From the Rector - Moving into Lent

Easter is about as early as it possibly can be this year (23^rd March), which means that Ash Wednesday starts the season of Lent on the 6^th February.  This year there are no Sundays between Candlemas (2^nd February) and Lent (as opposed to three last year), which means that the liturgical emphasis moves swiftly from the bitter-sweet taste of Candlemas (the feast is also known as the Presentation of Christ in the Temple) to the foreboding of Lent.  And there is no getting away from it, however you dress up Lent, when you are at Ash Wednesday it feels like a long way to the cross on Good Friday.

But the question is how will you mark Lent this year?  Will you make a special effort to make it a holy season by entering into one of the church’s additional offerings available in the season and by personal prayer?  Will you practise the old tradition of ‘giving something up’?  Or perhaps you will be taking something up, as some prefer to say these days?  Whatever you do I hope you are contemplating your observance of Lent.

The forty days of Lent are said to mirror the time Jesus fasted in the wilderness.  As he was preparing to begin his ministry, we are preparing to commemorate his death and celebrate his resurrection.  In another way we are also preparing for our ministry, when we shall, spiritually speaking, enter into Christ’s death and resurrection and find ourselves reborn into a new self.  If our expectation is as bold as that we surely want to take the time in Lent seriously to make good preparation for this new thing God is bringing about in us.

So perhaps you might take the approach of saying, for example, I resolve during Lent to make some time every day to say extra prayers on my own, even if it is for only two minutes a day.  “Fine, but how do I pray?” you might say.  Let me offer you a simple structure and practise you can follow, which allows the flexibility of praying for anything from 2- 20 minutes a day.

Firstly find a spot where you can relax – even if this is a seat at work and others can see you (all they will see is you with your eyes closed) – as long as you can shut out everything around you.  Next make yourself upright in your chair, so your back is straight and you are alert, with your legs uncrossed.  Now place your hands on your lap, close your eyes and follow this pattern:

1. In your head, pray: “Here I am, Lord.”
2. Now spend a few moments being still and notice how good it feels.
3. Spend a short period of time collecting yourself – this usually means noticing what it is that is on your mind, for example about what you are tense, cross, frustrated or upset.  For a short time make a mental list – if you want to, actually write them down on a notepad you have by your side, so you can come back to them later on.
4. Now your mind is stiller, resolve to keep your mind empty.  It can help to repeat a mantra, such as ‘Come, Lord Jesus’ or ‘Guide me, O Lord’.
5. Then pray for the things that are on your heart – such as your loved ones etc.
6. Conclude with the Lord’s Prayer.

If you have little time, keep all these sections brief, but as you have more time extend sections 4 and 5.  A good variation on this is to replace section 4 with a short reading from scripture and then meditate on it.  How is God’s love revealed through it?

However you decide to spend your Lent this year, I hope it is fruitful and blessed time for you.

David

 Flights of Mystery

I am sure you have guessed that our second woman is the American flyer, Amelia Earhart, whose death has remained an even greater mystery than Amy Johnson’s.  There have been many theories, several books and even a movie in 1942 which I remember seeing with my mother during the war.  It was called “Flight for Freedom” and starred Rosalind Russell as Amelia and Fred Macmurray as her navigator Frederick J Noonan.  But I am getting ahead of myself, so let us start at the beginning.  Amelia was born in Atchison, Kansas, in 1898 and attended Columbia University and the Harvard Summer School.  Her first claim to flying fame came in 1928 when she was a passenger, albeit the only woman, on the first transatlantic flight.  More enduring fame came four years later when in 1932 she became the first woman to fly solo across the Atlantic in a record time of 13 hours 30 minutes. 

