School’s back. Choir’s back. Sunday School’s back. Everything’s back to normal. Well, not quite. This isn’t going to be a ‘normal’ autumn at all as the process of finding a new vicar gets going in earnest. Be extra nice to any visitors you see in church over the next few months – who knows, they could be prospective candidates! We know only that interviews are planned for All Saints’ Day – an auspicious date for such an important occasion. We are looking for a saint, after all, aren’t we? And from last time we know the candidates are likely to turn up in church one Sunday to met us unofficially.
Meanwhile life in the parish goes on with all the usual events – a longer than usual magazine includes details of lots of forthcoming events!
The Friends of the Music hold their “Welcoming the choir back” party on Sunday 11th. It’s open to everyone but if you’re not a Friend you have to pay (or why not join?). Harvest Festival falls on 25th September when we get together for a Harvest Lunch, collect food for our local foodbanks and homeless charities and money for Syrian Refugees. The Lunchtime Literary Hour on 21st September is intriguingly entitled “Don’t you believe it” and has been compiled by Bill Fry who writes about it further on in this issue. If you went to Holiday in Hampstead you might have been treated to some taster sessions of material taken from these Literary Hours – why not give the ‘real thing’ a try? They start at 1pm, last about 50 minutes to an hour and you can bring your lunch. Tea and coffee are served afterwards.
There’s a Macmillan Coffee Morning on Wednesday 28th from 11am to 1pm when Real Coffee will be served – as a regular member of the coffee team I have to report we bask in the enjoyment of our consumers now we’re serving ‘proper’ coffee and can’t help noticing how much consumption has gone up! And it’s always Traidcraft coffee so if you like it why not visit our stall and buy some for home too?
The Hampstead Players, who have been rather reticent about their 40th anniversary year (perhaps because there are so few of us founder members still around) are now well into their preparations for a reading of Forty Years On – a play so racy they deemed it unsuitable for the church! It will be held in the Crypt Room on October 21st and 22nd. More about that next month. Plans are also under way for their November production of King Lear.
The Women’s Discussion Group (formerly Women’s Bible Study but their range of reading material has widened) starts again this month – programme further on and please look at the dates carefully because one session has been moved to a Wednesday.
Sermon of the month
There have been so many to choose from over the summer! And if I’ve chosen one rather than another it’s only because I can’t include them all. Do go to the website or look in the folder on the magazine table and catch up on any you may have missed or want to revisit.
September
Judy East