From the Rector -Witness, Wiggle Room and Worship

I wasn’t expecting to have to consider the churches’ and society’s treatment of children half way through a Lent course entitled: ‘When I Survey…Christ’s Cross and Ours’.  But at the time of writing that is precisely what the Churches together Lent Groups are pondering.

Jesus reminded those around him that our attitude towards children has a direct bearing on our eternal destiny: ‘Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven’.

So I was encouraged to discover that when a large group of adults from St. Faith’s were asked recently to prioritise where future investment should be focussed they gave twelve to eighteen year olds top slot.  And the final report on our Rapid Parish Development Programme (RPD) pointed out that ”reaching these groups”, and being relevant and accessible to them, will require investment and potentially a major change in tone, approach, offer and delivery.

I haven’t forgotten that St. Faith’s makes some provision for toddlers to teenagers through its Sunday Club and Youth Church.  Yet it is possible to ‘provide for’ without the whole church really engaging with them.  Before Jesus uttered his famous words of warning Matthew’s gospel reports that “Jesus called a child whom he put among them”.  Those last two little words are key…among them.  We learn from children only when they are in our midst.  So locating their faith building activities in places remote from worship in church or not adequately resourcing their nurture, far from representing ‘youth work’, might actually qualify as, again in the words of Jesus himself, “putting a stumbling block before these little ones” and  the penalty for those so accused is drowning by attachment to a sinking millstone!

Some of the best examples of work with children happen in cross-generational settings where adults old enough to be any child’s grandparent or great grandparent can enjoy Christ’s “little ones”.  There is an imperative for the family of St. Faith’s to pick up on the suggestions that flowed freely from the RPD workshops which majored on baptism follow up, holiday play schemes, connected celebratory events and more variety in the diet of worship we offer.  If we are to deliver on any of these we shall need to make our existing church environment much more welcoming and flexible both inside and out.

This emphasis in our witness can only help in our desire to commend Jesus and all that he offers to a generation immersed in a culture fraught with contradictions of wealth and impoverishment, busyness and isolation.

We can make the prominence of our building a real home where a welcome by older people to a younger generation can give children the room they need to wonder and worship.

The last of the three RPD workshops began with a question to all present: “Is Jesus dead in Havant?” the answer to that question will be found partly in St. Faith’s response to the challenges it identified through the RPD programme.  We might well proclaim the Easter acclamation “Christ is Risen!” in our liturgical worship but shall we be able to make it our welcoming call to our community?

A very happy Easter

Peter Jones

From the Editor

The report on the Rapid Parish Development (RPD) project for St. Faith’s is now available either in hard copy or on our website.  Over 40 parishioners attended the three workshops which were productive and well received.  The report “Growing St. Faith’s – Becoming the heart and soul of Havant” lists key issues and ten recommendations.  The PCC will consider the report, but it is for the entire congregation to have an input, so please let me have your views for printing in “Faith Matters” so that a dialogue can develop as to what people want for the future of our church.

There is dampness in the Choir Vestry (see BMC report on page 20) which has spread to the walls in the Chancel and North Transept.  The Standing Committee held its meeting on 8 March in St. Faith’s to investigate and to recommend that the PCC consider moving the Choir Vestry to a temporary partitioned area in the main church as funds are not available to repair the whole rising damp area properly which could cost in excess of £60,000.

Thank you to Rosemary Thomas for organising a very pleasant lunch at the Pavilion tea rooms at Stansted Park on 10 March for 14 flower arrangers and their friends and husbands.  The company, food and wine were superb and enjoyed by all on a sunny but cold day.

Colin Carter

For Your Diary

Saturday 3 April

Coffee Morning.  10.00am – 12-noon in St. Faith’s Church.

Baptism & Confirmation. Our congregations are cordially invited to the Cathedral Church of St. Thomas at 8.00pm for the Baptism & Confirmation within the First Mass of Easter.  Seven children and two adults from St. Faith’s will receive the sacrament of Confirmation.

Sunday 25 April – Annual Parochial Church Meeting

The APCM will be held after the 9.30am Parish Eucharist in St. Faith’s Church.  Although you have the chance to ask questions throughout the year via “Faith Matters” this is your opportunity to ask questions “face-to-face” with the Rector and other group leaders as to the future plans for St. Faith’s.  The Annual Reports and Financial Statements will be available on 18 April.

