– Summer Fair 10th
– Sarah’s Ordination 25th
– her 1st Mass 27th
So – plenty to do and look forward to! Let’s start with the Summer Fair: this is our big fund-raising event for the charities we support [you can find details about them all in the booklet A Manual for Cheerful Givers’]. We always need lots of help and lots of people to come and spend money so one way or another something for everyone. Details on page 9.
Ordination: The Bishop of Stepney, Rt Revd Stephen Oliver, is coming here to ordain Sarah Eynstone on Sunday 25th at 5pm and we hope you’ll all come to support her. We will, of course, be following the service with a party [outside, hopefully, though the way the weather’s going this year, don’t count on it]. Then on Tuesday 27th at 7.30pm Sarah will be celebrating her first Mass – another important occasion to which we hope you will all come.
And talking of ordinations, Derek Spottiswoode celebrates the 25th anniversary of his ordination by preaching for us at the 10.30am Eucharist on 2nd July, which happens to be the Sunday School Open Day and the day of the Junior Prom – so another busy weekend. Drinks [and lunch] will be available after the service and before the Prom – donations to a charity nominated by the Sunday School. During Lent they collected £184 for WaterAid, an amazingly large [and heavy] amount of coin.
But I’m running ahead of myself, I haven’t finished with June yet. The Hampstead Players are well into rehearsals for Julius Caesar – you can read about it on page 10, followed by a review of the Hampstead Players Youth Theatre’s exciting production of Grimm Tales; note also that the Players are doing a reading of Bunbury on 16th – described in their Newsletter as a sequel to The Importance of Being Earnest.
The Parochial School have their Fair on 24th – with a Victorian theme as they are celebrating the school’s 150th anniversary this year. Also on the 24th is Camden Choir’s Midsummer Concert, featuring Vaughan Williams’ Serenade to Music and something by Pachelbel other than his Canon – Magnificat.
Just to prove we’re not completely out of touch with world affairs included on page 21 is an interview with Brazilian football star Ze Roberto.
The Railings
Has inflation gone mad? Has the cost really shot up from £10,000 to £20,000? Or [implied] have we got it wrong? I won’t tell you who accosted me in this vein but perhaps I should explain:-
The PCC decided to go ahead with painting the railings round the church at an estimated cost of £10,500. The ABG Trustees, not to be outdone, decided they should get their railings done as well [estimated cost £8,600]. The church got there first – reaching it’s target mid-May and agreed to go on collecting in order to make a donation to the ABG Trustees towards their railings. We gain by doing it this way because the church is a registered charity and can take advantage of Giftaid which the Trustees of the ABG can’t do. Thus the combined cost becomes £19,100 – and we’re allowing the extra £900 in case there are more repairs than at first thought – if we don’t need it, we’ll stop at £19,100. I hope that makes sense!
And the reason we’re doing the ABG railings first is that the Papal Nuncio is visiting St Mary’s in July and they made a very generous donation to our Appeal on that understanding. [I don’t know what a Papal Nuncio is or how exalted but we’ve never had a visitor to HPC that we thought sufficiently important to paint the railings for! ]
The main thing to keep in mind is that we still need around £4,500, so don’t stop urging everyone you know to make a donation – however small.
We hope to have the work completed by the early autumn and to have a dedication service – possibly on Dedication Sunday in October. I’m not sure how you dedicate railings or what music would be particularly suitable but I’m sure Lee can come up with something. Any ideas anyone?
Finally, although it happens first, on June 4th we say goodbye for the moment to Sian Price as she goes on maternity leave and wish them both [all] well, and a speedy delivery!
Judy East