Like it or loathe it summer’s nearly over, autumn’s on the way. As I write we’re being promised another week of hot weather and records are set to tumble yet again. They go down quite easily, don’t they – one day in early August was the HOTTEST DAY – since what? since records began? for 50 years? – well, no, hottest day for seven year doesn’t quite have the dramatic touch they were aiming for, does it? When all we really need to say is ‘Isn’t it nice to have a decent summer again?’
Wasn’t London FULL? It isn’t fashionable to note on the news how well things are going so, whilst we heard about the downturn in tourism last year, we’re perhaps less likely to hear that there’s been a boom this summer, but surely there must have been? Fighting my way through herds of tourists (insular Londoner speaking here, I admit) I rather regretted the empty museums and galleries that accompanied the Olympics in 2012.
September means School terms taking off again; we welcome the choir back, Sunday School starts on 8th with ‘Move Up Sunday’ when children changing age-range go to their new groups and the teachers dedicate themselves to the year ahead. The new term for the Women’s Bible Study is outlined on page……. And there’s a new look to the Hampstead Christian Study Centre which is reinventing itself as a Reading Group. And if you look very carefully you’ll find the first mention of Christmas somewhere in these pages!
The Friends of the Music celebrate the choir’s return a week later with the Garden Party (keep your fingers crossed it will be garden party and not a crypt room party) on 15th and the month ends with Harvest Festival on 29th. We’ll be collecting food for the Simon Community and the local Foodbanks as usual but the theme of the day will be Syria and, as well as Father Stephen’s article, you can read more about our plans and a first-hand account of the situation further on in this issue.
And because it’s a new term and you might need a reminder of what’s to come, we’ve included a list of a few of the events coming up this autumn on the diary page.
Would you like to help?
They say Cathedral congregations are picking up because people know they can worship there without being asked to join a rota and it’s certainly true that churches need helpers in all sorts of ways. We do recognise that not everyone feels the urge to clean, weed, make coffee, hand out hymn books and so on but on the other hand these jobs do have to be done and is it fair to the few who do offer to have to do it too often? Father Stephen preached recently about the nature of the Sabbath, is it a day of rest, a day of frenetic energy, a day of endless boredom? Seldom boring if you belong to a church I suspect but too often frenetic energy does describe it. Or is our day of rest being enjoyed at others’ expense? I know I appreciate a cup of coffee after the service so it seems only fair to be on the rota and serve it from time to time. If you do feel the urge to help you’ll find a list of possibilities at the back of each magazine, along with contact details of the organisers.
Bach to Baby have moved
If you miss their monthly concerts you can find them at Burgh House, or there’s Classical Babies at St Peter’s Belsize Park and Eeny Meeny Music at Heath Street Baptist Church.
Silly season for editors of the Oxford English Dictionary
It is literally nonsense that literally is the same as metaphorically. “If enough people use a word in a particular way it finds its way into the dictionary”. If enough people call my cat a dog does she become a dog? Forgive me if I literally decline to join them.
September
Judy East