questions.”This short article may help as a starting point: The Five Circles of Evangelization.
2024 Save the Dates
**Northern Provincial Festival – 27 July 2024, 11am, York Minster. It would be wonderful if we could fill the Minster for a Festival Mass with people from every Society parish in the Province of York. Book coaches and cars and make a day of it in the beautiful city of York. More details will follow soon. If financial help is needed for coach bookings please let me know as soon as possible. Please make this a priority.**
Lenten Devotion – A Pilgrimage to the Cross: and encounter with Christ in the Sacraments of Reconciliation and the Eucharist, Leeds Minster, 11am, ALL ARE WELCOME
Clergy Quiet Days – 1 May and 21 October. 10am to 3pm with me at St Peter’s Church, Woolley, WF4 2JU. Invitations will follow nearer the time.
Chrism Masses – 24 March, 6pm, St Aidan’s Sunderland; 25th March, 11am, St Jude’s Hexthorpe and 26th March, 11am, Manchester Cathedral.
May you be blessed this Lent and may the grace of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit go before you.
+Stephen Beverley