\”It can\’t be that time already!\” people shriek (metaphorically, it\’s usually by email) when I ask for magazine material. This is particularly noticeable at this time of year when I want information about the Christmas Market, Advent, shoeboxes or whatever our particular Christmas gifting idea is. It brings Christmas far too close – did we really have our first school carol service rehearsal last week?
This autumn we distracted ourselves by the \’Great Blanket Knit-in\’ – a runaway success I don\’t think any of us really expected when we started. We were going to try to get some blankets made for Syrian Refugees which would be taken out there by Hand in Hand for Syria, a charity we\’ve been supporting for over a year now. Maybe some of us could knit blankets or a few squares, perhaps some people might like to buy one if they didn\’t knit or crochet. It seemed like a small project but how it grew! On a Wednesday in September we filled the church with clicking needles as a generous group gathered to get started on their squares. A few days later another group settled into Rebecca\’s house to carry on the good work. This was taken up across the congregation, squares and blankets flooded in and the results (78 blankets) were displayed and blessed in church one Sunday just before being shipped out.
But if knitting wasn\’t your thing there are other opportunities over the next few weeks to give to a range of projects : Operation Christmas Child – if you\’d like to do a shoebox there are forms at the back of church; completed boxes need to be in by 9th November. There\’s more news about the two schemes mentioned in last month\’s magazine.
But before we all pat ourselves on the back, pause and read Handley’s sermon on stewardship and all the ways in which we are failing! It makes for difficult reading – we don’t give away as much as we should, we don’t pay for our curate – and this from a parish in one of the wealthier parts of the Edmonton Area.. What has happened? Why is giving blankets and toys so much easier than giving money? Some serious questions there for all of us.
November means Remembrance of course, as it always does, and whilst it\’s important to remember that death in war wasn\’t confined to the World Wars but goes on all the time, this year we particularly remember those who died in the Great War – there\’s a full list on the board alongside the Schools Project. The list includes all those buried here or mentioned on gravestones or in the parish magazines and all the names from the War Memorial (and frankly, we\’ve no idea why some of them are on the War Memorial – if anyone knows anything about the selection process for War Memorials we\’d love to hear from you). It\’s probably not complete, for instance they stopped printing lists of the serving and the dead in the parish magazine in 1918 to save paper and put them on a roll of honour in the porch instead. There is now no trace of this roll of honour so we can only pay silent tribute to all those who died in the last year of the war.
As we brace ourselves for Advent I found a link to The Church Urban Fund Advent Calendar which promises a thought for the day relating to their work \’Tackling Poverty Together\’ – and they offer to send a daily reminder! Go to advent.cuf.org/ for more about this.
But before we get to Advent there’s lots to do – the Brahms Requiem (do ‘Come and Sing’ if you enjoy singing, or just to listen) on 8th, the Living Book Club on 2nd, the Christmas Market on 22nd – a fund-raiser for the Fabric Fund1, the Friends of the Music and some of our charities, a chance to buy gifts, cakes and puddings, have a coffee or light lunch, take your children to the activity room, buy church Christmas cards and Traidcraft goods. More about this on page 20.
Our Tea Services continue on the second Sunday of the month now and at 3pm during the winter. The month ends with the Hampstead Players’ production of The Man Born to be King – details further on in this issue. And don’t forget the Confirmation service on Advent Sunday – 30th – which will also be our opportunity to say goodbye to Bishop Peter and wish him well in his retirement.