NEWS
Rev Canon John Fellows blessed a remarkable 112 Love Boxes for the Mustard Seed Relief Mission at Sunday service on 24 October. Thank you so much for the 75 boxes that were gifts from the congregation; the other 37 were from Beccles Lions and Beccles Red Hat Ladies.
Margaret has done a fabulous job organising and supervising the Love Box programme for the last six years and has now ‘retired’ from the role. Since no individual has offered to take on this mission, it is suggested that a small team might now run the programme. Please talk to one of the Churchwardens if you can help.
The three congregations made up a full church at the Benefice Service at All Saints, Mettingham on All Saints Sunday, 31October.
At the PCC meeting on 4 November it was confirmed that our Sunday readings would henceforth be taken from the King James Version of the Bible.
The Remembrance Service at the Village Hall on 11 November was attended by 20 people and led by Rev Canon John Fellows. The names were read of the 17 Barsham and 6 Shipmeadow men lost in the First World War, along with the names of the American airmen who perished when two aircraft crashed at Barsham and Shipmeadow during the Second World War. Two minutes silence was kept at 11am, the Last Post and Reveille was played by a student from the Sir John Leman High School, and wreaths were laid at the village war memorial. Many thanks to the team at the Village Hall for refreshments afterwards.
The church was beautifully decorated with poppies for Remembrance Sunday, when the names of the Fallen were read by Neville Smith and a silence was kept before the start of the morning Eucharist service.
On the evenings of Friday 12 and Saturday 13 November, 260 visitors to the church were enthralled by the remarkable spectacle of artist William Lindley’s Light Show. William created a wonderful, immersive sensory experience: visitors enjoyed a feast of visual delights in the spectacular moving digital projections, while ethereal choral music washed over them. The designs in the chancel projections were inspired by some of the architectural details of the church and were accompanied by a sequence of glorious anthems by Harris, Byrd and Philips. Meanwhile, in the north chapel there was much interest in the slide show of photos of Barsham past and present. It was a fabulous, memorable show and we are most grateful to William for creating it, and to David and Penny Lindley, William’s parents, for first suggesting the project and then supporting the show. Many thanks as well to all those who made the splendid refreshments and helped with the logistics. Donations at the door raised £545 and refreshments and greetings cards raised a further £481.
Sunday collections in October totalled £852. 138 items were kindly donated to the Food Bank and Pam at Beccles Foodbank wrote to Amy to say, ‘Please thank your wonderful members at Barsham Holy Trinity for their help: you are amazing’.
The October sales table raised £120, thanks to those who donated items for sale; and Sarah Jane’s Legacy Bear Sale on 6November raised £76.
Our team of four (Bridget, Colin, Dominique and Robert) finished second of six teams at the annual Friends of All Saints, Mettingham Inter-Church Quiz.
FORWARD PLANNING
The Sales Table on Sunday 28 November will include hand-crafted Christmas cards (some Barsham-themed) and Barsham Christmas place settings by Chris Bardsley and more can be ordered from her for collection the following Sunday. There will be no sales table on the fourth Sunday in December.
There is to be a concert in the church on Friday 21 January, featuring the trio SuAnLo: an organist, flautist and soprano voice, from San Sebastian in Spain. There will be refreshments at the interval. Further details to follow.
SNIPPETS – a Christmas Ramble
Much of the decorative detail in our church is the result of donation by late 19th century benefactors. The arch high over the rood screen, and the painting in the north chapel of The Madonna Sewing were both gifts of Christmases past. The painting was the gift of Colonel William Churchman of Ashman’s Hall on Christmas Day 1909 and the arch was given by the Rev Robert Alfred John Suckling (Rector 1868-1880 and Patron 1880-1917) at Christmas 1899.
The arch, made locally in Ditchingham, was plain at first but was painted in 1919 in memory of its donor. It celebrates the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary and features the figures of the Archangel Gabriel and St Elizabeth on the left and St Mary and St Joseph on the right. The story of the Annunciation is told in Luke 1:26-38 – the announcement by Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son by the power of the Holy Spirit, becoming the mother of the Son of God. Mary’s cousin Elizabeth, Gabriel revealed, was already miraculously on a shared experience of childbearing despite her old age. Matthew 1:18-22 tells us that Mary’s fiancé Joseph received a separate annunciation and because of this he did not abandon Mary on account of her condition in advance of their marriage.
The Annunciation is celebrated exactly nine months before Christmas Day, on 25 March – Lady Day. Marking the Incarnation of Jesus Christ, it brings the promise of redemption and a new beginning; and so it was Lady Day that was traditionally New Year’s Day in England from the mid-12th century until 1752, when the Gregorian Calendar was adopted and 1 January became New Year’s Day.
At Christmas time St Luke’s story of the Annunciation is told in the fifth lesson of the Service of Nine Lessons and Carols. This service was first introduced by Bishop Benson of Truro in 1880, allegedly to attract Cornishmen away from the pubs at Christmas time, and it grew in popularity after he became Archbishop of Canterbury in 1883. At Christmas 1918, responding to what he saw as a retreat from organised religion during the First World War, the Dean of King’s College, Cambridge introduced the Service to King’s College Chapel as a means of attracting people back to worship, and the tradition of the annual Nine Lessons and Carols from King’s was born. It was first broadcast by BBC radio in 1928 and then on television from 1954.
During our own Carol Service at Barsham on 19 December, perhaps the arch over the rood may catch our eye as we contemplate the story of the Annunciation, which in our service will be read in the third lesson.