Christmas seems very far behind us by January even though the 12 days of Christmas have a few yet to run. We start looking forward, planning the year, even planning our summer holidays if the TV ads are to be believed. Well, this issue of the magazine goes along with the planning – you’ll find an outline of the year’s events further on [and maybe that’ll help you plan your holidays too].
There’s a new look to our service pattern. Weekday morning service times are changing to a slightly later time and, for an experimental period, the time of Choral Evensong is being brought forward to 4.30pm. We hope this move, bringing us closer to cathedral timing, might be more popular – for such a beautiful service Evensong is poorly attended. Hopefully more people may come at 4.30pm – if you’ve never tried it, now’s your chance. Please check the times listed on the Diary page and make a note of them – and tell anyone you think might like to know.
I hardly like to mention the heating again – especially as I don’t, at the time of writing, have a date for the work to be done, and am beginning to wonder if it’ll be this winter at all. Fortunately one boiler is working so the church hasn’t been as cold as I feared – indeed it seems to work remarkably well, the only curious feature being that there’s only heat on one side [the south], an aspect of the heating system we hadn’t realised. So if you are finding it cold, and you normally sit on the north side, I suggest you move across so as to be nearer the warm pipes.
Mid-December felt a little like the start of a winter of discontent’, waiting to hear from the heating engineers, scaffolding up but no work being done and then, the last straw, the break-down of the organ. Urgent phone calls to everyone I could think of failed to elicit any response. Why do these things always happen at weekends? And why this weekend of the year in particular? However this near-disaster was fortunately averted by the London Oratory School kindly lending us a chamber organ, Lee organizing the transport [just as well Directors of Music can drive vans] and several members of the congregation setting aside their afternoon plans a week before Christmas to help move it. It sounded remarkably good – relief all round. The Carol Service was a huge success, the church looked lovely and we all relaxed.
January is a time for drawing the curtains, curling up on the sofa and shutting out the world – but if you’re not so inclined we do have events to take you out. From the Diary page you’ll see that the Study Centre starts again on 17th, that the Wednesday morning Bible Study begins on 3rd and that the Tuesday Meditative Eucharists and Women of Faith Bible Study are scheduled. We don’t have dates yet for St Mark’s Group but it will happen – keep an eye on the pew sheet for that. On 26th January Bill and Sylvia Fry will be performing their Theatre Roundabout production of Barchester Towers in the church. And writing that reminds me that this poses a particular problem someone out there may be able to help with. They would like a carpet 12′ by 9′ to go on the stage. Do you a] have a carpet that size ? [It’s quite big, somewhat larger than my living room I think] and b] can you spare it for a few days? and, I suppose, c] is it so heavy we wouldn’t possibly be able to shift it? It would be embarrassing for Hampstead Parish Church to disappoint them when I’m sure all the other venues they play are able to come up with what they need!
There are two reports from charities supported by the parish – CARIS Haringey and The Bethlehem Arab Society for Rehabilitation – as well as an article by Anthony Hutton in our series on The Persecuted Church.
Every January the church celebrates the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity. This is a worldwide movement of Christians of many denominations, languages, races and cultures, who are engaged in praying and working for the unity of Christians in the service of the wider redemption, unity and peace of all peoples. Every year the dates are the same, starting on 18th January and culminating in the Conversion of St Paul on 25th. Praying for unity does not involve prayer for any specific schemes for unity. It is about being faithful to the prayer of Jesus Christ, as seen in John 17, ‘that they may be one’. The verse chosen for 2007 is: He even makes the deaf to hear and the mute to speak’. The Bible reading is Mark 7:31 37. This year our local service will be hosted by Christ Church, Hampstead, on Friday 19th at 7.30pm
So – something for everyone there, I think, and if I can drag myself away from my cosy sofa I may join you!
Happy New Year,
January
Judy East