From the Rector - Be Still and Know

From time to time we all need a little support.  Towards the end of my ministry in Gosport, just before moving to Havant, a group of clergy were meeting in Christ Church (where I was the Curate-in-charge) to discuss various plans, projects and issues.  At the end of the meeting we joined in prayer.  During the prayers we prayed for each other in our various ministries.  When it came to my turn to be prayed for these clergy and ministers of all the local denominations gathered around me, laid their hands on my head or shoulders and prayed for me.  It was a most uplifting and humbling experience, which has always stayed with me.  In that moment it took away all my fear, my sense of being inadequate and left me with a confidence that comes from knowing I am a child of God.  And that as such I am good enough in the eyes of God.

Of course such wisdom is fleeting, and is soon lost in the face of the sudden or shocking difficulties that life can throw at us.  It is important, then, to be reminded of this ‘good news’ of God’s love and presence with us.  Being surrounded by this abiding presence of the Holy Spirit can give us strength and confidence to face life’s awkward challenges.  Whenever I am feeling vulnerable I wear a crucifix under my shirt as a reminder of the presence of the God’s powerful love.

The best medicine, they say, is preventative – i.e., don’t just pray when the going is rough, but pray well all the time, so that knowing where to find God becomes more instinctive than desperate.  Ask yourself, what is the best way you can pray that brings you into God?  Is it to go for a walk or to look at the beauty of nature?  Is it to join others in a rousing chorus of hymns or worship songs?  Is it in studying the bible or in pure silence?  We are all fed in different ways, but it is down to us to search for the way that feeds us more than anything else.

If your way is through contemplative prayer then there is a group starting this month in which you may be interested.  We shall meet every first Wednesday of the month (so begins Wednesday 7^th) in church at 6:50pm for a 7:00pm start.  For 45 minutes we shall enter into the practise of silently waiting on God using the techniques of the east written about by Fr Anthony De Mello, S.J. (Sadhana – A way to God, Image Books, Doubleday, London, 1978).  Anthony spent many years in Poona, India, where he learnt a respect for Hindu prayer practices and applied the fruits of his learning to his Christian life.  There is genuine beauty on waiting on God, but it demands discipline as well as desire, and does not work well for everyone.  If you would like to join in please come along, and if you should like to know more please contact me (9248 3485).

Whether this is for you or not, please do not give up on your journey into the heart of God.  If you should like to explore opportunities that are not readily available locally then don’t assume they are out of reach.  ‘Seek and ye shall find’ Jesus tells us so keep on looking.

May God bless you in your searching,                                                                                                   David

 About The Parish

In September 2003, I wrote about the Longcrofts whose service to Havant dates from 1742, when the family moved to Havant from Portsmouth on the marriage of Mary Longcroft, only daughter of Thomas Longcroft of Portsea, to John Moody, who had inherited Havant Manor in 1728 from his father, Isaac Moody.  A recent E-mail has opened up the subject of this family but before looking at it, here is a summary of the original article.

Mary's brother, Thomas Longcroft and his wife also moved to Havant.  They had ten children, the first of whom, George Moody Longcroft, was baptised in St Faith's in 1752.  Not to be undone by his father, George produced 12 children, seven sons and five daughters.  As Jenny Sagrott pointed out to me, not one of his sons survived George.  Instead, he was succeeded by his nephew, Charles Beare Longcroft, son of George's brother, Charles Henry Longcroft, who lived in Romsey, where he is buried in the Abbey.  The generations of Longcrofts continued throughout the 19^th century and the family finally ended their connection with Havant, with the death of Charles Edward Beare Longcroft, who had succeeded his father in 1929.

