April 2026

You will most likely be reading this in the run up to the various Easter liturgies marking the death and resurrection of Our Lord. Later this month we keep the feast of one the Apostles, and a Gospel writer, S. Mark. It is with these twelve men that God established the Priesthood, both as a Sacrament in itself, and as the means through which God will make present His grace through the Sacraments.

The example of a Priest came to mind recently when hearing, in some meeting, of different ways of being a Church that some would like to be the future, regardless of what you and I as fellow children of God think. It is recorded by Roger Lloyd in a book imaginatively titled, The Church of England 1900-1965. It is the example of Fr. Charlie Bond who unusually served his entire Priesthood in the town of his birth, which was Alton in Hampshire.

‘He was, and yet he was not, the typical parish priest – the sort of parish priest that all good men want to be and so few of us actually become. He was typical in the sense that he perfectly exemplified the characteristic virtue of the Anglican parish priest in every age, for he was before all else the faithful pastor who knew all his sheep and loved them, and was loved by them in turn, and who was wise and tireless in his care for them since he loved them in Christ, being a man of intense spirituality and humility…it is the type of priestly excellence that every Anglican Christian best understands and most reveres’

‘When he died he was buried in a coffin made by his own tools and his body was robed in vestments, a chalice and paten in his hands, and his old set of carpenter’s tools by his side. His funeral was a great triumph. Every shop was shut, and every soul in Alton, and many far away, mourned for him, yet rejoicing over the spirit of a brave and just man, made as near perfection as this world ever lets us come.’

Those two extracts are illustrative of the section covering him and the life of the Church in Alton, used as an example of ministry in the Church of England. It is rather gushing and yet rather endearing; most of us would, if perhaps embarrassed, feel a tinge of happiness with such a write-up.

It is also illustrative of what most of us here would understand when it comes to Church life and the presence and purpose of Priests. Whilst this may be so, not all within her share such an understanding and words such as oversight and focal begin to make an appearance. We can hold dear to that which is true, but we must also seek to advocate for it. We need to pray for, and nurture, those who come after us so that there will be many more Fr. Charlie Bond’s able to exercise the Sacramental ministry which Christ Himself gifted to us as the Church.

Please God, let it be that the Blessed Saints, most particularly Our Lady, continue to pray for us!