NEWS
Holy Week began with the blessing and distribution of Palm Crosses on Palm Sunday. Some from the congregation attended the service of Holy Communion with foot-washing at Holy Trinity Bungay on Maundy Thursday, and the Meditation at Barsham on Good Friday. On Easter Morning we welcomed a congregation of 65 people to the service. The church looked splendid, with an exquisite arrangement of Easter lilies on the Etchingham tomb and elegant floral displays on the windowsills. It is such a pleasure to see flowers back in the church after Lent and it is a reminder of how lucky we are to have such a talented and dedicated team of flower arrangers.
Donations to the Easter Lilies fund totalled £75 and this sum will be forwarded to the Diocesan Tear Fund to provide aid for victims of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, and those suffering from the effects of the war in Ukraine.
Many thanks to those who carried out the brass cleaning in the week before Easter. The brass around the church is now looking spic and span.
Margaret, who has done a splendid job organising the Barsham Love Boxes, is handing this role on to Chris and Carolyn Lambert, who have kindly agreed to take on the role and are well placed for it with their involvement respectively in Beccles Lions and the Red Hat ladies. We will be participating in the Love Box scheme again in 2023.
Members of the congregation donated 248 items to the Foodbank in March, including chocolate Easter eggs. The Rev Pam Bayliss sent a lovely letter of appreciation.
Sarah Jane’s heroic efforts to find new homes for Mike Learner’s legacy bears realised a further £114 in March, bringing the cumulative total to a remarkable £2,436.
The Sunday collections for March amounted to £1,273. The fourth Sunday sales tableorganised by Chris Bardsley raised a magnificent £175, a sum largely enhanced by the sale of the beautiful Easter cards and tasty puddings she had so carefully made.
Barsham Parochial Church Council very gratefully acknowledges recent donations of £50, £200 and £1,000.
Many thanks to Maisebrooke Farm at Shipmeadow, whose Barsham Church collection box recently yielded over £15 in small change.
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 APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) is on Thursday 4th May in the church. Anyone can attend this meeting.
The Rt Revd Dr Mike Harrison, Bishop of Dunwich, will be celebrating Eucharist with us at Barsham on Sunday 16th July.
Tour, tea and Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Sunday 10th September, 1.45pm – 5pm. Places can be booked through Bridget.
SNIPPETS – The altar front
For most of the year, the front of the altar is covered by one of a set of frontals, coloured to match the liturgical day or season. The exception to this is during Holy Week, when the altar is traditionally stripped on Maundy Thursday in preparation for Good Friday. At Barsham this reveals the handsome marquetry work on the wooden front panel, designed by Frederick Eden and made by Lawrence Turner. The panel is of walnut, inlaid with precious woods and ivory (photo on front cover).
It was a gift in 1906 from the Anglo-Catholic congregation of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn in London, where the Vicar was the Rev R A J Suckling, a leading figure in the Anglo-Catholic Revival and former Rector of Barsham for 21 years from 1868 to1889, and Patron from1880 to 1917.
I am sure with Good Friday in mind, Eden’s design incorporates a set of stylized emblems of the Passion: a crown of thorns (overlying the cross), three nails (converging on the centre of the cross), and scourges in each of the quadrants. The words ‘Glory’, Laud’, ‘Honour’ and ‘Power’ recall John Mason Neale’s Palm Sunday hymn ‘All Glory, Laud and Honour…’, celebrating Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. This was in fact a translation from Latin of the original words by Theodulf, a 9th century Bishop of Orleans, who may perhaps have been referencing Revelation, 4:11 – ‘Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things...’.
Frederick Eden (1864-1944) was a church architect and designer of stained glass and church fittings, specializing in the decoration of Anglo-Catholic interiors. His practice was based in Holborn, London, where Suckling was Vicar of St Alban the Martyr. Repeatedly commissioned by Suckling, Eden was responsible for many of the treasures that make Barsham Church what it is today. His work was of national
importance, and he was appointed curator of the ecclesiastical furnishings display at the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley in 1924. The significance of his work is still recognised and valued: the library of the Royal Institute of British Architects and the Victoria and Albert Museum both hold a large number of his design drawings for stained glass windows and church fittings.
The Oxford-based Lawrence Turner (1864-1957) was a celebrated architectural stonemason, sculptor, wood carver and plaster modeler (he executed the plaster ceiling in the chancel) who worked with the top architects of the day, including Frederick Eden. He carried out many prestigious commissions in churches as well as universities, schools, great houses, government buildings, war memorials and tombs. He was elected Master of the Art Workers Guild in 1922 and was a Fellow of the British Institute of Industrial Art.
Like Eden and Suckling, the hymn-writer J M Neale (1818-1866) was another proponent of the Anglo-Catholic Revival and was one of the founders of the Cambridge Camden Society which argued for more ritual and religious decoration in churches: exactly the kind of work Suckling was commissioning from Eden, Turner and others.
MAY DIARY
Sunday 30th April. Fourth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 7th May – Fifth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 14th May – Sixth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Thursday 18th May – Ascension Day. 7pm Holy Communion at All Saints, Mettingham. Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 21st May – Seventh Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 28th May – Pentecost. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 28th May – Benefice Choral Evensong. 6.30pm at All Saints, Mettingham.
Every Wednesday at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]