NEWSTickets are now on sale for the Summer Lunch, which is to be held on Wednesday 1st July from 12.30pm at St Bartholomew’s Shipmeadow. Tickets cost £12.50 and can be purchased in advance from Bridget. All welcome and do bring guests. Cheryl’s Church Walking Group meets again on Sunday 28th June at 2pm at Barsham Church for a ramble of about 3.5 miles through Barsham and Shipmeadow. Tea will be served at the church afterwards. All welcome.The magnificent organ recital given by Dr David Flood on Saturday 30th May attracted a large and appreciative audience, filling both the nave and chapel, and spilling over into the choir stalls. David’s choice of music explored a range of styles and moods and included well-known as well as less familiar pieces. The beautiful and delicate Entry of Polymnie by Rameau was a favourite for many and the recital concluded with Widor’s epic and much-loved Toccata in F. A fabulous Barsham tea rounded off a memorable afternoon. Donations raised a net sum of £710.00, designated for the rethatching of the nave roof. Our grateful thanks to David Flood and to those who worked so hard to produce the tea.On Trinity Sunday, 31st May, we were delighted to welcome The Ven Rich Henderson, Archdeacon of Suffolk, to preach at our Patronal Evensong service. For the anthem the choir sang beautifully the hymn Affirm Anew the Threefold Name, sung in four parts to the tune Kingsfold, a traditional English country tune adapted by Ralph Vaughan Williams. Fizz and delicious canapés followed. Thanks to all who made this such a splendid occasion. As our churchwardens, Bridget and Cheryl attended the annual Archdeacon’s Visitation Service for the Waveney and Blyth Deanery at St Michael’s Beccles on Monday 8th June.Adrian Ramsey MP has been invited to attend the next Deanery Synod on 1st July to hear the PCC’s concerns about the suspension of the Listed Places of Worship Scheme, which since 2004 has provided grants towards the cost of VAT paid on church repairs.Swifts have been seen flying around the tower, responding to the electronic swift calls, but as yet there is no sign of nesting. The sales table organised by Sarah Jane raised £95.00. The Gift Aid rebate on donations and collections, received from HMRC in May, amounted to £5,235.43. Amy reports that 212 items were donated to the Foodbank in May. FORWARD PLANNINGHaymaking will take place in the week of Monday 17th August. The work will be undertaken largely by a Community Payback team, but we are encouraged to support the team and all helpers are welcome. As ever, Chris Bardsley will kindly provide a lovely ploughman’s lunch. SNIPPETS – The Summer Lunch: a blast from the past.The annual Barsham with Shipmeadow Summer Lunch is perhaps a faint echo of a tradition that was almost entirely lost during the Protestant Reformation of the 16thand 17th centuries. So-called ‘church ales’ were a church-led community celebration involving eating, drinking and entertainments, usually in the churchyard. They were a means of raising funds for keeping the church in good repair as well as alms for the poor. Church ales were a fixture in the calendar of most parishes in medieval England, often linked to the Church calendar, marking a church’s patronal festival or, quite commonly, at Whitsun. In many cases the churchwardens were responsible for brewing the ale and providing a plentiful and varied feast, though members of the community might also contribute. The ale that flowed liberally and the high spirits that followed no doubt took the sting out of the inflated prices that served to maximise income from the event. Entertainments might typically include music and singing, Morris dancing, sports, mystery plays dramatizing stories from the Bible, and costumed pageants. In a tradition known as ‘king play’ a low-ranking member of the community presided over the events of the day as mock monarch. Church ales were noted for their over-exuberance and alcohol-fuelled excesses. In the increasingly regulated world of Elizabethan England the secular authorities, who appreciated the role of church ales in promoting social cohesion, were nonetheless concerned about drunkenness and its potential for disorder, violence and criminality. The religious authorities, and especially those of Puritan persuasion, were concerned that church ales promoted sinful behaviour: idleness, gluttony, lasciviousness, and that they were a ‘popish’ tradition, rooted in the pre-Reformation Catholic calendar.So it was that by the early years of the 17th century church ales were suppressed and went into sharp decline. For half a century from the 1590s a series of Local Orders caused local magistrates and judges to crack down on church ales. In 1604 the Church of England’s Canon 88 banned the drinking of alcohol on church grounds and forbade churchwardens to allow church ales to take place in churches, church houses or churchyards. By the end of the century the age-old tradition of church ales had been lost completely. At our Summer Lunch at the beginning of July we might not have the entertainments typical of medieval church ales, but there will be plentiful feasting, some drinking and an excellent community spirit, and the proceeds of ticket sales will contribute towards the upkeep of the church. I doubt the authorities – religious or secular – will need to worry too much about criminality or sinfulness.July DiarySunday 5th July – Fifth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP), Barsham. Revd Jonathan Olanczuk SSC.Sunday 12th July – Sixth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 19th July – Seventh Sunday after Trinity. