{"id":627,"date":"2012-02-01T09:56:01","date_gmt":"2012-02-01T09:56:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stmichaels-hls.org.uk\/?page_id=627"},"modified":"2026-10-01T14:18:58","modified_gmt":"2026-10-01T14:18:58","slug":"rectors-letter","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stmichaels-hls.org.uk\/?page_id=627","title":{"rendered":"Rector’s Letter"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rector’s Letter
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As the leaves begin to fall and the nights draw in, we mark the festival of St Michael and All Angels and approach \u2018Feast time\u2019 in our church calendar. Traditionally, the celebration of Houghton Feast over a 10-day festival is a wonderful opportunity for our whole community to come together. We look out at a wider world that so often tells us to be divided, surrounded by voices that emphasize our differences and push us toward fragmentation. But here in Houghton, we are choosing a different path. This year\u2019s theme, \u201cTogether We Feast,\u201d echoes the legacy of my historic predecessor, Rector Bernard Gilpin. In the sixteenth century, Gilpin regularly declared his rectory an \u2018open house\u2019, offering free food and warm hospitality to all who visited, regardless of their wealth or status. Gilpin understood a radical truth: the Creator of the universe didn\u2019t arrive in a pristine palace but was born into a messy stable for our sake. God loves us so much that he was prepared to walk to the cross\u2014and beyond\u2014for us. His answer to a fractured world isn\u2019t a fortified wall; it is an open, radically inclusive table. To embrace this during the Feast, we are launching an unbroken, 24-7 canopy of prayer inside the church. We have set up seven interactive prayer stations to take prayer out of our heads and put it into our hands. You are invited to move around the building and physically engage with these stories that matter:<\/p>\n\n\n\n