“Comes in like a lion, goes out like a lamb”
“A dry March and a wet May fill barns and bays with corn and hay”
“As it rains in March so rains it in June”
“March winds and April showers bring forth May flowers”
and so on……… This year March comes in with Lent and goes out with Easter on 31st. I think the earliest date for Easter Day is 22nd March – you can look it up in the Book of Common Prayer if you can unravel the mysteries of Golden numbers – the system for calculating the date of Easter, and so the dates of all the related Christian festivals from Ash Wednesday to Trinity. (It appears that the system only works until 2199 and to calculate Easter from 2199 to 2299 you have to make an adjustment. I suppose someone will need to do that one day.)
However that’s looking a bit too far ahead – let’s concentrate on the here and now. March is full of seasonal events – the Lent Groups are continuing, there’s a performance of Bach’s St John Passion on Sunday 17th (the church choir augmented by a chamber orchestra), a Service of Readings and Music for Passiontide in place of Evensong on Palm Sunday, Silent Prayer on Tuesdays at 4.30 and The Stations of the Cross at 1pm on Fridays. The Literary Hour on 20th March will also feature readings suitable for the season.
Outside the Lenten theme we have Duo Sans Souci performing at the Lunchtime concert on 6th, South Hampstead High School on 12th (also free) and the Hampstead Chamber Choir on 23rd. Details of these can be found further on in this issue. And ‘Spring Into Action’ – a gardening morning on 23rd March to spring clean the churchyard.
We’ve been putting on lunchtime events on alternate Wednesdays (Music on 1st Weds of the month, readings on 3rd) for some time now and they are highly entertaining, well thought-out – and very poorly attended! One wonders why. All the events are free, you can sit quietly eating your sandwich and have coffee afterwards (also free). What more could anyone ask?
April 2013 sees the renewal of the church electoral roll. This has nothing to do with the government electoral register but is a list kept by the church, and reported on to the diocese, of members of the congregation. Gaynor Bassey, our Electoral Roll officer reports on it on page 9 and the bigger picture of how the parish, the deanery and diocese affect church governance, is explained on page 10
Plans for the Arts and Crafts Fair in April (which replaces the traditional Spring Fair) are well ahead – Lord Harries of Pentregarth has accepted Father Stephen’s invitation to preach at the Festal Evensong on 28th and Barbara Alden and her merry band are planning an Entertainment for Saturday 27th at 6pm. We have several offers from people keen to showcase their talents, and some from people willing to demonstrate them on the day – painting, bookbinding, flower arranging are amongst those offered. More details of how you can participate on page 19. And of course the ever-popular Foodhall in the parish rooms will be providing morning coffee, lunch and afternoon tea along with the Home Baking Stall where you stock up on cakes, bread, jam, marmalade and the like.
Judy East
Errata
October may seem a long way off but please amend your diaries now to show the Book Sale on 5th October and not 21st Sept as previously advertised