NEWSIt was with considerable sadness that we heard from Revd Josh that he is to resign as a minister in the Church of England and will lead his last Sunday service at Barsham on Sunday 4th August. Prior to addressing his congregations in person, Revd Josh wrote to the PCCs at Barsham and Bungay/Mettingham to explain his decision, and he has asked that this same message be printed in the July Newsletter. It appears below.The last Wednesday Matins for the time being will be on 3rd July, after which there will be a pause during the interregnum. The Prime Minister’s Office has announced that the King has approved the nomination of The Right Reverend Mike Harrison, Suffragan Bishop of Dunwich, for election as Bishop of Exeter. Bishop Mike leaves Suffolk at the end of September. On Trinity Sunday we celebrated our Patronal Festival with Choral Evensong. The choir enriched the service with a Schubert anthem and there was fizz and good company afterwards. Grateful thanks to Revd Jonathan for standing in at very short notice.Archdeacon Sally Gaze, Archdeacon for Rural Mission in this diocese, will be preaching at Sunday service on 23rd June. The Deanery Synod is to be held at Barsham Church on Monday 24th June at 7.30pm. Everyone is welcome. After morning service on Sunday 30th June, Revd Josh will conduct a short ceremony for the interment in the churchyard of the ashes of the late Philip Wills, who was for many years the highly respected organist and choirmaster at Holy Trinity Barsham.Revd Josh will lead the Benefice Evensong service on Sunday 30th June at 6.30pm at All Saints Mettingham. With the sound system now installed in the belfry and emitting swift calls, swifts have been seen circling the tower, we hope reconnoitring with a view to nesting next summer. The May sales table organised by Jenny raised an excellent £130.00.Thank you for the 152 items donated to the Food Bank in May. FORWARD PLANNINGThe annual Summer Lunch at St Bartholomew’s Shipmeadow will take place on Wednesday 17th July at the kind invitation of Nick and Jenny Caddick. Tickets will be on sale from Bridget from Sunday 23rd June and there will be a sign-up sheet at the back of the church for people to indicate what food they can offer to bring.Harvest Festival Evensong & Supper will be on Sunday 13th October. A Message from the Revd Josh BaileyIt is with sadness that I write of my decision to resign as a minister in the Church of England.I’ve handed in my notice to +Martin, and my last working day will be Saturday 10th August, when I will marry Tom & Robyn. We have found a house in Ditchingham and are hoping to complete on the sale in the next few weeks.I know this will come as something of a shock; unfortunately, I haven’t found a way of it being anything other than this. I’m sorry if this news is coming only through this means; it would always be my preference to say in person.The major reason for this change is a strong sense of call for Pippy, me and the children into the Orthodox Church as we have met and got to know two families in Suffolk through homeschooling connections. To quote +Martin in one of his questions to me, I’m not planning to lead an exodus out of the Anglican Church, but would be very happy to discuss the Orthodox Church with anyone who would be interested.Another contributing factor has been the general direction in which the Church of England is heading. The role of priest / rector is changing from when I was ordained into something that I don’t think I am well equipped to do in good conscience. I think there are ministers who are, and my stepping down is in the hope that this will make way for them to lead you and the Benefice forward.The decisions and future trajectory regarding the doctrine of marriage have also influenced my decision. There are strong and growing voices in the Church of England hierarchy that are saying ministers holding to the traditional teaching of the Church down the ages will not be welcome in the Church of England going forward. The wonderful arrangement of mutual respect we’ve been able to get to as a Benefice doesn’t seem to be acceptable to some with power and influence on the national scene sadly.Please do contact me also if you would like to talk further about any of this. Please could you also contact me directly if you would like me to continue to pray for you by name as an Orthodox Christian. The mode of intercession in this Church is primarily naming people regularly in the context of divine services. I would like to do this, but will leave it with you to request it as I appreciate this Church tradition is alien to many people.Archdeacons Rich & Sally have asked me to assure all churches of their zeal in making this transition as smooth as possible for everyone. They have also said they are available if any of you would like to contact them: Rich Henderson: Archdeacon.Rich@cofesuffolk.org Sally Gaze: archdeacon.sally@cofesuffolk.orgI have loved serving alongside you all, and firmly believe that this decision is itself borne from love for Jesus and for you, His people. Love in Him,JoshJULY DIARYSunday 7th July – Sixth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevdJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 14th July – Seventh Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 21st July – Eighth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevdJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 28th July – Ninth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.Wednesday 3rd July at 8.45am – Matins. Revd Josh Bailey. