During Lent we make changes to our lives but the biggest change we are faced with this Lent is to manage without Father Terrance whose final Sunday we celebrated on 26th February. In an attempt to feed body and soul, as Peter Ginnings intimated in his speech, we gave him and Sarah an Icon and a Bread maker. Lots of analogies with priestly ministry and feeding the five thousand come to mind but I leave them to your imagination. Suffice it to say that we will miss Terrance, Sarah and Andrew but wish them all joy in their new life in Offley, Lilley and Kings Langley. Father Terrance’s final sermon, and his very last story, follow in this issue. How can we contemplate a life without his anecdotes? Penitential indeed.
Lenten Observance
Over the years I’ve amassed a fund of instructions for Lent: * give something up;
* take something up;
* ‘Clean behind your fridge’. This was from, I think, the Church Times, many years ago and didn’t, as I imagined, mean metaphorically clearing out the dark places of the mind but did, literally, mean cleaning behind your fridge – or your sofa, or wherever you don’t normally clean. Somewhat akin to spring cleaning, I suppose, tackling all those jobs you usually put off as long as possible;
* don’t tell anyone what you’re giving/taking up, in fact go to some lengths to avoid drawing attention to your penance. As Jesus said “So too when you fast, do not look gloomy like the hypocrites; they make their faces unsightly so that everybody may see that they are fasting…..But when you fast, anoint your head and wash your face, so that no one sees that you are fasting, but only your Father.” Matthew 6.16. Not easy. Have you tried going out in a group and asking for orange juice? Tried drinking tonic without the gin and without comment? It’s easier to give up socialising altogether.
So maybe one of our observances could be to refrain from asking what everyone else is doing!
Sunday School
Longer term than taking up something for Lent would be to volunteer to help with the Sunday School. We have 4 classes, Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, and more teachers and helpers are urgently needed. There is a rota so you don’t have to do it every week, you’re never alone, there are always at least 2 adults in each class, it’s enjoyable and fulfilling work, training is available and the classes follow a set programme with input for each week. Please consider seriously whether you could commit some time to this. It’s a vital part of our mission and the ever-increasing numbers a testament to our growth.
The Railings
The long talked-about moment has arrived! In this issue we launch the appeal to help us pay for repainting the railings. Although the ultimate responsibility for their restoration lies with Camden Council we have decided, following the funding of a section by the Church Row Association, to have them repainted – which will help to stop their deterioration. People with long memories may remember that a long, long time ago this was begun but on that occasion money ran out at the grey undercoat stage. We promise not to do that! To that end we are aiming to raise £10,000 for the railings round the church. [To paint all the way up Holly Walk will cost another £8,000 and whilst we’d like to, we don’t feel we can commit ourselves at this stage. Of course if enough comes in……… ] The Heath and Hampstead Society have generously offered £4,000 towards the final cost. Searching the archives eventually turned up the meeting of the Trustees on 7th March 1747 at which the original costs were presented. Including the carriage from Canons [The Duke of Chandos’ house, now the North London Collegiate School] the bill came to £62. 17s 0d. I don’t know how that compares with today’s restoration costs. If you’d like to contribute the address for donations is on page 9. And another call on your purse on page 10 – please read the letter from our Treasurer, Inigo Woolf.
Updated dates
Last month we published a list of dates which we can now update: we have received confirmation that the Confirmation will take place on Sunday 9th July at 10.30am. Mother Sarah’s Ordination is still to be fixed, but is expected to be the 25th June, with her first mass on Tuesday 27th. This means that the Sunday School Open Day and Junior Prom will be on 2nd July – but watch this space. We will finalise eventually.
Gardening
You’ve probably noticed what a huge improvement there’s been in the churchyard recently. Lots of clearing has been done but that has left us with large piles of cuttings which have to be moved to the Additional Burial Ground for collection by Camden. A group of people could probably do it in a few hours – if it were a big enough group – Saturday 18th March at 10am? If you can make please come along [no skill required].
A Lenten Meditation
Barbara Thomson assures me she didn’t know this poem when she designed the Lenten altar frontal but the two do go so beautifully together:
This is the place of prayer
Here, where the inward-pointing nails
converge.
The ever-narrowing gate
intersection
when the world of time and space
yields up its measured form.
Here in the needle’s eye
Dark upon dark.
The aching, echoing void
of the hollowed heart
suspended
at the point of change.
Unknowing
[and that is the agony]
bearing the unknown
to the mystery
at the place of prayer.
May Crowther From Night Prayers by Jim Cotter
Lent Groups
As usual we are joining with the other churches of Churches Together in Hampstead for our Lent course and, if you haven’t already signed up for a course there may be space in one or two of them. The material this year has been written by Revd Dr Marie Isaacs and is based on her book on the Epistle to the Hebrews.