No sun – no moon!
No morn – no noon –
No dawn – no dusk – no proper time of day.
No warmth, no cheerfulness, no healthful ease,
No comfortable feel in any member –
No shade, no shine, no butterflies, no bees,
No fruits, no flowers, no leaves, no birds! –
November!
Thomas Hood
Or
Concerts, Plays and Christmas prep.
Weddings, Joy and Celebration
Poppies, Candles, Love remembered
Hastening on to Advent.
Much as I love Thomas Hood I can’t help thinking he must have been rather a sad person! And if the weather in November is sometimes not all we’d like it to be and we have to adapt to the evenings drawing in still the church is full of light and enough events to chase away any hint of November gloom. There’s a special event every weekend in November – I’m not sure if that fills me with delight or dismay! Are we going to survive till Advent? And will December be any quieter? Well, no probably not, but I won’t go into that yet. For now let’s look at what we have in store this month:
The splendid colour supplement in this issue outlines all the details of the four major events – the concert with Hampstead Arts Festival on Sunday 6th, the Come and Sing Fauré Requiem on Saturday 12th, the Christmas Oratorio on Sunday 20th and the Hampstead Players’ production of King Lear on 24-26th; do read David Gardner’s moving article about his reasons for tackling this role. There are other things happening…….
We start with an AgeUK concert on Tuesday 1st featuring Victor Sicard and Anna Cardona, with the choirs of New End and South Hampstead High Schools. It starts at 7.30 and tickets (£10) will be available on the door.
Sunday 13th is Remembrance Sunday and we will be keeping that at our 10.30am Eucharist with music by Duruflé and the laying of a wreath at the War Memorial. The collection at this service goes to SSAFA and you’ll find some information about their work further on in this issue.
Saturday 19th is the CHRISTMAS MARKET. This is a fun filled morning of Christmas shopping, coffee and light lunches (provided by the Friends of the Music who are legendary for their cooking), Cake stalls, Traidcraft, Toys, Gifts. It runs from 11am -2pm in the parish rooms so do drop in. And if you’re a cook please consider making us something to sell – Mincemeat, Puddings, Cakes – not necessarily Christmas ones – Jam, Marmalade………. And do look out any suitable items for the Gift Stall and bring them to the church before 19th.
Sunday 27th being the First Sunday of Advent we have the Advent Carol Service at 6pm – this is very different from the Christmas Carol Service held in December, being a more sombre look at this season of preparation (some people say Advent has all the best music!).
And, of course, all our usual activities continue – the Lunchtime events, the Reading Group, the Women’s Discussion Group and, although we don’t usually have space for events at other churches, I must just mention that Dr Rowan Williams will be giving the Donald Barnes Memorial Lecture at St Peter’s on Wednesday 9th so no Reading Group that night.
November
Judy East