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From the Rector - Eco-Congregation
Over the past months, I have been asked by some
members of the congregation ‘why should the church
get involved in environmental issues?’ There is
obviously a link missing between what we do in church
and how it relates to the world around us that I would
like to bridge. Therefore, I would like to take the
opportunity to lay the foundation stone upon which
Eco-Congregation will continue to play an increasingly
important role in St. Faith’s church.
In the foreword to the book ‘Sharing God’s Planet’,
the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, most
elegantly writes why there is a Christian reason for
regarding ecology as a matter of justice. I would
like to share this with you because I think it is
profoundly important that we understand the theology
underpinning why we are taking certain actions. In
addition, I think it is important that we understand
what it means to be in communion with God in the
continuing creation that we all live and share in.
Like me, you may want to take the time to re-read the
writing within quotations several times as it is
packed with meaning.
“Every modern religion contributed to the idea that
the fate of nature is for it to be bossed around by a
detached sovereign will, whether divine or human. As
a counter-balance to this attitude of lofty
separation, I want to suggest a Christian reason for
regarding ecology as a matter of justice for the human
and the non-human world.
Creation is an act of communication. It is God
expressing his intelligence through every existing
thing. The divine
logos, spoken of at the beginning of St. John’s
Gospel, is that by which everything comes
to be. As Maximus the Confessor says, each existent
reality is itself a logos – a
word, an intelligible structure – which carries in its
own specific, unique way the universal logos
within it. This implies that each living thing
communicates the character of God, by virtue of the
eternal Word.
So to penetrate the workings of the world, to
understand its intelligible shape, is to come into
contact with a divine action that is reasonable,
consistent with itself. To understand, or more
accurately to hear, that which the
world communicates, is to hear God’s
love and God’s glory. To do this, human beings have
to tune in: quite simply, to listen, rather than to
impose our own prejudiced interpretations of what the
world ought to be. In the language of the Jewish
scripture, true thinking, true knowing of the world is
becoming aligned with God’s wisdom, which is God’s
self-consistency in purpose and action. This can be
experienced and understood as a living principle in
the universe as it is.
The Christian reason for regarding ecology as a
matter of justice, then, is that God’s self-sharing
love is what animates every object and structure and
situation in the world. Responses to the world that
are unaware of this are neither truthful nor
sustainable. To be aware of this is to enter into
relationship, for the self-sharing love of God is not
simply something we admire, but something in which we
fully participate. We are not consumers of what God
has made; we are in communion with it.”
Wow! These are powerful words with profound meaning
from the leading authority figure in the Church of
England. We celebrate and participate in communion
every week to be in communion with God - Father, Son
and Holy Spirit. So, to be in true communion with God
means to also be in communion with God’s creation.
This surely makes complete sense to us all. This is
utterly reasonable and consistent. I encourage anyone
who has any questions about this to seek me out for
further discussion.
At St. Faith’s, Eco-Congregation is getting off to a
slow start but none-the-less it is a start. One of
the great challenges to reduce environmental
footprints is to encourage individual, household and
organisational behavioural change with regard to the
environment. St. Faith’s is no different to any other
organisation in the struggle to move forward and
change our practices. We have all been informed via
the media of the threat posed by climate change, but
drastic change it seems is a long way off and we have
been slow to put into place anything new that shows
our commitment to the environment. Other, more
imminent, priorities get in the way.
We do now, however, have a conceptual plan that was
approved by the PCC. The Eco-Congregation group is
now putting the proposed concepts into priority and I
am discussing the various ideas with church leaders so
they can be implemented within an agreed timeframe
that works for everyone.
In January, the church had our first eco-Sunday.
There was a play by the youth group that creatively
included both epiphany and recycling (who would have
thought about making that link 2,000 years ago).
There was also a survey done to establish a baseline
of what our church families pledge to do in their
households. At this service 40 households made pledges
to do the following:
|
Pledge |
Positive Response |
Percentage |
|
Change 2 light bulbs for energy efficient ones |
32/40 |
80% |
|
Turn off tap whilst cleaning teeth |
35/40 |
87.5% |
|
Re-use plastic carrier bags |
37/40 |
92.5% |
|
Take a shower instead of a bath |
34/40 |
85% |
|
Switch off TV instead of leaving it on standby |
34/40 |
85% |
|
Reduce car mileage |
23/40 |
57.5% |
|
Water saving device in toilet |
23/40 |
57.5% |
|
Insulate Home |
28/40 |
70% |
These responses will be the baseline from which we
will monitor our progress to becoming a greener
community. This month, there will be another
eco-Sunday where you will be asked to tell us how the
pledges you made are going so that we can estimate how
these actions are positively impacting the
environment. Feedback to your responses will be more
prompt as we move forward.
