St Mary’s Parish Magazine – June 2002
’Gators, Grackles and great company
We are observing Sunday June 2 as the day of
Thanksgiving for the Gift of the Eucharist (Corpus Christi). All who serve,
read, intercede or have any other regular role at the 8.00 or 9.30 Eucharists
on Sundays need to be in church for the 9.30am service that day, so that we can
thank you for all your work in the past year and commission you for the year
ahead!
The church will be open after the 2.00pm wedding on
Sunday June 2, with special ringing to mark the Jubilee, and on the Jubilee
Bank Holiday Monday. The ringers will
be providing light refreshments in the Centre on both days and there will be
visits to the tower as well as other attractions.
The Guides and Brownies join us once again for the
Sung Eucharist at 9.30 on Sunday June 9. We also welcome that morning Canon
John Simpson, vicar of St Margaret’s, Lowestoft, who will be baptising his
granddaughter Georgina during the service as well as giving the address.
There are a couple of extra weekday Eucharists this
month, on Tuesday the 11th at 10.00am (St Barnabas) and on Monday the 24th at
9.30am (SS Peter & Paul).
Those who come to church by car on a Sunday morning
should note that parking could be difficult on June 16 as Carew Manor is
holding a “Fiesta”.
The ringers’ auction on the
evening of June 15 at St Patrick’s hall is taking shape with a number of
interesting “promises” already for sale as well as more solid items.
If you are taking advantage of the extra bank
holiday on June 4 by taking a trip to Canterbury, you’ll be able to catch the Cantate Boys’ Choir (which includes
many of our own youngsters) singing 5.30pm Evensong at the cathedral.
Margaret Treasurer thanks all those who inquired
after her health and particularly those who came to her aid when she fell
during the “Beating the Bounds” walk. You
certainly are spectacular, Margaret!
Sutton Trade Justice and Jubilee Campaign is
holding a meeting at Sutton Baptist Church at 8.00pm on Wednesday June 12.
Speakers will include Martin Drewry, Christian Aid head of campaigns, Adrian
Lovett, Oxfam head of campaigns, and Susanna Mitchell of Jubilee Research, New
Economics Foundation.
May 5 was
Rogation Sunday, the fifth Sunday after Easter, on which Christians
traditionally pray for the communities in which they live.
The word rogation comes from the Latin word for asking - so Rogation
Days are “asking days”, a time for asking God’s blessing on the seeds which
have just been sown in the spring. The Church of England developed the custom,
centuries ago, of Beating the Bounds at this time. Maps were scarce at the time
and many parishioners would not have been able to read or write so there had to
be some way of learning where the bounds of the parish were. The congregation,
led by the clergy and choir, walked round the boundaries of the parish beating
the walls and hedges with sticks, seeing what repairs were needed. As they
walked, the people asked God’s blessing on the land where they lived and
worked, that the seeds which they had recently sown might grow and flourish.
One feature of some walks (which we didn’t repeat!) was that children would
have their heads bumped on all the boundary stones. This was to make sure that
they remembered where the boundaries were.
The walk round the bounds of St Mary’s parish
started at 11.30am on Rogation Sunday.
The weather was threatening but we were cheerful and enthusiastic. The
group met at Croydon Road and headed along Bute Road which is where I met them.
As the party of over 20 advanced towards me I was disappointed to see that
there were no walking shorts in evidence so I was unable to decide who would
have won the ‘knobbly knees’ competition.
The route had been well planned to stick as
close as possible to the real boundary without trespassing too much into other
parishes’ territory. We were supplied
with a written description of the route and a map.
We walked along a number of roads which I had never
seen before. It was fascinating to see the variety of areas which the parish
covers. From residential streets, through the industrial area starting at Asda
and the rural area personified by Beddington Park. (It is unfortunate that the
pavements in the residential areas were so uneven in places that one member of
the party tripped over.)
The distance walked was about six and a half
miles. It didn’t seem very far when I was walking as the companionship of the
other walkers lightened the journey. The journey would definitely have seemed
easy to the youngest member of our group who went round in a pushchair! Another
walker, who had brought his bike as a back-up means of transport was taken
aback when he tried to take his machine on the tram only for a disembodied
voice to tell him in no uncertain terms that bikes are not allowed on trams.
