Showing everything tagged as Revd Richard Carter

In the first of our Autumn Lecture Series last Monday Rowan Williams spoke about what it means to encounter the other. He spoke with a simplicity that made one feel that he was articulating a truth you had always known, but I am still unpacking some of the things he said for like all real wisdom what seems at first simple has a huge resonance and depth of truth for the whole of one’s life.

I returned to St Martin’s yesterday from a holiday during which I visited in Chennai in India. Absence they say makes the heart grow fonder. There is truth in this. Yesterday I came into this church in the morning hungry not only for the quiet and beauty of this place but, disorientated and tired after my long flight and the experience I had been through

On Friday I was at my mother’s house. She needs full time care now, as she has dementia and no mobility and my younger brother who cares for her like a saint is away on holiday.

In the October November issue of the St Martin’s Review 1996 there is an article about Sibyl. The title of the article is “If in doubt ask Sibyl” That I think would be a very fitting epitaph for a woman who became a St Martin’s legend. Sibyl’s family connections with St Martin-in-the-Fields go back to 1910 when her mother Rose Saxby first began attending services here.

It’s always a tense experience watching England play football. This year everyone has tried to play down the hype and stress the unity and youth of the team and a realistic optimism. But you can still sense the readiness for national soul searching and despair just beneath the surface should they fail.