The garland of leaves and flowers that has adorned the entrance to Our Lady and St Edmund Church in Abingdon for the last year of pilgrimage are now gone. Passing that way today I spotted something else on the first day of advent.

Welcome to Live Simply – ‘Laudato Si’.

I googled to find that Pope Francis’ initiative on climate change, ‘Laudato Si’, is an invitation to everyone on the planet to care for our common home.

Twenty years ago church goers would park their cars on Sunday in the Penlon factory over the road. The area over the road has become housing. Old Man’s Beard can be seen sweeping in front of the houses between Penlon Place and Jackman Close.

You might be suprised to learn that there are still monks living in England today. You will just not find any at Abingdon Abbey which was demolished following Henry VIII’s dissolution of the monasteries.

A 21st Century monk will be visiting Abingdon and giving a talk at 7:30pm on Friday at St Nicolas Church as part of our medieval-themed Heritage Weekend. He will talk about how the Benedictine monks of Abingdon Abbey would have lived and how their successors live today.

Saint Benedict wrote that a monk should prefer nothing to the work of God. The monastic day is therefore built around set times of prayer. The day begins with the rising bell when the monks gather in the church for the first prayers of the day, Matins. This is followed by a period of quiet prayer before Lauds (Morning Prayer). and then breakfast. Mass is celebrated before a morning of work followed by Midday Prayer and then lunch. More work in the afternoon is followed by the celebration of Vespers. There follows a time for spiritual reading then supper. Compline, or Night Prayer is followed by silence and sleep.

‘The Hope Within Us’ events took place last week – organised by the churches of the Parish of Abingdon-on-Thames.

On Saturday there were two tours of St Helen’s Church.

Many Abingdon people, from generation to generation, have made their first visit to the church on being baptised at the font.

The present building began as a one aisle church, with tower, in the early thirteenth century. Four more aisles were then added to the south – the fifth and final aisle in 1539. The central aisle was subsequently made higher in Victorian times to let in more light.

The west door though the central aisle is used for other important life events. It is through this door that couples enter to be married, and from this door people are carried on their final goodbye.

Over that door St Helen is seen carrying a model of the St Helen’s Church in one hand, and a cross in the other. The Fraternity of the Holy Cross was based at St Helen’s church until being dissolved by royal decree in 1547.

At Trinity Church this morning Revd. Ian Griffiths had put up a large banner, one he made more than a decade ago. It looked amazing to people coming into the church who had not seen it before.

It was to celebrate Pentecost, the birth of the church.