Most of the walkers had come prepared for bad
weather but we were quite lucky as we only had a little rain.
It was a thoroughly enjoyable day and one which
I would be happy to repeat.
On Sunday June 23 don’t forget the second
Festival of Music organised by Churches Together in Beddington and Wallington.
Building on the success and enjoyment of last year, it takes place in St Elphege’s
and begins at 7.00pm.
Singers and musicians from two local schools and
eight local churches are so far taking part, including our own choir and
handbell ringers, and Selwyn is in genial charge as Compère (or should it be
Master of Ceremonies?) for the evening. There is no charge, but there will
either be a collection or donations can be made afterwards, and we hope to be
able to support several charities as a result – including Children of
Chernobyl, CAFOD, and the Shaftesbury Society. Do be there!
Sadly the choir concert previously advertised
for Sunday afternoon July 21 will not now take place, because of various
difficulties brought about by the end of the school year. Choral Evensong that
night, which will be the last until September, will still feature music by
Thomas Morley and Maurice Duruflé, the two composers with important
anniversaries being celebrated this year.
Investigations are under way to try to provide
an entirely different sort of musical event for either a Saturday or Sunday in
late July, so that our fund raising keeps momentum – watch this space and the
weekly notices for further announcements!
A rapt audience of 70 plus enjoyed a concert by
the Albinoni String Orchestra on Monday May 6, the music ranging from the
eighteenth to the twentieth centuries. The group seemed much more comfortable
in the later music and the Grieg Holberg Suite and the Elgar Serenade
for Strings were given warm, full-toned and idiomatic performances. Sue
Treherne’s oboe playing more than met the unreasonable demands that Bach
typically asked of his woodwind players and the long mellifluous lines seemed
effortless and were sweet in tone. The ensemble accompanied sympathetically and
the whole piece sparkled along.
In both the Grieg and Elgar the warmth of the
tone of the viola, ’cello and particularly the double bass created a
wholehearted and reassuringly secure foundation which the violins embellished.
The fun of the Grieg with its jaunty melodies and smiling rhythms was
infectious and the feeling of the dance saw more than one foot tapping in time.
In the Elgar again it was the lower registers of all the instruments which
afforded most pleasure. The conductor and players seemed to be of one mind,
which led to a characterful and charged performance.
One very interesting feature of the concert was
the fledgling obbligato that accompanied most of the louder pieces as some
nestlings, clearly situated just outside the St Nicholas chapel, demanded food
from their overworked parents.
The caterers of the interval food and drink are
to be congratulated on the fine spread and swift service and the organisers of
the whole affair are to be applauded for bringing such music to St Mary’s for
so worthy a cause (the Winged Fellowship
Trust).
St Mary’s Guild had an enjoyable outing to Canterbury Cathedral on May 1; the
weather was benign, and the roads clear for the most part so we arrived in good
time for a leisurely lunch.
Our guide proved audible, informative and
entertaining. Our members climbed up and down the many stairs, albeit slowly
but with determination akin to some of the earlier pilgrims - except we did not
do one flight on our knees as they did.
We stood in the chapel where Becket was murdered
and saw the new altar of the sword - the centre cross like the broken-off blade
and the two either side throwing shadows so that four swords could be seen on
the wall signifying the four knights. (What happened to them after the murder?
Apparently ‘they lived happily ever after’.)
We stood in the Norman crypt, partly above
ground level. The eastern chapel where Becket’s body lay for 50 years was
enlarged and the ceiling raised which meant another flight of steps! The
pillars in the crypt were plain with carved capitals or vice versa. A workman
had done two sides of the capital when he clearly realised that it was carved
pillar so he stopped.
We had a crystal clear account of the roundels
of stained glass in two of the windows and an explanation of the 15th century
wall painting where the artist was so carried away with the sufferings of St Eustache
that he had to squeeze the joys of Paradise into a few inches at the top.
We saw the cathedra - the stone seat on which
the Archbishop sits when he is enthroned and the one he uses on Easter Sunday
and Christmas Day and his other visits - “simpler”. One tomb we were shown was
of Archbishop Sudbury, murdered during the Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 - his body
came to Canterbury while his head is at St Gregory’s, Sudbury.
We were also shown the tomb of the Black Prince.
