NEWSThere will now be a weekly service of Matins on Wednesday mornings at 8.45am at Barsham. These services will be suspended during the coldest months of December and January. At the PCC meeting on the 3rd March it was agreed that Barsham Church should support the Church Walking Pilgrimages scheme, which enables pilgrims travelling on foot or bicycle to seek free overnight sanctuary in churches along their route, enhancing the spiritual nature of their trek and making it affordable. Barsham lies usefully on the Via Beata Way, a 340-mile pilgrimage route from Lowestoft to St David’s. All the pilgrims need is access to drinking water and a loo, and a place to lay their bedroll. Further information can be found on the website www.ChurchWalkingPilgrimages.org.If any experienced bellringers are keen to start ringing at Barsham, please contact the Rev Josh Bailey. Food Bank donations in February amounted to 210 items. These gifts are so much appreciated and sadly, with the current squeeze on the cost of living, ever more donations are going to be needed in the months ahead. The February sales table organised by Bridget raised £115. The legacy teddy bears raised a further £261 at auction, bringing the cumulative total to £621. Very many thanks to Sarah Jane for her considerable efforts with the bears.FORWARD PLANNINGThe proceeds from the Sales Table to be held on Sunday 27th March will be sent to the Ukraine Fund. There will be a Service of Confirmation for Benefice confirmands at Holy Trinity, Bungay on Sunday 1st May at 3pm. At the same service the Revd Edward Land will be licensed as Associate Vicar and Heather Land as Director of the Lightwave Community Choir.The concert by the SuAnLo Trio has been rescheduled again and is now confirmed for the afternoon of Saturday 21st May at Barsham Church: a summer afternoon concert with tea and cakes. Further details will follow. The Trio comes from San Sebastian on the Basque coast of Spain. Loreto Aramendi (‘Lo’) is Professor at the Conservatoire of San Sebastian and principal organist at the Basilica de Santa Maria del Coro in San Sebastian, and she regularly performs all over the world. Ana Salaberria (‘An’) is an accomplished singer and teacher of classical and popular music who performs with well-known musical ensembles. Suzanna Guterl (‘Su’) is a flautist who performs as a soloist in a variety of musical groups. The church and the Barsham Village Hall Committee are organising a Queen’s Jubilee Lunch at the Village Hall on Sunday 5th June. Details to follow.SNIPPETS – An Easter AnniversaryOn Easter Day 1912 the high altar cross that we use to this day was given by the then Patron, the Rev RAJ Suckling, in memory of his sister, Mary Sarah Suckling (1844-1910). The latter, known within the High Anglican All Saints Community as Sister Mary Theresa, had been the Sister Superior at the St John’s Hospital for Incurables at Cowley in Oxford, which was run by the All Saints Sisters of the Poor. The cross (pictured on the front cover) was designed and made in its entirety by an unnamed female, possibly one of the sisters at Cowley. It is inscribed on its reverse:‘AMDG pray for the soul of Mary Sarah Suckling of the Parish of the Most Holy Trinity, Barsham and in grateful and thankful memory of her life as ‘Succourer of Many’. She became a professed sister of All Saints and fell asleep in Jesus on June 15th 1910. Her body rests under the shadow of St John’s Hospital, Oxford R I P.’ AMDG, a Latin acronym for Ad Majorem Dei Gloriam (For the Greater Glory of God), is also the motto of the Society of Jesus – the Jesuits. The inscription references Paul’s letter to the Romans (16:1-2), comparing the work of Mary Sarah Suckling with that of a woman called Phebe, who lived at what is now Kechries on the Peloponnese in Greece. Paul describes Phebe as a sister, a saint and a ‘succourer of many’: ‘I commend unto you Phebe our sister, which is a servant of the church which is at Cenchrea. That you receive her in the Lord, as becometh saints, and that ye assist her in whatsoever business she hath need of you: for she hath been a succourer of many, and myself also.’ APRIL DIARYSunday 27th March – Fourth Sunday of Lent, Mothering Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 3rd April – Fifth Sunday of Lent, Passion Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 10th April – Palm Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Thursday 14th April – Maundy Thursday. 7.30pm Holy Communion with foot-washing, Holy Trinity, Bungay.Friday 15th April – GOOD FRIDAY. 12 noon Meditation. Rev Josh Bailey.Saturday 16th April – Holy Saturday. 9pm Compline and Vigil, Holy Trinity, Bungay. Rev Josh Bailey. Sunday 17th April – EASTER SUNDAY. 11am Sung Eucharist (CW). Rev Josh Bailey. Sunday 27th April – Second Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 1st May – Third Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 1st May – Licensing of Edward and Heather Land and Service of Confirmation, 3pm at Holy Trinity, Bungay.Every Wednesday at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham Every Wednesday at 10am – Holy Communion (CW) at Holy Trinity, Bungay.