Tearfund (www.bepartofa miracle.org.uk)
We are fast approaching our “Global Poverty Prayer
Week”, 11th-17th November.
On the 11th (Remembrance Sunday) we are
urged to remember the living as well as the dead. On
the 12th we will be praying about
Tearfunds’s goal to stop the spread of HIV in the
communities where they work by the year 2015. On the
13th prayers will be about Climate Change,
on the 14th we will turn our thoughts
towards how to help those suffering from the effects
of natural disasters. Unjust trade rules will be
prayed about on the 15th, clean water and
sanitation on the 16th and on the 17th
we are asked to pray for a tough new international
agreement that will lead to decisive action when the
UN summit takes place in December.
Please continue with the daily prayers in the Tearfund
Prayer Diary. If anyone requires a copy please ask
Mary Bracher
Licensing of Fr. Charles Keay at
Alford, Lincs
I first met Father Charles Keay, when he blessed my
home after my return to Havant in May 2005. As soon
as I knew he was to become Priest-in-Charge of the
Alford Group of Churches in Lincolnshire, I felt that
I would like to attend at least as a representative of
St. Faith’s Church.
I travelled by train to Skegness and bus connection to
Alford on the Wednesday and booked myself into the
Half Moon Hotel, Restaurant and Pub for two nights.
A visit to St. Wilfred's Church in
Alford confirmed that Revd. Wilma Horton who had
herself been Ordained as Priest on 1st July
this year, was taking the Eucharist the following
morning at 09.15am. She was a friendly Lady who was
so pleased to see me and said that everyone was
looking forward to Fr. Charles taking over the group
of Churches.
St. Wilfred's Church dates from c1350 and is very
beautiful with its 14th Century Screen and
High Altar. I arrived at about 7.00pm to find the
Church filling up fast. At 7.30pm, the Rural Dean
Terry Steele and his spaniel, who goes everywhere with
him, welcomed everyone and introduced the processional
hymn: Christ triumphant ever reigning, Saviour,
Master, King!
Bishop John of Grimsby introduced the Service and
following the Ministry of the Word and Hymn gave his
topical Sermon. He spoke of the recent death of
Pavarotti and how he had helped to increase the
interest in Opera for the masses! He thanked everyone
for pulling together over the last 20 months during
the Interregnum and realised that it had come at the
right time, because Fr. Charles had come. He felt
that Fr. Charles and his family would help to increase
the number of families and younger people to the
Church.
The Service continued to the Licensing and Induction
with the Bishop reading out the names of the nine
Churches and enquired if there was anymore left to
add!
Fr. Charles and the Bishop then moved to the back of
the Church near the Font and Charles rang the church
bells.
The procession then returned to the chancel step and
faced the congregation. Representatives of the
Schools, Boys and Girls Brigade and other Churches
were introduced to the new Parish Priest.
Fr. Charles then announced that a morning Eucharist
would be held each morning except Mondays starting the
following day. Prayers were said and a collection
taken for the Diocesan Ordination Candidates' Training
Fund.
After the service, most people trooped into the Church
Hall a short walk away for the faith supper. A good
time was had by all. Everyone I spoke to were
thrilled with their new Priest and was delighted with
Annie and Rufus. The future bodes well for the Keay
family and the communicants of the 9 churches.
For me it was an uplifting experience and speaking to
both Charles and Annie they were looking forward to
their new challenges. We all wish them well for the
future.
Terry Creswell
Marcia Willett, mother of Fr. Charles Keay, has
sent the Rector a gift of £1,000 to use at his
discretion in St. Faith’s. The gift was in
recognition of the time spent by Charles in the
parish.
Town Fair – Provisional Figures
The provisional figures for the Town
Fair held on Saturday 8 September are:
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Grand Draw
Refreshments outside
Cakes
Barbecue
Tombola
Bottles
Bric-a-Brac – Churchyard
Bouncy Castle
Face Painting
Children’s Stall&Jewellery
Hook-a-Boat
Pick-a-Straw
Stocks
Church Collections
Friends of the Earth
Fair Trade
Market Traders
Ice Creams
Beer Tent
Handicrafts
Books |
943.00
71.09
143.40
346.27
361.40
564.00
130.67
50.65
46.60
168.87
19.80
30.58
36.75
21.80
10.00
8.00
30.00
66.00
117.66
167.19
321.82 |
Sarah Butterfield Cards
Refreshments inside
Toys
Children’s Tombola
Human Fruit Machine
Treasure Hunt
Bric-a-Brac & Plants-Street
Guess the Weight of Cake
Tower Visits
Donation – Anon
Secret Garden Sensations
Cllr. Ray Bolton
Total Income
Grand Draw
Band
St. John Ambulance
Miscellaneous
Total Expenses
TOTAL |
50.80
147.64
59.00
101.60
49.68
20.50
85.91
55.70
82.00
100.00
10.00
50.00
4,468.38
-100.00
-125.00
-76.38
-6.25
-307.63
4,160.75 |
Roger Simmons
Concert by The Royal Marines Training Band on
Friday 5th October 2007 in St. Faith's.
