Sweet May hath come to love us,
Flowers, trees, their blossoms don;
And through the blue heavens above us
The very clouds move on.”
Heinrich Heine, Book of Songs
so Barbara Alden quotes in her introduction to Now is the Month of Maying, the Literary Hour on 16th May We could do with some blue heavens since April, following a glorious but dry March, did its best to redress the balance, fill the reservoirs and water the gardens. Of course we know that relatively small amount of rain hasn’t filled the reservoirs and we are still in a serious drought, but it certainly watered the gardens!
May seems unusually quiet this year without a Spring Fair but make the most of it because the Fair hasn’t been cancelled, only postponed, and will burst upon us on Saturday 23rd June as part of the Flower Festival. We haven’t had a Flower Festival since 1995 so when we realised 2012 was the 200th anniversary of the consecration of the Additional Burial Ground it seemed an appropriate way of marking the occasion. Even if there are one or two other things happening this year this is OUR 2012! All the usual requests apply – please think about baking and jam-making, please think about how you can be part of the experience. As always all the proceeds will be given to charities supported by the parish.
And there’ll be a raffle – information about the prizes is still a secret but we expect the tickets to be available from the second week in May for you to buy, of course, but also to sell to your friends.
The Hampstead Christian Study Centre’s summer term features talks on famous people buried in the ABG (Additional Burial Ground)
Christian Aid Week begins on 13th May with the presentation of the Children’s banner and blessing of collectors. Charity collecting days have become so common we were hesitant about inflicting another on the public who no longer show any interest in who’s collecting for what and give very sparingly if at all; of course we believe Christian Aid is a very good cause but so do all the other charity supporters, so this year we decided that the children would be invited to make a banner and go out into the High Street, suitably supervised, to collect and draw attention to Christian Aid on Saturday 19th for a short time and we would focus our fund-raising efforts on a cake stall over coffee the next day.
You’ve guessed what’s coming next – please make us a cake!
Ascension Day falls in Christian Aid Week – 17th May – and again the focus will be on the children with a Eucharist sung by the Junior Choir at 7pm and Children’s Activities the next day, Friday 18th, from 4.30pm in the Crypt Room, followed by a service at 6pm.
Looking ahead to June – on Sunday 3rd we will be celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee with a drink outside the church (weather permitting of course) after the 10.30am service. Possibly red, white and blue cup cakes too – but that’s only a rumour so far.
A brief report on the Annual Parochial Church Meeting held just before the printing deadline
Churchwardens: sadly we are losing Bill James before his term of office is up as work takes the family back USA. Marcus Malik was elected churchwarden in his place. Diana Finning was re-elected.
PCC: : Mark Nevard, Natasha Blumenthal, Vanessa Fitzpatrick, Stephanie Scott-Linden, Frances Spalding, Chris Weatherhead.
Sidesmen: too many to list here – amazingly we have 58 sidesmen – more than some parishes have in their whole congregation.
Director of Music: Lee’s successor will be James Sherlock – more of this another month (and there’s always google……)
The business part of the meeting was followed by a power-point presentation on growing the church – a subject I’m sure we’ll hear more about in the coming months.
May
Judy East