In the July issue of Faith Matters, I will write about
the plans that will begin to be implemented within the
church over the next year.
David
Celebrating Ordination to the Priesthood
On Sunday 10th June my father, the
Venerable Kenneth Gibbons, will preside and preach at
the Parish Eucharist as he celebrates the 50th
anniversary of his ordination to the priesthood.
Obviously it will be a special occasion and one he has
decided to hold here, which is a great joy for us.
Those of you who have valued his ministry on his
visits to Havant over the last six years, especially
Lent two years ago when he led the Quiet day and
preached a series of sermons in Holy Week, will want
to make June 10th a special day for him, so
please be with us at the 9:30am Eucharist.
Like Canon Brown, my predecessor (who will this year
celebrate 55 years a priest), Ven. Kenneth has seen
many changes in the church during his priesthood.
Just last year he told me that as a curate in
Fleetwood, Lancashire, in the late ‘50s, as people
came to church at Easter and Christmas in their
thousands, he thought churchgoing in this country was
surely at its lowest ebb, and that it could only go
up! As we know in fact the opposite has proved to be
the case, but in whatever situation Ven. Ken has found
himself, whether it be the parish priest of St Mary’s
in Fratton (1970–‘81), or of a huge overspill estate
in south Croydon (New Addington, ’65–‘70) or as the
Archdeacon of Lancaster (’81–’97) he has performed his
duties with great enthusiasm, diligence and
determination. He has always sought to be an advocate
for the church at every opportunity and championed the
Church of England whether privately he had questions
about its policy. Perhaps more than ever, the church
needs his brand of forthright and humorous apologetic.
After the service there will be a chance to meet and
chat with Kenneth and Margaret over drinks and cake in
the church.
The Portsmouth Papers
Many years ago I bought a book, “The Portsmouth
Papers”, by Admiral Sir William James from a
second hand bookshop in Arundel. It was published in
1946 and consisted of a series of letters written by
the Admiral to an un-named old naval friend during the
Second World War. The first series was when he was
Commander-in-Chief, Portsmouth, and the second series
was when he was Chief of Naval Information and also
the Member of Parliament for Portsmouth North. The
first letter was written on 9 September 1939 and the
last on 2 May 1945. They give a fascinating insight
into the events of that time and some wonderful
impressions of the great leaders he encountered in his
official duties including King George VI, Churchill,
Montgomery (a cross between a Hurricane and a
Spitfire) and the like. He wrote on 1 February 1941
about the “Great Fire Blitz” of 10 January and
his letter adds the following to our accounts in
“Faith Matters”, with my own comments in brackets.
The first few days of January had been quiet but on
the 10th there was a first-class blitz
lasting from 7.30pm until 2.00am! The Dockyard was
badly fired and the blazing stores were a sight not
easily forgotten. The big paint store was a veritable
furnace, with paint pots exploding like artillery
fire. Part of one Officers’ Block and one Seamen’s
Block were extensively damaged in the Royal Naval
Barracks. The naval damage was nothing compared with
the destruction in the city. Fire raged down Queen
Street and enveloped the Hard, destroying many
historic buildings. It was distressing to see the
fire engines at the scene but unable to do anything
because they were unable to get water. The mains were
broken and the dead low tide prevented suction hoses
getting sea water. Kings Road was flattened but the
buildings were modern. Most of the High Street, with
its historic buildings, was gone (including the George
Hotel where Nelson stayed before embarking to
Trafalgar and fame). That fine old Garrison Church,
where King Charles I was married, was wrecked. (The
Admiral was wrong – it was Charles II, who married
Catherine de Braganza). By a miracle, the Cathedral
still stood. (In fact, both cathedrals still stood).
All the furniture repositories, mostly used by
servicemen, were gutted. (General Montgomery, former
Garrison Commander, lost all his possessions in one.
When he received the Freedom of the City in 1946,
Monty said in his speech that he shared something with
many citizens in Portsmouth because he had lost all
his possessions during an air raid on the city!)