Another first came in 1935 when she became the first woman to cross the Pacific, flying from Hawaii to California.  Later that year she established another record by flying from Mexico City to New York in 14hours 19minutes.  In June 1937, she set off with her navigator, Noonan, from Miami, Florida, to fly eastwards round the world.  On 2 July, en route from Lae, New Guinea, to Howland Island, the Lockheed Electra NR 16055 aircraft disappeared.  The plot of the movie is that Amelia was on a spying mission for the American government and was to intentionally fly over Japanese islands to photograph fortifications.  She was then to land on “Gull” Island and pretend to be lost.  This would lead to a search conducted by US Navy aircraft that would “accidentally” fly over Japanese territory.  Amelia learns that her cover had been blown and that the Japanese intend to land on “Gull” Island to capture her.  She and Noonan decide to sacrifice their lives by crashing into the sea to enable the US Navy to continue with their proposed search of the area. 

This is, of course, pure Hollywood but there is one element of truth in it; the involvement of the American government.  In 1937, the situation in the East was very dangerous, with the Japanese busily fortifying islands in defiance of established treaties.  The American government went to extraordinary lengths and huge expense to support Amelia’s flight.  Howland Island was a speck in the vast ocean, just two miles long and half a mile wide, yet three runways were built on it prior to the flight.  The USS Ontario was put on station halfway between Lae and Howland, the USS Coast Guard cutter, Itasca, with the most secret homing and direction-finding equipment was at Howland, and the USS Swan was put on station just beyond Howland.  The Electra was, in Amelia’s own words, a flying laboratory and there is no doubt that it was packed with the most sophisticated cameras.

The ground station on Howland Island received clear messages from the Electra for the first 600 miles of the 1,200 mile trip from Lae, scheduled to be completed in 18 hours.  However, not so the Itasca which could only pick up unintelligible and intermittent sounds of Amelia’s voice.  At 02.45 Amelia said “cloudy weather cloudy”, at 03.45 a whole sentence was heard requesting the Itasca to broadcast on 3105 kilocycles every 30 minutes and each hour, at 04.53 snatches of Amelia were heard but nothing intelligible, at 05.12 she asked for bearings on 3105 kilocycles (but none could be given), and at 05.45 she said “Please take bearing on us and report in half-hour.  I will make noise in microphone.  About 100 miles out.”  Between 07.30 and 08.03 parts of three messages were heard.  “We must be on you but cannot see you but gas is running low.  Have been unable to reach you by radio.  We are flying at 1,000 feet…….”  At 07.57, “We are circling but cannot see island.  Cannot hear you……”  At 08.03 her message was lost in the static.  At 08.44 came the last message, “We are on the line of position 157-337…..we are now running north and south.”  Clearly they were lost.

There followed what was described as one of the most expensive searches ever made which, in itself, suggests that the American government had an important involvement in Amelia’s flight.  No less than an aircraft carrier from San Diego and a battleship from Pearl Harbour were dispatched to lead the search plus a number of smaller craft.  No trace was found of the aircraft or its two crew.  Many years after the war, an  American amateur pilot and radio reporter named Fred Governor spent several years researching persistent rumours that two flyers, a man and a woman, had been captured and executed by the Japanese as spies prior to the outbreak of World War Two.  He investigated a sunken aircraft in the right area but it proved to be Japanese.  He also dug up a grave site without success.  However, he interviewed a substantial number of natives and their accounts were very consistent.  They reported that two American flyers had crashed in the Marshall Islands and had been captured by the Japanese.  One was a woman who was described as tall, thin with short cropped hair like a boy.  The man was injured and both were taken to the Japanese (Kempetei) Headquarters in Saipan for questioning.  The man was subsequently beheaded and the woman died in captivity from dysentery.  This is as near as we will get to solving the mystery of Amelia Earhart’s death. 

Roger Bryant

 Correspondence Column

Dear Editor,

It was a great pleasure to read the article on “Visit to Armenia” by Frances Joyce in last month’s “Faith Matters”.  I am, as many of you in St Faith’s know, Armenian, born in the Middle East.  Although I must confess I have never been to Armenia, nevertheless my Armenian identity and heritage is wholly due to the Armenian Apostolic Orthodox Church.

In the Diaspora it is and always has been the Armenian Church which has kept both the Christian faith and Armenian language alive in whatever country my nation happened to be.

