NEWS
Bishop Martin has announced that the Revd Josh Bailey has agreed to become Interim Rural Dean for the Waveney and Blyth Deanery. Many congratulations to Josh on this appointment and best wishes to him as he embarks on these new and additional responsibilities.
A Benefice Evensong was held at All Saints Mettingham on Sunday 30th April and was attended by a number from Holy Trinity, Barsham with Shipmeadow.
The APCM (Annual Parochial Church Meeting) was held in the church on the afternoon of Thursday 4th May, attended by members of the PCC as well as eight other members of the congregation. Bridget and Diana were re-elected as churchwardens, all existing members of the PCC were re-elected for another year, and Cheryl was elected back onto the PCC. The Rev Josh expressed his gratitude to all those who contribute to the running of the church throughout the year, in particular the churchwardens and members of the PCC who look after the finances, the fabric, the churchyard and the admin. Appreciation and thanks were also expressed to those who help week in week out, making refreshments after Sunday service and arranging flowers; and those who help in other capacities such as cleaning the church, and providing splendid teas and refreshments for visiting groups and special events.
On Coronation weekend the National Anthem was sung at Sunday service and afterwards glasses of bubbly were raised in the Loyal Toast. Coronation celebrations continued on the Wednesday following when Tess Blower’s team of ringers rang a 45-minute quarter peal(worth ‘googling’ for an explanation) as part of the Ringing for the King programme in which quarter peals were rung in every ringable tower in the district. At Barsham there was a good turn-out of listeners and given that 16mm of rain fell on Barsham the day before and 14mm the day after, it was a blessing to enjoy the peal sitting in the churchyard on a pleasant afternoon.
A U3A East Suffolk Church Crawlers group of 16 delightful enthusiasts from the Ipswich area visited for a guided tour of the church and refreshments on Friday 19th May.
Thank you for continuing to support the Foodbank. In April our contributions amounted to 204 items.
The fourth Sunday sales table organised by Cherry raised £85.
FORWARD PLANNING
Stuart Bowell, Chairman of the Round Tower Churches Society will be giving a talk ‘Round Towered Churches: a Norfolk and Suffolk Speciality’ at St John’s Church, Ilketshall St John at 7pm on Thursday 8th June.
The Rt Revd Dr Mike Harrison, Bishop of Dunwich, will be celebrating Eucharist with us at Barsham on Sunday 16th July.
The HT Barsham with Shipmeadow annual Summer Lunch will take place on Wednesday 5th July at the kind invitation of Nick and Jenny Caddick at St Bartholomew’s Church, Shipmeadow. Tickets will be available from Bridget in early 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.
The Suffolk Guild of Ringers will be ringing at Holy Trinity, Barsham with Shipmeadow at 2pm on Saturday 12th August.
Tour, tea and Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Sunday 10th September, 1.45–5pm. Places can still be booked through Bridget.
Bishop Norman will join us for Harvest Evensong and Harvest Supper in the Village Hall on Sunday 8th October.
SNIPPETS – Churchyard Flora
Malcolm and Colin work hard to look after the churchyard, carefully balancing the need to prevent it from becoming overgrown with the maintenance of its picturesque appearance and the goal of encouraging biodiversity. Whilst access paths are mown, including to graves known to be tended, mowing is kept to a minimum to encourage the growth of wildflowers and to protect wildlife habitat. Haymaking is managed in the traditional way, taking place in August. An interesting initiative has been the planting of Yellow Rattle plugs, since Rattle is a parasitic plant that feeds off the roots of grass and thus controls growth.
Churchyards are now recognised to be a vital refuge for flora and fauna struggling to survive in landscapes otherwise largely polluted with chemicals and stripped of habitats. ‘God’s Acre’ is often the last sanctuary for some of our most threatened grassland plants, mosses, lichens and flowers, and the butterflies and insects they support. Flowery grasslands supporting a luxuriant array of flora and fauna used to be commonplace, but an estimated 98% has been lost since the 1930s. During the Second World War six million acres of grassland were lost to the plough in favour of cereals and were lost forever. Since then, industrial farming and development have continued the damage. Many churchyards have escaped this dramatic loss, however, and may have remained undisturbed, reseeding naturally for hundreds of years – perhaps even a thousand years in our case. So, churchyards are often the best places to see wild meadow grasses and flowers. As the Somerset Wildlife Trust puts it, ‘A churchyard is a little snapshot of how the countryside used to be’.
Colin kindly took me around the churchyard ten days into May and pointed out over 20 varieties of wildflower then in flower, amongst them blue, white and mauve Bluebells, Ransoms, Oxslips (a cross-pollination of cowslip and primrose), Cowslips, Fumitory, Meadow Saxifrage, Vetch, Oxeye Daisy, and some with charming names like Crane’s Bill, Mouse-eared Chickweed, Nodding Star of Bethlehem and Lady’s Bedstraw. Nodding Star of Bethlehem is special and very rare, and Lady’s Bedstraw was first spotted in the churchyard here in 2011 and has spread successfully since mowing has been reduced. It is one of a number of wildflowers with ‘Lady’ in their name, referring to the Virgin Mary. According to the website Caring for God’s Acre – Caring for Meadows and Wildflowers in Burial Grounds: ‘Lady’s Bedstraw, when dried, smells sweet and was stuffed in straw mattresses and strewn on floors. It is also supposed to deter fleas. According to one medieval legend the Virgin Mary herself gave birth whilst lying on a bed of Lady’s Bedstraw and bracken. Lady’s Bedstraw has sweet, frothy, honey-smelling flowers and historically it was used to curdle milk during cheese-making’. Research carried out by Maurice Elliott and others between 1989 and 2010 and collected together in his pamphlet The Natural History of Barsham identified 114 different plants in Barsham churchyard and surroundings, including eight different varieties of grass and 19 mosses.
JUNE DIARY
Sunday 28th May – Pentecost. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 4th June –Trinity Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 4th June – Trinity Sunday. 6.30pm Patronal Festival Choral Evensong at Barsham. Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 11th June – First Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 18th June – Second Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 25th June – Third Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.
Every Wednesday at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]