Vicars Letter
The Psalms
Throughout the centuries the psalms have been one of the key aids to prayer and Christian living. For most of the Christian centuries until the years since 1960 psalms have formed part of the liturgy every Sunday. Alas most of us now hardly attend to the psalms at all. We have been given a collection of 150 psalms of variable length and very different styles and interests. Many will not speak easily to us; so it is important to be aware of those that will.
In August we will hold four summer evenings with the psalms in All Saints Church on Tuesdays 5th, 12th, 19th & 26th August from 7.30 - 8.45 pm. Everyone is most welcome to come. These four evenings will only scratch the surface of the psalms: they will cover some of the best loved psalms, psalms of lament, helping psalms and psalms of praise. Everyone from all our congregations will be most welcome at one or all of these evenings.
The great thing for me about the psalms is that they connect with the great variety of human experiences I have and relate them to God and what he appears to be doing or not doing. They all enlarge my vision of God and help deepen faith and trust.
If you cannot come to any of these evenings, do try to spend some time with the psalms this summer. A good starting point is psalms 1, 23, 100, 121, & 150.
Christopher Morgan-Jones
Note: Readers may be interested to know that there are many recordings available of the psalms sung by a variety of cathedral choirs. The complete 150 psalms are available on a series of CDs offered by Priory Records.
Click here for the Paul Rowland Web Site