His gloves, sword and overtunic are now in a glass case to preserve them with
reproductions over his tomb. He wished his body to lie in the Lady Chapel he
had built in the crypt. This has had its ceiling cleaned of centuries of candle
soot and has a new Virgin and Child sculpted by Sister Condita of Minster
Abbey.
We learned that nine years ago, when the nave
floor was relaid, the foundations of the Saxon cathedral were discovered. We
were also shown the modern windows which depict prisoners released from hell -
appropriate for the sculptor, an Hungarian Jew.
May 12 Elliott Anderson, 74 Stafford Road
Nathan
Peter Thompson, 60 Queen Elizabeth’s Walk
Anna
Lucy Center, 186 Demesne Road
Daniel
John Beeton, 18 Ferrers Avenue
Apr 27 Steven Hoore to Melanie Thomas, 7 Church
Paddock Ct
May 18 Ronald Davis to Suzanne Light, 5 Haydock
Lodge, Church Paddock Court
25 Paul Kelly to Rebecca Hedges, 1 Twickenham
Close
Apr 3 Ena Maud Turnbull, aged 75, of 36
Iberian Avenue
16 Ronald Thomas Barwell, aged 70, of 47
Plough Lsne Cl
18 William James Bridle, aged 88, of 3
Grassway
22 Diane Cresswell, aged 68, of 4 Townfield
Flats, Bucks
25 Iris May Saunders, of 47 Bridges Lane
For
the full version of this article, complete with photographs and hyperlinks to
relevant websites, visit Selwyn & Cassie’s website by clicking here.
It all started
when Pam and Ian Akhurst deserted the delights of Surrey (how could they?!) in
the summer of 2000. Ian’s work with Barclays Bank required them to relocate to
Miami. Pam’s son, Rhodri, took the change to an American education in his
stride; Pam wasn’t allowed to work in the States, but soon found ways to keep
herself busy in the local community, Rhodri’s school, the church and the choir;
and the Akhursts’ British friends and relations soon discovered the benefits of
having generous and willing hosts on the other side of the Atlantic.
So after much planning and re-jigging of diaries
(including moving the APCM), we finally left the Rectory on Easter Monday,
April 1. This was a great day to be leaving . . . the clocks had gone forward
by an hour the previous day – in time for the Easter Vigil to start at what was
effectively 5am – and after the usual excitement and busy-ness of Holy Week, we
were not a little exhausted to begin with. Heather’s taxi service got us to
Heathrow airport (only one return to the house, three minutes down the road, to
collect Selwyn’s sunglasses) for our 10.00am check-in; the American Airlines
flight finally left at 12.30, just 35 minutes late.
Around 10 hours later, we were finally in Miami
airport. The heat and humidity hit us as we stepped into the car park, and we
were soon to get used to the odd sensation of rising temperatures when you step
outside the car or building – and the necessity of constant air-conditioning.
And finally, we were in Pam and Ian’s wonderful house, with its eyrie of an
office for Ian up a spiral staircase, incredibly high ceilings, and windows on
all sides - complete with canal running round the outside of the garden,
iguanas and wonderful birdlife, palm trees, a swimming pool . . . We succeeded
in staying awake until 9pm, by which time (this being 3am in the UK) we’d been
up for 21 hours.
No time to laze about, though. The following day
was the start of a brief holiday for Ian, and we were all off to the Everglades
– a wonderful area of mangrove swamps and wildlife down to the south-west. We
were staying in the Ivey House Hotel (bed & breakfast) in Everglades City,
and from here we had a wonderful five days.
Corkscrew Swamp is an amazing wildlife preserve.
The boardwalk took us past all manner of birds. Several types of heron: the
Great Blue, the Little Blue, the Tri-coloured, the Night and the Green. There
were egrets, ibis, owls; and a white-eyed virio, like a finch, who
(deliberately, I think) defeated my best efforts at capturing him on film! A telescope
was trained on the nest containing the osprey and her chick; beautiful
airplants were in the trees; and, of course, alligators in the lake. There had
been a heavy cloudburst on our arrival (finished in 10 minutes and dried up in
15), but this made the walk all the more atmospheric through the trees hung
with Spanish moss. This lovely day was concluded with a tremendous sunset on
the way back to the B&B.
