Gt Glemham’s eventful day started when villagers (and visitors) gathered at the village hall at 9.30am to meet up with two donkeys to process with our palm crosses up the road to the church.

From 10am to 11am we had a Benefice Holy Communion service where 42 folk attended lead by Revd Bill Sokolis ably supported by Hannah at the organ and the choir. The congregation all faced West in the church to read and take part in ‘The Passion’. This is the only service where the congregation is asked to face West rather than East towards the altar.

We then all went out into the sunshine to meet up with more villagers gathered around a new oak tree that had been planted in the churchyard in readiness for the ‘official’ planting ceremony to take place. In the year of the Coronation the youngest and oldest member of Gt Glemham planted a tree just outside the wall of the church and a Sweet Chestnut stands there still. As part of Queen Elizabeth II’s Platinum Jubilee the Gt Glemham Parish Council successfully bid for an oak tree offered by East Suffolk Council and it was decided to plant it in the churchyard in line with the chestnut and ask the oldest and youngest member of the village to officially finish the planting. This was done with due ceremony by The Earl of Cranbrook (89 years) and Otto Kenworthy (2 years). Lord Cranbrook asked that anyone who was born in 1952 and 70 this year to take part too – so David Inman joined them in putting more soil around the tree. Otto was extremely enthusiastic and got on with the job immediately and impressed all with his ‘treading in’ skills – definitely an arborist in the making. Refreshments were then enjoyed by all. Although the tree is a ‘quercus robur’ it will be known in Gt Glemham as the ‘Treebilee’.

At 2.30pm the church welcomed the Close-Brooks family for the Baptism of Arthur (3 years) and Ivy (8 months) Close-Brooks and Rowley Hird (2 years). Revd Robin Alderson presided over a happy and joyful occasion ably assisted by the 13 or so children in the congregation.

All in all, a busy and enjoyable day for All Saints Great Glemham.

My thanks go to everyone who helped and took part in all these events. It really felt as if the church was not only physically – but actually at the heart of the village.

Jill Pascoe Churchwarden