As the writer states, this is not the place to go into the political events of 1915, however 14 April (1915) in the Armenian Church and community is Remembrance Day for the genocide of over one and half million souls; men, women and children.  Some of the children were rescued by Arab villagers in Syria; other survivors arrived in Beirut, Iran, Iraq, and Syria.  To the best of my knowledge others managed to arrive in Greece, Cyprus, France and Italy.

Persecution may well stiffen ones resolve, but I whole heartedly pray that British Christians are never persecuted for their Christian faith or their race.

Carmen Stuart

 

Magazine Income & Expenditure in 2007

The income in 2007 (with the 2006 figures in brackets) from sales of “Faith Matters” was £635.15 (£644.73) and from advertisements £965 (£790) giving a total income of £1,600.15 (£1,434.73).  The cost of printing the 12 editions of “Faith Matters” was £1,274 (£1,227), thereby giving a small profit of £326.15 (£207.73).  The aim is for the magazine to “break even”, therefore the price of “Faith Matters” should remain at 30p during 2008 providing the printing costs do not increase and parishioners remember to buy a copy each month.     

Beryl Carter

Restoration & Redevelopment Fund 2007

The money raised for the Restoration & Redevelopment Fund during 2007 was £16,655.14 (£306.86 up on the 2006 figure of £16,348.28).  Breakdown is: 

Town Fair, incl. Grand Draw	4,680.40	Royal Marine Band	1,954.22
Emsworth Concert Band	401.32	Wyndcliffe Singers	78.00
Hampshire Area Guitar Orch.	181.00	Quiz Night	479.30
Barn Dance	731.90	Christmas Quiz	193.00
Coffee Mornings	1,382.81	Parish Breakfasts	298.08
Mother’s Day Cream Teas	112.50	Burn’s Night Supper	275.70
Sarah Butterfield Prints & Cards	193.30	Parish Mugs	277.00
Parish Cards and Calendars	38.60	Lent Lunches	75.05
Christmas Cake Draw	50.00	Jenny’s Jam	337.00
Collections	484.35	Loose Change	26.11
Gift Aid Donations	575.00	Other Donations	394.26
Tax Refunds	203.74	Bank Interest	3,232.50

Roger Simmons

 

From St. Mary’s Cathedral, Port Elizabeth, South Africa

I’m sending this in to “Faith Matters” all the way from South Africa.  My father is John Smythe whom many of you must know so well, and I have come to know several of the people of St Faith’s from my fairly regular visits to Havant over the years.   Hello to you all, and special birthday wishes to my father!  I thought this article could be a surprise for him as he celebrates his 90^th birthday on 21 February, and at the same time I could tell you a little bit about the interesting church I attend in Port Elizabeth where I live.

Port Elizabeth is on the southern coast of South Africa about halfway between Cape Town and Durban.  It’s a large city nowadays but when the first British settlers landed here in 1820 it was just a small settlement of Dutch farming pioneers.  By 1825 five hundred people were living here and there was a need for a church.  St Mary’s was completed and ready for worship in 1832, and at first it was used for garrison purposes during the Frontier Wars.  During the following years there were various extensions made to the building, and in 1875 a surplice choir was introduced.  In 1888 St Mary’s became a Collegiate church and a throne for a Bishop was installed.

The church was set alight in 1895 by a deranged woman and totally destroyed except for the walls and tower, but amongst the ashes the lectern eagle, the communion plate and the Bishop’s crosier were found and restored to use.  Amongst the funds and gifts of money for the rebuilding were donations from Cecil John Rhodes and Paul Kruger, and the Collegiate Church of St Mary the Virgin was reopened in 1896.

