NEWS
Congratulations to John Randall on his 90th birthday! There were drinks and refreshments after morning service on 1st September to celebrate, and there was further famous Barsham hospitality on 8th September to celebrate the 50th anniversary of Colin and Margaret’s engagement.
As part of the lengthy and ongoing process of finding a new Rector, members of the PCC will be attending a meeting with Archdeacons Rich Henderson and Sally Gaze on 18th September, and a further meeting with Bishop Martin on 1st October.
The Autumn Equinox is on Sunday 22nd September and, weather permitting, the illumination of the rood will be visible on the 21st, 22nd and 23rd September from about 5.50pm. As was the case for the Spring event, there will be no formal introductory talk and no refreshments provided, but people are warmly welcome to come and experience the event.
Thank you to those who intend to fill Love Boxes this year. Please would you return the filled boxes by Friday 25th October at the latest to give Cheryl time to check and arrange them for the blessing, which is to be on Sunday 27th October.
The monthly table sales table organised by Cherry raised a splendid total of £110.00.
Following the final sale of the last remaining legacy bears, an anonymous and generous benefactress so moved by Sarah Jane’s efforts and perseverance has very kindly donated £509.00, elevating the final total to a magnificent £4,000.00. Many thanks to Sarah Jane and the kind donor; this sum will boost the fabric fund and will greatly aid future repairs to our Church.
For her part, Sarah Jane would like to thank Ringsfield, Redisham, Shadingfield, Sotterley and other ‘outlets’ for permitting the teddy stall to share their open days. Sarah Jane would like to extend special thanks to Doreen Springall and Amy, without whose help she could not have transformed Mike Learner’s legacy into funds for Barsham Church.
The congregation donated 166 items to the Food Bank in August.
FORWARD PLANNING
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. Tickets for the supper cost £10.00 and are available from Bridget.
SNIPPETS – ‘For they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls’
This is the text, now all but lost to 131 years of weathering, carved into the lintel on the south face of the Barsham lychgate. The text, from The Wisdom of Solomon 11:26, is part of a passage of reassuring words, beautifully rendered in the King James Version:
But thou hast mercy upon all; for thou canst do all things, and winkest at the sins of men, because they should amend. For thou lovest all the things that are, and abhorrest nothing which thou hast made: for never wouldest thou have made any thing, if thou hadst hated it. And how could any thing have endured, if it had not been thy will? or been preserved, if not called by thee? But thou sparest all: for they are thine, O Lord, thou lover of souls.
The Barsham lychgate was built in 1893. It was commissioned by the patron, Rev’d RAJ Suckling, and designed by Frederick Eden, the notable Anglo-Catholic church architect and designer of church interiors, who carried out commissions for Suckling at Barsham over some 30 years from about 1890. It was constructed by Walter Calver, master carpenter and builder, of Great Common, Ilketshall St Andrew, and paid for by public subscription and from Suckling’s own resources.
The figure perched above the inscription on the lychgate today is not the original. Surviving photographs show that the original was a St Christopher carrying the Christ Child. This must have weathered quickly for it had already been replaced by 1931, when a photograph shows the figure of Jesus the Good Shepherd carrying a sheep, and this is the same figure that we have today.
As far as is known, this lychgate is the first to exist at Barsham. Certainly, there wasn’t one ten years earlier at the time of the 1883/4 Ordnance Survey map. That’s not to say that older lychgates did not exist elsewhere: they began to appear at the entrances to churchyards from the later medieval period. The word lych comes from the Old English lic, meaning corpse and the purpose of the lychgate was to give shelter to coffins and pallbearers as they waited for the priest to meet them at the entrance to the churchyard before conducting the coffin into the church for a funeral. The seats were for the pallbearers and the stone tracks on the floor were for the easy passage of the wheels of the bier.
It may be interesting to note that the holly hedge on either side of the lychgate was planted in 1892, the year before the lychgate was erected, at the expense of the Rector, Rev’d Allan Coates. Perhaps his choice of holly came down to its effectiveness as an all-season thick screen, but holly was commonly used in churchyard hedges and it is rich in popular Christian symbolism. The red berries, for instance, symbolise the blood of Christ, shed on the cross. Legend has it that holly berries were originally white or yellow, but the blood Christ shed for the sins of humankind stained the berries forever red. Another ancient legend claims that the cross on which Jesus was crucified was constructed of holly wood. Some see the holly’s pointed leaves as symbolic of the crown of thorns placed on Jesus’ head before the crucifixion. In Germany holly is known as ‘christdorn’ or ‘Christ thorn’. For others, the evergreen nature of the tree is a metaphor for eternal life. Holly is, of course, associated with Christmas and the words of the traditional English carol The Holly and the Ivy reflect its multi-faceted symbolism.
Beyond the symbolism, and thinking environmentally, holly has much value in nature. The thick habitat provides vital nesting cover for birds, and in winter, the dry holly leaves on the ground are used by hibernating hedgehogs and the berries are a vital food source for birds and small mammals. In summer, the tiny white holly flowers provide nectar and pollen for bees and attract the holly blue butterfly and various moths.
OCTOBER DIARY
Sunday 6th October – Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 13th October – Twentieth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.
Sunday 13th October – Harvest Evensong. 5.30pm Choral Evensong. Archdeacon Sally Gaze.
Sunday 20th October – Twenty-first Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.
Sunday 27th October – Last Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]