We will receive a visit from the Archdeacon on Saturday, 13 March. The Archdeacon's Visitation is an annual event in two parts: one the Visitation Services (this year to be held at Addiscombe and Cheam) when churchwardens are sworn in at the beginning of their year of office and to which members of PCCs and Deanery Synods are also invited to attend; the other part is the annual church inspection. This is when the Archdeacon or his representative visit every parish to 'check the books' and ensure that the business side of running the parish is being done properly.

On Sunday evening, 21 March, Evening Prayer will be said at 6.30 pm. On Thursday, 25th (The Annunciation), there will be a Sung Eucharist at 7.30 pm

Join Andrew Wilson on Saturday, 27 March, at 7.30 pm when he plays music for all tastes at an Organ Extravaganza. Tickets will cost £6 for adults, £2 for students - and the under 12s get in free. Don't forget to put your clocks forward an hour that night in readiness for the start of British Summertime.

Churches Together are not organising any joint groups or events through the body of Lent this year, in the hope that as many people as possible will be able to take part in an all-day event (more on page 14) in preparation for Holy Week on Saturday 3 April. Accordingly it may be even more important than usual to be able to attend a devotional exercise of some kind during each week of Lent. The Friday Lent Lunches will take place at 12.45 pm at the Rectory throughout Lent (with the exception of 5 March, which is the Women’s World Day of Prayer, and Good Friday). There will also be an additional Eucharist every Friday in Lent, once again apart from 5 March and Good Friday. This service will normally be at 7.30 pm except on Friday, 12th (not 19th as previously advised) when it will be at 9.30 am.

What’s On In March?

Mon	1	Lent Reading Group meets at 24 St George's Road	8.00 pm
Wed	3	St Mary's Guild. Carolyn Churchyard talks about 'Families at St Mary's'	2.30 pm
Thu	4	MU&OG. Jenifer Davison leads Lent Meditation. Church Centre	8.00 pm
Fri	5	Women’s World Day of Prayer
		Service at St Mary's	10.30 am
		Service at St Patrick's	7.30 pm
SUN	7	LENT 2
Mon	8	Lent Reading Group meets at 24 St George's Road	8.00 pm
Fri	12	Eucharist	9.30 am
		Lent Lunch at the Rectory	12.45 pm
Sat	13	Archdeacon's Inspection
SUN	14	LENT 3
Mon	15	Lent Reading Group meets at 24 St George's Road	8.00 pm
Wed	17	MU Corporate Eucharist	10.00 am
Thu	18	MU&OG. Bring & Buy and Coffee Evening. Church Centre	8.00 pm
Fri	19	Lent Lunch at the Rectory	12.45 pm
		Eucharist	7.30 pm
SUN	21	LENT 4. MOTHERING SUNDAY
		Evening Prayers will be said
Mon	22	Lent Reading Group meets at 24 St George's Road	8.00 pm
THU	25	THE ANNUNCIATION	7.30 pm
		Sung Eucharist
Fri	26	Lent Lunch at the Rectory	12.45 pm
		Eucharist	7.30 pm
Sat	27	Organ Extravaganza with Andrew Wilson British Summer Time begins. Clocks go forward one hour tonight	7.30 pm
SUN	28	LENT 5
		London Appreciation Society visiting church	3.30pm
Mon	29	Lent Reading Group meets at 24 St George's Road	8.00 pm
Wed	31	Ian Currie talks on Droughts, Deluges and Dust Devils at Carshalton Library	7.00 pm

Readings for Sundays and Festivals in March

Thu 25 March

The Annunciation

Isaiah 7: 10-14 (page 1071)

Hebrews 10: 4-10 (page 1072)

Luke 1: 26-38 (page 1073)

Sun 28 March

Lent 5

Isaiah 43: 16-21 (page 835)

Philippians 3: 4b-14 (page 836)

John 12: 1-8 (page 837)

Sun 7 March

Lent 2

Genesis 15: 1-12, 17-18 (page 822)

Philippians 3: 17-4: 1 (page 825)