There are several original Settler houses still in existence on the hill leading up from the church, one in particular being No. 7 Castle Hill.  This was the dwelling house of the first Colonial Chaplain to the Anglican community in Port Elizabeth, Rev Francis McCleland, and the first Rector of St Mary’s.  The little house has been carefully restored by the Historical Society and is now a living museum, with a basement kitchen, ground floor and upper floor all furnished in the style of the period.  There is a cobbled yard at the back containing a working well, and an outer room now housing a collection of historical toys.  Taking after my father as I seem to do (more and more as I get older!); I have always been involved in choirs, both secular and church.  When I moved to Port Elizabeth 16 years ago however, my church-choir life came to a halt as St Mary’s choir is strictly for men and boys only, in fact the only such one left in South Africa.  The choristers are members of the Royal School of Church Music, and the standard is high although these days it’s a struggle to recruit new boy members.  Incidentally, our current choirmaster and organist is Eric Spencer previously from St Peter’s in Brighton.  We have a magnificent J W Walker organ with over 2,100 pipes and there have been a number of guest organists giving recitals on it, for instance Roger Fisher, a visiting recitalist from the UK last year who made a CD recording of organ sonatas by Elgar and Reubke.

There are several other Anglican churches in Port Elizabeth but St Mary’s, which was given Cathedral status 4 years ago, has the tradition, atmosphere, music, wafting incense, the lot!  In fact very similar to your own; I always feel at home at St Faith’s.  I used to secretly gloat that while you had switched to contemporary language in the Sunday Eucharist, we were still fortunate to keep to the traditional.  Now we too have changed!

To end, I shall describe the most magnificent Epiphany service held on 6 January this year.  After Christmas our choristers, choirmaster and Rector go away on holiday and we usually have to make do with said Mass for a couple of Sundays, but this year the Royal School of Church Music held their South African Summer School here in Port Elizabeth and we at St Mary’s were treated to a Grahamstown Festival Mass, conducted by the composer himself, Christopher Moore.  Glorious was the word, with about 70 men and women in a seemingly endless procession up to the choir stalls and another 10 clergy and servers as well as the Bishop himself!  There seemed hardly room to move up there but what a glorious celebration of sound.  Apart from the organ, the accompaniment to a couple of local-flavoured pieces included marimbas, African drums, hand bells, a saxophone and a trumpet!  One other beautiful anthem new to me was ‘There shall a Star from Jacob come forth’ by Mendelssohn.

Greetings then from St Mary’s to St Faith’s, and a very Happy Birthday to my father on the 21^st.  Congratulations Daddy! 90 years young!  Unfortunately I shan’t be there for him but hopefully my sister Pen will.

Carolyn Bradfield

 

A Brother's Account of the Funeral of Reverend George Robert Mountain, Rector of Havant 1825 - 1846

There are two wall memorials at the west end of St. Faith's Church to members of the Mountain and Arabin families who were related through the marriage of George Robert Mountain's sister, Eliza, to Frederick Arabin.

In his Memoirs and Letters, Colonel Armine Mountain gives a moving account of his brother's funeral in 1846.  Armine was unable to reach Havant before Robert died but states that his last words were 'I have no pain but I am weary. Why don't I go to my rest?'  He continues, 'I have seen him to his grave, knelt beside his coffin and our mother's coffin in the narrow vault.  It was an affecting sight to see the coffin placed in front of his pulpit, where for twenty years he laboured faithfully in his Master's Service.  Everything was neatly arranged; there was no hearse, no coaches, no heartless pomp.  The coffin was borne by men: six of the neighbouring clergymen were the pall bearers.  In the road outside about sixty of his principal parishioners, headed by Sir George Staunton and all dressed in mourning, formed a lane and followed after we had passed.  The schoolchildren, about a hundred in number, preceded the coffin and on arriving at the church gate opened out into a lane through which we passed.  I saw the teachers and many of the girls sobbing as if their hearts would break.

The church was full and all along the road were groups of poor people, many dressed in mourning for the occasion.  The shops have had half-shutters closed since the body came down (from Blackheath) and are so still.

He desired in his will that there should be no funeral sermon and no unnecessary expenses for his funeral but he could not prevent the universal testimony of feeling and it is a meter tribute to his memory and a higher testimony to his worth than any pomp or public panegyrise.

