Rector's letters

We are delighted to announce the appointment of our new rector. Rev. Patrick (Patch) Webb To be appointed Rector of Compton, Hursley and Otterbourne Patrick

The advertisement for our vacancy has now been published in ‘The Church Times‘. The closing date for applications is 5th February at 12 noon with

The historically literal reading, or misreading, of this creation story has overwhelmed the subtleties of the original and its careful placing after the account of the first seven days.  It is only within the context of God’s good creation of all things that this story of mankind’s place can be understood. 

We make up our minds about something and often we only change them with great reluctance. Our present opinions are shaped by our past opinions, what we think now, we so often thought then.

May 26th is Trinity Sunday, not a festival many will be marking I fear. It lacks the fairy lights of Christmas or the chocolate of Easter. But in its way it is a significant day, marking the contribution of Christianity to mankind’s understanding of the nature of God; not a topic now of general conversation, but it was not always so.

‘Then they went out and ran from the tomb, for terror and bewilderment had seized them. And they said nothing to anyone, because they were afraid.’ Mark 16.1-8. So ends the Gospel of Mark, to many a short and unsatisfying end to the Gospel – the Greek even ends on a preposition (very bad Greek!). Several other later endings were added by other hands but Mark’s true account ends here with the women too afraid to speak of what they saw.