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 01502 710945, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSIt is with huge sadness that we record the recent deaths of three faithful members of our congregation, Valerie Taylor, Roy Pike and Maurice Elliott. Roy and his wife Marion attended Barsham church regularly for many years and he served as a sidesman. Roy’s funeral took place at the church on 11th February, when he was laid to rest beside Marion. Valerie was a stalwart of the local community and a long-term member of the congregation who organised teas and coffees after the service. Those post-service refreshments were initiated by Maurice and Janet Elliott when they lived next door at the Rectory. Maurice became an active member of the PCC, taking on the key roles of Vice Chair and Church Warden, as well as being Deanery Lay Chair. The church was filled to capacity for an uplifting service of thanksgiving for Maurice’s life on 14th February. Thanks as ever to the team who provided such splendid refreshments. As advised recently at Sunday service, two new appointments to the Bungay Lightwave Hub have been made. The Revd Edward Land has been appointed as Associate Minister of the Lightwave Rural Hub in Bungay and will be licensed on the 1st May.Heather Land, Edward’s wife, has been appointed to the half-time post of Choir Director within the Lightwave Hub, the aim being to forge new links with the community through music and song. We are most grateful to Robert Rawlinson for so kindly donating a fine new large print King James Bible for the lectern.The January Sales Table organised by Margaret raised an excellent £165.00. The Food Bank received 226 items in January. Grateful thanks as ever to the church’s loyal supporters. The Beccles Foodbank would love to have more baked beans.FORWARD PLANNINGThere will be two services of Holy Communion at Holy Trinity, Bungay on Ash Wednesday, 2nd March, one at 10.00am and one at 7.30pm, both with imposition of ashes. Sales Tables will be held on Sunday 27th February and Sunday 27th March. The Spring Equinox Event is due to take place in the church on the afternoons of 19th, 20th and 21st March. Refreshments will be served from 4.45pm with the illumination taking place at about 5.15pm, weather permitting. SNIPPETS – St Felix and a Barsham Treasure In the Church of England the feast of Saint Felix falls on the 8th March and remembers Felix of Dunwich, sometimes known as Felix of Burgundy, who died on 8th March in the year 647 or 648. Very little is known about Felix, except what was reported by Bede in his Ecclesiastical History of the English People, written almost a century after Felix died, and similar information contained in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle another century later. Felix had probably been a priest in a Frankish monastery in Burgundy when he came to Canterbury in about 630. From there he was sent by Archbishop Honorius to bring Christianity to the pagan East Angles whose king, Sigeberht, had already converted to Christianity whilst in exile on the Continent. Felix was given the see of ‘Dommoc’, thought to be Dunwich, and became Bishop of East Anglia. He then spent the next 17 years spreading the faith amongst the East Angles and was venerated as a saint after his death.At Barsham St Felix is remembered in a banner that stands on the right of the altar in the north chapel. This is the banner of the St Felix Ward of the Confraternity of the Blessed Sacrament (CBS). The CBS was founded in 1862 during the Catholic Revival in the Church of England. It was a fellowship of men and women within the Anglican Church dedicated to the veneration of the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. A ward was the local unit of the CBS in which members met together for prayer, worship and mutual support under the guidance of a priest or ward superior. The Revd RAJ Suckling, sometime Rector and Patron of Barsham, who was a leading figure in the Anglo-Catholic Movement, was the Superior-General of the CBS from 1901 until his death in 1917. Suckling and the Revd Allan Coates (Rector 1889-1920) did much to promote the Anglo-Catholic ideal of the ‘Beauty of Holiness’ at Barsham, beautifying and dignifying our church to render it worthy to be the house of God, and restyling Holy Trinity, Barsham as ‘The Most Holy Trinity’. They commissioned furnishings, fittings and decorative pieces of the highest quality – the banner amongst them – from the leading craftsmen of the day, giving the interior of the church much of its characteristic appearance today. The St Felix banner is one of our treasures. It was designed by Watts & Co of 30 Baker Street, London and embroidered and presented to the church in 1904 by Catherine Coates and Alice Harrison, respectively the Rector’s wife and the headmistress of the village school. Watts & Co was an architectural and interior design company established by George Bodley, Thomas Garner and George Gilbert Scott Junior, three of the 19th century’s most significant church architects who did much work for the Anglo-Catholic Movement. Watts & Co produced fabrics, furnishings and metalwork of the finest quality and was known above all for its outstanding embroidery. They designed ecclesiastical banners, frontals and vestments for cathedrals and parish churches throughout Britain, including the first vestments worn since the Reformation at Westminster Abbey (for Queen Victoria’s 1887 Jubilee) and St Paul’s Cathedral (for her 1897 Jubilee). They designed the ecclesiastical vestments for the coronation of Edward VII in 1902 and every coronation since. Although our St Felix banner is now somewhat decayed, its exquisite beauty of design and workmanship shine through still.March DiaryWednesday 2nd March – Ash Wednesday. 10.00am and 7.30pm Holy Communion with imposition of ashes at Holy Trinity, Bungay. Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 6th March – First Sunday of Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk. Sunday 13th March – Second Sunday of Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 20th March – Third Sunday of Lent, 11am Sung Eucharist (CW). Rev Roy Wormald. Sunday 27th March – Fourth Sunday of Lent, 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 3rd April – Fifth Sunday of Lent, 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.Every Wednesday at 10am – Holy Communion (CW) at Holy Trinity, Bungay.