We went kayaking, too – yes, honestly! Our
guide, Bobby, took us and another family first on a brief “hike” – more of an
amble, really – through some of the local forestland, where we identified puma
tracks and saw an alligator skeleton. A
slow drive down the side of a creek showed us red-shouldered hawks, ospreys,
many more alligators, and several more herons.
Our expedition had been planned in some
freshwater areas, but the lack of recent rain made it too dry, so instead we
went to Halfway Creek, which is brackish – half-and-half salt and fresh water.
A vividly hot, blue day, totally still and quiet, paddling over five miles
through the mangrove swamps. Very little wildlife around on this occasion, in
fact – we didn’t have to beat the ’gators off with the paddles – but a
beautiful and unmissable experience. This trip was mostly responsible for our sunburn.
We realised that, while in the USA, we couldn’t
pass up the opportunity of meeting some of our friends over there. The first
such meeting was with Bob and Erica Adams. Bob is a (very, very) distant
relative of Selwyn’s – his mother was a Tillett – so we met for lunch in Fort
Myers, and had a lovely time swapping stories. It was a real delight to meet
them, after so many e-mails exchanged over genealogical research.
That same evening, we returned to Everglade City
via Naples – no similarity to its European equivalent! It felt most like a
giant Covent Garden, with extraordinarily lovely and (mostly) expensive shops;
a beach full of surfers and “beautiful people” (and a strong wind which
threatened all the hats); and, finally, down to Tin City for supper, which is a
boardwalked “mall” full of music, cafes and gifts. It was there that we treated
ourselves to a wooden egret, which now is a permanent reminder of one of our
favourite sights.
Another very special memento was a poster of the
photography of Clyde Butcher, whose Big Cypress Gallery is in the Everglades.
His large-format black-and-white photos of the wilder parts of Florida are
simply stunning, capturing the beauty of an extraordinarily beautiful place.
We also took a boat trip out to the “ten
thousand islands” – little patches of land across a huge amount of water – for
more of our favourite wildlife. Here I succeeded in photographing an osprey
with his lunch between his claws; and, better still, we saw our dolphins. The
dark shapes ahead came closer, and suddenly there were three of them, leaping
from the water in perfect synchronisation – showing off something terrible, of
course. I managed to catch just one of them on film; it was a very moving
experience to see these gorgeous creatures.
Before leaving the Everglades, we had one
particularly special treat – a night-time airboat ride, booked specially for
Pam’s birthday. Joined by their Australian friends Amanda and Ken, we left at
sunset with our guide, Johnny Tigertail, who is one of the Miccosukee Indian
tribe. (We’d also visited the Miccosukee village earlier that day – didn’t much
enjoy the spectacle of alligator-wrestling, though.)
The speed and noise of the airboat, rushing over
the swamps, is an incredible experience – you have to wear ear-muffs! We went
to the “hammock” (a sort of village on stilts) which has belonged to Johnny’s
family for many years to see the sunset, hear about the lives of the Indians,
and to meet Mama-gator – the alligator who has known Johnny all her life, and comes
to his call to be fed hot-dogs . . .
Then it was back onto the airboat in the dark,
Johnny having put a miner’s lamp arrangement on his head in order to pick out
the eyes of the ’gators in the swamp – which he did. We paused every so often to
watch these wonderful creatures, ranging from fully-grown brutes of about 10
feet, down to babies of about six inches long.
We stopped in one place, and Johnny scooped his
hand into the water, bringing up a tiny baby ’gator (having first used a
special “call” to check that Mama wasn’t around), who was then passed around
the boat. Once he’d got used to the idea, the little fellow seemed quite happy
to be examined and shown to the cameras. The birds, of course, were all asleep
by now, but we did see one heron that raised his head very suddenly in the
spotlight, looking deeply indignant that we’d woken him up!
Then it was back to Miami, and our first
experience of St Thomas’ Episcopal Church, Coral Gables, where Pam and Ian have
worshipped during their time in the States. It’s the only time we were ever
cold! A large, impressive building, with beautiful stained glass, a massive
cross dominating the back wall, a very good choir (which Pam and Ian belong
to), and a friendly, active congregation.
Father Roger Tobin and his wife Jan came to the Akhursts’ for supper a
few days later, and we very much enjoyed their company.