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister SSC.Sunday 26th July – Eighth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSDo come to the Organ recital by Dr David Flood at 3pm on Saturday 30thMay. David (cover photo), who was formerly Organist of Canterbury Cathedral, will play an exciting programme of music by Gigout, JS Bach, Vierne, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Rameau, Saint-Saens and Widor. A delicious Barsham tea will round off a fabulous afternoon. Tickets are not required. Donations are to go towards the cost of rethatching the nave roof. The Ven Rich Henderson, Archdeacon of Suffolk, will preside at Patronal Evensong on Sunday 31st May at 6.30pm. Fizz and canapés will follow. On the afternoon of Sunday 26th April, 20 people and four dogs from Cheryl’s church walking group enjoyed a sunny ramble through Barsham and Shipmeadow, following marsh-side tracks and paths along the higher ground with views across the valley. The walkers enjoyed an excellent Barsham tea at the church afterwards. By popular demand, the walk is to be repeated on Sunday 28th June, starting at the church at 2pm. A sub-committee of the PCC has been set up to manage the recommendations in the architect’s Quinquennial Inspection Report. Should you want to know more, do speak to Malcolm. The parish of All Saints Mettingham has merged with Holy Trinity Bungay. Now known as Holy Trinity Bungay with All Saints Mettingham, the parish has one PCC but both churches retain their own church wardens. Peter Gascoyne has installed a camera and screen (visible in the cover photo) to enable the organist to follow the progress of the service at the altar. The PCC is grateful to Peter for his generosity and technical expertise. Dominique is grateful for the generous donations that have funded the new swift boxes in the belfry. The electronic swift calls are working, and swifts have been spotted periodically over Barsham since Sunday 10th May. The sales table organised by Sarah Jane raised a creditable £105.00.Amy delivered 132 donated items to the Foodbank in April and the Rev’d Pam Bayliss continues to express warm appreciation for Barsham’s support. FORWARD PLANNINGChurch Walking Group, Sunday 28th June, 2pm at Barsham Church – ramble through Barsham and Shipmeadow.Summer Lunch, Wednesday 1st July, 12.30pm at St Bartholomew’s Shipmeadow, at the kind invitation of Nick and Jenny Caddick. Tickets at £12.50 should be bought in advance from Bridget in June. SNIPPETS – A thousand years of fundingMuch has been written in recent times about the state of diocesan finances in the Church of England. Many Diocesan Boards of Finance are said to be operating in deficit and consequently there is concern about the ongoing affordability of clergy stipends. These are funded substantially from local congregational giving through the ‘Parish Share’. In recent years Diocesan Boards of Finance have been increasing the sums asked for in the Parish Share, but in many dioceses church attendance and regular giving are in decline, so the current model of funding clergy stipends looks unsustainable in the long term. There has been some internal debate in the Church over the tension between this looming crisis at local level and the apparent wealth of the national Church, which holds an endowment of approximately £10 billion. While some of this is tied up in pension funds, it has tended to be directed at strategic plans and short-term projects rather than sustaining parish worship, although last year the Church of England’s National Three Year Spending Plans 2026-28 included a significant financial input to local churches and parish clergy in deprived areas. In fact, the present system of a centrally funded and standardised clergy stipend is relatively recent, dating from the 1970s. It replaced a decentralised system that had prevailed in one form or another for more than a thousand years in which the generosity of a stipend depended on the wealth of a benefice. The stipend was made up of income from tithes, glebe land, personal fees and sometimes historic endowments. Much depended on the size of the parish population and the extent and quality of its land. From at