Saturday 1 May – Quiz

A quiz night in aid of the Organ Fund will be held in the Church Hall on Saturday 1 May commencing 7.30pm.  Cost is £7.50 which includes a ploughman’s – bring your own drink.

Archbishop Trevor Huddleston

Archbishop Trevor Huddleston or to be more precise, Archbishop Ernest Urban Trevor Huddleston, was born in Bedford, England in 1913 and educated at Lancing College, Christ Church, Oxford, and Wells Theological College.  He was ordained in 1937 and served two years as a curate at St Mark’s, Swindon before joining the Anglican Community of the Resurrection (CR) in 1939.  In 1943, he went to the CR mission station at Rosettenville, Sophiatown (Johannesburg, South Africa) to replace Raymond Raines who had worked tirelessly but now needed a well deserved rest.  In fact Trevor, still a CR novice, nursed Raines in the infirmary and the latter quickly decided that Trevor was a fitting replacement for him.  Trevor worked for 13 years in Sophiatown and proved an outstanding priest, held in love and respect by the black community.  He fought with great courage and fortitude against the appalling apartheid laws, so much so that he was given the name Makhalipile, meaning dauntless one.  In 1955, the ANC honoured him with the title Isitwalandwe at the famous Freedom Congress in Kliptown.

He returned to England in 1956 to become Master of Novices at the CR's Mirfield mother house in West Yorkshire.  He was consecrated Bishop of Masasi (Tanzania) in 1960 but in 1968 he returned to England to become Bishop of Stepney in the Diocese of London.  But his travels were not yet over because in 1978 he was appointed Bishop of Mauritius and finally he was then elected Archbishop of the Province of the Indian Ocean.  After his retirement in 1983 he started anti-Apartheid work outside of South Africa, having become President of the Anti-Apartheid movement in 1981.  In 1994 he received high honours from Tanzania (Torch of Kilimanjaro), and was awarded the Indira Gandhi Award for Peace, Disarmament, and Development.  In the 1998 New Year Honours he was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of St Michael and St George (KCMG).  Archbishop Trevor Huddleston died at Mirfield in West Yorkshire, England.  A window in memory of him is at the Lancing College chapel and was visited by his friend Bishop Desmond Tutu.

So these are the facts but what about the man.  It is difficult today in our present multi – cultural society to realise the courage it took for Archbishop Huddleston to stand up against the government and military of South Africa in those appalling times.  Consider this prayer of the Archbishop, "God bless Africa, Guard her people, Guide her leaders, And give her peace."  We started with Bedford and now return to it.  There is a bronze statue to Trevor Huddleston in Bedford which bears this inscription on the stone plinth; “No white person has done more for South Africa than Trevor Huddleston.  Nelson Mandela.”  He also did much for St Faith’s Havant because it was Trevor’s life which inspired Canon Peter to enter the Church and our good fortune that he became our Rector. 

Roger Bryant

Sunday Club

Sunday Club activities for April are:

4^th – Family Service on Easter Day

10^th – Godly Play with a baptism story

17^th – Activities for spring with a walk to the park to find collage (weather permitting) and to start a collage to put on board in church

24^th – Activities/messy session and the completion of collage/paints/craft session.

The Sunday Club runs from 9.15am at Church House in The Pallant and the children are brought back to church in time for communion.

Penny Britt

Mary Bracher RIP

With the passing of Mary, St Faith’s Church has lost a gracious and loved lady who will be sadly missed.  We all have lovely memories of Mary and the work she did for this church.  She introduced many of us to Tear Fund and made sterling efforts to try and provide a library in church.  Mary baked cakes regularly for the coffee mornings and ran the raffle with Ken and also contributed to the cake stall at the Town Fair by baking lots of cakes, even in later years when her disability restricted her from coming to church.  There will be a full appreciation of Mary in next month’s “Faith Matters”.  Meanwhile, our prayers and thoughts are with Ken and their family.

Mary’s husband Ken, would like to express his sincere thanks to everyone who wrote, sent get well cards, and finally sympathy cards and letters to him.  Not least to all who attended Mary’s service and especially to Canon Peter, Trevor and Sandra for a beautifully conducted service - not forgetting Sylvia who made a wonderful effort on the organ.

Mary’s most vehement wish was that any donations should be given to St. Faith’s Restoration Fund, although it would be more expedient to utilise any such donation to wherever the greatest need may be.