So now for the E-mail which came from Allan P Gray of Austin, Texas USA:  "Dear Reverend Gibbons - I just came up with your very nice website and in particular the one carrying the story of the Longcroft family.  I have an interest in them because a Charles Reynolds of Clermont, Trelawny, Jamaica, made a will 15 May 1815 where he mentions his sister, Mary Ann Elizabeth Longcroft and he makes a George Harftly Longcroft of Arundel one of his executors, the other being Hugh Walker of the Parish of St Mary's Jamaica.  Charles Reynolds and Hugh Walker were married to sisters, Eliza and Williamina Gray, daughters of Captain Walter Gray of Sutherland and that is my connection - Williamina was my "ancestress".  I saw some time ago that George Harftly Longcroft was christened 11 May 1786, Saint Faith, Havant, Hampshire so I am sure I have the right Longcrofts.  So it’s likely that Charles Reynolds himself came from those parts - do you have a nice Reynolds family story?  When Charles wrote his will his wife had just died and in the autumn he and his three infant children along with his niece, daughter of Hugh Walker, boarded the ship Montreal, Captain Alexander, bound for Britain but they were caught in a hurricane and all drowned.  A very sad story.  Charles also refers to a Thomas Gillespie of London as a "valued friend and guardian" in case there are Gillespie connections thereabouts as well.  Any additional information would be very much appreciated.  Best regards, Allan P Gray in Austin TX."

So can any readers of "Faith Matters" help Allan?  Does anyone have any information about the Reynolds or Gillespie families in Havant?  I have contacted the Havant Record Office and will let you have an update next month.  Meanwhile, please let me have any information you may have about the Reynolds and Gillespies.

Roger Bryan

St Faith’s Town Fair – 10am Saturday, 26^th August

This year’s church Town Fair will be held – as usual – on the Saturday of the Bank Holiday weekend in August.  All the expected attractions.

Prize draw                              Music and dancing              Food and drink

If you would like to help with a stall or organising the fair, please contact the chair of the committee –

Revd David Williams (call 023 9246 7597) or see him in church.

 

Visit to Anglican Church of St. John the Divine Ghana

Before the Palm Sunday procession, St. John the Divine, Nsawam

Each Sunday at St. Faith’s, in the prayers of intercession at our parish Eucharist, we pray for Father Felix Annancy and the congregation in our link parish, St. John the Divine, in Nsawam, in the Diocese of Koforidua, Ghana. Similarly, they pray for us at the same time.  Many readers will remember Father Felix from the time when he visited Havant and preached at St. Faith’s last autumn.

On 30^th March 2006 we travelled to Ghana with four other members of Havant Deanery IDWAL group (Inter-Diocesan West Africa Link) to spend a fortnight in Koforidua Diocese, with which our deanery has well-established links.  Whilst there, we spent two long-weekends visiting St. John the Divine in Nsawam. Our involvement was in response to Father David Gibbon’s invitation to extend the links between our two parishes, building on the relations established through his own friendship with Father Felix and reinforced by Pam Le Goaziou‘s visits.  This was our first trip to Ghana, indeed our first visit to sub-Saharan Africa, and it proved to be not only something of a culture shock but also a transforming experience.  Our three IDWAL colleagues from Denmead had been to Ghana several times before, for which we were thankful.  They knew the country and had well-established friendships, not only with their own link parish in Tafo, but also with the Bishop of Koforidua (the Rt. Rev. Francis Quashie), and many other Ghanaians.

Formerly known as Gold Coast, Ghana lies on the coast of tropical West Africa, almost due south of London and hence in the same time zone as us.  A land of 19 million people similar in size to the U.K, it is an important exporter of gold, minerals, and agricultural produce - it produces half the world’s cocoa.  Trade with Europe goes back over 500 years.  Elmina Castle, built by the Portuguese as a trading establishment in 1482, still stands incongruously among the palms on the coast.  Like 100 other coastal forts subsequently built by various European powers, it came to play an appalling role in the export of huge numbers of African slaves to the Americas until the early 1800s.  A British colony from the 1870s, Gold Coast became the independent Republic of Ghana in 1957.  English remains the official language, although for most Ghanaians it is their second language.  The major Christian churches - Anglican, Presbyterian, Methodist, Roman Catholic - now thoroughly African, have been well-established here for well over 100 years.