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSWe were pleased to welcome Fr Desmond Banister for his first service as celebrant at Holy Trinity Barsham on 21st April. On Sunday 28th April, Cheryl led a five-mile ramble for a group of two dozen walkers and canine friends from the Hempnall Sunday Walking Group and Barsham. Having explored the footpaths from Barsham Church to Beccles, the group paused to admire the view across the marshes from the terrace of St Michael’s in the town. The return route via Puddingmoor and the Angles Way, afforded the walkers views of Holy Trinity Barsham for the last mile, which surely sharpened their appetites for the delicious tea that awaited them there. Many thanks to Cheryl for skilfully organising the event and to all who provided the fine refreshments at journey’s end. At the invitation of Bishop Martin Seeley, Bridget and Cheryl attended a tea and special service of Choral Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral to celebrate the work of churchwardens in the Diocese. There were around 500 attendees, including 150 churchwardens. The Bishop said: ‘So much of the work undertaken by churchwardens to support the life and witness of our churches and benefices is often hidden and goes on behind the scenes. The service was a wonderful opportunity to express our gratitude on behalf of the people, clergy, lay ministers and parishes of Suffolk.’ Here in Barsham, we are most appreciative of the work done on our behalf by Bridget and Diana, and now Cheryl. Thanks to some generous donations, Dominique has been able to commission the construction of six swift boxes for the belfry and these have now been installed. Dominique has also sourced a sound system from SOS Swifts so that swift calls can be emitted to attract the birds. In addition, Barsham PCC gratefully acknowledges a donation of £200.00 and a further donation of £200.00 from the Hempnall Sunday Walking Group event. Colin and the PCC express a special thanks to those who have kindly and generously recently increased their giving whether by standing order, freewill envelopes or cash in the offertory bag, all of which greatly aid the finances and viability of Holy Trinity Church.The sales table organised by Bridget raised a splendid £110.00.The Food Bank was pleased to receive 237 items from us in April. FORWARD PLANNINGPsalm-singing workshop, Saturday 15th June, 10am-3pm at Holy Trinity Bungay. This is a workshop for anyone interested in why and how to sing the Psalms: no prior experience and no particular musical skills are needed. Details and a booking form may be found at: https://www.psalmroar.org/suffolkOn Sunday 16th June the service will start at 11.15am. The Deanery Synod is to be held at Barsham on Monday 24th June at 7.30pm.The annual Summer Lunch at St Bartholomew’s Shipmeadow will take place on Wednesday 17th July by kind invitation of Nick and Jenny Caddick. Details to follow.Harvest Festival Evensong & Supper will be on Sunday 13th October. SNIPPETS – Swifts: Scimitars of the Sky!Swifts are summer visitors to our shores, here just from May to August. These extraordinary birds feed and sleep on the wing, and land only to breed. A newly fledged Swift will shuttle between here and Africa for two or three years before finally landing to breed. They typically produce a brood of two or three chicks each year and they can live for up to 20 years. The swift boxes recently installed in the belfry have been made to fit the Barsham belfry openings to a specification provided by SOS Swifts – Save Our Suffolk Swifts – a joint project between Suffolk Wildlife Trust and Suffolk Bird Group. The project has been set up to arrest the decline in swift numbers, which have fallen by over 50% in the past 25 years. At Holy Trinity Barsham we are able to contribute in a number of ways to the objectives of SOS Swifts. First, we have installed the boxes to provide new nesting spaces, and since swifts are gregarious birds, we have installed six boxes. Second, we are installing a purpose-designed sound system to play swift calls to advertise the nest boxes, mimicking the low-level screeching that swifts make around existing nest sites and greatly increasing the likelihood that the boxes will be used. The best times to play the calls is between 7am and 9am, and from 7pm until dusk. The birds most likely to be attracted by the calls are adult birds that have lost a previous nest site and are looking for new sites, three-year-old juveniles looking for a nest site for the following year, and birds from an over-crowded colony nearby. We are told to expect that the birds might investigate this year and possibly use the nest boxes next year, or the year after: immediate occupancy is unlikely. Third, the churchyard and its surroundings are rich in food for swifts. The wildlife-friendly management of the churchyard and its wide variety of flowers and grasses make an excellent breeding ground and habitat for insects, likewise the Rectory paddock with its ponds, and the pollen and nectar strip and recently restored ponds in the field behind the church.JUNE DIARYSunday 2nd June – First Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevdJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 9th June – Second Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 16th June – Third Sunday after Trinity. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.Sunday 23rd June – Fourth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey. Sunday 30th June – Fifth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey. 6.30pm Benefice Evensong, All Saints Mettingham. Revd Josh Bailey. Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSAt the Annual Meeting of Parishioners on 18th April Diana stood down as churchwarden and was thanked for her outstanding contribution to the running of the church. In Diana’s place Cheryl was elected for a second stint as churchwarden. At the APCM David Ulph was elected and welcomed to the PCC, and he also becomes assistant treasurer. Palm Crosses were distributed to the congregation on Palm Sunday. The altar was stripped for Good Friday and dressings restored for Easter Day, when beautiful floral displays returned to the church once more. On the day of the Equinox 14 visitors witnessed a half-hearted display from the sinking sun. Some, including a group from the Henley Mothers’ Union near Ipswich stayed for a ‘walk and talk’ around the church. Cheryl welcomes additional participants for her walk around Barsham on Sunday 28th April with the Hempnall Walking Group. Meet at the church at 2pm for 4-5 miles walk, finishing back at the church for tea at 4pm. Thanks to a number of generous donations, Dominique can go ahead with the installation of swift boxes in the belfry. A Bluetooth speaker is needed to transmit swift calls to attract the birds: if anyone has an unused Bluetooth speaker they can lend for the early summer, please contact Dominique (07766 337247).The sales table organised by Jenny raised a goodly £90.00.259 items were gratefully received by the Food Bank in March. We have been asked to focus our donations for now on tinned meats, beans & sausages, tinned fruit, biscuits, breakfast cereals, dog & cat food, coffee, and small packs of sugar. FORWARD PLANNINGSunday service will start at 11.15am on 19th May and 16th June. The Revd Josh is to be instituted and inducted as Rector at Holy Trinity Bungay on Sunday 16th June. Details to follow. The annual Summer Lunch at St Bartholomew’s Shipmeadow will take place on Wednesday 17th July by kind invitation of Nick and Jenny Caddick. SNIPPETS – Some Reflections on Cricket & the ChurchThe 2024 cricket season commenced on 5th April, and it was fitting that on the following Sunday we sang a hymn by J R Peacey (1896-1971), one of many clergymen who have played first-class cricket. The Rev Canon John Peacey played cricket for Sussex in the early 1920s, before becoming a missionary in India and Headmaster of Bishop’s College, Calcutta. His contemporary the Rev Canon Howard Gaunt (1902-1983), whose hymns also appear in our hymnal, was another clergyman-schoolmaster and a Warwickshire cricketer. Gaunt’s Warwickshire team-mate, the Revd Canon Jack Parsons MC (1890-1981), was a fine batsman who scored 17,969 runs (including 38 centuries) for the county between 1910 and 1934. The Revd Canon Frank Gillingham (1875-1953) was another long-serving county cricketer, playing 181 matches for Essex in a career that spanned a quarter of a century. In 1927 he delivered the first ever ball-by-ball cricket commentary on BBC radio and went on to be chaplain to both George VI and Elizabeth II. The record for the oldest cricketer to play in the County Championship is held by another clergyman, the Rev Reginald Moss (1868-1956) who represented Worcestershire at the age of 57. A select band of clergymen played Test cricket. Vernon Royle (1854-1929) played in the third ever Test in Australia in 1878/9 and was ordained not long after. Charles Studd (1860-1931) played in the 1882 Test against Australia that became the origin of the Ashes, and shortly afterwards became a missionary. Tom Killick (1907-1953) played in two Tests in 1929, was then ordained but died young during an inter-diocesan cricket match. The only clergyman to play Test cricket whilst ordained was David Sheppard (1929-2005), who played for Sussex and England and captained England in the 1954 Tests against Pakistan. He later became Bishop of Woolwich, Bishop of Liverpool and a life peer.Whilst cricket is not in itself a specifically Christian activity, cricket and the Church have rubbed shoulders in various ways down the years and the Church of England undoubtedly played a strong role in the development of the game. Approximately