Luke 13: 31-3 (page 826)

Sun 14 March

Lent 3

Isaiah 55: 1-9 (page 827)

1 Corinthians 10: 1-13 (page 829)

Luke 13: 1-9 (page 830)

Sun 21 March

Lent 4

Joshua 5: 9-12 (page 831)

2 Corinthians 5: 16-21 (page 832)

Luke 15: 1-3, 11b-32 (page 833)

Saints in March

Mon 1 David, Bishop of Menevia, Patron of Wales, c601

Wed 17 Patrick, Bishop, Missionary, Patron of Ireland, c460

Fri 19 JOSEPH OF NAZARETH

Thu 25 THE ANNUNCIATION OF OUR LORD TO THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

Music at Evensong in March

Sunday 21 March

Canticles: Sumsion in A

Anthem: Turn Thee Again - Atwood

Sunday 28 March

Canticles: Holman in F Minor

Anthem: Cast Me Not Away - Wesley

Sunday 7 March

Canticles: Arnold in A

Anthem: Libera Me - Patrick Gowers

Sunday 14 March

Canticles: Noble in A Minor

Anthem: All The Ends Of The World – Boyce

Annual Parochial Church Meeting

If you are not on the Electoral Roll of St Mary's (Anglican-speak for our official membership list) but would like to be, you have the opportunity soon when the Roll receives its annual update before the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. Simply obtain an application form from Eileen England any time from Wednesday 24 March onwards, and return it to her, duly completed, at any time up to the end of Tuesday 6 April (in other words the actual revision process runs for just under a fortnight). Eileen or the form itself will explain the necessary qualifications, and once she has your returned form the system will do the rest. You will then be eligible to vote during the Annual Meeting itself, which takes place in the Centre at 8.00 pm on Wednesday 21 April.

The minutes of last year's Annual Meeting, this year's Annual Report and Financial statement from the PCC, and the Agenda for this year's Meeting, will all be available in good time, from Saturday 10 April at the latest. Among the business of the Meeting is the election of Churchwardens and PCC members for the coming year. If you are considering standing for election in either of these capacities, then once again you need to be on the Electoral Roll, and the relevant forms will be available in plenty of time, from Saturday 10 April if not before.

Once you have got yourself on to the Roll, you may like to take part in this year’s elections, but are not able to attend the meeting itself. In that case you can apply beforehand for a postal vote. Application forms for these will also be available in plenty of time. Once again the system will then spring into operation. It works like this.

Return your application form to Selwyn, Ian, Pat or Diana before the Annual Meeting. Should an election be necessary, a voting paper will be got to you by the late evening of Friday 23 April – or you could always come to the Choral Eucharist for St George’s Day, at 7:30 that night, and pick one up yourself! You then have up to 12 days in which to think, pray, vote, fold your paper and return it to The Rectory. Papers must be returned there sometime during the week from Wednesday 28 April to Wednesday 5 May, and they will be stored safely and unopened as they arrive, together with the papers filled out during the Meeting itself.

Voting papers will be counted on the morning of Friday 7 May, by people who have not been candidates in any of the elections. All candidates will be notified of the result that same day, and the new PCC will be announced and commissioned during the 9.30 Eucharist on Sunday 9 May.

That is just in time for the Churchwardens and PCC members to be in training for the first meeting of the new PCC which will happen later in May, and to attend the Archdeacon's Visitation and Swearing-In either at St Mary Magdalene’s, Addiscombe on the evening of Tuesday, 18 May, or at St Dunstan's, Cheam on Tuesday 25th.

Selwyn Tillett

Cupids 'N' Kisses

February 14th - the day for love and roses; what better day for Families to have one of their now legendary parties !!!

Mid afternoon saw Lizzie Atkins perched precariously on a ladder draping neon tube lighting all around the centre (breaking every health and safety rule ever invented!), Carolyn and Helena red-faced and dizzy blowing up bundles of pink and red balloons and trying to lay out tables with cloths and napkins with lots of little helpers removing them as soon as they were put down. Two hours later we departed to get dressed for the occasion, hoping that we didn't return to find that they (a) had all fallen down; (b) blown the new electric system; or (c) set the hall alight!

