The Parish Church of St John-at-Hampstead

Did you have a good summer?    
   
I probably shouldn’t ask because for some people the answer will, inevitably, be No. We all long to have it  – a ‘good’ summer, whatever we mean by the term.  Vague memories of childhood perhaps colour our imaginations.  Was it always sunny?  Were holidays always fun?  Did we always go away?  Staying at home in the rain just isn’t part of our rose-tinted past, is it?  And why do we never talk about a ‘good spring’ or a ‘good autumn’?  And certainly not a ‘good winter’!   What is it about summer that makes us feel we somehow ought to enjoy it?  You may have had – I hope you did – a ‘good’ August but,  if you didn’t, look forward now to all the nice things we have lined up for the autumn. 

September 13th will be a busy day – Sunday School starts again with “Move-Up Sunday”, when the children go to their new groups;  the choir are back and James and David are celebrating with a lunchtime Organ Prom;  there’ll be sherry after Evensong too.  Music details further on in this issue.  The other musical announcement, also set out in detail further on, is the formation of a new Community (and strictly amateur) Choir. 

The Hampstead Players will be starting rehearsals for their autumn production of Pride and Prejudice soon – who’s going to play Mr Darcy one wonders!?

Our neighbours at St Mary’s Holly Place are celebrating their bicentenary between this September and next, starting with a talk By Diana Dick on “The Abbé Morel and St Mary’s” on 13th and a visit from the Papal Nuncio on 20th.  This is followed by a year of events culminating in a closing ceremony on September 11th 2016 in the presence of Cardinal Archbishop Vincent Nichols.

The Living Book Club and Tea Service start again, the Lunchtime events continue and just to look back for a while there are reviews of Richard II , the Junior Choir Prom and the Holiday at Home week – and two delightfully evocative poems from Jennifer Borrett which took me back to seaside holidays more years ago than I like to remember….. all in all a very full magazine for you to enjoy.