Perhaps the most serious loss was the Power House but
power was restored thanks to the Grid system.
The letter goes on to tell how the Admiral contacted
the Lord Mayor, Councillor Dennis Daly, who, with the
destruction of the Guildhall, was in a temporary
centre in Cosham, and offered maximum naval support.
Soon there were 1,000 naval personnel on the streets,
helping to rescue civilians trapped in houses, etc.
He put the artificers from HMS Vernon (now the
Gunwharf Quays Shopping Complex) under the command of
the City Engineer to assist in the repair of
electrical cable. The lessons learnt were spelt out
in his letter (some three weeks after the blitz) by
the Admiral. Principally, the need to lay large-bore
seawater pipes to augment the water supply and the
provision of explosives to prevent the spread of fire
when buildings were well ablaze. He had also issued a
permanent Port Order so that Naval aid would operate
automatically when the next serious air raid started.
As a postscript to the Admiral’s account, I have been
researching the Corporation Records and have been much
impressed by what was done following this raid. Dry
“risers” (?) were installed in Stamshaw, Great
Salterns and Baffins; three concrete slipways were
built on the foreshore of Southsea beach to facilitate
the use of seawater during fires, two brick water
tanks, each holding 28,000 gallons, were built in
Copnor, steel dams were erected on highways, and four
miles of six-inch steel piping were laid to provide an
overland water main. Centres were set up to
accommodate the homeless, where they received
breakfast and supper from volunteers and a hot mid-day
meal from Corporation kitchens in Heidelberg Road,
capable of producing 2,000 meals daily! The Council’s
proud record was to rehouse all the homeless in the
Centres within 48 hours, generally in empty houses or
flats, or with friends, relatives or neighbours. No
wonder morale was so high despite all that the bombers
did against the civilian population of this great
city. As we shall see next month, this speaks volumes
for the leadership of an extraordinary Lord Mayor.
Roger Bryant
Ghana
Family BBQ
On Sunday 3rd June there will be a Barbeque
in the Rectory garden to raise funds in order to bring
two representatives from St John the Divine, Nsawam,
our link church in Ghana to Havant. The Barbeque will
offer beef-burgers and sausages from the local
‘Three Harbours’ Co-operative as well as
vegetarian and vegan alternatives. But the purpose of
the event is to raise our awareness within the church
of our Ghana link and to include the family in a fun
afternoon. Tickets are £5 for adults and £2.50 for
children and can be ordered from Mike & Anne Fluck on
023 9247 7391. The fun starts at 2pm and runs through
until 4pm. Non alcoholic drinks will be served.
From: “The Zeal of Thine House” By
Dorothy Sayers, 1937
Will you not let God manage his own business? My son,
He was a carpenter, and knows His trade
Better, perhaps, than we do, having had
Some centuries of experience; nor will He,
Like a bad workman, blame the fools wherewith
He builds his City of Zion here on earth.
For God founded His Church, not upon John,
The loved disciple, that lay so close to his heart
And knew his mind - not upon John, but Peter;
Peter the liar, Peter the coward, Peter
The rock, the common man. John was all gold,
And gold is rare; the work might wait while God
Ransacked the corners of the earth to find
Another John; but Peter is the stone
Whereof the world is made. So stands the Church,
Stone upon stone, and Christ, the corner stone,
Carved of the same stuff, common flesh and blood
With you, and me, and Peter; and He can,
Being the Alchemist’s stone, the stone of Solomon,
Turn stone to gold, and purge the gold itself
From dross, till all is gold.
News from Nottingham (and Derby & York)
What is a Christmas carol service for? Have you ever
really thought about the words of Christmas carols?
Do you agree or disagree with what they say? Do
Christians really believe everything carols say? What
does “begotten not created” mean
anyway? Does any of this matter?
And why I am I asking all these questions at this time
of year? Because since last summer I have been
working full-time on my research into Christmas carols
and these are just some of the questions I have been
grappling with. What I really want to discover is:
what do carols and the whole carol service
‘experience’ tell people about God, and does that
help or hinder Christian faith? People often talk
about putting Christ back into Christmas, but what
about the rest of the year too? If I ever write a
book about this, it will be called “Christmas is
not just for Christmas”.