Although Ghana has experienced political upheaval and economic difficulties since independence, the marks of which are still evident in the sorry state of much of the infrastructure (e.g., seriously pot-holed streets and crumbling public buildings), it has been spared the chaos and bloodshed which have tragically beset nearby countries like Sierra Leone, Ivory Coast, and Liberia.  A multi-party democracy since 1992, Ghana has now enjoyed several years of stability and economic growth.  Free education is available to everyone up to 16 years of age, health provision is steadily improving, and a national insurance scheme has recently been introduced.

The climate is hot - very hot: the perspiration drips off your nose even at 7am. For this reason, many Ghanaians, as we found, rise early and begin work while it’s still dark; also much of life takes place in the shade out of doors.  So the traveller has many opportunities to observe life as it is lived day to day in towns, villages, and countryside.  Although for most people life is lived at a simpler and more basic material level than in the U.K, and incomes are very much lower (a teacher may earn £30 a month), everywhere we went our impressions were of a well-fed, clean, healthy, educated, happy, good-natured and friendly people.  Throughout the whole of our time in Ghana, only once did we hear a child cry or a parent shout – and that was a European family at the coast, we never saw a beggar, we never saw anyone drunk in public, and we never felt threatened.  In most places a European face is a rarity, and tourism is almost unknown, so visitors are spared the usual hassles; people are generally friendly and will often wave cheerfully.  Moreover, the Christian faith is very evident in Ghanaian life, sometimes in unexpected and even startling ways.  The small shops (often no more than wooden huts with their double-doors folded back to display their neatly-arranged wares) and other enterprises that line the streets commonly have names like “Jesus Cares Grocery Store”, “God is Good Refrigeration Enterprises”, or “Hope in Christ Beauty Salon”(our favourite!); and the large numbers of taxis, distinguishable everywhere by their yellow-painted wings, display biblical references and exhortations in their rear windows, e.g., “Romans 4, 7”, “Forgive your enemies”, “Trust in the Lord”.

There is too much to tell here about our trip, the country, the people, the fellowship and friendship of our IDWAL colleagues and of the Ghanaian Christians we met – our diary runs to 150 sides.  Nsawam, an important town of over 50,000 people, though surrounded by quite attractive tropical countryside, is a battered looking, workaday place, lying on the busy main route from the north of the country (and Burkina Faso beyond), which passes through the middle of the town on its way to the coast.  Like many smaller towns we saw, most of its streets are unsurfaced - though some may have been surfaced once, and often deeply rutted by the heavy tropical rains, so that cars and pedestrians have to avoid the holes (and even the occasional missing manhole cover).  Everywhere, people are carrying things on their heads, from bags of flour or fruit to old-fashioned Singer sewing machines.  Little wooden shops and workshops line the streets, sometimes flanking crumbling stone, brick or concrete buildings.  Their down at heel surroundings only serve to highlight the cleanliness and neatness of the contents of these modest premises, many of whose inhabitants are members of Father Felix’s congregation.

The freshly cream-painted, traditionally Anglican-looking church sits in a quiet, though fairly busy, pot-holed side street.  By its gate stands a neatly painted notice announcing “You are warmly welcome to worship with us”.  The Anglican schools are adjacent to the church.  Like all Ghanaian schools, they are simply furnished and traditionally organised, with rows of unvarnished wooden desks.  Nevertheless, all the children appeared to be happy and enjoying their education, and the teachers seemed dedicated and good-humoured.  Education is highly valued all over Ghana, and the Anglican Church is actively involved.  Father Felix took us to an outlying village, Marfokrom, where they are in the process of building an Anglican nursery school; however, they lack the money to complete it, and so we would like to try to raise funds to help this project.

