NEWS
Heartfelt thanks were extended to Revd Josh and a presentation was made to him at his final Sunday service at Barsham on 4th August. We are immensely grateful to Josh for the enthusiasm with which he has adopted Barsham’s form of service and the love he has extended to our congregation and those connected with it.
Meetings to discuss a successor to Revd Josh are timetabled for September.
Congratulations to Robyn Howard and Tom Escobar, whose wedding took place at Holy Trinity Barsham on Saturday 10th August. The singing was led by the choir and Diana and Margaret helped with the flowers.
Churchyard Haymaking was undertaken over four days in the week commencing 29thJuly by our own volunteers assisted by hard-working Community Payback teams. It was a highly successful operation. Many thanks to everyone who helped in the extreme heat, and special thanks to the Bardsleys: Chris for so kindly providing ploughman’s lunches, and Malcolm for arranging the help of the Community Payback teams.
Dominique’s belfry swift project has reached its seasonal conclusion, with the sound system that broadcasts swift calls switched off until next May. The project has been a success, with eight or more swifts regularly circling the belfry in the early mornings by way of reconnaissance, and now every prospect that some will use the nesting boxes next year or the year after when they return from their migration.
A hassock (kneeler) made by Katherine Suckling, former patron of Holy Trinity Barsham, has recently returned from St Edmundsbury Cathedral and is displayed in the side chapel (front cover photo and see Snippets below).
The Jewellery Bonanza sales table organised by Chris Bardsley, offering a spectacular display of jewellery, raised the splendid sum of £90.00, whilst the routine monthly table staffed by Bridget produced a very healthy £77.00.
Sarah Jane’s determination to find homes for all the legacy bears has finally achieved its goal following sales at Redisham and Shadingfield, yielding a further £141.00 and £40.00 respectively and bringing the cumulative total to a magnificent and almost unbelievable £3,491.00. Well done and many thanks to Sarah Jane for her extraordinary perseverance!
139 items were sent to the Food Bank in July.
FORWARD PLANNING
Saturday 14th September, 9am-5pm – the annual Suffolk Historic Churches Trust Ride, Stride & Drive. The SHCT charity raises funds for the repair and restoration of churches and chapels in Suffolk. Of any sponsorship money you might raise, half comes to Holy Trinity Barsham and the remainder is placed in a central fund from which grants are made. Dick Carter (the Barsham organiser) and Cheryl Coutts (the Beccles area coordinator) would be grateful for participants and helpers on the day, so please keep the date free in your diary!
Harvest Festival Evensong will be held at 5.30pm on Sunday 13th October withArchdeacon Sally Gaze leading the service and preaching. Harvest supper will follow in the village hall at 7pm.
SNIPPETS – The Barsham Hassock and its Context
Although the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich was created in 1914, it wasn’t until 1959 that work started on transforming what had been the former parish church into a building of cathedral proportions. Over the following 11 years the Victorian chancel was replaced by a new quire, and additions included transepts, a Lady chapel, a side chapel and a cloister. Over the same period, each parish in the Diocese was invited to make two hassocks, creating almost a thousand in celebration of the new cathedral building, and these were dedicated at a special festival service on 25th July 1970.
There was a uniform design for the new hassocks, with the early Christian ‘Y’ cross worked in red and gold against a blue background – blue being the traditional colour of medieval Suffolk cloth. Each parish could then add a unique symbol of its own and stitch the parish name at the bottom. It is not entirely clear what the symbol on the Barsham hassock represents – perhaps a stylised chalice and wafer – the latter a darker yellow disc where the stem of the chalice meets the cup. What do you think?
When, in March this year, the Victorian pews at St Edmundsbury were replaced with chairs to provide a more flexible space for services and events, it was decided to withdraw the kneelers from use and to display one from each parish as a visible sign of the connection between the parishes of the Diocese and the Cathedral. The remainder were repatriated to their own parishes, hence the recent return of ours.
In his article Made with Love (Country Life magazine, Dec 2023), Revd Colin Heber-Percy explains that the term ‘hassock’ stems from the original type of church kneeler, made from dried tussocks of matted vegetation harvested from bogs. By the late 17th century these were often replaced by turkey-work kneelers in which yarns were knotted as in carpets to create a comfortable pile and it wasn’t until Victorian times that needlework kneelers became the fashion.
Our own rich array of kneelers is more recent, the beautiful work of embroiderers amongst the congregation. Some are an expression of time, celebrating particular events such as the Millenium, the 100th birthday of Queen Elizabeth the Queen Mother in August 2000, or the bicentenary of the Battle of Trafalgar five years later. One celebrates a marriage. Others are dedicated to the memory of treasured relatives or friends, and there’s one remembering Janet’s faithful dog Sasha. Most common are representations of Biblical motifs – a dove, a cross in various formats, a lamb, a star, and there’s a stitched quotation from St John’s gospel. Then there are Christian symbols such as the crossed keys of St Peter, the white lily representing the purity of Christ and His resurrection, and a pomegranate, which can have various interpretations but is commonly seen as a symbol of the Church and the unity of all the believers in Christ. Beyond those is a colourful array of patterns, floral designs, birds (including St Francis feeding the birds) and even landscapes picked out in the needlework.
Most of us don’t kneel any longer, but Barsham’s hassocks have meaning in themselves, and they beautify the church.
You can learn more about the history of kneelers from Elizabeth Bingham’s book, Kneelers: The Unsung Folk Art of England and Wales (Chatto & Windus, 2023).
SEPTEMBER DIARY
Sunday 1st September – Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 8th September – Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.
Sunday 15th September – Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11 or 11.15am TBC. Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.
Sunday 22nd September – Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 29th September – Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]