To look back for a moment to November: apologies to Suzanne Pinkerton whose review of the Sidwell Recital fell victim to the general disaster enveloping my computer. All is now restored and it appears in this issue, along with her review of the Brahms Requiem.
December 16th 1919
As we stood at the War Memorial honouring the dead of the Great War did you wonder about its designer or when it was put up? According to a report in the archives a “meeting of the Congregation and relatives of the fallen” was held on 16th December 1919 where two suggestions were put forward:
“A Portland Stone Calvary Cross with the names of the fallen incised on the base” or “Reredos in Chapel to harmonise with that in Church, and two tablets with the names of fallen on the wall opposite”.
Both were the design of Messrs Temple Moore & Moore FFRIBA. The outside memorial would cost £520, the Chapel one £485. I’m glad they chose the outside memorial so that we can share it with everyone in Hampstead and not just those who venture into church. You may have noticed that it looked somewhat different this year “Has it been cleaned?” someone asked me. Well, no, at that stage it hadn’t, but the gardening group have spent several sessions clearing the ground behind and the effect is of cleaner lines – I’m sure Temple Moore & Moore would have approved! Then on the Friday before Remembrance Sunday Camden Council came and spray cleaned it, so it is looking doubly pristine this year,
And now for December 2018
We could be forgiven for wanting a quieter month after the number of events we hosted in November but this is December so there are one or two things happening! School carol services aplenty of course and the tail-end of the Hampstead Players production of The Government Inspector; The Advent Carol Service on 2nd, Christmas Lights (with Scrooge) on Friday 7th, featuring the Community Choir, Hampstead Players, Junior Choir and Creche Ensemble, our own Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on 16th at 6pm and, a rare treat, an Advent Sequence, Readings and Carols for Advent on 23rd at 4.30pm. A full music list is included in this issue so you can see what’s being sung when. And do note the times of the various evening services.
Also – of course I know you scan the magazine from page to page – but please don’t miss the “Christmas Notices” section all about flowers and cards and children. And a word of thanks for some of the events already passed.
Christmas comes so early these days, and ends, it seems, on Boxing Day, and our church diary does look a little as if we’re celebrating all the way through December, as Jeremy says, it’s a noisy month but then, just as the rest of the world goes back to normal, we have the “real” Christmas to celebrate. In a way, I think perhaps I like it, because I find my space to think about what’s happened after the event. A quiet time to consider how the “Greatest story ever told” began, to sit by the crib and contemplate the characters in that story; just to be still in an empty church is rather restful after the bustle of the previous weeks. There are no services between 26th and 29th but the church will be open so do drop in.
December
Judy East