And in green underwood and cover
Blossom by blossom the spring begins
A C Swinburne
Actually because of the bizarrely mild winter there’s been blossom somewhere all winter and only now is it beginning to feel like winter. Global warming is concerning more and more groups as its effects are being felt more keenly around the world, in droughts, floods and storms. Amongst the book reviews you’ll find in this issue is The Coming First World Debt Crisis by Anne Pettifor, which goes into this subject in some detail.
At this time of year we get letters from many of our charities thanking us for donations following the Christmas collections – if there were space I’d print some here, or if there were space on the noticeboard I’d pin them up, but there isn’t, so I can’t. However they do exist, people are grateful, very grateful, for the money we send their various causes.
Lent
Ash Wednesday is on 21st February. We have two services that day incorporating the Imposition of Ashes, one at 10.15 and a Sung Eucharist at 7.30pm. Please bring your palm crosses back before then to be. made into the ash.
Our Lent groups this year focus on Faith at Work and will comprise sections dealing with hospitals, the city, prison, education and the media. We’ll be asking for people to host the groups and as in past years we’ll be sharing the course with the other members of Churches Together in Hampstead.
The Sunday School this Lent are again collecting for WaterAid, a charity which seeks to bring fresh water projects to places where such a thing is a luxury and water borne diseases all too commonly killers. You can join them in their Jars of Change – please ask for a label and start filling your jar with money. Donations should be brought to church at Easter [but if you’re going to be away, please remember to bring it before you go].
But I’m moving ahead too quickly – there’s a lot to do before Lent starts. The Bald Prima Donna, for instance, a Hampstead Players Youth Theatre production in the Crypt – details on page 17; Desert Island Discs, page 9 and the Martindale Sidwell Memorial Recital with Clare Dawson and Lee Ward, [back cover]/ And the final 2 sessions of the Study Centre course The Bible and …… featuring Father Stephen on 7th and Mother Sarah on 14th.
Hopefully, by the time you read this the replacement of the boiler will have been completed. The new boiler is in the building, in the Allatson Room to be precise, which anyone who’s tried to use the room will know: it’s big. Though not nearly as big as the ones its replacing. Somewhat unexpectedly we found ourselves without any heat at all the very day it snowed but let’s hope we’ll soon be enjoying the improved output of our new heating.
February
Judy East