The church shares a love of music with St
Mary’s, and we were delighted to be able to attend a concert given by some of
the local music and drama students. These are budding young professionals, and
they well deserve to succeed. There was a string quartet from Florida
International University, the Opera Theatre Ensemble from the New World School
of the Arts, and a particularly stunning young pianist – she played Debussy and
Chopin in a way that made you suspect that she had an extra pair of hands
concealed somewhere. She also played earlier in the programme than planned, as
she hadn’t realised that she was double booked to play in a Pavarotti concert
on the other side of town.
Another “cultural experience” was at the New
World School, where we saw the play of The Marriage of Figaro by
Beaumarchais, but including some of the Mozart arias for good measure – very
well done, and great fun.
While Ian returned to work and Rhodri to school,
Pam took us round some of the more local sights. The Fairchild Tropical Gardens
are as stunning as they sound, with turtles and iguanas between the waterfalls
and palm trees; Vizcaya is a quite extraordinary stately home in the middle of
Miami (created by an eccentric businessman, James Deering, in the early 20th
century) – full of European paintings, tapestries and furniture, it is now
often used to host impressive political and social occasions. (“The last time I
walked down this path, it had a red carpet on it”, said Pam.)
Our
other visit to
American friends took
a summoning of
courage. The Americans don’t really do public transport (or walking –
there aren’t many sidewalks [pavements] to be found). So when we considered the
possibility of visiting our friends Warner and Lois Brown in Mount Dora, which
is north-west of Orlando and about 250 miles from Miami, it meant hiring a car.
Selwyn was the brave one, and he drove
us all along the Florida
Turnpike (which actually
means a large motorway over
there) in our white sporty effort (no gears, either).
Selwyn had met Warner and Lois during one of the
Nile cruises on which he used to lecture in the 1980s. They retired from their
Chicago home to Mount Dora some 12 years ago, bought the plot and designed
their own charming home, which feels exactly right for them: restful, welcoming
and full of good things.
We were also glad to meet Warner’s lovely
sister, Char, who was visiting them from Chicago. She’s a very special lady
who, at 80 years old, reminds you of how dignity, intelligence, humour and
charm, set on a firm and quiet faith, shows how life is meant to be. Oh, and
she’s been using the internet and e-mail since long before most of us got that
far!
Mount Dora is a charming town, sited on the edge
of Lake Dora with yet more wonderful wildlife. Here we met our first
mockingbirds, and were woken by them the following morning; and lots of
grackles (shiny blue-black males, very noisy, somewhere between a magpie and a
starling in personality); and a blue-tailed skink (a sort of brightly coloured
worm).
Our final day in Miami was particularly special.
After church in the morning (a baptism and confirmation service with the Bishop),
we went to the Rusty Pelican for brunch: an amazing place on the bay in Miami,
with stunning views of the boats in the sunshine, the most fantastic buffet
(“eat-all-you-want”) we’d ever seen, a huge ice sculpture of a pelican on the
dessert table, and bucks fizz – oh, and a violin-and-squeezebox entertainment
(which was certainly rusty)!
That evening, Selwyn got on the flight to
Heathrow one day in advance of me because he had a Synod meeting to attend . .
. there’s devotion to duty! My last day was worth hanging on for. Rhodri’s
school was holding a Literary
Lunch. The mothers
decorate tables in
their choice of themes – crockery, flower arrangements, table linen all
in keeping – some of the most spectacular table settings I’d ever seen. My
favourite was the Japanese table, with its beautiful black crockery, place
settings on leaf skeletons, bamboo centrepiece – which was set in a large glass
bowl with real goldfish swimming around in it. Pam, with her friend Bronwen,
had created the Falcon’s Nest
(in honour of
the school sports team), with fudge brownies and hot dogs in a huge nest
on a striped blue and yellow
pole, and sports
shirts on the
chairs. A great fund-raising idea – I might just
suggest it to
the PCC . . .
I left Miami’s heat the following evening,
arriving in London on a real spring day. We can’t thank Pam and Ian enough for
their generous hospitality, and for such glorious experiences of a country that
we never imagined we’d visit. We just hope that they can enjoy the very
different charms of rural Surrey on their return to the UK later this year . .
.