With love and good wishes to all concerned.

 Ken

Molly Griffiths

 

 

 

 

 

Molly Griffiths bid farewell to her friends at St. Faith’s on 21 February and has moved to Somerset to be near her sister.  Molly, who is 97-years-old, attended St. Faith’s since the 1970s and participated in the church functions, including being in charge of the flower arranging and working in the shop.  She delivered ‘meals-on-wheels’ and worked in Australia for many years.  Molly paid for the gate from the borough car park in to the church hall in memory of her brother, Tom, to make it easier and safer for pedestrians.  She was a very active lady and attended yoga classes well into her 90s – which she was very good at.

Molly heard that WWII had ended from a newsman whilst rock climbing in the Cuillins on the Isle of Skye (see the May 2005 edition of “Faith Matters” in the article giving parishioners their “V-E Day/WW-II Memories).

 Beryl Carter

 John Freestone RIP

With the passing of John, Havant has lost one of its most loyal sons.  He lived in Havant all his life, attending Fairfield School and spending his whole working life with Geo Carrell and Sons of Havant.  He was a loyal friend of St Faith’s Church and even worked on it as a bricklayer, together with Warblington Church and Havant Memorial Hospital.  During the Second World War he did vital war work in the construction of the Mulberry Harbours in Portsmouth Dockyard.  These concrete structures were towed across the English Channel to provide temporary harbours on D-Day off the Normandy beaches as the liberation of France began.  He was also a member of the Home Guard patrolling Langstone Harbour and Hayling Island at a time when this country was in mortal danger.

He was a very keen supporter of the Portsmouth Football Club and saw them win the FA Cup at Wembley.  This was not his only sport and he enjoyed Green Bowls, snooker and darts.  He was also a keen gardener and allotment holder.  When not involved with any of this, he enjoyed going to tea dances.  He was a man of many interests including weather observation, recording rainfall and temperatures, with a little astronomy and bird watching on the side.  He only flew once in his life but that was on the Concorde!  For a number of years he was court secretary for the Ancient Order of Foresters.  John lived in Lymbourn Road next door to Roy Clark, who was Treasurer at St Faith’s.  Towards the end of Roy’s life, he lost his eyesight and John would pop in each morning to read Roy’s mail to him.  There are many who have similar memories of John’s kindness.  He was a lovely man and our thoughts and prayers are with his family at their sad loss.

(The following article by John on “Mulberry Harbour” was written for the “Havant during WW-II Exhibition” held in St. Faith’s in July 2005)

Mulberry Harbour

One of the most remarkable achievements of the 2^nd World War took place under the noses of the people in the Havant area.  Under the code name "Phoenix", several vast concrete "caissons" which formed part of the Mulberry Harbours, were built in record time on the shores of Hayling Island.  The operation was very "hush hush", and much excitement and speculation was rife in the area.  Sir Winston Churchill paid a visit to the works, travelling by rail to Havant and thence by car.  Skilled workmen were brought in by coaches from the mainland.  After the bombing of Coventry, special trains carrying rubble for use in making the concrete were run to the South Coast.

On D-Day the caissons were towed to the French coast to form "moles" in the artificial harbours for landing troops, equipment and stores.  One caisson sank in Langstone Harbour soon after it was taken in tow, and it can still be seen today.  The caissons varied in size, the largest being 200 feet long and 60 feet high, weighing some 6,000 tons.  The firm Airspeed, who made aircraft components, was at Langstone Village in the garden and paddock of Langstone Towers and a Sheet Metal Factory was at the rear of the Dolphin, West Street (where the Meridian Centre entrance is).

When the war started I was 16 and with my twin brother Peter worked at Carrell’s in South Street Havant.  We both went there as apprentices straight from school - me as a brick layer and Peter as a carpenter.  After we finished our apprenticeship we were sent to Lake Road, Portsmouth, and helped with the bomb damage.  Mr. Bevin then called up everybody whose registration number ended in 0 or 9 - that included Peter and I - and we had to immediately report to Portsmouth Dockyard.  We were to work on the Mulberry Harbours for Bovis.  We were fitted with duffel coats and wire cutters and were well looked after.  The only day we had off with pay was when they floated the harbours - and then when Field Marshall Montgomery came to thank the workers, we had an hour off!

