You are invited to join us for our celebration of St Thomas Day on Sunday 6th July at 6 p.m.

This is a Sung Eucharist with procession followed by a party.

The preacher is our former assistant priest Brandy Pearson, who is now Assistant Vicar of Acton Green in west London.
Brandy has not been replaced, but we've been fortunate since her departure of being enriched by the regular ministry of her husband Robert, and their good friend Stephen Golden, whose paid job is with Transport for London. Come and meet them!
I am not able to welcome her back as The General Synod of the Church of England is meeting in York from 4th until 8th July. Our most public debate is about the consecration of women as bishops, but we also have the opportunity to discuss how much to charge for services like weddings and funerals, our relationship with the Orthodox and Methodist Churches, climate change and human security (the shortages of food and water), and the place of Christianity in our working lives.

There is a service of Holy Communion at 10.30 a.m. on 6th July for those unable to come in the evening, but not at 8.30 a.m. as there would normally be on the first Sunday in the month.

DEVELOPMENTS

There are building and road works everywhere around us at the moment. St Thomas' is not to be outdone! We have 3 projects. Recently we were given our third grant by English Heritage so that we can complete our renovation of the roof. This was for £23,000 towards work estimated at £113,000, a much smaller percentage than we were given towards the first two phases, apparently because of the amount of money having to be diverted to preparing the infrastructure for the Olympic Games in 2012. We will be hard pressed to raise the balance but will certainly try, encouraged by the generosity of Richard Cloudesley's Charity.

One of the conditions of receiving an English Heritage grant nowadays is that the church must be open to the public for regular periods outside the times of services. Temporarily we've arranged that the church is open on Friday afternoons when the cleaner is here, but soon we are intending that there should be a small office near the main door that can be heated and lit easily. This will make it possible for both myself and other members of the congregation to open the church at specified times. We'll let you know so that you can drop in more often if you want either to look around or simply to enjoy some peace and quiet.

We're also grateful for the success of a joint application to one of the new community funds established with money from Arsenal by the Parochial Church Council and St Thomas's Playgroup, which uses the hall from 9.30 a.m. until 1 p.m. Mondays to Fridays. This is for the complete renovation of the kitchen and the larger lavatory, both to make them more user friendly, not least for the children, but also to comply with health and safety rules. The grant is for £25,000 so within the next year the hall should be more attractive if you want to book it for a meeting or a social occasion. Contact Sandra Hall 020-7485-1764 or 07960-220570.

Highbury Chamber Choir rehearses in the hall on Tuesday evenings. Their next concert is in the church on Saturday 12th July at 8 p.m. They are singing Sacred and Profane Songs by Jannequin, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Ravel, Britten and Ridge. Admission on the door £5 or £3 for concessions.

BIG BROTHER

Tony Benn is reported to have said that he had never expected to be alive when Magna Carta was repealed. In recent years I never expected to find myself more in agreement with the opposition benches, even though I've been strongly opposed to the war in Iraq since so many of us from this parish marched together through London several years ago. However, that is where I find myself following the vote to extend the period when my fellow citizens can be detained without trial to 6 weeks.
In 1984 I was asked to give a short television broadcast. I chose to talk about the need to relate defence expenditure to the kind of society one was defending. I argued that certain kinds of legislation aimed to defend national security could change that society. We now have a case substantiating that. I have not heard anyone explain how the emergency powers available to the government would not do the job required should the situation arise. The problem with the erosion of habeas corpus for one special case is that it makes it easier to extend it to others. I'm hoping that the House of Lords will throw out this bill, even if it provokes a constitutional crisis. Thank God for the Lords? Fortunately Jeremy Corbyn MP voted as I would have done.

Our government is acting in another way that causes me great disquiet too. In recent years I've been more attentive than usual to immigration and citizenship regulations because of my partner who is in the process of becoming a British citizen. Recently the Home Office has announced that it plans to introduce a points system for people applying from outside the European Union that will favour those with higher qualifications. This means that we will be encouraging those with skills to leave their country, depriving societies at an earlier stage of economic and educational development and so making it more difficult for them to reach the same standards as we enjoy. It is also discriminatory against people who are poor and disadvantaged but who may have enormous potential if given the opportunity. This is immoral behaviour, yet I've heard no complaints from any of the major political parties, perhaps for fear of our more jingoistic newspapers. In a place like Finsbury Park we know the joys of neighbours from all over the world who enrich our daily lives.