We were made to feel very welcome by Father Felix and the members of the church, several of whom we had an opportunity to meet.  St. John the Divine has a large congregation – there were 168 present on Palm Sunday and 140 the previous week.  The services, held in a mixture of Twi and English (for our benefit), were a deeply spiritual experience.  The forms of worship were traditional Anglican, based on Hymns Ancient & Modern and the prayer book, but with a difference!  There was a high degree of participation from the congregation, who gathered in groups before each service for an hour’s Bible study.  The traditional A & M hymn tunes were provided by a band; this added rhythm to which people swayed as they sang.  The whole congregation (ourselves included) literally danced down the aisle to place their collection in a box.  The Palm Sunday service, which lasted for four hours, was particularly memorable: the church had been beautifully decorated inside with palm branches, and we all paraded through the town waving palm fronds and singing in Twi.  One word sums up our experience of Anglican worship in Ghana – JOY.  We hope to return next year.                                                                                             

With Father Felix at St. John the Divine’s daughter church, Church of the Holy Spirit, Nsawam

Michael and Ann Fluck

 

Ramblings of a Rambler

I sat looking at the washing up and decided enough was enough.  Ken was playing cricket and our three teenage children were pursuing their own interests.  So in 1981 I plucked up courage and joined the SE Hants Group of the Ramblers Association, and have not looked back.  25 years ago the men wore string round the bottoms of their old trousers, now everyone has designer gear for walking!

Walking is such a lovely pastime – the fresh air, exercise, wonderful views, and good company.  The colours of the trees in the autumn are just wonderful, especially last autumn as we did not have much wind and the leaves stayed on the trees longer.  Every season has its beauty, in summer we linger longer over our packed lunch and admire the views, in winter you can see further through the trees and, when frosty, everywhere looks like a Christmas card.  Spring is special when the sap is rising and the birds are nesting..

Hampshire has so much variety – the New Forest, the South Downs, the agricultural farmland, ancient meadows, sheep and dairy farms, bluebell woods, pretty villages, old churches (many village churches are still open) rivers and streams, chalk and sandy areas.

The first walk I led was only six miles and I took a wrong turn as I was chattering too much – however I said nothing and found a way back so no one was any the wiser!  Ken and I always do a “reccy” (a practise walk) about a month beforehand, to check out the paths and stiles, and ensure they are not blocked with brambles and nettles.  Any problems are reported to the Footpath Secretary who passes them on to the Rights of Way Officer at Hants CC.

We have walked with our Group in the Tatras Mountains in Poland, which meant travelling for 36 hours by coach, (and we had a short walk as soon as we arrived!).  We have also walked in the mountains of Switzerland, Italy, Majorca, Spain, Wales, and Scotland.

There have been some memorable walks, good and bad – two days after the Great Hurricane in 1987 we did a walk near Arundel.  We had to climb under and over trees and branches, and the sight of whole woods decimated was dreadful.  Once a horse looking over a gate sneezed all over a rambler’s lunch, he was furious at the time, but we laugh about it now.

There are two evening walks every week throughout the summer, some stop at the pub afterwards.  I recently led a walk from Selborne via two interesting churches -  Upper Farringdon and Newton Valence.  The Marden churches are worth a visit and are always open, East Marden, Up Marden, and North Marden, but it is quite a hilly walk to visit all three.

I am so fortunate to be able to walk so much and often say a quiet prayer when I see the beautiful countryside. 

Adina Burton (Waterlooville Parish)

For those interested the membership secretary for the S E Hants Group of the Ramblers' Association is Margaret Davies, 023 9226 5062.

 

A little nonsense, now and then,

Is relished by the wisest men;

And jovial pleasantry may teach

Where wisest wisdom would not reach.

 

Trip Down Memory Lane – Havant Carnival 1973

Do you remember?  Were you there?  Maybe you can recognize yourself.  If so, let us know.  What happened to the Young Wives?  - we also had an 18+ group.

                                                                                                                                                       Jenny Sagrott

Reflections

The poet can at times reveal more of the human condition and values than thousands of words from prince, prelate or pontificating politician.  Consider these lines written some two hundred years ago:

“The world is too much with us: late and soon,

Getting and spending we lay waste our powers:

Little we see in Nature that is ours:

We have given our hearts away, a sordid boon!”

How apposite these words are of our society today.  A society epitomised by the weekly parade of millions of people responding to Government sponsored advertisements and lining up to buy tickets in the faint hopes of becoming a millionaire.