After the platforms were complete I went to work for AR West at Purbrook.  We had the maintenance for the Army Camps out at Hambledon and Denmead. King George VI came and viewed the work.  I remember the building trade got an extra cheese ration, which helped with our packed lunch.

I was a member of the Home Guard in Havant.  We worked from the garage of Langbrook House in Langstone.  Eight of us would be on duty; two would be out while the others slept.  The drill hall in West Street was our Head Quarters.

We lived at 10 Lower Grove Road, during the worst of the bombing.  There was a family that used to come out from Portsmouth and sleep in the front room.  Prior to Dunkirk we had two soldiers billeted in the house.  We had an Anderson shelter at the bottom of the garden - it had an extension and there was enough room for 7 of us.

John Freeston

Correspondence Column

Dear Mr Bryant,

As Area Dean I wanted to write personally to each parish, via its PCC Secretary because once again the Parish Share for this Deanery has been paid in full for the year.

This is a great achievement and not to be underestimated.

Please share this good news with your congregation and PCC members and receive my grateful thanks with those from the whole Diocese.

Yours sincerely,

Revd Jonathan Jeffery, Area Dean

(St. Faith’s contribution for 2009 was £44,282 and for 2010 it is £47,500)

Dear Colin,

I very much enjoyed John Bradey’s article about the novel “The Great Gatsby” in March’s edition of “Faith Matters”.

As a film buff, he will know that the novel was filmed twice.  In 1949 with Alan Ladd as Gatsby and 25 years later with Robert Redford in the star part.  Unusually, a Broadway stage actor named Howard Da Silva appeared in both films and he thought that Ladd was the better Gatsby.  He once said “Much as I admired Redford as an actor, I felt he could never play a man from the opposite side of the tracks.  And Alan Ladd could and did.”  The ‘Time Out Film Guide’ went further, stating: “Alan Ladd was so much more convincing as a man with a dark and mysterious past than one-dimensional glamour-puss Robert Redford.”  John and I knew that all the time.  Joy thinks that she and Peggy would have preferred a date with Ladd rather than Redford.

Roger Bryant

Chorister Badge Awards – Light Blue Badge

This article explains exactly what a chorister has to learn in order to be able to be awarded a Light Blue badge.  As each chorister discovers, these are not handed out like sweets!  Much study has to be undertaken in order to achieve the coveted ribbon and, in recognition of such achievement, each badge level carries the incentive of a pay rise.

St Faith’s choir participates in a badge scheme run by the Royal School of Church Music (RSCM).  There are different badge levels for the choristers to work towards.  Although there has been a new preparatory white ribbon introduced recently, our choristers study for their first RSCM badge on a Light Blue ribbon.  This can take choristers up to eighteen months to attain.  Training is given for 20 minutes before each choir practice.

In music there is no space or time to write long instructions as to how to perform a piece.  So everything is in a kind of ‘code’ that all probationers (new choristers) have to understand.  Various signs, symbols and shortened forms of words have to be learnt.  This is made more difficult because all instructions are in Italian.  So between ff or fortissimo (very loud) and pp or pianissimo (very quiet) there are grades of dynamics – f, mf, mp and p.  Choristers have to learn these Italian words, their meaning and their shortened form or ‘code’.  Besides being told how loudly or quietly to sing, there are other Italian words with their shortened forms and symbols that instruct singers to get gradually louder – crescendo, cres., to get gradually quieter – diminuendo, dim., to slow down – rallentando or rall., or to speed up – accelerando or accel.  Other signs and symbols instruct singers to repeat a section, to go back to the beginning – da capo, to go back to the sign – DS, or to finish – fine.

In addition to the above instructions as how to perform a piece, choristers have to learn to ‘read’ music.  Music is written on five lines called a stave.  At the beginning is a clef that governs the pitch of each note.  Clef  is French for ‘key’ and a treble clef or G clef ‘unlocks’ or fixes the second line up as note G.  This is the clef that choristers, sopranos and altos sing from, and that pianists generally play with their right hand.  Choristers have to learn the letter names of the lines and spaces in the treble clef.  They also have to learn the different note shapes and their names – semibreve, dotted minim, minim, crotchet and quaver.  They have to know how long each note lasts, and the rests (or silences in music) that match each note.