It was a privilege to be part of a packed church to hear
a wonderful concert, planned for many months, by the
young men and women from Portsmouth, in aid of the
Church Restoration and Redevelopment Appeal. Under the
expert direction of Major M.P. Dowrick, the smartly
dressed band delighted the audience with a variety of
military band music.
The National Anthem was followed by the well-known quick
march, "Colonel Bogey" and the slow march,
"Globe and Laurel". Drummers appeared through the
west door and played standing in the aisle and the
Yorkshire Overture showed the woodwind section to
advantage. The brilliant variations on "My
Grandfather's Clock" played on the solo euphonium
thrilled the all-age audience and the trio of trumpeters
entertained, not only with their playing, but also by
their choreography. In "Padstow Life-boat" by
Malcolm Arnold the sound of the fog horn was cleverly
incorporated by the composer, as well as the pitching of
the lifeboat in rough seas. A selection of Gilbert &
Sullivan tunes set feet tapping in the ballad
"Pineapple Poll" and two xylophones were cleverly
played with four sticks in a glittering solo debut
performance.
The finale was dedicated to the 225 members of the Royal
Marines who gave their lives in World War Two and began
with a Fantasy on British Sea Songs and continued with
the quick march, "Viscount Nelson" in honour of
Trafalgar later in the month. The Swedish Folksong tune
for the hymn "How Great Thou Art" preceded the
bugle call, "Sunset", movingly played by four
buglers from the west end of the church, on their
tussled bugles.
We all waved our Union Jack flags as the band played
"Rule Britannia" and the concert finished with the
rousing regimental march, "A Life on the Ocean Wave".
Geoff Porter
News from St Paul’s and Eastcote
Regular readers of “Faith Matters” will have been
following the reports from my niece, Rachel Phillips, on
her experiences at Nottingham and Derby as she prepared
for ordination. The great day finally came on Saturday
30th June at St Paul’s Cathedral in London,
when she, along with 44 other candidates, was ordained
deacon by the Bishop of London. There were slightly
more men candidates than women. The diocese is split
into five areas, each with its own Area Bishop: Rachel
was sponsored by the Bishop of Willesden.
This was a service of great splendour, similar in some
ways to the huge national services in the cathedral that
we see on television. Yet at the same time, it was a
very personal event for each candidate, and for their
family and friends who were there to support them.
The statistics are impressive. Each candidate was
allocated 25 tickets and each parish receiving them a
further 10; in addition there were reported to be about
25 bishops present, and 250 other clergy, not to mention
the choir and cathedral staff. That is only the
reserved seats. There was a long queue for unreserved,
and not everybody could be fitted in. Our whole family
came to support Rachel: her parents and sister, myself,
Frances and Timothy, together with his wife Isobel and
daughter Dorothy, and we were joined by our one
remaining rather distant cousin. We had priority
tickets, which gave us seats under the dome, very close
to the ordinands, who were in a semicircle facing the
Bishop.
The service was something like a Confirmation, combined
with Sung Eucharist quite like our regular Sunday
service. But we don’t start with the congregation
having to “Stand as the Trumpeters play a fanfare,”
during which the procession of ordinands and most of the
bishops “enter through the Great West Door.”
Though meanwhile we sang “Angel-voices ever singing”,
and all the hymns were familiar from our own worship.
After the procession had reached the area under the
dome, the Bishop of London welcomed us, and the
candidates were presented to him by name. The Bishop
then asked questions in turn of the Area Directors of
Ordinands (that the candidates were suitable), the
candidates (that they believed they were called to God’s
ministry) and finally of us, the congregation, that we
would support and uphold them in their new ministry. At
this point we went into the Communion service: the
Gloria, collect, epistle and gospel and the sermon, by
the Bishop – very inspiring, and not very long!
We had now reached the climax of the service. The
candidates had to declare their belief in the Holy
Scriptures, and the doctrine of the Church of England,
and undertake to serve – a key question was, “Will
you be a faithful servant in the household of God, after
the example of Christ, who came not to be served but to
serve?” It had already been explained that the
original meaning of ‘deacon’ is someone who serves
others.
Each candidate kneeled one at a time in front of the
Bishop, who laid hands on them, at the same time as
their area bishop.