On a completely different theme, these lines from a more recent poet never fail to move me each time I read or recite them to myself:

“Why are you sighing?”

‘For all the voyages I did not make

Because the boat was small, might leak, might take

The wrong course and the compass might be broken

And I might have awoken

In some strange sea and heard

Strange birds crying’

Again, in a few lines a poet expresses something we can feel and understand.  Perhaps these lines remind us of the roads not taken.

The world of poetry is wide and wonderful, full of treasures there for the taking – if we reach for them.                                                                                                                                                

John Bradey

Note:                                      Acknowledgements to:

                                                William Wordsworth (1770-1850)

                                                ASJ Tessimond (1902-1962)

 

Mr. Carter (born around 1890)

About fifteen years ago I was told about Mr Carter being over a hundred years old and what a wonderful man he was.  So I asked if he would mind my interviewing him for the “Hayling Islander”.  He agreed.

He lived in a bungalow on the right hand side as you go down Tournerbury Lane.  I knocked at the door and was expecting to be let in by a carer or relative but it was opened by Mr Carter himself who was obviously very nimble and "with it" - no sign of problems with hearing but he did wear spectacles.

He told me how he was brought up near the Bedhampton railway crossing and his mother worked for the telegraph system which had an office there and in Emsworth.  He used to walk to Emsworth with her, on occasions, and helped her with the work - something to do with signalling but he didn't go into details. Incidentally, he would have passed the home of another centenarian who lived on the Havant Road. She must have been born in about the year 1800 so between them the lad and the lady spanned nearly 200 years of history!

He told me he loved being in the choir at St Faiths and he still sang himself to sleep at night with the hymns he remembered from those days.  He must have been very reliable because he was given the job of pumping the organ, though I don't know how he could do this and sing!  One Sunday there was a very special visiting preacher but unfortunately he was late getting to church.  The service had started and he decided he could get away with it if he crept down the side aisle and sneaked into the little cupboard.  When he got there he found there was another boy doing the job in his place.  They started to argue and shove one another until suddenly he fell against the door which opened and he fell headlong on the ground, right under the pulpit. He remembered seeing the preacher peer down at him in amazement, wondering where on earth he had come from.  He felt terribly embarrassed but nothing was said about the incident, or at least he didn't tell me if it was. (Probably happened about 1901).

Whenever I go to St Faith's I can't help seeing that little boy creeping down the side aisle to the door, all those years ago.

But Mr Carter's story is much more moving than that.  He told me that he joined the army in the First World War, with a friend, and was lucky to survive the fighting.  After the war he worked as a gardener, usually living in gardeners' cottages with his wife and son (who became an Anglican priest.)  Times were hard and some of the ladies who employed him were difficult people.  His wife became ill with arthritis.  All the time he wanted to live on Hayling and prayed for a chance to do so.

When the Second World War came, a lot of people left the Island fearing an invasion, so he found a house down Sinah Lane.  But as soon as the war ended the owners wanted it back.  It was a very difficult time because housing was even shorter in those days than it is today.  He prayed for help and looked everywhere and was at his wits end when someone mentioned there was an empty bungalow down Tournerbury Lane.

He went to view it but it was totally overgrown, having been empty during the whole of the war, and possibly before that.  He went to the Estate Agent and they said the price was £100. He looked at his Post Office savings book and found he had exactly £100 in it.  So he took the money out and bought the bungalow for cash.

He managed to force his way in and was amazed by what he found.  Though overgrown on the outside, the interior of the bungalow was in very good shape.  The owner had "done it up" as a holiday residence or for his retirement but had simply never been able to live there, hence its neglected appearance from the outside. So Mr Carter's prayers had been answered and he and his wife found peace and security with a garden of their own at last! He thought this was a miracle and I must say I agreed!

As I said, he told me his son was an Anglican priest, but not locally.  It occurred to me that I should have tried to get in touch with him but on reflection if Mr Carter was 102 his son might have been nearly eighty and would have had problems of his own!                         

Cllr Vic Pierce Jones