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Faith, science and doubt meet as Andy Harrison becomes Charles Darwin - for one night only. Friday. 8pm £5.
Having premiered at Westminster Abbey and toured nationally and at The Edinburgh Festival, Murray Watts' one-man show, 'Mr.Darwin's Tree' featuring Andy Harrison, returns for one night only this Friday in the small hall.
Tickets £5. Running time 75 mins.
The auction to raise funds for the Organ Restoration and Vox Holloway's Community work was a grat success and we achieved our target.Many thanks to all involved - donors, volunteers, prformers and to everyone who came and enjoyed the evening and bought the wonderful array of lots.
All Soul's Day is the traditional time in the church calendar when we remember our departed loved ones. This Sunday, 4th November, we hold our annual All Souls Service of Remembrance at 4pm, where we read out the names of those we have lost and miss. If you would like a name read out in the service, please contact Pat - patriciatomlinson@mac.com
To see the Fantastic Lots copy the link into your browser: saintlukeschurch.org.uk/auction - Tickets are now on sale - email: lukevoxholloway@gmail.com - Bring your friends
£15, concs. £10 – includes dinner and a glass of wine/beer; Musical Interludes, Licenced Bar - The auction is in aid of St Luke’s Organ Restoration, Vox Holloway Community Choir and St Anne and All Saints, South Lambeth
It's been said that ‘The Church is the Fifth Gospel’ and in our services at St Luke's we sometimes feature an additional Gospel reading – from the Gospel of this Church.
This past Sunday we heard a reading from the Gospel of St Luke’s West Holloway, according to Sam Murphy.
'I’d say I’ve been part of this church since about 1980, so that would be more than thirty years. I started coming along after I moved to the Clocktower Estate and never really stopped.
It was nearly 20 years before that, in 1962, when I came across to London from Ireland. I grew up in County Carlow but I’d been working as a gardener in Bray and then in Dublin. I was getting about £3 a week. You can get that much for an hour these days. A relative introduced me to this posh Irish man who had a landscape gardening firm in London. I met him on the Friday and I was on the boat on the Monday. The money was better, £9 a week, and better still when I got a job in Regents Park. That was £13 a week and I worked there for four years, looking after the rose gardens.
I’ve always loved the gardening but there was so little money in it and eventually I got some classes to learn to be an electrician and that’s how I ended up working for the Post Office, all over the City of London.
My Gran was a real Bible reader, who prayed a lot, but for me it wasn’t until my twenties that faith came to mean something deeper, when I understood about Jesus dying and about how we’re forgiven.
When I first came to St Luke’s, there was a Deaconess, Patsy, living in the vicarage while Tim, the vicar, lived up near me in the flat above St Francis on North Road. Then there was only a handful of us in services, we used to start the hymns with a tape-recorder.
Tim organized a day to work in the garden and I said that I’d do this area over by the front wall. He looked at me with a smile and said, ‘You can do more if you like!’ I did end up doing more. I’ve been doing it ever since. I just like looking after the gardens, I enjoy it. To me, being close to nature, can be like being close to God, like in the best gardens you have this serene state, this peaceful state. I remember when I first when to Iona, I heard it described as a thin place, where the distance between earth and heaven is not much. A few times I’ve been in the garden of St Luke’s and felt it is also a thin place.
Sometimes people want to pray in the church: one woman, who couldn’t speak English, would only go as far as the doorway, no further – she just stood there. And I asked God to grant her whatever she was praying for.
We used to have a Bible Study and we had home groups. Why they petered out I don’t know.We used to sit and debate, although that got a bit iffy sometimes if you ask me.
If this church wasn’t here I’d miss it. It’s like someone who’s been married for thirty years, you might have some arguments but if they were gone you’d miss them.
I like being with the earth and watching God send the sun and the rain and then seeing how everything grows. Sometimes I just like to look at the roses and marvel at them.’
The Gospel According to Sam is one of 12 stories collected in The Gospel According to Everyone by Martin Wroe.
This Sunday morning we will be celebrating harvest. We invite you to bring toiletries for the Night Shelter (preferably of the mini variety). The SoulSpace service at 7pm will also centre on the harvest theme with a simple harvest supper (veg chilli - cooked by Dave's fair hand!) interspersed with the usual SoulSpace style prayers, music and films. Newcomers to SS very welcome.
On the sunday just gone, kids and adults thought about how to say thanks in different languages. Quite surprising how many we got to!
An evening of musical wonderment curated by our very own Iain Archer. Steeplejacks began with the aim of putting some particularly fine voices in a particularly fine setting; creating an edifying mix of almost undiscovered artists in this lovingly refurbished Victorian church in North London. Steeplejacks is a collective of musicians, djs, writers and artists based at St Luke’s in Holloway aiming to produce a regularish evening of musical wonderment for your pleasure. Imagine the loveliest of songs, performed in the place with a steeple, along with a warm welcome and a cold beer and you’ve got it. This time featuring a stellar lineup including Luke Sital-Sing, Foreign Slippers, Boxes and the big man himself - Iain Archer.
Tickets £10 and £5 conc. are available on the door or online at eventbrite.
A gorgeous little boy called Tyler with a smile that could melt the polar ice caps was baptised at St Luke's on Sunday. His mum Louise wrote a poem that she asked Dave to read out in the service. She refers to Tyler as a rainbow child - a baby born to a family after the loss of a child, a blessing after the storm. Many people wanted a copy of the poem, so here it is:
FOR TYLER
In life things happen that are beyond our control,
Devastating things that rip out your heart and soul.
But luckily in life we have something called hope,
God sent this perfect rainbow child to help us to cope.
It was hard at times as we were still trying to mourn,
A precious life was taken so this rainbow child could be born.
I can still picture the day when my rainbow child was delivered,
For that day my body ran so cold and it shivered.
My eyes filled with happy tears, a new day had finally came,
A beautiful baby was handed to me and Tyler was his name.
Lord we thank you for blessing us with this beautiful little boy,
A true blessing from above who brings us so much joy.
He has made our life complete and has shown us wonderful things,
For we didn’t know just how much happiness a child could bring.
The years are flying by but everyday we happily smile,
As watching him grow are precious moments that are worthwhile.
His beautiful brown eyes filled with innocence and love,
His soul so peaceful it resembles a pure white dove.
His smile so charming he can do no wrong,
The bond between mother and son that feels so strong.
A mother’s love for her child is something no one can explain,
It’s made of deep devotion and of sacrifice and pain.
It is endless and unselfish and endearing come what may,
For nothing can destroy it or take that love away.