Church attendances at Christmas have been increasing
noticeably since the turn of the millennium. My
research is based on cathedrals, where Christmas
congregations increased by 37% between 2000 and 2006;
but the story is the same in churches across the
board. So, why? Why are the numbers increasing
so fast? And is that a good thing or not?
For Christmas 2006, I focussed on three services each
in Derby Cathedral and York Minster, with combined
congregations of over 9,000. Everyone who attended
one of those services was invited to fill in a
questionnaire (thankfully, I did not have to organise
that side of things), and over 3,600 of them did.
Just over 1,000 of them also provided contact details
and I then contacted nearly 500 of them by phone or
email – which took up most of January! They included
Christians, non-Christians, regular and infrequent
churchgoers, and many of them said the most
fascinating things.
All that was Phase 1. For Phase 2, in February, 80
brave volunteers came along to small discussion groups
– five groups in Derby and eight in York – and
discussed the words of some well-known and less
well-known carols which had been sung at the carol
services. There were some very interesting
conversations, which have raised many more questions
for me to explore. One thing I noticed was that no
one seemed to think there was anything odd about
discussing carols in February – and in fact we even
had snow in York, to add a seasonal touch.
For me, this research is going to be a long-term
project, which I will continue part-time after my
ordination, looking at carol services in various
contexts each Christmas. It has been very encouraging
to see how much interest there is in the subject:
people just love talking about carols, and it
certainly looks as if the numbers of people attending
carol services will continue to rise.
When not camped out in Derby or York quizzing people
about Christmas, I am still a student St John’s
College in Nottingham, so I have put in the odd
appearance there too! There are now only six students
left from my original intake (all the others were
ordained last summer), so the six of us occasionally
go to the local Chinese restaurant and reminisce about
the Old Days of 2004. I often see friends who were
ordained last year, who are all enjoying themselves as
curates; they are all working extremely hard and
finding some of their work extremely challenging,
though also very rewarding.
My placement at Derby Cathedral finished over a year
ago, but I am still there. Scary moments have
included reading a lesson live on Radio 3 Choral
Evensong, and singing – with minimal rehearsal (though
thankfully not on live radio) – a set of Evensong
responses composed (unusually) for a professional
soprano, which went up to top F. I have also preached
a lot of sermons and have even learned to enjoy the
terror that always accompanies the climb into the
pulpit.
My time at college will end in the middle of June,
following a two-week leavers’ course covering some of
the practical things that we will need to know as
curates. In those two weeks, we will practise
conducting baptisms and marriages (not real ones!),
visit the local funeral parlour and crematorium and
learn how to conduct funerals. And there is always a
session called “How to do just about anything”
– which is probably a fairly accurate description of
what all clergy need to know.
I have ordered my clerical shirts, the white stole
that I will wear for my ordination is being made by
the Derby Cathedral embroidery workshop and on
Saturday 30th June I will be ordained in St
Paul’s Cathedral as a deacon, to serve as curate in
the parish of St Lawrence Eastcote. The service at St
Paul’s begins at 5pm.
And then it really will be the end of “News from
Nottingham”.
Rachel Phillips (niece of Alan Hakim)
From the Registers – May
6th Baptism of Freya Louise Tynne
27th Baptism of Molly Eccleston
2007 – The Year of Elgar
The 2nd June marks the 150th
anniversary of the birth of, arguably, England's
greatest composer. Sir Edward Elgar. To many people,
Elgar is synonymous with the Last Night of the Proms
and the performance of “Pomp and Circumstance March
No1" which includes the singing of "Land of
Hope and Glory".
Edward Elgar was born in the village of Broadheath,
set in an area of beautiful countryside three miles
north west of Worcester. It was here and in the city
of Worcester that he spent his formative years. His
father was a piano tuner and church organist who owned
the music shop where the family lived for many years.
His mother was the daughter of a farmer, yet despite
her humble background was extremely well read. This
interest in books she passed on to her son. Edward
had no formal musical education apart from piano and
violin lessons. He taught himself the rudiments of
composition and served a long apprenticeship in local
music making, playing in concerts and succeeding his
father as organist at a local church. The motets and
anthems he wrote for this church are the first works
which reveal an independent musical mind in the
making.