a third of all Oxford and Cambridge cricket blues between 1860 and 1900 were later ordained to the clergy, and no other team sport has attracted the active participation of so many clergymen. Indeed, the Victorian clergy saw cricket as a game with a high moral code, capable of developing a player's character. In his 1982 essay Cricket and the Victorians, Keith Sandiford argued that the Victorian clergy gave cricket their unqualified blessing. Cricket became a vehicle for interaction between the Church and society and was used in some contexts to encourage church attendance. By the early 20th century, church cricket teams, drawn from church congregations and Sunday schools, were common. In 1920s Lancashire, church cricket teams accounted for 70 of 134 teams in and around Bolton, and for 107 of the 129 teams in Burnley. In 1922 there were 83 teams in the Burnley and District Sunday Schools League. In his 1999 book Cricket and England, 1919-1939, Jack Williams explains that ‘most Sunday school leagues and most church clubs had rules insisting that all players attended church or Sunday school regularly’. From the mid-19th century, in many people’s minds cricket became synonymous with Christian values. In Victorian literature cricket was sometimes used as a form of allegory for the Christian life. In Henry Drummond’s story Baxter’s Second Innings (Hodder, 1892), for instance, the bowler is called ‘Temptation’ and the batsman has three stumps to defend - truth, honour and purity. In Thomas Waugh’s The Cricket Field of the Christian Life (1910), the Christian life is described figuratively through cricketing terminology, life being a spiritual battle, ‘the Test match of all Test matches’ between Christ’s team and the Devil’s. The Victorian notion of ‘Muscular Christianity’, with its emphasis on the moral and religious value of sport, was promoted by churches and schools. St Paul, after all, had used sporting metaphors in his Epistles to describe the discipline of the Christian life: ‘If anyone competes as an athlete, he does not win the prize unless he competes according to the rules’ (2 Timothy 2:5); ‘I have fought the good fight; I have finished the course; I have kept the faith’ (2 Timothy 4:7). Until well into the 20th century the majority of public and grammar schools were run by ordained headmasters, many of whom promoted the ethos of Muscular Christianity and with it the game of cricket, which became a central pillar of school sporting culture. It should not go unmentioned then, that we have in our own congregation a former first-class cricketer and schoolmaster in Vincent Cushing, who as an Oxford blue was invited to play for Lancashire. He retains a fund of entertaining anecdotes from his cricketing days well worth hearing.MAY DIARYSunday 5th May – Sixth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 12th May – Seventh Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 19th May – Pentecost. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.Sunday 26th May – Trinity Sunday, Patronal Festival. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey & 6.30pm Patronal Evensong. Revd Josh Bailey. Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham, but not on 1st May. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSThe Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich has announced that ‘The Revd Josh Bailey, currently Priest in Charge of the benefice of Bungay, is now Rector of the benefice. He is to be instituted and inducted as Rector by the Archdeacon of Suffolk on Sunday 16th June’. Congratulations Josh!We are delighted that Fr Desmond Banister now has Permission to Officiate at Barsham and after Easter we will be welcoming him as celebrant on the third Sunday of the month. Due to his commitment to an earlier service elsewhere, the Sunday service on 21st April, 19thMay and 16th June will start at 11.15am. Congratulations to David Ulph on his Baptism and Confirmation on Sunday 17thMarch. David was one of three confirmands from the benefice. The service of Baptism and Confirmation was the final service celebrated at Barsham by the Right Revd Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough before his retirement at Easter. We are most appreciative of the support he has given Holy Trinity Barsham, and we wish him a long and fulfilling retirement.On Mothering Sunday, 10th March, a beautiful display of polyanthus primroses was blessed during the processional hymn by The Revd Canon John Fellows, whose sermon included an explanation of the origins of Mothering Sunday. The flowers were later distributed to all members of the congregation in honour of the mothers present, and indeed all of our mothers. The APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) and Annual Meeting of Parishioners will take place in the church at 2pm on Thursday 18th April. Anybody can attend and those entered on the Church Electoral Roll for this parish and those entered on the register of local government electors for this parish may vote at the election of parochial representatives of the laity (ie churchwardens, members