Once again the event was well attended and we were pleased to welcome Cassie and Selwyn - resplendent in pink feather boa and cherub waistcoat (Cassie wore the boa!). I must say that I thought they might have chosen a cosy, romantic corner of the local curry house to celebrate but we were very pleased indeed they chose Chez Families.

It was lovely to see Liz, Russ and Harley who'd been chucked off the bus at the Plough after a day out. We were assured that they hadn't been singing and dancing on the bus and that it was just that the bus wasn't going any farther!

A small disaster ensued with the food - we were inundated with puds and sweets but ran dry of the savouries after the first sitting (most people have become used to being able to have thirds at these events), so we heroically ploughed our way through a mountain of choux buns, chocolate cakes, waffleberry pudding and Mrs Lawrence's Wallington-famous flapjacks - it was tough to eat all those sweet things but we managed!

Anyway, sugar-overloaded, we set the children to a 'Make a Valentine Crown' competition ably helped by our youth group and friends. Then they provided the cabaret (quite unintentially) by doing some of those wonderful dance-along songs that make it in Ibiza every summer - much to the delight of the little girls who mimicked and wanted to be 'just like the big girls'.

We had a raffle to raise money for social stationery and paper goods (we go through them at a great rate) and postage to get info/invites to our families who live across the other side of the borough.

Plans are now underway for our Easter Egg Hunt and party with hopefully a visit from the Easter Bunny. If anyone has a bunny costume (but not the Bunny Girl sort from your other life in the 60s), or would like to donate a small chocolate egg we would be most grateful. Also if anyone would like to help out on the day with the Egg Hunt contact any of the Families group.

Carolyn

Holy Week & Easter

On Sunday 4 April we begin Holy Week - the annual celebration of the events of Jesus’s death and resurrection. As those events are at the heart of our faith, the services that mark them are uniquely important in the Church’s year, and substantially different from our regular celebrations. If you haven’t been to any of them before, why not make this the year when you try to come to them all? The atmosphere of prayer, as it builds through the week, becomes very powerful and very personal. Leaflets giving full details of all the services in Holy Week will be available in church from Sunday 21 March.

The week begins with the 9.30 Eucharist on Palm Sunday. We assemble in the church Centre to hear the Gospel reading of Jesus’s entry into Jerusalem on the first Palm Sunday. Our palm crosses are blessed, and we sing appropriate hymns as we walk in procession out of the Centre, around by the churchyard wall, through the lych-gate and into church. Then the whole narrative of Jesus’s arrest, trial, death and burial is read, with members of the congregation reading the words of individuals as the story develops.

Then, following the great success of the last few years, we shall be celebrating a Passover supper again on the evening of the Wednesday in Holy Week, 7 April, at 7.30 pm in the Church Centre. It has proved to be a wonderful exercise in discovering the roots of our Eucharist and the meaning of one of the many layers of symbolism behind what we do week by week. It will also mean that we can have the memory of Passover fresh in our minds as we share in the Eucharist of Maundy Thursday the following day.

The Centre is laid out with our normal tables, arranged around three sides of a square as they would have been in Jesus’s time. We keep as near as possible to the outline of a modern Passover meal. It begins with readings from Exodus, telling parts of the original Passover story, interspersed with the traditional questions and answers as to the meaning and symbolism of this night. There will be a ‘service-leaflet’ giving all the words everyone needs, and the questions will be asked, and answers given, by a man, a woman, a child, as traditional and appropriate. As the meal progresses the necessary elements of food and drink are produced, explained and shared; there is also the opportunity to sing one or two well-known hymns as the ‘commentary’ on what we are doing, plus some readings from the New Testament to keep us in touch with Jesus and his disciples as they kept Passover together.