least the 10th century in England, tithes had been a mandatory tax of 10% of the agricultural produce or income of all parishioners, paid in kind. Greater Tithes included everything that came from the ground – crops, hay, wood – and Lesser Tithes included things nourished by the ground – livestock and their produce. Rectors were entitled to both forms of tithe, and vicars only to the Lesser Tithes. If there was glebe (church-owned land) in the parish, a rector could generate income either by farming it directly or by renting it out, and this remained the case until the 1976 Endowments and Glebe Measure. The 80 acres of glebe in Barsham in 1846 were rated at £120 per annum (£12,324 in today’s values according to the Bank of England Inflation Calculator). Further personal income came from fees charged for baptisms, weddings and funerals and, in some churches, from pew rents. Some clergy supplemented their stipends by taking on additional roles, typically as schoolmasters or chaplains to institutions. The 19th century Rectors of Shipmeadow were chaplains to the neighbouring workhouse and in the 1850s to the Shipmeadow Penitentiary. A priest might also benefit from donations, bequests, or from endowments from a rich patron. By the early 19th century, with widespread religious dissent, agricultural recession, urbanisation and industrialisation, the payment of agricultural tithes in kind had become unpopular and outdated. The 1836 Tithe Commutation Act overhauled the system, converting physical tithes into ‘tithe rentcharges’, a monetised payment linked to grain prices. The system of tithes was then dismantled in stages over the following century and a half. In 1891, for instance, the British Tithe Act restricted the payment of tithe rentcharges to landowners, exempting tenants. After rentcharges caused serious hardship for small farmers during the Depression of the 1930s, the 1936 Tithe Act abolished all existing tithe rentcharges and replaced them with a system of annuities payable by landowners to the State, which then compensated the Church – an arrangement that ended in 1977. It seems almost unbelievable that the last vestige of a system of funding that had its origins as early as the 7th century, and was certainly well established by the 10thcentury, should have breathed its last just 50 years ago.JUNE DIARYSunday 7th June – First Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP), Barsham. Revd Jonathan Olanczuk SSC.Sunday 14th June – Second Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 21st June – Third Sunday after Trinity. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister SSC.Sunday 28th June – Fourth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
David Flood When he retired from Canterbury Cathedral at the end of 2020, David had completed over 42 years of service in cathedral music. He was Organist and Master of the Choristers at Canterbury for 32 years from 1988 and before that Organist and Master of the Choristers at Lincoln Cathedral from 1986. In 1978 his first post after university at Oxford and Cambridge was as Assistant Organist at Canterbury.ProgrammeToccata in B minor – Eugène GigoutToccata and fugue in D minor – J S BachBerceuse – Louis VierneSonata no.3 in A – Felix MendelssohnPomp and Circumstance March no.4 – Edward ElgarEntry of Polymnie – Jean-Philippe RameauLe Cygne and L’Eléphant (Carnival of the Animals) – Camille Saint-SaensToccata in F (Symphony V) – C M Widor
NEWSPotted primroses were distributed to everyone in the congregation on Mothering Sunday, 15th March. Thanks to Diana for organising this. 52 people witnessed the illumination of the rood at the Spring Equinox, the best showing being on Saturday 21st March. The Annual Meeting of Parishioners and the Annual Parochial Church Meeting took place on Sunday 22nd March immediately after morning service. At the former, Bridget and Cheryl were elected as Churchwardens for a further year and at the latter, Colin announced his retirement as Treasurer after 13 years of exemplary service in the role at Barsham. Much appreciation was shown for the work and dedication of all three church officers.Palm Crosses were distributed on Palm Sunday and the service featured a group reading of The Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ from St Matthew’s Gospel. 