NEWS
A much-valued member of our congregation, who wishes to remain anonymous, has generously offered to fund the production of new service books to replace our current deteriorating stock. A small working party has already met to agree the editing, format, and production process. The new service books, which will be A5 size, hardback and of durable quality, will include the familiar order of service for both Eucharist (set to Martin Shaw’s Folk Mass: see Snippets) and Evensong.
Well done Cheryl and Amy, both of whom visited 11 churches on the day of the Ride & Stride event, raising a total of £1,000.00, half of which will come direct to Barsham Church and the other half to the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust. Many thanks as well to everyone who manned the reception desk on the day.
One of the best Equinox displays for some time (front cover) was witnessed by a small gathering on the day before the Autumn Equinox, but there was sadly no display for the 15 people who gathered on the day of the Equinox itself.
On 18th September members of the PCC attended a meeting with the Rural Dean to discuss and hone the Parish Profile for the benefice and on 1st October a further meeting with the two Archdeacons to agree the job description and person specification for the post of Rector. The post is being advertised nationally through October and interviews are expected to be held in November.
The flower team decorated the church most beautifully for Harvest Festival on 13thOctober with a rich and bountiful array of cereals, squashes, fruits, hedgerow berries and flowers, creating a splendid backdrop for the morning service and later the Harvest Festival Evensong. We were delighted to welcome Archdeacon Sally Gaze to preside over Evensong and the choir added charm to the service with the anthem For the Beauty of the Earth. Harvest supper followed in the village hall for 40 guests, including Archdeacon Sally and her husband Chris. Convivial company, delicious food and splendidly decorated tables made for a delightful festive atmosphere. For the success of the evening, we owe huge thanks to the team who worked so hard to plan, prepare and serve the food and drinks, to provide the decorations for the tables, and to clear up afterwards.
Please return filled Love Boxes by Friday 25th October at the latest so Cheryl can check and arrange them for the blessing on Sunday 27th October.
The September sales table organised by Jenny raised the goodly sum of £100.00.
In early October Sarah Jane and Doreen Springall held a market stall in Beccles to sell some of the remaining merchandise from Chris Bardsley’s Jewellery Bonanza. Many thanks to all three.
Many thanks for the 210 items donated to the Food Bank in September, including much-needed items of clothing. With winter coming on, please keep donating clothing as well as tinned food.
FORWARD PLANNING
On Remembrance Sunday, 10th November, please arrive for 10.45am so that we can begin the service with the reading of the names of the Fallen and the two minutes silence at 11am.
The annual Service of Remembrance at Barsham Village Hall will be on Monday 11th November at 10.50am (arrive from 10.30am), with Last Post, two-minute silence and Reveille at 11.00am, followed by wreath-laying at the village war memorial. Parking will be on the village hall paddock and refreshments will be served afterwards in return for a donation. Everyone is welcome.
SNIPPETS – Martin Shaw, composer of the Folk Mass
Martin Shaw OBE FRCM, who composed the Anglican Folk Mass, the setting for our weekly Sung Eucharist, was a composer of considerable significance as a pioneer in the revival of native English music traditions. His abiding passion was in restoring ‘Englishness’ to English music, and church music in particular. He was also a man with Suffolk connections. The son of a church organist and a trained pianist, he studied briefly at the Royal College of Music under the great Sir Charles Villiers Stanford and Hubert Parry and made life-long friends of fellow English music revivalists Ralph Vaughan Williams, Gustav Holst and John Ireland.
Starting out in the 1890s as a theatre director, Shaw composed over 100 songs for theatre and was responsible for the revival of the almost forgotten music of Purcell, establishing the Purcell Operatic Society in 1899. In 1901-02 he worked as a researcher for Vaughan Williams on the English Hymnal (1905) and in 1908, encouraged by Vaughan Williams, he took up the post of organist, choirmaster and composer at St Mary’s, Primrose Hill, where the vicar was the hymnodist Percy Dearmer (an early advocate of the ministry of women). Dearmer and Shaw’s collaboration included the editing of multiple editions of two seminal works in English congregational church music, Songs of Praise (1925) and the Oxford Book of Carols (1928).
Shaw’s work included researching and rediscovering or reinstating the original versions of traditional English tunes. There are 11 of Shaw’s hymn tunes in our hymnal Common Praise(and five by his brother Geoffrey), including favourites Hills of the North, rejoice; All things bright and beautiful; Father hear the prayer we offer (the alternative tune was written by Vaughan Williams), and carols Angels from the realms of glory and Lully, lulla.
After Primrose Hill, Shaw had stints in the 1920s and 1930s at St Martin-in-the-Fields, as Master of the Music at the Guildhouse in London, and in the Diocese of Chelmsford. Along with his music for hymns and carols, Shaw wrote oratorios, cantatas, instrumental and chamber music, and he continued to write music for plays and festivals throughout the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. Benjamin Britten commissioned him to write the anthem God’s Grandeur for the first ever Aldeburgh Festival in 1948. Through this mix of media, he aimed to bring the ‘Englishness’ of his music to a wide national audience.
A charismatic man, he is said to have inspired the loyalty in all who knew him. In 1916, when Shaw married music teacher Joan Cobbold, of the Suffolk family, John Ireland was best man at the wedding. Having holidayed in Southwold throughout his earlier life, he moved with Joan to Blythburgh in 1946 and to Southwold in 1952, where they lived for the rest of their lives at Long Island House on the clifftop above the beach huts.
With over 300 published works and his contribution to the raising of standards in English church music, Shaw was created OBE in 1955. His cantata The Redeemer (1945) is sometimes said to be his best-known work, and he regarded it as his finest, but his Anglican Folk Massmay prove to be his most lasting legacy. He died in Southwold Hospital in 1958 and his ashes are buried in the churchyard of St Edmund’s, the parish church.
November Diary
Sunday 3rd November – All Saints. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 10th November – Third Sunday before Advent. Remembrance Sunday. 10.45am for 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.
Sunday 17th November – Second Sunday before Advent. Safeguarding Sunday. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.
Sunday 24th November – Christ the King. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]