‘Sunday: I have been to church and prayed.  The whole congregation attended in mourning and there were 154 communicants, being at least half of the whole - a striking instance, both of respect to his memory and of the effect of his teaching.'  George Robert Mountain was born in 1791 at Buckden, Hunts.  When he was two his father, Jacob Mountain, was appointed the first Bishop of Quebec and the family moved to Canada.  Robert joined the 75^th Regiment and served in the Peninsular War and at the forlorn hope of San Sebastian.  He resigned his commission in 1819 in order to enter the ministry of the church.  He was vicar of North Kelsey from 1820-1825.  After his death the parishioners donated the present St. Faith's font in his memory.  In 1874 his widow laid the foundation stone for a major restoration of the church.

The Memoirs of Colonel Armine S.H. Mountain CB, edited can be read on the Internet at http://www.openlibrary.org/details/memoirslettersof00mounrich

I found this on Rootsweb after much searching - the whole family tree and census info.  It confirms that Charlotte Milnes Mountain was indeed the Rector of Havant's sister, and the relationship with the Arabins.                                                                                              

Ann Griffiths

 Havant & Leigh Park Pastoral Centre

The combined churches in Havant and Leigh Park provide tea, coffee and light refreshments every week day morning from 9.30am until 12-noon at the Methodist Church adjacent to the Medical Centre. 

It has been running for over 20 years and St. Faith’s provide two ladies every third Wednesday morning to run it.  When you visit the Medical Centre do pop in as any of the ladies would be very pleased to see you.

Proceeds raised are donated annually to charities agreed at the AGM.

I have a small list of ladies who help and would be very pleased if any other ladies would like to add their names to the list.  Please see me or telephone 023 9248 6739.  St. Faith’s next turn is Wednesday 20 February and then every third Wednesday.                                         

Beryl Carter

 

Women’s World Day of Prayer – Friday 7 March 2008 - God’s Wisdom Provides New Understanding

This year’s service, prepared by Christian Women of Guyana, will be held at Bedhampton Methodist Church, Hubert Road/Park Lane – just past the junction – on Friday 7 March at 2pm.

The speaker is Pam Stone.  For details see Shirley Caunter (023 9248 1231).

 Child Minder for Summer 2008

Chloe, the 19 year old daughter of a friend of ours in France is looking for a family to take her in for part of this summer, e.g., July and/or August. In return she would be happy to act as an experienced child minder (any age– she comes from a large family!).  Her plan is to use the time to improve her spoken English.  If you are interested, please call Jan or Carmen Stuart on 023 9247 0335 for more details.

 More on our Visit to St. Faith’s Link Parish in Nsawam

In last month’s “Faith Matters” we described how in November 2007 we made our second visit to St. Faith’s West African link parish, St. John the Divine in Nsawam, Ghana.  The focus of that article was the nature of the IDWAL link and the remarkable weekend of celebrations marking the 90^th Anniversary of the church, at which we represented St. Faith’s.  We spent 12 days in Ghana, getting to know more about the country and about our link parish, thanks to the hospitality and friendship of members of St. John the Divine’s congregation and clergy (past and present).  During this time we were able to visit: Akosombo and the impressive Volta hydroelectric dam (courtesy of the hospitality of Fr. Felix and his wife – he also once again kindly made available his sister’s bungalow on the outskirts of Nsawam); the famous exotic Botanical Gardens in the hills at Aburi; Kumasi and the Kingdom of Ashanti; Kofuridua, the cathedral town for Nsawam’s diocese, where we had lunch with Bishop Francis; the area surrounding Nsawam, including the rural village of Marfokrom which we visited in 2006 and where contributions from members of St. Faiths have been helping to build an infant school; and Nsawam itself, where we had the pleasure of visiting several people’s homes, amongst others those of Canon Seth, Janette Wilson, and Nana Smith’s chicken farm.  We also visited several schools, where we met the children and their teachers.  We recorded our experiences and impressions in a diary (132 pages!), and we would like to present one or two extracts here, especially concerning our latest visit to Marfokrom, to try to share something of the feel of Ghana as we experienced it.

