Thursday 5 November 2026
This past week has been a big one for the Church - with All Hallow’s Eve, All Saints’ Day and All Souls’ Day being celebrated across the last day of October and 1 and 2 November, respectively.
These few but sacred days provide opportunity for some ‘trick or treating’ (Halloween), but also time for us to give thanks for the ‘saints’ who have gone before us. Saints who have lived lives of incredible service and sacrifice, and who encourage us by their example to do the same.
One of the saints I most admire is Saint Francis, whose feast day this year celebrated the eight hundredth anniversary of his death on 3 October 1226. In his own writings, ‘Francesco’ said himself that a decisive moment of spiritual insight came when he met a leper. At that time lepers were largely despised and feared. Francesco himself gave lepers a wide berth on account of the fact that he could neither stand the sight or smell of them. They made him both physically sick and afraid of catching their disease. The interesting thing though, is that there was a leper colony just outside Assisi where Francesco grew up. As a young man, Francesco would take a 3-mile detour around the town just to avoid seeing the colony.
Yet, one day when Francesco was out riding his horse, he came across a leper. Inexplicably, Francesco got off his horse and went up to the leper and hugged him; some scholars also claim Francesco kissed him. After embracing the leper, Francesco - or Saint Francis as he is known around the world - found he no longer despised leprosy sufferers anymore. Something had changed inside him. So much so, he felt called by God to go and live with those with leprosy, to work with them, and for them.
He would later come to believe that the very leper he had embraced that day, was Christ Himself. Perhaps it sheds new light on the verse we find at the end of Matthew 25, verse 40 and Jesus’ description of ‘The Sheep and the Goats’ – where Jesus forecast a time when “The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did for me.’ "
As we approach the season of Advent, we are reminded of God's call to embrace and to serve and as we head towards our Christmas Advent Appeal, we will be preparing opportunities for people to be able to give sacrificially and to serve… One of the causes we assist with each year, is the Anglican Trust for Women and Children. This cause involves the giving of gifts for Christmas, for children and families who would otherwise miss out. Please keep your eyes peeled for these opportunities in the Chapel Update in a fortnight's time.
Speaking of services, we are very much looking forward to the upcoming Advent and Carol Christmas Services. The services are as follows:
5.30pm, Sunday 29 November – Advent Carol Christmas Service for all Year 9’s and their families
7.15pm, Sunday, 29 November – Advent Carol Christmas Service for all Year 10’s and their families.
Old Collegians are also invited to these services so some will join us.
5.30pm, Thursday 24 December – On Christmas Eve we will be holding a Christmas Carol Service for our Old Collegian community - everyone is welcome to attend.