It certainly felt as if winter was over when the sun came out mid-March to cheer us on our way as we delivered the voluntary rate letters (still some left if you haven’t taken a turn at that yet). The envelope stuffing was better attended than ever this year so we were finished in record time. They bring in around £6 – 7,000 so it’s well worth getting out there and delivering them. The money goes to the Fabric fund for care of the building and this year is being directed at the Windows Appeal which, frankly, could be going better! ‘But Hampstead people are so rich’ someone said to me ‘it must be easy to raise money’. If only!
We’ll be fund-raising again in May with the Spring Fair – a day of stalls, and lunches and children’s games, hopefully of sunshine, of raffles and jumble and all the trappings of a traditional church fair. The organisers have written about it further on this issue – please look at what they need and see if you can help. And, of course, one way we can all ‘help’ is by coming on the day and spending money!
The Lent Course on Seven Deadly Sins and Seven Lively Virtues, written by members of Churches together in Hampstead is proving thought-provoking for those of us in the groups. If there are copies left I recommend it – even if you haven’t time for a group it’s an interesting read (the material can also be downloaded from the parish website – hampsteadparishchurch.org.uk). Canon Robert Gage came down from Newcastle on 9th March to preach a very useful introduction to what we might mean by sin, which we’ve printed here.—I particularly like his closing sentence—’I wish you a useful and intelligent Lent’.
Easter’s so late this year it’s hard to think ahead when we’re still only half-way through Lent but of course it’ll soon be here and our Easter services are laid out in the diary pages. The whole story is re-enacted during the week, starting with Jesus’ triumphant entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday, moving on to the Last Supper and all that happened there – the footwashing, the vigil in the garden of Gethsemane – then the crucifixion itself on Good Friday and the watch by the cross during the Liturgy of the day, and then the glory of the resurrection on Sunday. And, yes, I know I’ve left out the Easter vigil on Saturday but it doesn’t quite fit the chronology of the biblical narrative. In some churches it happens at midnight or dawn on Sunday and culminates in the first communion of Easter but ours will be a child friendly service at 6pm, the adults having exhausted themselves cleaning and decorating the church in the morning.
Following Easter a quiet week liturgically though the diary still seems to be busy. No feast days fall in the octave of Easter so St George and St Mark have been transferred to the following week to allow us to concentrate solely on the Easter message (fast days were also suspended in an octave, so having fasted rigorously during Lent you were allowed to eat anything during the following week, probably to build your strength up again).
And then we move on to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. This is our ‘AGM’ when the vicar presents the Annual Report, the churchwardens demonstrate that they have discharged their duties and that they haven’t lost anything (the Inventory), the Treasurer explains the financial situation (good or bad) the new membership list (Electoral Roll) is presented and there’s an opportunity for us to vote for new PCC members, trustees and sidesmen ( sometimes synod representatives as well). Voting is immensely complicated – some of it depends on where you live, some on whether or not you are on the electoral roll, some on both – and where you live means the ‘old parish’, that is the parish as it was when the church was built in 1745. This roughly equates to the North Camden Deanery, a geographical area not much more recognisable to most people than the 18th century parish, but there’s always someone there who knows and if you’re really concerned you can look this up on the parish website
https://hampsteadparishchurch.org.uk/data/street_search.php
Finally Community@war launches this month – a Schools project from the same team who put together Tomb with a View in 2012. Sheena Ginnings has written more about it in this issue and we are promised art displays and concerts at the end of the summer term.
April
Judy East