Wed 14 Nov.  (Yesterday Fr. Seth suggested that we might like to revisit Marfokrom, a village ‘outstation’ of St. John the Divine about 7 miles from Nsawam – we readily agreed since it would enable us to report back on the progress of the school).  We’re up at 6.30am, it’s already hot.  The water’s still off, so we rely on a single bucketful from the bin in the corridor – you really can ‘bathe’ with two cupfuls.  An orange and a cup of black tea for breakfast.  Nana, affable and well-organised as always, comes with his van, as arranged, at 8.30am to drive us into town.  At the church we meet up with the jovial Fr. Seth (up at 5.00am each day to conduct a Communion service at 5.30am throughout the week), who introduces us to a serious but friendly man called Emmanuel.  He’s the ‘catechist’ (lay-reader) with responsibility for Marfokrom, who provides a regular church presence there and goes every Sunday to preach and conduct services.  Fr. Seth (who, we discover, has been a missionary in Cameroon and in Gabon) is keen to avoid the villagers solely associating the ‘church’ with the priest – both on grounds of principle and because he can’t physically be present at all the outstations each Sunday.  He insists on the need to take the church to the people and encourage them to make it their own.  Seth has such energy, intelligence, humanity, good humour, and faith, we really warm to this man.

Fr. Seth drives us and Emmanuel in his car.  It’s a long dusty road, unsurfaced in many places, the compacted earth surface deeply rutted by tropical rains; we bounce and swerve around the potholes.  Either side of it we see long grass, maize, cassava bushes, plantain and banana trees, and several extremely tall trees that look like isolated relics of the rain-forest hereabouts.  We pass villages of unkempt mud-brick shacks on bare beaten red earth, people sitting in the shade, others carrying tools, dogs, goats and the odd chicken ambling across the road.  Then, in the open country, we see in front of us a huge snake coiled up apparently sleeping in the middle of the road, a python Fr. Seth says, and we get him to stop so we can get out and take a photo.

We reach Marfokrom (known informally as ‘Marf’), a large village with an Anglican Nursery School (4-6 years), Anglican Primary School (7-11 years), and Government Junior Secondary School (12-15 years).  These are located on three sides of a huge field belonging to the Anglican Church.  In 2006 we visited this village with Fr. Felix on a Sunday afternoon and were able to meet some of the families.  This time we go straight to the schools.  Nearest to the road is the nursery and we’re immediately struck by the dramatic change in its appearance.

In 2006:  It comprised a decrepit looking concrete-block building which the church had been given for the purpose.  With the aid of donations, they had managed to put a new corrugated iron roof on this to keep out the torrential rain, and had started building the walls of a new replacement building around the old one whilst continuing to use it; but there was still a lot of work to be done.

In 2007:  The new walls are now complete – though the building is still a shell, there’s a fine new corrugated iron roof gleaming in the sun and supported by strong new timbers; the old structure, around which this one has been constructed, has now been removed.  Two things immediately strike us, though:  (1) it’s much taller than the neighbouring primary and secondary school buildings – it’s lofty, almost stately; (2) the eastern end is curved like the apse of a church.  Later, it emerges that the building is actually intended to be a church for the village, doubling up as a nursery school on weekdays with the altar curtained off in the apse.  Fr. Seth is extremely keen on this dual use and provides an eloquent rationale for it.

We’re told that there are about 240 4 to 6-year olds registered at this nursery school, though not all of them attend everyday (fortunately).  Fr. Seth is insistent that enrolment should not be confined to Anglican families – the village needs a nursery school, and the Anglican Church needs to reach out to people and spread God’s message.  The different Christian denominations have very good relations with each other here, and their clergy are in regular contact with each other.