Elgar married Caroline Alice Roberts at Brompton
Oratory on 8th May 1889. Her father was a
Major-General in the Indian Army. The honeymoon was
spent in the Isle of Wight, first at Shanklin then at
Ventnor. The island was considered fashionable at
that time because of Queen Victoria's retreat at
Osborne House. Because of their differing
backgrounds, the combined pressures of English
snobbery and religious bigotry left an indelible
impression on Elgar’s character.
Throughout her life Alice supported her husband
through some very difficult times and had an unfailing
belief in his ability to become a great composer.
Elgar was the first significant English composer since
Purcell who lived some two centuries before. Elgar
did not only write marches and music for ceremonial
occasions. Among his other compositions are choral
works, including the oratorio "The Dream of
Gerontius", three symphonies (one unfinished) and
other orchestral works; a violin concerto, a cello
concerto, chamber music and songs. However, it was
his orchestral work the "Enigma Variations"
that first brought him to national prominence. Each
variation depicts one of his friends. "Nimrod"
is the most famous and is played at the Remembrance
Service held each year at the Cenotaph in London.
Following a period of illness and depressed by the
events of the Great War (1914-18) Lady Elgar found him
a country retreat, a thatched cottage called
Brinkwells near Fittleworth in West Sussex. The
garden room studio had a view of the woods, the river
Arun and, in the distance, the South Downs. The quiet
beauty of Sussex worked wonders. There he composed
three chamber works and the cello concerto.
What is it that makes Elgar's music so special? His
personality is stamped on his music and it is
immediately recognisable. The countryside around his
home, which he loved, inspired many of his greatest
works. He could convey a whole range of emotions and
there is an intense spirituality and dignity in much
of his music. This goes far beyond the pomp and
circumstance of his more familiar works. Elgar lived
through a time of great change, yet his music is of as
much relevance to us today as when it was first
written.
The Queen is the last living dedicatee of his music.
"The Nursery Suite" was dedicated to her and
her sister Margaret. The first performance was
recorded in 1931, and a further performance was given
at a Promenade Concert later the same year. Elgar had
been appointed Master of the King's Music seven years
before.
Elgar's only conducting engagement in Portsmouth was
in April 1928 at a performance of his choral work "Caractacus"
held in the Town Hall - later to become the
Guildhall. This was at the invitation of the
Portsmouth North End Choral Society. Its founder and
conductor Earnest Birch, Organist of Saint Mark's
Church, North End, did much for Portsmouth's music in
the inter war years. He was a former chorister at St.
Paul's Cathedral. A capacity audience of 1,700, some
standing, attended the concert. The main concert
hall, known as the large hall, was dominated by a
massive pipe organ. The panelled sides of the
auditorium were hung with portraits in oils of various
Royalty and prominent persons associated with the
city. Elgar was resplendent in fall evening dress and
wearing the insignia of Knight Commander of the Royal
Victorian Order that he had been awarded a few months
earlier. Councillor Frank Privett, J.P., later to
become the city's first Lord Mayor, greeted Elgar on
behalf of the city.
The Elgar Society (Southern Branch) has organised an
Elgar 150th Exhibition at Havant Museum
from Saturday 12th May until 2nd
June and this transfers to Portsmouth Central Library
for the month of September. The exhibition will
feature Elgar's connections with Hampshire including
his honeymoon in the Isle of Wight and his visit to
Portsmouth to conduct the choral work "Caractacus".
Peter Willey
Think on These Things – Part 3 of 3
The term “unbeliever” does not refer to the
millions of Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, etc.
God/Jesus is constantly influencing the faithful of
those religions in accordance with their local customs
and practices, and they live their lives completely in
line with those guiding teachings. Unbelievers are
those who have heard the words of Jesus and have
rejected them. Atheists are obvious examples. But
the larger parts are Jews.
God is the great invisible force inhabiting all
space. No human, while in the physical mode of
matter, has ever seen him. He has come to us in the
visible human form of Jesus to demonstrate to us, to
give us a factual example, of his powers, his
character, his views on life, his descriptions of the
nature of the Kingdom of Heaven, so that we could more
easily comprehend the true reality and magnitude of
his invisible, ethereal, spiritual nature, and could
grasp with our finite minds and come to a judgement
about both
a.
The physical visible form seen and actually
lived with for three years by our ancestors, and
b.
The invisible force from which he came and
which he represents.
And we are asked to give the same respect to the one
as to the other.
Rather as the Queen in London is invisible in South
Africa but is represented by her High Commissioner.
