By the time you get this magazine you’ll have missed the chance to fold and insert 4,500 letters in envelopes for the Voluntary Rate but don’t worry, you can still help! These letters need delivering. They will be at the back of the church, bundled into streets. This could be a task for Lent [they should all go out before the end of March] although some of the gardens in Hampstead are particularly beautiful at this time of year, alive with spring flowers which makes it seem much less Lenten. Do help, last year we raised about £6,700 for the Fabric Fund and with our plans for the disabled persons’ toilet at last taking off, the conversion of the Belfry into a Parent and Baby Room, and other long term ideas the Fabric Fund is going to need all the help it can get.
LENT
The culmination of our Lenten observance comes at the end of this month – You can spend the whole week in church!
Holy Week is preceded on Saturday 19th by a cleaning morning from 10am. We’re always glad of helpers. The following Saturday, 26th, we will be decorating the church with flowers, also from 10am. Separating these two happenings means everyone can come to both – isn’t it good to know you don’t have to make a choice between the cleaning and the decorating?
Holy Week and Easter Services are listed elsewhere in the magazine – I draw your attention to 3 ways in which we are inviting you to commit yourself:
Maundy Thursday
? “If I do not wash you, you have no part in me”
Will you volunteer for footwashing on Maundy Thursday [we need 12 people]
? “Could you not watch with me one hour?”
Will you choose an hour for the Watch by the Cross [no limit on numbers]
Easter Eve
? “On this most holy night, in which our Lord Jesus Christ passed over from death to life, the Church invites her members, dispersed throughout the world, to gather in vigil and prayer” Will you read at the Easter Vigil [we need 6 people]
The rich diversity of Church of England liturgy and music is ours to enjoy and with Father Stephen’s planning and Lee, David and the choirs’ efforts we do have a feast, if that’s the word for so solemn an occasion, to offer. Of course it costs money to provide such wonderful music and if you wanted to contribute specifically to the Holy Week music you could sponsor a singer or two. I’d be happy to discuss this with anyone interested. You can do it anonymously or in memory of someone or to mark some special occasion.
For a more modest sum you can sponsor the Easter flowers and have the name of a loved one added to the In Memoriam list in the porch. [See page 13 for details.]
Clocks go forward an hour on Saturday 26th March – this is important, more important than usual, because if you forget you’ll miss the Easter Day Services!
From the Cathedral
? Would you like to be a working friend?
The Cathedral is seeking to recruit additional volunteers as Working Friends. They are introducing changes to the way in which they meet, greet and interact with the many visitors that come to the Cathedral. Volunteers and working friends will play a major role. Why not join one of the friendly teams of volunteers who work in the Cathedral? You can choose a day that is most convenient for you. Full training will be given with the opportunity, if you wish, to become an official guide. For application form please call 020 7246 8350
? Sergei Chepik at St Paul’s
Remember Golgotha? A painting that hung in the Chapel during Passiontide some 6 years ago? We have a limited edition print in the Vestry. There have been a number of local exhibitions of his work at the Catto Gallery and now four of his paintings are in St Paul’s Cathedral. There’s a nativity “stripped of the manger, the shepherds and the wise men. The infant Christ – who looks about 7 – appears, arms outstretched, as if offering Himself to the world.” [Fisun Güner, in Metro, January 26, 2005]. Two of the paintings are 6.7 metres high, two are smaller and are in the nave until 2007. I confess to not having seen them yet and would be interested in hearing what people think of them. As a parish in the Diocese we have 4 visitor passes to St Paul’s if anyone would like to borrow them.
? The Chrism Mass will be held there on Maundy Thursday at 11am. At this service the oils used throughout the year for baptism, confirmation, ordination and anointing are blessed and distributed to the attending clergy. All are welcome to attend.
March
Judy East