As Lent approaches our thoughts turn to Lent books and you’ll find a selection reviewed further on in this issue. I confess I haven’t read any of them but one I have read and recommend is Soul Sisters by Edwina Gately published by Orbis Press and it’s companion volume Soul Brothers by Richard Rohr, both illustrated by Louis Glanzman. I’m taking Soul Brothers on a recommendation, I haven’t seen a copy yet, but Soul Sisters has some powerful things to say about women today, linked to women in the New Testament. [Both are available on Amazon].
Meanwhile we’ve two sermons to offer you this month, details of the Martindale Sidwell concert which this month features Charlotte Ives, one of our regular sopranos and advance notice of welcoming Lyn Phillips back for another in the popular Desert Island Disc series [but not until March].
Opportunities to volunteer
When you’re new to a parish it’s sometimes hard to find your ‘way in’ in the sense of getting involved in its activities. And from the other side, so to speak, it’s hard to reach the people who want to volunteer and match the right person to the right job. Well, this month we have two completely different possibilities: The Events group will be meeting on 19th February after the 10.30am service [bring your coffee to the Gregory Room] and are hoping they’ll be joined by lots of people eager to help with anything from a tea party to the Summer Fair. There is also an appeal from the London branch of the Jane Austen Society who are looking for someone to tend her aunt’s grave [you didn’t know her aunt was buried here?
You can also read about Women’s World Day of Prayer [3rd March], the Hampstead Players Youth Theatre’s production of Grimm’s Fairy Tales, palm crosses, snowdrops and St Kew.
The War Memorial
is back. It looks quite strange, I’ve got used to its lean and now it’s straight as, I suppose, it must once have been!
What’s in a name?
Now that Katherine is safely installed in the office I am happily reverting to my part-time role [Thursday-Sunday if you want to find me in] under the title of Sacristan [or possibly Verger]. Titles aren’t always as much help as we would like them to be [Philip Buckler, when I started here preferred the title Parish Clerk – which was an all encompassing title that had to go when part of the job was split off]; now people are wont to ask me What is a Sacristan? Or, for that matter, What is a Verger? Many people in the Anglican church at least think they know what a verger is, whereas my friends in the Catholic church understand part of what I do if I say I’m a sacristan.
Google came up with the following definitions:
“A verger is a committed lay minister within the Church who assists the clergy in the ordering and conduct of public worship, especially in the marshalling of processions. [Not quite so necessary in our church as in a cathedral where processions could very easily get lost or even collide without someone to lead them.] During the service itself, a verger’s main duty is to ceremonially precede the religious participants as they move about the church; he or she does not typically take any speaking part in the service itself. … Vergers’ duties can be purely ceremonial or include other responsibilities, such as parish administration, leadership of the worship committee or sexton. …Usually thought of as someone who carries a verge [mace or ceremonial staff] in procession; vergers sometimes also have responsibility for the condition of the interior of a church…….. In practice the caretaker of a church building, full-time, part-time or honorary.” And bear in mind that all this was devised long before churches had orders of service or pew sheets [or parish magazines] and typewriters hadn’t been invented, let alone computers.
Does all this matter? Well, not so long as the work gets done and everyone’s happy but living under an assumed name, a new title, is somewhat confusing and I admit to still thinking of myself as a verger and probably will go on doing so as long as I spend more time looking after the building and the clergy than the sacred vessels [which don’t need nearly so much attention!]