Choristers learn that music is divided into bars separated by bar-lines.  At the end of a piece is a double bar-line, the equivalent of a full stop in reading.  There are time signatures at the beginning of each piece of music that tell how many beats there are in each bar (2, 3 or 4) and what kind of beat or pulse the music is written in e.g., crotchets or minims.

Then there are other symbols – #’s (sharps) and b’s (flats).  Choristers have to learn about semitones in order to be able to understand that a # raises a note by a semitone and a b lowers a note by a semitone.  They also have to know the difference between and tones and semitones because they have to be able to construct a major scale.  Lastly they learn about key signatures, the #’s and b’s at the beginning of a piece of music that denote what key – or scale – the music is written in.

In addition to all this theoretical knowledge, there are the singing and aural requirements of the badge.  Choristers have to be able to sustain notes, to sing with a good tone and clear diction.  They have to learn where to breathe in the music.  They have to sing an ascending and descending major scale – unaccompanied.  They have to sight-read a rhythm and a melody, clap a simple rhythm back and sing a simple melody back.  They have to be able to listen to a piece of music and say whether it has two or three beats in a bar.

When seeing a piece for the first time, a chorister has to learn where the information relating to the composer and the lyricist is to be found – their dates of birth and death and what century they lived in.  They have to be able to recognise where the words come from – e.g., Bible or prayer book and to talk about the mood and meaning of the piece.  They also have to have an understanding of the times and seasons of the Church’s year.  Regular attendance is another important part of the badge scheme as is a chorister’s behaviour.

It can clearly be seen that the depth of knowledge and understanding is huge for any probationer to undertake.  With the help of self-test cards and worksheets the syllabus is eventually covered and the two test papers are handed out.  There is a set pass mark to achieve and sometimes choristers have to re-take a paper.  So it is with great pride and a real sense of achievement that a chorister is awarded their Light Blue badge in front of the whole congregation.  Every chorister at each badge level strives to live up to this RSCM motto;

“I will sing with the Spirit and I will sing with the understanding also.”

Sylvia Willey – Organist & Choir Director

Congratulations to Henry Jermyn on being awarded the choristers light blue ribbon at the 9.30am Parish Eucharist on 28 February 2010.

Sponsored Sleep Out

On Friday 26^th February I did a sponsored sleep out.  This was to raise money for the Birmingham City Mission (BCM) charity, and their work with homeless people.  It was really encouraging to see how many people had sponsored me in that, and also at school it was great to get support.  The sleep out included sleeping rough in a cardboard box for the night, just like homeless people do.  It was organised by BCM, and it took place in their HQ's car park.  The weather was good until about 3.00am, when we got woken up by rain drumming on the shelters we had built.  We stuck to plastic tarpaulin after that!  A big thank you to everyone who did donate and BCM are really thankful for all that.

BCM is a Christian charity established in 1968.  It strives both to proclaim the doctrine of Jesus Christ and express God's love through many caring projects, including work with the homeless, those in poverty, the elderly and children and young children.

Charis Thomas

Charis was 12 when she started this sleep out and 13 when she finished.  She lives with her parents and two brothers in the Bourneville area of Birmingham and is the grand daughter of Rosemary & Peter Thomas.  To date she has raised about £180.

Memorial Book

We are delighted that the Memorial book and display case gifted to St. Faith’s by the mother (and author Marcia Willetts) of onetime curate Charles Keay in thanksgiving for his ministry among us between 2003-7 has now been installed in the south transept.

The Parochial Church Council has decided that in view of the number of people who use the Lady Chapel as a place to pray for departed loved ones the book should carry the names of any person that local people or visitors wish to have recorded there.

This means that the ‘page per day’ book will be far more than a record of those whose funerals have taken place either at St. Faith’s church, the Crematorium or from within the parish boundary.  Anyone who wishes to have their loved one remembered will be afforded the opportunity to submit the name and date of death of the person they wish to have entered into the volume.

The book will be opened daily on that day’s date so that anyone wishing to see their loved one’s name on the actual anniversary of death may do so.  The names of the departed will also be included in the intercessory prayers offered at weekday services of Holy Communion as well as on the Sunday at the start of the week when the anniversary falls.

To request an inscription in the Memorial Book please either telephone details to the Parish Office (023 9249 2129) or register the same in the notebook set aside for the purpose in church on the sides persons table immediately on your right when entering the north door.

Peter Jones