As we approach, the headmistress comes out to greet us and invites us inside to meet the staff and children.  The building consists of a single room, about sixty feet by thirty.  The floor is bare concrete, with a rough foot-wide line stretching the whole length where the wall of the old building once stood.  There are about 70 little children sitting on simply-made plain rectangular wooden stools.  Apparently they’re expected to bring their own stools, and at lunch-time we noticed several children carrying theirs home across the field on their heads.  They also have to provide their own exercise books and pencils, paid for by their families.  They’re mostly wearing the blue uniform that distinguishes all Anglican schools in Ghana.  They look clean and happy, though a little hesitant and overawed at having visitors (a white person, ‘abruni’, is a rarity in this part of the world and often the subject of amiable curiosity).  Fr. Seth addresses the children in Twi, explaining who we are and introducing us, and we greet them.  They then crowd round to shake our hands, smiling.  There are about three staff.

We’re struck by the bareness of the room.  There’s a worn-looking blackboard on the end wall with some very neatly drawn letters in chalk.  Children are taught English from an early age, although the normal language of everyday communication everywhere in this part of Ghana, including Nsawam and services in St. John the Divine, is Twi (pronounced ‘ch-wee’).  Leaning against another wall is a worn-out sheet of plywood that had once been a blackboard.  In the nursery (really ‘infant’) school, we’re told, there’s a shortage of basic teaching aids and materials.  The headteacher is keen to show us their small selection of brightly coloured visual aid sheets, e.g., concerning number, counting, vocabulary, on embossed plastic sheets; they only have a battered old cardboard box in which to store these.  They would be really grateful for anything we might be able to provide in the form of suitable posters, for instance the kind of thing sometimes given away free with newspapers here.  If anyone at St. Faith’s has anything of the kind we could post these to Fr. Seth.  In terms of the building, they need to raise money for a proper floor.  They also want eventually to provide some means of dividing up the room-space into classroom areas during the week, e.g., by movable screens or display stands.

In the past, members of St. Faith’s have raised money to support the construction of this nursery school.  We would very much like to raise further money this year, both for this project and for supporting the proposed visit by Janette and Nana next July as representatives of St. John the Divine.

With the editor’s permission, we would like to describe more of our experiences with our fellow Anglicans in Ghana in the next issue of “Faith Matters”.

Mike and Ann Fluck

 

 

Harp Soirée at St. Nicholas Chapel, Langstone

“It came upon the midnight clear (not quite!) that glorious song of old,

Of angels bending near the earth to touch their harps of gold.”

On Friday 14^th December, St. Nicholas Chapel was bathed in the wonderful sound of a concert harp, beautifully played by Danielle Clarke. (www.danielleclarke-harpist.co.uk)

The chapel looked lovely by candlelight with white Christmas lights draped on the altar.

There was a magnificent harp of gold standing there waiting to be caressed into life by the talented harpist.

The entranced audience were treated to a miscellany of Christmas Music, light classics and popular songs followed by an opportunity to ask questions about the harp.  We learnt about its construction, tuning and history.

In the interval we were invited to take a close look at the instrument, to partake of a glass of mulled wine and nibbles and to meet other members of the audience.

We were encouraged to sing along in “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Infant Holy, Infant Lowly”.

The venue was ideally suited to a harp soirée and proved to be a relaxing and enjoyable experience.

Geoff. Porter

 

London 2 Paris Rowing Team Charity Concert

To be held on Easter Monday 24 March at 6pm in St. Nicholas Chapel, Langstone.  Classical Guitar by Claude Lorea - pieces from J.S. Bach, S.L. Weiss, H. Villa Lobos, and F. Tarrega.  Tickets £10.00 in aid of the Langstone Lifesavers Appeal and available from Deborah Gilbert 01243 770693. 

The Langstone Cutters Rowing Club is rowing in a race for charity from London's Big Ben to Paris' Eiffel Tower starting in May 2008.  The Appeal will provide funds to charities that save lives at sea - the RNLI - and on land British Heart Foundation and Cancer Research UK. Further details are available at www.langstonecutters.com. 

 

From the Registers – January

6^th – Baptism of Clare Mills and Richard Maslin