The second of the three elements of the evening is the opportunity to share in a real meal together, and there will soon be the inevitable lists in church to sign up - both to say if you would like to come, and to indicate what you might come with, so that we can enjoy a ‘bring and share’ supper together. Jewish tradition insists that we grapple with lamb stew eaten with pitta bread, bitter herbs dipped in salt water, homemade fruit puree and ideally four glasses of wine; the simpler the food you might bring, and the nearer to this ideal of lamb stew, fruit and bread, the better. It does not hurt to remember that Passover is a time of huge rejoicing and conviviality, as well as the solemn memorial of God’s tremendous acts for his people in the past!

Finally - just as we are around the tables, once some of the dishes have been cleared away, we join in a simple celebration of the Eucharist together, using some of the bread we have been eating, and the wine we have been drinking, to provide the gifts which will be taken, blessed, broken and shared. This is always one of the most powerful moments of the evening - it is not often we have the ability to recognise how it must have felt when Jesus took the ordinary constituents of the Passover meal and for the first time gave them a new meaning for his disciples then and now.

We will as usual make use of side lighting and candles - the lighting in the Centre not being particularly atmospheric. In order to arrange the tables as described above, and to retain the right atmosphere for the occasion, we have previously limited numbers to about 45 people. So many thoroughly enjoyed the last three years that it would not be surprising if many more wanted to come this year! For this reason, as well as for the practicalities of catering, please sign up as soon as possible on the list under the tower. We will do our best to accommodate all who would like to be there, but it may be necessary to close the list sometime in advance of Holy Week itself. We look forward to welcoming you to what we hope will be a very special part of our Holy Week celebrations.

By Maundy Thursday (8th) the events of the week have led us to the Last Supper with Jesus and his disciples, during which he washed their feet as a practical example of humility and service, and instituted the Eucharist as the means by which we remember him day by day. The Sung Eucharist at 8.00 pm therefore includes readings that tell of both those actions, and there will be a list under the tower for you to add your name if you would like to be one of the 12 having their feet washed in a memorial of this event.

At the end of the Thursday Eucharist we commemorate Jesus’s time in the Garden of Gethsemane. He prayed for strength to face the agony that would await him next day, and his disciples first of all fell asleep waiting and watching with him, then ran away and left him alone in the hands of those who came to arrest him. We mark his abandonment by formally stripping the altar and the sanctuary of all the Lenten hangings at the end of this service, leaving it stark, bare and disfigured - and while this is being done we read Psalm 22, the cry of loneliness and desperation which Jesus himself quoted on the cross.

Those who wish to do so then move into the Carew Chapel to begin “watching” with Jesus in the garden. A continuous vigil of silent prayer is kept up from the end of the evening’s Eucharist until the start of the Friday afternoon service. There will be another list under the tower, dividing this time into half-hour sections. Please indicate when you will be “on watch” by initials or a simple tick. And most important - don’t feel you have to come alone, especially if you are going to be there in the early hours of Friday morning. It is a wonderful thing to do with another person, or with a small group of friends, or even as a family.

On Good Friday Churches Together has organised the usual Procession of Witness through Wallington at lunchtime. This will depart from St Michael’s at 11:45am and end by 1.30pm, allowing people to be in church in ample time before 2.00pm. The walk is led by someone carrying a large cross, and we stop at various places along the route for readings, prayers and hymns.

Our own afternoon service will begin at 2.00pm. There will be about an hour’s meditation, including anthems sung by the choir, congregational hymns, the familiar Passion readings from Isaiah, Hebrews and St John’s Gospel, intercessions at the foot of the stark wooden cross and plenty of time for silence and reflection. It is an opportunity to focus on the reality of Jesus’s death and to thank God for his love, even at this most difficult and painful time of the year.

Finally our celebration of Easter begins with the Paschal Vigil at 6.00am on Easter Sunday morning (11^th). This service has its roots in what the earliest Christians did in the early hours of every Sunday morning. We proclaim Christ as risen by the kindling of new fire and the lighting of the new Paschal Candle, and our own rising to life with him in Baptism forms the theme of the rest of the service.