When all 45 had been ordained, we the congregation
welcomed them “as fellow-servants in the gospel”,
and there was another fanfare while the newly-ordained
deacons were vested with their stoles. These were of
many styles, some specially made by friends of the
candidate who had supported them through their
training. Rachel’s was a gift from the congregation of
Derby Cathedral, where she had spent so much of her time
while studying at St John’s College, Nottingham. And
then came the Peace. The candidates spread out through
the cathedral to greet their nearest and dearest –
except that some of their dearest were away at the far
end of the nave. They didn’t return to their seats
until we were half-way through the offertory hymn.
The rest of the service would have been familiar to St
Faith’s congregation at the Sunday 9.30 service. But
when the wine was set out for consecration, I reckon
there were some 40 chalices on the altar, an incredible
sight. When it came to the distribution, clergy fanned
out all over the cathedral, so that everybody had a
communion point within a few paces of their seat.
Communion for 4,000 people was completed in only 18
minutes!
Right at the end of the service, each new deacon was
given a New Testament (in Greek!) by the area bishop.
Why not the whole Bible? I was asked. Rachel tells me
it is because one of a deacon’s special jobs is to read
the Gospel in services; also because the New Testament
tells us about the foundations of deacon ministry. And
finally, as the organ pealed a loud voluntary, the
Bishop of London led the deacons out of the Great West
Door together with the area bishops – and photos were
taken.
The whole service lasted two hours, and we had been in
our seats nearly an hour before it. Dorothy, who is
only eight, had been absorbed by the whole of it, and
she was by no means the youngest present. Some of the
deacons have very young children, who were looked after
by the other parent.
And then came the party. Rachel had booked a room in Ye
Olde Cheshire Cheese, a famous pub in Fleet Street,
frequented in the 18th century by Dr
Johnson. They had a copy of his great Dictionary in a
glass case. Friends came from all areas of her life,
even those who had queued without tickets for the
service and been turned away. And her area bishop came,
with his wife and secretary, and he revealed a secret of
St Paul’s. They have a full set of bishops’ robes and
mitres for all the area bishops to pick up when they
arrive for the service. That ensures they are all
wearing matching outfits!
Next day, Rachel attended her first services at St
Lawrence’s, Eastcote. This is an old Middlesex village
that has become an outer suburb of London since the Tube
arrived in the 1930s. The church is of that period too:
before then Eastcote was part of neighbouring Ruislip.
She told me she expected to have to introduce herself at
the morning service. Not a bit of it; the children of
the Sunday School had made up a magnificent welcome card
for her, and presented it during the service.
Alan Hakim
Rachel holding the Greek New Testament
Roger Bryant’s articles for “Faith Matters” are
always informative, interesting and a pleasure to
read. October’s contributions were well up to
standard, and also struck chords of memory with me.
In “The Brunels”, Roger mentioned the
block-making machinery designed by Marc Brunel, which
was installed in a large brick building which became
known as the Blockmills. Beneath the ground floor was
a large cellar space which, during the war, was used
as an air raid shelter. In one raid a bomb plunged
through an iron grating adjacent to an outside wall
and exploded into the shelter. My father was a member
of the Rescue Squad which, immediately after the
explosion made its way into the shelter to succour the
survivors and recover the casualties.
“The Five Churches”
also brought back memories. To me, the
“Oddfellows” was the dance hall on the upper
floor; not a top-flight venue, but good enough for
local lads before they “graduated” to the
Embassy, Pier or Savoy; the resident band was led by
Jimmy Harris. I spent some Friday or Saturday
evenings there trying to improve “my steps” –
without much success. Not far from Woolworths which
was destroyed that “terrible night” was the
Shaftesbury cinema where I spent many hours when young
– sometimes with “free admission”.
Most of all I remember a church which Roger did not
mention; St John the Baptist, Rudmore. Its priest was
Father Coley who walked about the parish in cassock
and biretta greeting all and sundry with a cheerful
word and a blessing – few were the houses in Rudmore
that he did not visit. In an air raid the complete
roof of the nave was destroyed, but the Lady Chapel
was undamaged. Not long after the war Peggy and I
were married there, in the Lady Chapel as the main
body of the church was still open to the sky. It was
a warm, sunny but showery August day – the sun shone
for us – but there were puddles all over the floor of
the nave which had to be carefully negotiated as we
made our way from the Lady Chapel amidst the
congratulations and good wishes of family, friends and
neighbours; this was our lovely day.
So, thanks for the memories Roger.
John Bradey
PS or Epilogue. Alas, St John’s is no longer a
church – but an apartment block. Rudmore is gone – all
that remains is the name of a roundabout.
From the Registers – October
7th Baptism of Elizabeth
Genevieve Budd
30th In Memoriam Bob Harvey
Canon Brown wishes to thank the
parishioners who kindly sent him their best wishes,
cards and presents on the occasion of his 80th
birthday.
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