Last week we celebrated with Lee Ward his 18 year term of office as our Director of Music and said a sad and fond farewell to him as he sets off for a very different kind of work in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Evidently we should never have allowed him to go there on Sabbatical last year! But we congratulate him, wish him well, and hope to get news of his new venture from time to time. The service was sung by a large choir made up of people who’d sung for Lee over his eighteen years at HPC – it was quite a reunion to see so many well known and much loved members back again. Emotions were running high in the choir stalls – particularly when we got to the final hymn – The day thou gavest Lord is ended; personally I was all right until we got to the fourth verse – ‘The sun that bids us rest is waking our brethren ‘neath the western sky’ and I realised that if he wasn’t going west but south Lee is going a very long way away!
But then there was the party – the second one of the day actually as we celebrated at both main services. A stunning cake, strawberries, wine, every kind of nibble you could possibly wish for – a triumph for the catering team who managed all this only a week after putting on three days of food for the Flower Festival.
Between the two services we were entertained by the Junior Choir Prom, led by David and with Lee accompanying. Their programme included Mater ora filium from the new CD – Jubilate Deo, out now and available from the church for only £10 – as well as a selection of choral pieces and some individual performances. The full choir came together for the final selection which featured three of the adult choir : Robin Tyson, 1st voilin, Aidan Coburn, 2nd violin, Julia Featherstone, cello, giving a musical accompaniment to Howard Goodall’s The Lord is my Shepherd ; then, along with James Featherstone, they sang with the junior choristers in Byrd’s Teach me O Lord. I think this is the first time the adult choir has taken part in the prom and it was lovely to see them there.
By the time the next issue of this magazine comes out in September our new Director of Music, James Sherlock, will be just starting in post and we look forward to getting to know him. James has already met, and played for, the Junior Choir at at least one of their weekday Choral Evensongs.
So a long summer stretches ahead – a summer when it seems as if we Londoners are going to be stranded in our homes, unable to travel because of the Olympics, probably unable to get tickets, nothing for it but to get square-eyed in front of the TV – though I suppose ‘square eyes’ doesn’t apply to today’s wide screens – ‘oblong eyes / rectangle eyes’ – doesn’t have the same ring to it somehow, does it?
But if you don’t want to sit at home and you don’t want to watch the Olympics you can still come to church and we do still have some activities that might tempt you out:
There’s a lunchtime concert on 1st August (John Campbell, trumpet) and Literary Hours on 18th July (Courage) and 15th August (Poetry of Childhood); each one is followed by coffee and a chance to chat. And for the children there’s a Children’s Holiday Camp between 23rd and 27th July. (Booking essential – contact Emma or Liz).
We’ll be sewing hassocks on 1st August between 2.30 and 5pm – a few months ago I was optimistic that we might be coming to the end, that surely there couldn’t be many more, but I keep finding whole pews of torn and bedraggled hassocks in need of TLC.
Church Stewards: Last month I talked about having more people in church to welcome visitors during the week and I suppose it’s possible that the Olympics might bring more visitors – whether they’re visiting London for the Games and doing a bit of sight-seeing or Londoners trying to find somewhere away from it all. If anyone would like to offer the occasional hour please let me know. Wednesday and Thursday afternoons may be times when we would particularly want cover as the office is closed and it may be unstaffed at other times while people are on holiday.
And talking of offices, work will be starting on the new vestry in July. This means the Lady Chapel will be largely unusable, although I imagine the Blessed Sacrament will still be kept there, for several weeks. The change will make more space in the office for, well, ‘office’ work, and provide a separate space for the clergy to robe and prepare themselves for services. The need for a separate clergy vestry has been around for about 20 years – the ideas we came up with included somewhere in the gallery, a glass cage in the south chapel, the space now occupied by the disabled toilet, part of the choir vestry, everywhere but suspended from the ceiling! And now it’s going to happen. We go slowly but we get there in the end.
Erratum
Christian Aid Week in the parish actually raised £1321.18 – more than previously announced. Overall the seven churches in the Hampstead East group collected £3645.64.
July and August
Judy East