And we are expected to give the same respect to him as
we would to her. And if the Queen, considering South
Africa to be of great importance, had sent her son
instead of a High Commissioner, and the leaders of
that country had then arranged his execution, the
seriousness of the situation is obvious. And Jesus is
greater than a High Commissioner, or a Queen’s son.
Late in his ministry, surrounded by Jewish leaders in
the temple, after years of trying to persuade them,
Jesus said “Why do you not believe me? If you are
unable to accept my words then believe me for the very
works you have seen me do, works never done
before by any human being”.
A Roman centurion asked Jesus to cure his servant
dying of a fever. But he said Jesus didn’t need to
come to his house to do it. Paraphrasing him he said
“I give commands to soldiers and they obey. I know
you give commands and invisible forces move to have
your will done. Just give the word and my servant
will be healed”. He was a Gentile, and Jesus
marvelled, saying “I have not seen such great faith
in all Israel”. He gave the word and the servant
was healed at that moment.
One of his many other works was giving sight to a man
who had been born blind. When the Pharisees
heard of it, and of all the amazement caused in the
community, they had the man arrested and brought in
for questioning as to who had done it and what had
happened. In reply to a question he said “This man
put clay on my eyes. I washed it off and now I can
see, that’s all. Whether or not he was a sinner I
don’t know. All I know is I was born blind and now I
can see, a thing never known before since the world
began”. So they threw the man out.
After hearing about the raising of Lazarus from the
dead so many Jewish people believed in Jesus that the
leaders said “What are we to do? All the world is
going after him”. So, instead of accepting that
he must be someone most unusual, and that he may be
who he said he was, they decided to have him killed,
because he was a nuisance and was drawing more and
more people away from what they considered was the
true religion.
Their chance came just before the festival of Passover
when, by breaking their own laws, they were able to
have him arrested and tried at night and so get him to
the Roman Governor, who alone had the power to award a
death sentence. And by saying that Jesus claimed to
be King of the Jews, they told Pontius Pilate that
unless he had Jesus killed they would report him to
Caesar for failing to put down the leader of a
revolution.
A few days after his death all the apostles, except
Thomas, were hiding together in a locked room, fearing
that the Jews might do to them what they had done to
Jesus, when suddenly Jesus himself appeared among
them. When they saw his wounded hands and feet and
side then they really believed all he had taught them,
including his eventual rising from the dead. But
later, when they told Thomas, he could not believe it.
A few days later again they were all together, locked
in the same room, including Thomas, when Jesus
suddenly appeared. He showed his wounds to Thomas who
said “My Lord and my God”. Jesus said “You
have seen me and believed. Blessed indeed are those
who have not seen me and yet believe”.
On another famous occasion Jesus said “Behold, I
stand at the door and knock. If anyone opens the door
I will enter in to that person”. In no way will
he force his presence onto anyone.
All we need do, beside being baptised and confirmed,
is to show a willingness to believe, for instance by
thinking and reading on the subject and perhaps
attending a church service occasionally, and belief
will be given to us sooner or later if we are sincere
and kept at it.
Jesus said “Whoever comes to me I will in no
wise cast out”.
John Smythe
Visit to Walsingham – 13 April 2007
The group visiting the Shrine Church, after receiving
a blessing for the journey, departed St. Alban’s
Church at 8.15am. We travelled through lovely
countryside to our lunch-time stop in Bury St. Edmunds
where we were able to wander for an hour – some having
a sandwich lunch - in the beautiful gardens of the
Abbey, others visited the Cathedral. After further
pleasant journeying through the Norfolk countryside we
reached Walsingham at 3.15pm and went directly into
the Holy House. With the coming of evening the
distant mist began to draw in around Walsingham. The
following day after breakfast we all met in the Shrine
Church for the Stations of the Cross when Father
Charles took us – Jenny, Valentine, Sheila (Legg),
Val, Pam, Derek and me through the grounds, stopping
at every station. The whole programme was beautifully
organised – varied services, breaks, meals – with time
for fun and relaxation. There was also an opportunity
to visit Sandringham House which some of us took and
derived much pleasure from.
The whole visit to Walsingham was very calming and
tranquil. Everyone mixes, everyone takes meals
together – no separate dining rooms – we meet old
friends and make new ones. Come and join the party
next year, you will gain from the visit!
Sheila Creech
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