25 people attended The Last Hour reflective service at Barsham on Good Friday, and there was a congregation of 55 for Eucharist on Easter morning, when we were delighted to welcome for his first visit to Barsham The Right Reverend Luke Irvine-Capel SSC, Bishop of Richborough. Many thanks to those who provided tasty refreshments after the service, and to those who decorated the church with such beautiful flower arrangements. A further six swift nesting boxes have been installed in the belfry. The cost of materials has been met by Save Our Suffolk Swifts and the cost of labour (£228.00) is being met through generous donations from members of the congregation. The electronic swift calls will be switched on at the end of April, and the birds are expected to return in early to mid May. Cheryl’s Barsham and Hempnall church walking group meets on Sunday 26thApril for a walk of about 3.5 miles in Barsham and Shipmeadow, starting at Barsham church at 2pm. Tea will be served at the church afterwards. All welcome. The sales table organised by Jenny raised a very creditable £170.00.Amy reports that 176 items were donated to the Foodbank in March.FORWARD PLANNINGVillage hall Big Breakfast, Saturday 9th May, 9am. Booking sheet in the church. Please let Bridget know of any dietary requirements. Organ recital & tea, 3pm on Saturday 30th May. Dr David Flood, formerly Organist of Canterbury Cathedral, will play a selection of pieces by Gigout, JS Bach, Vierne, Mendelssohn, Elgar, Rameau, Saint-Saens and Widor. Advance booking not required. Donations invited on the door.SNIPPETS – The Organ Loft that Never WasWhen David Flood gives his organ recital on the 30th of May, he will be playing the organ designed and built in 1877 by William Hill & Co, one of the leading organ builders of the day. The firm built organs for cathedrals, churches and town halls throughout Britain and beyond. Notable examples include the Chapel of King’s College, Cambridge (1834), the Chapel Royal (1837), Westminster Abbey (1848), Worcester Cathedral (1875), Peterborough Cathedral (1894), St George’s Cathedral, Cape Town and St Andrew’s Cathedral, Sydney; and town halls in Birmingham (1832), Melbourne (1872), Adelaide (1877) and Sydney (1890). The Hill organ was installed at Barsham when the vestry and organ chamber were constructed in 1880, and the triple arched organ screen was added in 1906, having previously been part of a sedilia located on the south wall of the sanctuary. The organ was originally designed to accommodate two manuals and although only one was included at the outset, a second was added during the complete restoration of the instrument in 2004/5 as part of the Trafalgar Bicentennial Commemoration Project. The new keyboard incorporated oak that had been afloat on HMS Victory at the Battle of Trafalgar. The Hill organ was not the first organ at Barsham. An earlier instrument had been installed in the chancel at some point between 1842 and 1868. An 1842 sketch of the church interior showed no organ, but a photograph of 1868 (by William Mills of Smallgate Street, Beccles) shows an organ standing against the north wall of the chancel, roughly where the vestry door is today. While cathedrals and some large city churches had been equipped with organs as far back as the 16th century and even earlier in some cases, organs typically did not arrive in rural parish churches until the mid to late 19th century. Where previously in rural churches the singing of hymns had been accompanied by the village band and perhaps a group of singers led by the parish clerk, now with the introduction of the organ came a formal robed choir seated in choir stalls in the chancel, with an organ installed in a purpose-built organ chamber. These developments were often associated with the Oxford Movement and the Anglo-Catholic Revival, as at Barsham. The ensuing ‘Anglican Choral Revival’ was in full flow by the 1870s and 1880s, with the publication of new hymnals, such as Hymns Ancient & Modern (1861), and the composition of anthems and music for the canticles. Interestingly, in 1891, when the refurbishment and beautification of Holy Trinity Barsham was getting into its stride under its Anglo-Catholic rector and patron, there was a proposal to build an elaborate organ loft at the west end of the church against the wall of the tower. The sketch for this project, entitled ‘Church of the Holy Trinity Barsham – Proposed West Gallery and Organ Case’, was made by the architect and designer Frederick Eden. Although the scheme was never brought to fruition, the sketch survives in the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects. Eden’s other work at Barsham includes designs for the stained glass in the nave, the chancel arch, the altar rails, the (usually obscured) front panel of the altar, and the side chapel itself as well as its stained glass and trompe d’oeil.MAY DIARYSunday 3rd May – Fifth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP), Barsham. Revd Jonathan Olanczuk SSC.Sunday 10th May – Rogation Sunday. Sixth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 17th May – Seventh Sunday of Easter. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister SSC.Sunday 24th May – Pentecost. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor. Sunday 31st May – Trinity Sunday – Patronal Festival. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor. 6.30pm Patronal Evensong. The Ven Rich Henderson, Archdeacon of Suffolk.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