Cassie
Tillett
|
Sun |
2 |
CORPUS CHRISTI |
|
|
|
|
Church open afternoon |
|
|
Mon |
3 |
Golden Jubilee Bank Holiday |
|
|
|
|
Church Open Day |
11.00am-5.00pm |
|
|
|
Bible study group meets, 23 Mortlake Close |
8.00pm |
|
Tue |
4 |
Parents and Toddlers meet, Church |
10.00am |
|
Wed |
5 |
St Mary’s Guild meets, St Mary’s Court |
2.30pm |
|
Thu |
6 |
MU&OG:
“Charcoal to Lavender”. A talk by Mr P Desai. Church Centre |
8.00pm |
|
Fri |
7 |
Magazine Panel meets, 2 Peaks Hill |
10.00am |
|
Sun |
9 |
TRINITY 2 |
|
|
Mon |
10 |
Bible study group meets, 23 Mortlake Close |
8.00pm |
|
Tue |
11 |
Eucharist |
10.00am |
|
Sat |
15 |
Auction in aid of tower and bells fund, St
Patrick’s Church Hall |
7.00pm |
|
Sun |
16 |
TRINITY 3 |
|
|
Mon |
17 |
Bible study group meets, 23 Mortlake Close |
8.00pm |
|
Tue |
18 |
Servers meet in church |
7.30pm |
|
Wed |
19 |
MU Corporate Eucharist |
10.00am |
|
Thu |
20 |
MU&OG: Music for a summer evening. Church
Centre |
8.00pm |
|
Sat |
22 |
St Mary’s Court Trustees meet, St Mary’s Court |
10.00am |
|
Sun |
23 |
TRINITY 4 |
|
|
|
|
Churches Together Music Festival, St Elphege’s |
7.00pm |
|
Mon |
24 |
Eucharist |
9.30am |
|
|
|
Bible study group meets, 23 Mortlake Close |
8.00pm |
|
Sun |
30 |
SS PETER AND PAUL |
|
Sun July 7
Trinity 6
Genesis 24: 34-38, 42-49, 58-67 (page 296)
Romans 7: 15-25a (page 301)
Matthew 11: 16-19, 25-30 (page 301)
Sun July 14
Trinity 7
Genesis 25: 19-34 (page 302)
Romans 8: 1-11 (page 307)
Matthew 13: 1-9, 18-23 (page 308)
Sun July 21
Trinity 8
Genesis 28: 10-19a (page 309)
Romans 8: 12-25 (page 313)
Matthew 13: 24-30, 36-43 (page 314)
Sun July 28
Trinity 9
Genesis 29: 15-28 (page 315)
Romans 8: 26-39 (page 320)
Matthew 13: 31-33, 44-52 (page 321)
Sun June 2
Canticles: Dyson in F
Anthem: If ye love me - Tallis
Sun June 9
Canticles: Noble in B minor
Anthem: Lord, for thy tender mercies sake - Farrant
Sun June 16
Canticles: Collegium regale - Howells
Anthem: Ubi Caritas – Duruflé
Sun June 30
Canticles: Morley in Fauxbordon
Anthem: Out of the deep have I called – Morley
Sat 1 Justin, martyr at Rome, c165
Mon 3 Charles Lwanga and the martyrs of Uganda, 19th and 20th
centuries
Wed 5 Boniface of Crediton, bishop, Apostle of Germany, martyr, 754
Sat 8 Thomas Ken, Bishop of Bath & Wells, non-juror, hymn
writer, 1711
Tue 11 Barnabas the Apostle
Sat 22 Alban, first martyr of Britain, c250
Mon 24 Birth of John the Baptist
Fri 28 Irenaeus, Bishop of Lyon, teacher, c200
Sat 1 All who are persecuted for their faith
Sun 2 Thanksgiving for the gift of the Eucharist
Mon 3 The Queen as we celebrate her Golden Jubilee
Tue 4 Our parents’ and toddlers’ group
Wed 5 St Mary’s Guild
Thu 6 The Mothers’ Union
Fri 7 Church musicians and composers
Sat 8 All preparing to be married here this summer
Sun 9 Our Guides and Brownies
Mon 10 Those preparing to be confirmed in September
Tue 11 All attending vocational courses
Wed 12 The staff and students of our local schools
Thu 13 Preachers and Christian teachers
Fri 14 Our local health centres and clinics
Sat 15 Our bellringers and their fundraising