A blank page stares at me and I stare back and wonder what I should write. I could write about events coming up this month – the Lunchtime concert on 7th, the Literary hour on 21st, the Friends of the Music Garden Party on 11th – and so on. We’re getting back into gear as we always do after the summer break – Bible study groups start again and Holy Hamsters; the Parochial School launches its new term with a service on 8th, the diary quickly fills up. All the staff have had their holidays and returned to us. Well – not quite all because Lee has disappeared to Brazil and won’t be back till January 2012. He writes about what he’ll be doing in this issue and Ralph Allwood, who’s standing in for him, writes a bit about himself too. Somehow his Eton Choral Course featured on Radio 4 singing the Sunday morning service from Durham Cathedral one Sunday in August – possibly he can explain that better, at 8 o’clock on a Sunday morning my mind wasn’t fully on what I was hearing. We wish Lee well and look forward to welcoming Ralph at the aforementioned Garden Party [details of which you can find on page 30]
But I must confess my mind isn’t fully on September but looking further ahead – to the Sidwell Memorial concert on 1st October which this year features two of our favourites – Ed Price and Jonny Beatty; to Dedication on 2nd and Harvest Festival on 8th.
And perhaps I’m looking back a bit as well because during August we lost two much-loved members of our congregation, Sylvia Fry and Nina Mitchell. As I write Nina’s funeral is yet to happen but we include Philip Buckler’s address at Sylvia’s funeral in this issue as well as one of her favourite poems which was read by her daughter, Christabel, at the service. ‘Each man’s death diminishes me’ John Donne wrote, and that is so true of parish life, where people take a little part of each of us when they go.
But parishes grow too and it’s worth reflecting that we’ve already had 17 baptisms this year and there’s a list in the vestry indicating at least 8 more to come.
Of course the bigger the parish the more there is to do but somehow the number of volunteers doesn’t seem to reflect this. We need helpers for so many things – stewarding [being in the church during the day so that we can keep it open], gardening, cleaning, driving, helping in Sunday school, serving coffee on a Sunday morning and helping at occasional events – Harvest Lunch, Christmas Market.
There’s a list of the opportunities we offer in the back of each issue of this magazine but I wonder how many people read it and think ‘I could do that’. This month why not have a look and see which team you might like to join? Details of who to contact follow each entry.
Looking a long way ahead things are getting serious for the Flower Festival committee. It has been agreed to make 23rd and 24th June 2012 a major festival weekend so instead of the Spring Fair in 2012 many of the attractions will be transferred to 23rd June. Coffee, lunch, tea, the cake stall, tombola and children’s activities will all happen as usual and, of course, a Raffle – couldn’t have a year without a raffle. We hope to get a really good top prize again and will have tickets on sale throughout the weekend instead of just the Saturday. There won’t be stalls in church [because it’ll be full of flowers] so for one year only we’ll be without jumble, gifts, white elephant and books [though there is the possibility of a book stall at some other time during in the year.] This will undoubtedly disappoint some people – change always does – but we hope it’ll be worth it when you see the flowers. You can read more about this on page 21.
Finally, although I accept it’s really too early – two mentions containing the word ‘Christmas’ bcause they both require preparation : Operation Christmas Child – see page [because shoeboxes have to be in by 6th November] and the Christmas Market [19th November] because we want you to make things to sell, to look out unwanted gifts and come and buy.
September
Judy East