If Harvest comes low on my list of favourite services Dedication must come at the top. Whilst most churches celebrate this on their Saint’s day here in Hampstead we choose the Sunday nearest to the 7th October, the actual date in 1747 that the building was dedicated. So the link takes us right back to the 18th century visionaries who had the courage to make the plans, choose the architect and raise the money to carry the project through. And ever since then the congregation have kept the church in good order, enlarging it in 1843 and again in 1878, adding chapels and vestries in 1911 and rooms under the church more recently. Development is still going on – we’re in the process of adding a new toilet to the church and have plans to improve the Belfry room for use as a small and comfortable meeting room. Later we will start considering the other end of the building and what we can do to improve the clergy vestry and office area. We carry on the work begun in 1747, making a building that suits the needs of the people using it. That building was paid for by pew rents, today we have to raise money in other ways and you’ll be hearing more of that under Stewardship this autumn.
But dedication isn’t only about buildings. At the Parish Eucharist on 9th October we will all be invited to rededicate our lives in this Act of Rededication, led by the Churchwardens:
Father Stephen, we invite you as servant and shepherd of this congregation, to offer once again a prayer of dedication for this Church.
Vicar :
God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit, accept, sanctify and bless this place. The Lord with his favour ever mercifully behold it, and so send upon it his spiritual benediction and grace, that it may be the house of God to him, and the gate of heaven to us. Now I invite you all to renew your own dedication to Christian discipleship
All:
Almighty God, you have called us in your Son to witness to your love; accept this offering of our lives in your service, to the glory of your holy name, and the good of all your children. Amen.
Vicar:
Almighty God, who has called you to his service, grant you grace and strength to fulfil the same, through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
There’s much more happening this month – a glance at the Diary will show a month packed with musical events, no less than five concerts between now and the 8th November, and of course there’s the annual Scratch Requiem on November 12th – this year it’s Brahms. Details of all these events start on page 17. The Study Centre term starts on 12th October – the theme for the term is God of a Hundred Names and you can find details of the speakers further on in this issue. We’re celebrating All Saints on Sunday 30th October and the month, for the purposes of this issue, ends with the All Souls’ Service at 4pm on 6th November.
Operation Christmas Child : Shoeboxes
The response to this was so good last year they’ve sent us even more labels for 2005. They’re at the back of the church – please take one – boxes will need to be in by the end of half term [30th October] so start filling them now!
Age ranges are 2-4, 5-9, 10-14 and you must specify Boy or Girl. The list of donts is almost as long as the dos
Don’t include
* Chocolate, crisps, biscuits or any sweets with a sell-by date before March 2006 * War-related items eg toy guns, knives, soldiers
* Clothing other than hats, caps, gloves and scarves
* Anything that might break in transit
* Liquids of any kind i.e blow bubbles, shampoo, bubble bath, toiletry sets, aerosols * Marbles or sharp objects
* Anything of a political, racial or religious nature
* Medicines
* Books with words
The organisers suggest a Christmas Card with a picture of yourself / your family might be included. Please do get them back on time because I have to arrange a pick up date with their drivers.
Looking at the Belfry room with a view to its conversion we were faced with a ceiling high wooden cupboard. Could we use it, or remove it? Well, no, neither, because it was the original housing for the weight of the clock. The weight is still in there. Now the clock is electric but the cupboard must remain as a reminder of more ancient days.
I wonder if the clock kept good time when it had the weight instead of the electric motor. Today adjustment is done by shortening or lengthening the pendulum by means of a screw on the end and I find it very difficult to get it just right. At a temperature of 16 – 20 it keeps pretty good time but above or below that it gains or loses a few minutes a week and no amount of adjustment will get it right.
The appearance of the clock is apparently unchanged [as far as I can tell from early prints] from when the church was built but in the 12th century when clocks were first put in churches they didn’t have ‘faces’, they just chimed out the hours and sometimes the quarter hours also. Most people couldn’t read the time, but also perhaps they weren’t so obsessed with every passing minute and keeping to such tight schedules as we are today. Clock faces were introduced in the fourteenth century in towns and up to the seventeenth century in the country, and even then some of them only had the hour hand. There are still a number of those working today, and often instead of numbers at five-minute intervals they have texts, such as ‘Glory be to God’ or ‘Watch and Pray’.
The clock might be the most used part of the church. People who wouldn’t think of attending a service or coming in to pray will usually glance up at the clock as they pass and children love to wait for it to strike.
And don’t forget, while on the subject of clocks, that British Summer Time ends – clocks go back an hour – on Saturday 29th October.
Judy East
There is a story about a man who was responsible for winding up the church clock and making sure that it was set to the correct time. On his way to the church every morning he passed a shop which had a clock in its window, so he would check his watch against that. One day he went into the shop to buy something and whilst there commented to the shop owner about the reliability of his clock. “That’s because I set it by the church clock every evening,” said the shop keeper.
October [and a little bit of November]
Judy East