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 01502 710945, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSThe service on Sunday 30 January is a Benefice Holy Communion to be held at Holy Trinity Bungay. With the easy transmissibility of the Omicron variant of the virus in mind, it was agreed at the PCC meeting on 6 January that for the time being refreshments would not be served after Sunday service. The Sales Table, however, would resume on the fourth Sunday of each month, starting again on Sunday 23 January.244 items were kindly donated to the Food Bank in December. Thank you for your support of the Food Bank throughout last year. Two new visitors’ guidebooks to the church will be available by the spring. One will be a handy short guide, free of charge, and the other will be a more detailed guide for which there will be a charge. FORWARD PLANNINGThe concert by the SuAnLo Trio scheduled for Friday 21 January in Barsham Church has had to be postponed due to the difficulties created by the Omicron wave of the pandemic. We can now look forward to a rescheduled concert on the afternoon of Saturday 14 May. It will be a summer afternoon concert with tea and cakes instead of a cold, dark winter evening concert! Further details will be available in due course. The Spring Equinox Event – the illumination of the rood by a shaft of late afternoon sunlight from the tower windows – will take place in the church on the afternoons of 19, 20 and 21 March. Further details to follow. FEBRUARY DIARYSunday 23 January – Third Sunday after the Epiphany, 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Sunday 30 January – Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany. 10.30am Benefice Holy Communion at Holy Trinity, Bungay. Rev Josh Bailey.Wednesday 2 February – Candlemas: Feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple.Sunday 6 February – Fourth Sunday before Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk. Sunday 13 February – Third Sunday before Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 20 February – Second Sunday before Lent, 11am Sung Eucharist (CW). Rev Roy Wormald. Sunday 27 February – Sunday before Lent, 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Every Wednesday at 10am – Holy Communion (CW) at Holy Trinity, Bungay.
NEWSThe Christmas Carol Service on the evening of 19 December attracted a congregation of nearly 50 people despite new public health concerns. Cheryl sang beautifully the opening verse of Once in Royal, the seven lessons were read by members of the congregation and Rev Josh led the service and preached. Thanks to the flower team, led by Diana, the church looked splendid and the candles on the windowsills and on the candelabra in front of the rood added much to the atmosphere. Regrettably, there could be no refreshments afterwards, but the raffle went ahead. Many thanks to all who donated towards the hampers, those who bought tickets, and to Jean Cooksley who made such a gorgeous-looking cake. Cheryl, who is the organiser of the Beccles area Suffolk Historic Churches Trust Ride and Stride, would like to thank everyone who contributed to the success of the event this year. The total raised in Suffolk was a record-breaking £160,678, of which Beccles area made a bumper £5,968 and Barsham alone totalled £1,085, half of which comes to Barsham Church funds. The remainder goes to the SHCT central fund, which is available to make valuable grants to small churches like ours.Cheryl would like to find a successor for her role as organiser but is happy to work alongside someone else in 2022. It is not a time-consuming role: the main effort is in July with the distribution of Ride and Stride packs to the local church organizers, a task that can be shared amongst several volunteers. Please do let Cheryl know if you might be willing to take over as area organiser. A tremendous 343 items were donated to the Food Bank, including Christmas food, surplus Love Box items such as knitted gloves and scarves, and some of the teddy bears that Sarah Jane has been curating. The last Sales Table of the year raised £160. Warmest thanks to everyone who has contributed financially and with gifts in kind.When he died two years ago, Mike Learner gifted to Barsham church through his will a large collection of teddy bears that had belonged to his wife Josie. Mike and Josie, of Grange Farm in Barsham, were generous supporters of the church and Mike’s signature honey tray bake was famous amongst the Barsham congregation! Mike was responsible for the electrical installations during the post-fire restoration work of 1979-1982, so it seems appropriate now that the proceeds from the sale of the bears should go towards modernising the lighting in the church. Sarah Jane has taken on the task of looking after more than 1,300 teddy bears, sorting them and identifying those with value, including one Stieff (see below) and three from Harrods, and finding opportunities to sell them or otherwise disperse them appropriately. Over 100 were sold at the switching on of the Beccles Christmas lights, more at events in Bungay and Ringsfield, and Durrants will include a batch in their February auction. Over £250 has been raised so far. FORWARD PLANNINGSuAnLo Concert in Barsham Church at 7pm on Friday 21 January. The trio, from San Sebastian in Spain, features an organist, flautist and soprano voice. They will play a programme of music from the classical repertoire, popular film music and a little taste of Spain. Tickets cost £10 each and will be on sale from Bridget and Diana from the first Sunday of the New Year - Covid regulations permitting. THIS CONCERT HAS NOW BEEN POSTPONED IN THE INTERESTS OF COVID SAFETY.
