MONTHLY UPDATE FROM SIMON

July 2026

Dear Friends

This month, as part of our 450 celebrations, we invite you to come and step back in time in a very particular way.

On Saturday 18th July at 11.30am we shall be joined by members of the Prayer Book Society for a celebration of Holy Communion from the 1559 Book of Common Prayer.  The preacher will be the Archdeacon of Chichester, Tom Carpenter, and we shall also welcome the Chairman of the Prayer Book Society, Bradley Smith.

What was the 1559 Prayer Book, and why will we be using it?

You may remember that after Henry VIII had made himself Supreme Head of the Church of England, he ordered his Archbishop, Thomas Cranmer, to produce a Prayer Book in English (rather than Latin) which expressed the new thinking of the Reformation.

Cranmer’s first Prayer Book was published in 1549; it was then revised in 1552 but abolished altogether when the Catholic Queen Mary ascended the throne.  Five years later Elizabeth became Queen, and one of her first decisions was to bring Cranmer’s Prayer Book back into use.

This 1559 edition was substantially the same as that of 1552, and it forms the basis of the 1662 Prayer Book with which we are familiar.  But its publication was significant.  It expressed Elizabeth’s determination not to rejoin the Catholic Church and to steer the Church of England on a middle way of its own - one that was both Catholic and Reformed.

Not everyone supported her decision.  She upset both the Puritans, who wanted worship of a far more Protestant flavour, and the Catholics, who wanted full communion with Rome.  But the dye was cast, and the poetry of Cranmer’s liturgy has helped shape the souls of generations of Anglican worshippers ever since.

As far as our own celebration is concerned, we will follow Elizabeth’s Prayer Book as closely as possible, mindful that it would have been familiar to our congregation at the time of the great fire of 1576.  Whether or not we choose to be deliberately archaic and pray for ‘Elizabeth our Queen’ remains to be seen!

The musical setting of the service will be that of John Merbecke, who composed it in 1550, and was a boy chorister and, later, organist at St George’s Chapel Windsor.  It’s very evocative of the Tudor period, although I think it’s unlikely that music – or preaching – featured very much in the Elizabethan Church.

I do hope that you will join us on the 18th as we give thanks not just for our own church, but also for the Church of England itself, which Good Queen Bess bequeathed to us.  The ‘via media’ which it embodies has proved itself to suit our national spirit, and for many of us it is a generous and accommodating spiritual home.

With my prayers and best wishes

Simon

St Mary and St Gabriel Quiet Garden

Our next Quiet Garden Afternoon will be on Wednesday 15th July, starting at 2pm.  We invite you to come and enjoy an hour’s peace in the churchyard (or in church if it’s wet), followed by tea and cake in the Law Room.

Faith Seeking Understanding

Come and join our small group for an hour’s free-ranging and open discussion about issues of life and faith.  We meet this month on Wednesday 15th July at 6pm in the Law Room.

Lammas Day/Harting Bread Fest – 2nd August

Do, please, bake a loaf of your choice and bring it to our Lammas (‘Loaf Mass’) service on Sunday 2nd August at 10am. The plan is that we shall use one of the loaves for communion; the rest (if we get any!) will be sold afterwards and the proceeds given to the Foodbank.  It will be an opportunity to keep an old tradition and celebrate the wonderful gift of bread.

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