of the PCC etc). If you cannot attend and would like copies of the audited financial statements, please contact Dominique (dominique.bacon@gmail.com).Holy Trinity Barsham has recently joined the Prayer Book Society, an organisation that seeks to defend and promote the use of the Book of Common Prayer. The Society holds a variety of branch and national events every year, including an annual conference, and publishes two regular high-quality magazines, The Prayer Book Today and the more scholarly Faith & Worship. These will be made available at the back of the church. You can find more detail at www.pbs.org.uk.Cheryl will be leading a walk around Barsham on Sunday 28th April with the Hempnall Walking Group, and she welcomes participation from members of the Barsham congregation. The walk will start at the church at 2pm and be roughly four miles in length, finishing back at the church for tea at 4pm. Dominique is currently investigating the possibility of installing swift boxes in the church belfry. Swifts are in decline, in part due to a lack of nesting sites. If anyone would like to learn more about the project or to offer funding, do talk to Dominique. One kind sponsor has already offered some funds, but more is needed.Thanks to David Miller of Grange Farm, Barsham for work he has done to clear the ditches across the Rectory paddock, the ditch below the east end of the churchyard and the culvert under the church drive. The greater frequency and intensity of rain lately had begun to cause flooding. The charity Christians Against Poverty is looking for people to train as ‘debt befrienders’ who can work alongside skilled ‘debt coaches’ to support people in debt. Anyone interested in helping should see Josh for further information. The sales table organised by Margaret raised a useful £100.00.Thank you for the 180 items donated to the Food Bank in February. We have been asked for now to focus our donations on toiletries and tinned food.The Passion of Christ is depicted in the eastern-most stained glass window of the side chapel at Barsham (front page picture), showing (left to right) Christ crowned with thorns, His crucifixion, and His resurrection. An Easter message from The Revd Josh“For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now also we may live new lives.” (Romans 6:4)Beautiful and broken. We’re surrounded by constant reminders of this stubborn fact of our existence. Our bodies don’t keep. Our work is frustrating as often as fulfilling. Our relationships can be heavenly and hellish. Even the greatest joys we experience are tinged with sadness.And Jesus enters into ALL of it. But even in his weak, decaying existence from Bethlehem to Jerusalem, He gives us whispers of another world. His connection with the creation as a sinless, blessed human is the stuff of our dreams. When he speaks to the wind, it listens. When he wants food for people, the creation just delivers it up at his request. When he’s stuck on the wrong side of a lake in a storm, he just walks to where he wants to go - and invites Peter to share in treading the waves. When confronted with dysfunction in human bodies and souls that has endured for decades, He calmly tells it to get lost - and it’s gone. Cells restructured. Minds made whole. Souls at peace and given joy where there was only darkness.All the time He’s pointing us to something our minds can barely grasp: defeat of the shadow that hangs over us. The spectre of meaninglessness cast over everything by death. The removal of the curse that has dogged the very ground we walk on.When Easter finally comes after that long Saturday, all our assumptions about our existence can be torn up and thrown away. There’s no more shrugging at suffering. The life that Jesus reveals in his physical, immortal body is unlike anything the universe has ever known before. A life made perfect BY death, rather than the half-life we know; always on the verge of being swallowed up by death. Jesus has faced down the monster that spoils everything and destroyed its power. Almost anything wonderful that we can imagine can happen now. And one day it will, because His tomb is empty. The life we rejoice in at Easter is our life. New. Immortal. Full of possibility. Giving suffering a purpose. Giving hope to anyone who knows they need it. Totally real! Almost too real for Jesus’ bewildered mourners to comprehend.I love Easter because I love the new life of Jesus. When pessimism and despair lurk in my mind, Jesus declares a different future. If Christ has been raised from the dead — AND HE HAS — my wildest hopes and longings are only the warm-up act for all the new creation will bring. And the chocolate’s nice too.APRIL DIARYSunday 7th April – Second Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 14th April – Third Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 21st April – Fourth Sunday of Easter. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.Sunday 28th April – Fifth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham, but no Matins on 24th April. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
