Dull November brings the blast:
Down from the trees the leaves fall fast.
Sara Coleridge
Trying to track down this rhyme on the internet produced so many bad weather predictions – November brings stormy weather’ November snow brings long winter’ November brings more moisture’ November brings colder weather and children’s nemesis’ [I don’t want to depress you at all] cold November rain’ and rather obscurely Music brings people together in Kosovo’ which apparently went on to talk about a [presumably] wonderful concert in a hall where the temperature was only 10…. but you had to pay to see the rest of the article so we’ll never know – I began to be alarmed. If any of these prognostications of November weather prove true then in the next couple of weeks we could be writing of services where the temperature in church was only…….. because as I write we’re still waiting for the new boiler. With luck it may come soon and then after a 10 -14 day installation period should be up and running. In the meantime we are looking into hiring some form of temporary heating which will help – but probably not a lot. Come prepared – get your winter woollies out now!
Mother Sarah is starting a new venture this month – a Meditative Eucharist on some Tuesday evenings at 8pm. The services will be accompanied by Taizé chants and if you’re familiar with and enjoy singing them , please come along. See the diary for dates – the intention is to hold them on the first and third Tuesdays but at the moment that’s subject to already existing church bookings.
All Saints / All Souls
We start the month with a Choral Eucharist for All Saints on Wednesday 1st and move on to our annual Service of Remembrance and Thanksgiving for All Souls on 5th [at 4pm] at which we remember loved ones who have died in previous years. Candles are lit and the names of the departed read out. Then we all relax over a cup of tea in the Crypt.
Remembrance
The Scratch Requiem is on 11th. Each year we commemorate Remembrance-tide with a scratch performance, rotating Brahms, Fauré, Mozart and Verdi, whose turn it is this year. You are invited to come and sing at 1.30 or come and listen at 6pm. Soloists are taken from our Sunday choir. This year we welcome David Gostick, former assistant organist here who moved on to Wimborne Minster, who will be conducting.
The next day at 10.30am we have our special Requiem Eucharist for Remembrance Day, culminating in the laying of a wreath at the War Memorial outside the gates. Then, another traditional activity for Remembrance Day, in the afternoon we will be putting up the stage for A Tale of Two Cities which is being performed by the Hampstead Players towards the end of the month. Do read Adam and John’s article further on in this issue and note the times of the performances which this year are slightly different from their usual pattern.
The Christmas Market
On the 18th we hold our annual Christmas Market and I would urge you all to support this really quite cheery event. The church has a gift stall and a produce stall in aid of the Fabric fund [and goodness knows it needs the money – the boiler alone will leave a huge hole in our savings] and other charities will have a range of their cards and gifts; the Friends of the Music provide coffee and home made biscuits [the best homemade biscuits in Hampstead – allegedly], the Junior Choir will run a toy stall if they don’t make off with all the toys before they get to the tables, and there will be a Tombola for the gamblers.
Help is needed for all of this of course. A few hands for the stalls and lots of baking and making and sorting out of gifts – all those things you were given last year and really don’t want [but please, this isn’t a junk stall, it is meant to be Gifts. I think people sometimes don’t realise that if they off-load their junk onto the church we have to pay to have it taken away afterwards.]
We have two special Evensongs this month – on the 19th we will be celebrating St Cecilia with a party in the vicarage afterwards and the following week the Hampstead Players are celebrating their 30th anniversary, also with a party after the service – this time in the Crypt.
It always seems too early to be talking about Christmas in November but it really isn’t – commercially preparations began long ago and even if our emphasis is slightly different and we are grounded in the Biblical narrative of the Nativity we can’t escape the presents and the puddings and the cards.
And talking of cards…….. the very end of the month will see the launch of our parish cards – not Christmas cards to buy but cards outlining our Christmas services to be delivered to every household in the parish. We need everyone’s help with this because there are over 4.000 households and to get round them the staff would have had to start in June. But with your help we can do it in the first two weeks in December – giving everyone plenty of notice of the first big event – the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols on 17th December.
Oh and, by the way, I will be attempting another hassock mending morning on 2nd November – the last one could have been better attended. If you are prepared to help but can’t make Thursdays please speak to me – otherwise I’ll give up and they can stay torn!
Happy November