We read the Old Testament narratives of the creation, the flood, and the crossing of the Red Sea - occasions when through water the great power of God has been shown - and make the link with the water of Baptism when we were washed into new life by our membership of the church. Accordingly we take the best opportunity there is to renew our own Baptismal promises, and are sprinkled (depending on the Rector’s aim) with water from the font. The symbolism of Christ rising from the darkness of sin and death is reinforced as the world around us itself comes back to light and life at the start of a new day. As Easter is earlier this year than last, we can revert to our regular time of 6:00 am for this celebration!

As I have frequently said, if you’ve never been before, please try to make this the year in which you come to these special events and services; and if you have, then you will look forward to having your own faith tested and renewed once again as we walk with Jesus through this Holy Week.

Selwyn Tillett

Lent Reading Group

The Bible Study Group has changed its name temporarily for Lent, as we will be reading the Archbishop of Canterbury's recommended book for Lent entitled "I Thirst" by Stephen Cottrell, and published by Zondervan.

Babs Taylor has written a review of the book which you will find overleaf. We hope you will be interested enough to come and join us for the six weeks of Lent. The book consists of six chapters, one for each week, and we plan to read the relevant chapter at home during the week and then get together on the following Monday evening to discuss what we have read, to raise questions, to read and meditate on the set scripture for that chapter and then end the meeting with prayer. It is hoped that through our reading of the book and our reflection on God's word, that our understanding of Lent will be deepened and that we will grow in faithfulness to Christ.

You can get a copy of the book from the Oasis bookshop in Wallington, price £8.99. The Lent Reading Group will meet at 8 pm on Monday 1, 8, 15, 22 and 29 March and 5 April, at Carolyn and Rob's house, 24 St George's Road, Wallington.

[Also see our new Booklinks page]

Jenifer Davison

Womens World Day Of Prayer

Friday, 5 March 2004

Wallington services will be as follows:

10.30 am St Mary's, Beddington

Speaker: Mrs Marion Simpson

Refreshments to follow

7.30 pm St Patrick's, Wallington

Speaker: Mrs Nicholas Baines

Refreshments to follow

“I Thirst”, Stephen Cottrell (Zondervan)

In an age when most English people regard themselves as “spiritual”, but may express this through crystals, Reiki or New Age beliefs, it is distressing that the church is not regarded as a place where spirituality can be explored. Perhaps this is because those practices which deepen Christian spirituality are done in secret, as Jesus commanded us, so that our right hand does not know when our left hand gives or we go about looking completely normal when we fast. Or it may be that such things are not happening at all, in secret or otherwise! Sometimes, we are little flippant or self-deprecating about our rituals and reduce “giving something up for Lent” to a light-hearted topic of conversation – possibly lacking the seriousness of Ramadan or Yom Kippur.

Nevertheless, Lent is a time for giving ourselves a spiritual spring clean and revisiting the disciplines which deepen our knowledge and love of God and neighbour. I Thirst invites us to start our Lenten journey by reflecting on the Christ who thirsts for us: the one, who on the Cross, plumbed the depths of human experience in order to reach out to those who rejected him. Thirst, of course, is more intense and unbearable even than hunger and offers a perfect metaphor for a love so passionate and urgent. Canon Cottrell invites us to experience something of Jesus’s overwhelming desire for God and the coming of his Kingdom.

In six chapters, one for each week of Lent, he considers the disciplines of fasting and self –denial; Bible study and meditation; self-examination and repentance; prayer and the love of God; almsgiving and stewardship; and, lastly as a celebration of Easter, evangelism. Each chapter begins with a discussion of an aspect of Jesus’s thirst, which is then related to our lives. A section in each chapter, entitled “Implications for Today” offers practical ways of living out Jesus’s example, as we seek to deepen our understanding of Lent. For Lent Groups, a particular passage (for example The Suffering Servant poem from Isaiah 53) is offered for reading and discussion. Ways of reflecting on the passage or on what has emerged through the group’s comments are suggested. Each section concludes with a Lenten prayer. The whole book is deeply rooted in the Gospel, especially that of St John, focusing on the narratives of the Crucifixion.

