NEWS
Many congratulations to Hannah Spooner and Tim Futter on their marriage at Barsham Church on the 17th June in the presence of more than 100 guests.
Congratulations to Josh on his licensing as Rural Dean by Archdeacon Rich Henderson on the 13th June. Barsham was well represented at the service.
In Deanery news, the Revd Russell Gant has been appointed as Team Rector of the Sole Bay Team Ministry and will start in September. It is hoped to appoint a successor to Rich Henderson at Beccles in September.
Thanks to the kind invitation and warm hospitality of Nick and Jenny Caddick, 70 people enjoyed the Summer Lunch at St Bartholomew’s, Shipmeadow on the 5th July. Huge thanks to those who helped in the planning, the provision and preparation of food and drink, in running the raffle, and setting up and clearing.
We were delighted to welcome the Rt Revd Dr Mike Harrison, Bishop of Dunwich, to celebrate Eucharist with us at Barsham on Sunday 16th July.
Volunteers to help with the annual Haymaking in the churchyard on Friday 11th and Saturday 12th August are eagerly sought. Come for whatever time and energy you can spare! Bring a rake if you have one. A delicious ploughman’s lunch is kindly provided on both days by Chris Bardsley.
The June sales table organised by Jenny yielded a very useful £100. Sarah Jane’s continued endeavours to find homes for the legacy bears resulted in an additional £243 of sales in June, bringing the cumulative total for bear sales to a remarkable £2,834. The summer lunch raised £1,052 towards church funds.
133 items were contributed to the Foodbank in June.
FORWARD PLANNING
Cheryl is organising and leading a walk for the Hempnall Church walking group from Barsham church on Sunday 30th July, starting at 2pm and anyone is welcome to join. The walk will take about 2 hours at a leisurely pace, with tea at the church afterwards. Well-behaved dogs are welcome. There is no charge.
A group from the Suffolk Guild of Ringers will be ringing the church bells at Barshamfrom 2pm until 6pm on Saturday 12th August.
There will be an organ recital by Liz Vennard at Barsham Church at 3pm on
Saturday 19th August. The recital will last for about an hour, followed by a fabulous Barsham tea. Tickets are not required and there is no entrance charge, but
donations towards the running of the church will be very much appreciated.
Tour, tea and Evensong at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, Sunday 10th September, 1.45–5pm. Places can still be booked through Bridget.
Archdeacon Sally Gaze, Archdeacon of Rural Mission in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich will be visiting preacher on Sunday 17th September.
The Revd Canon Rich Henderson, Archdeacon of Suffolk, will be officiating at our Sunday service on 24th September.
The Right Revd Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough will join us for Harvest Evensong and Harvest Supper on Sunday 8th October.
SNIPPETS – The Church Bells
For centuries bells have rung from church towers to summon the faithful to church and to celebrate special occasions, including recently at Barsham a quarter peal for the King’s Coronation. All five of Barsham’s bells will be in action again in August, this time with the Suffolk Guild of Ringers (see above), so it may be of interest to know a little about our bells.
The oldest was cast in Norwich in the early 16th century and is broadly contemporary with the building of the top section of the tower at Barsham. It is tempting to speculate that this bell may even have been commissioned for the new belfry. It was probably the single bell extant at Barsham when Alfred Suckling described the church in his History and Antiquities of the County of Suffolk in 1846, though he noted that there had previously been three bells ‘at no very distant period’.
Four more bells were added half a century later by the then patron, the Rev’d RAJ Suckling (1842-1917), all of them cast in 1893 and installed in 1894. Suckling dedicated two of them to the prominent Anglo-Catholic priests, Charles Lowder (1820-1880) and Alexander Mackonochie (1825-1887), both of them so-called ‘slum priests’: mission priests working in the poorest slum areas of the East End of London. They were brave men, pursuing their work in the face of violent opposition from the deeply entrenched vested interests of the East End vice trades, as well as persecution from members of the Low Church Establishment in both Church and State, who found their ritualist practices and teachings too close to Roman Catholicism. Violent mobs were hired to disrupt their services, bishops were unhelpful or obstructive, and Lowder and Mackonochie were persecuted through the courts. Ultimately however, they won admiration for their exemplary pastoral work in the slums, establishing schools, soup kitchens, working men’s clubs, mothers’ groups and clothing funds. In 1866 Lowder became the founding vicar of St Peter’s London Dock, and in the cholera outbreak of that year he and his associates distinguished themselves by their heroic and selfless care of the poor, who
came to address Lowder as ‘Father’ – the first Anglican priest to be so called. Lowder was also renowned as one of the principal founders and the first Master of the Society of the Sacred Cross, founded in 1855. An Anglo-Catholic society of priests living under a common rule, the Society became a major driving force in the Anglo-Catholic Revival. Mackonochie was Lowder’s curate at St Peter’s London Dock, before going on to become perpetual curate of the Anglo-Catholic church of St Alban the Martyr, Holborn. The Anglo-Catholic RAJ Suckling would follow in the wake of Lowder and Mackonochie, exchanging the gentle Rectory at Barsham for the tough world of the mission priest, first at St Peter’s London Dock (1880) and then in succession to Mackonochie at St Alban the Martyr (1882), after the latter had been driven out by persecution. A memorial to Mackonochie, at one time behind the high altar at St Alban the Martyr, now graces the south wall of our Lady Chapel.
A third bell is dedicated to the Rev’d John Yelloly, RAJ Suckling’s uncle and his predecessor as Rector of Barsham, who died in 1892 – the year before the bells were cast. Finally, the tenor bell commemorates Captain Maurice Suckling, RN (1726-1778), who was the son of the Rev’d Maurice Suckling, mid-18th century Rector of Barsham, and brother of Catherine Suckling, mother of Horatio Nelson. A celebrated fighting captain in the Seven Years War, Maurice Suckling gave the young Nelson his first taste of seafaring and later, as Comptroller of the Navy, assisted Nelson in his early promotion. His burial at Barsham is recorded on his father’s ledger stone in the sanctuary.
AUGUST DIARY
Sunday 30th July – Eighth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 30th July – Benefice Evensong, Holy Trinity Bungay. 6.30pm Choral Evensong. Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 6th August – Ninth Sunday after Trinity. Transfiguration of our Lord. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 13th August – Tenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.
Sunday 20th August – Eleventh Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 27th August – Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]