Brothers and sisters in Christ.

WO EXCITING EVENTS lie ahead in the coming few months. In the autumn we have the Lay Congress (All Saints', Clifton, Bristol, Saturday 28 September), when a representative from each of the parishes comes together for encouragement, fellowship, reflection and teaching. Make sure your PCC knows whom it is sending! In the spring we have the Ebbsfleet Festival of Faith (Bristol Cathedral, 10 May), an event for all-comers. Put it in your diary and come!

In between these two events are a number of opportunities for us to deepen our faith and joy. For the clergy there will be the National Sacred Synod at Emmanuel Centre, Westminster (16-17 October) and an Ebbsfleet Clergy Retreat at Walsingham (11-13 March). Make sure your parish priest can afford to attend these! For everyone there will be a number of local initiatives - such as the teaching day at Weston-super-Mare, organised for Saturday 9 November - and a Lent Course, more details shortly.

My hope is that the Ebbsfleet Festival of Faith will not be just another Anglo-Catholic 'jolly' but the culmination of a period of Christian growth.

Here, then, are three areas for Christian growth:

(1) my growth and yours in Christian life and witness;
(2) the growth of the parish - increased numbers, greater commitment, deepening holiness, a balance between young and old, men and women;
(3) the growth of us all as a 'kingdom' people, a people of prayer and peace, a people who enrich not only the various dioceses and ecumenical groups to whose life we contribute but also the neighbourhood where we live or the place where we work.

May God bless you and draw us all ever closer to himself and to one another.

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet

The Bishop of Ebbsfleet
Bishop's House, Dry Sandford, Abingdon, OXON OX13 6JP
Tel: +44 (0) 1865 390746

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