Many of us can aspire to no greater Lenten sacrifice than that of giving up biscuits! Without dismissing this relatively low level of self-denial, which may after all symbolise something far holier, Canon Cottrell invites us to take up our Cross and follow the Christ who cannot say “It is finished!” until his thirst for our salvation has been assuaged.

There is much to provoke thought and lead to prayer in this book and through it you may well rediscover, as the Archbishop of Canterbury hopes, “the fresh waters of faith”. I wish you much Lenten joy of what you may find in its pages.

[Also see our new Booklinks page]

Araba Taylor

I detect a smile…

And now for something quite different - a novel and laugh out loud funny 'The No 1 Ladies Detective Agency' by Alexander McCall Smith. The heroine, Precious Ramotswe, runs the Agency with the assistance of Mma Makutsi who makes the tea and does the filing, and with support and advice from her good friend Mr J L B Matekoni.

Mma Ramotswe loves her country, Botswana, as obviously does the author who transports us to a wonderful landscape and gives us insight into a very different way of life from that in Beddington. Mma Ramotswe, who only set out to help people solve the little mysteries of life, finds herself involved in some of the big mysteries which puzzle us all - good and evil, human relationships and all the very strange things that can happen.

The book and its sequels are published in paperback by Abacus, price £6.99.

[Also see our new Booklinks page]

Pat Kingsbury

Support For CTBW

Churches Together in Beddington & Wallington, as you know, is a well established group. We meet regularly to plan services and events and discuss issues that affect all our worshiping locals. The aim is that all congregations can meet together to get to know each other, share ideas and, most of all, provide a unity for all Christians in the area.

There is an event taking place on Saturday, 3 April, from 9.30 to 4 pm at the new Holy Trinity Centre and it is hoped that many from St Mary's will give it keen support. The event is being hosted by Pilgrim Hearts, a Christian charity that aims to help us discover our creativity whilst conveying the Christian message.

If you have ever wanted to try your hand at graphic design, mosaic glass, art, creative writing, drama or music workshops but have never been brave enough (perhaps because others have made you feel that you need to be good at something before you try it!), or you've simply never had the time or opportunity - this is the day for you!

Tickets are £7 (£5 for concessions) and as well as being able to choose three workshops you get a light lent lunch and liquid refreshments.

If you are interested and would like a booking form or would like more information talk to me either after the service on Sunday or call me on 020 8254 9522. Booking forms are also available from Oasis Bookshop in Wallington High Street.

It would be nice to see lots of St Mary's faces on the day - so go on treat yourself to a day full of new opportunities.

Carolyn Churchyard

March's Spring Equinox

On 20 March we have the vernal (spring) equinox in the northern hemisphere and the autumn equinox in the southern hemisphere. What does this mean, exactly?

Well, according to the UK's National Physical Laboratory, the astronomical events closely related to the four seasons of spring, summer, autumn and winter are the equinoxes and the solstices.

The equinoxes occur in March and September when the Sun is 'edgewise' to the Earth's axis of rotation so that (neglecting the effect of atmospheric refraction) everywhere on Earth has twelve hours of daylight and twelve hours of darkness.

The solstices occur in June and December when the Earth's axis is at its extreme tilt towards and away from the Sun so at mid-day it appears at its highest in one hemisphere and at its lowest in the other.

These four events repeat every 'tropical' year (365 days, 5 hours, 49 minutes), so they become later by about six hours, or (if there has been an intervening leap day) earlier by about 18 hours, from one year to the next. They are not equally spaced in the year, because the Earth's orbit around the Sun is elliptical, not circular.

Lent Call 2004

The Bishop Of Southwark's…

Bishop Tom has suggested the following seven projects as worthy of our generosity for Lent 2004. If you would like to support these projects, then don't forget to come to Selwyn's Lent Lunches - the first is on Friday, 27 February!