NEWS
On the first Sunday in March we were delighted to welcome for Choral Evensong the Canon Precentor Philip Banks and the Girls’ Choir of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, along with their supporters (cover photo by Chad Owen Cox: @o_c_portraits). A congregation of over 60 people filled the nave and the 13 girl choristers under Director of Music Timothy Parsons graced the service with stirring contemporary music. The setting for the canticles was composed in 2021 for the Choir of St Edmundsbury by Paul Trepte, a former Director of Music at St Edmundsbury and then Ely Cathedral. The setting for the anthem, the Prayer of St Richard of Chichester, was by the young composer LJ White, and the responses were sung to a beautiful setting by Malcolm Archer. St Edmundsbury is one of a growing number of Cathedrals now operating girls’ and boys’ choirs on an equal footing, dividing up the week between them and combining at Christmas, Easter and other special services. The girls’ choir is a recent innovation: formed just before the Covid pandemic arrived, it was able to get under way only once lockdowns were lifted.
A cheerful band of 22 people from church filled two long tables at the village hall for the annual Barsham Big Breakfast on Saturday 11th March. Very many thanks to the village hall team for providing such a magnificent breakfast feast, and thanks to all for excellent company.
On Mothering Sunday Revd Josh blessed a beautiful array of primulas, which were then distributed to every member of the congregation.
The sun didn’t break through for the ‘Equinox Event’ on the first two evenings, though we welcomed for a talk and church tour seven visitors on the first day and nine on the second, including one from Bury St Edmund’s and another who came by train from Surbiton. The sun did appear on the third evening however, and we had a glorious display, seen by 27 delighted onlookers.
If you would like to donate to the Easter Lilies fund, there will be a collection box at the back of the church every Sunday until Easter. Money not used for the purchase of lilies will be sent to the Tear Fund, a Christian charity helping victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, and war in Ukraine.
The PCC met for routine business on 16th March.
Very many thanks for the 214 items that were donated to the Foodbank in February. Amy tells us that toiletries as well as foods are important now.
Sunday Collections in February amounted to £1,181.00. The January sales tableorganised by Sarah Jane raised a very creditable £100.00.
FORWARD PLANNING
The Service of Farewell and Thanksgiving for Archdeacon Jeanette will be at 3pm on Sunday 23 April at St Michael’s, Framlingham. Her successor, the Revd Canon Rich Henderson, will be collated and installed at St Edmundsbury Cathedral on the afternoon of 14th May.
The next Benefice service of Choral Evensong will be held at All Saints, Mettingham at 6.30pm on Sunday 30th April.
The APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) is to be held on Thursday 4th May. Anyone can attend this meeting.
Tour, tea and Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Sunday 10th September, 1.45pm – 5pm. There are still some places left on this group visit and these can be booked through Bridget.
AN EASTER MESSAGE FROM THE REVD JOSH BAILEY
Why I love Easter
"Therefore we were buried with him through baptism into death, in order that just as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, thus also we ourselves might walk in new life." Romans 6:4
Beautiful and broken. The stubborn fact of our existence. Our bodies don't keep. Work is frustrating as often as fulfilling. Relationships can be heavenly and hellish. Even the greatest joys we experience are tinged with sadness.
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 delivers it up at his request. When he's stuck on the wrong side of a lake, he just walks to where he wants to go. When confronted with decades long human dysfunction, He calmly tells it to get lost: and it's gone. Cells restructured. Minds made whole. Souls at peace; given joy where there was only darkness.
And it’s all pointing to the 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. 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!
I love Easter because I love the new life of Jesus. When despair lurks, 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 DIARY
Sunday 2nd April – Palm Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Thursday 6th April. Maundy Thursday. 7.30pm Holy Communion with foot-washing. Holy Trinity, Bungay. Rev Josh Bailey.
Friday 7th April. Good Friday. 12 noon Meditation at All Saints, Mettingham & 2pm Meditation, Holy Trinity, Barsham with Shipmeadow. Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 9th April. Easter Sunday. 6.30am Sunrise Service at Outney Common, Bungay. 11am Sung Eucharist at Barsham (BCP). Both services Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 16th April. Second Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 23rd April. Third Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 30th April. Fourth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Every Wednesday at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]