I’m not really one for resolutions, making them always seems to be a recipe for failure (normally by Twelfth Night) and I just get depressed at my lack of willpower. I’m also not sure about them as they suggest that there is only one occasion in the year when we get a fresh start. The Christian faith holds out to us this opportunity continually - to recognise our shortcomings, the things that hurt us, those around us and our relationship with God, and to begin again. Like a parent with a small toddler learning to walk, God walks alongside us, and when we fall or stumble (as we inevitably do) picks us up, dusts us down and together we begin the journey again. So no resolutions for me, thank you!

But this time of the year offers us an opportunity to give thanks for all that has happened over the last twelve months and to look forward to the year ahead. It’s particularly important this year, as I look back on my first year at St Mary’s and think of all the new friends Guy and I have made and all that we have achieved.

So many things have happened at the church – the two licensings and inductions that the churchwardens have managed so ably (they’re thinking of launching a consultancy service for other parishes!), Duck Day in the park, our starring role in The Amazing Mrs Pritchard, the feast of music in services and concerts that has been presented to us (and the money that we have raised for charity as a result), Open House Weekend and the great Spring Clean that preceded it, the Lent and Growing through Worship courses, all the school carol concerts and services that have taken place in church ... So many things have happened and so many people have been involved. It’s been a very exciting year all round.

New Year is also a time to look forward, to anticipate what the coming months might hold for us. At St Mary’s we’re taking that challenge very seriously. Towards the end of January, the PCC are spending a day thinking about St Mary’s - where we are now, where we might like to be in the future and perhaps most importantly how we might work together to get there. We hope it will be a fun but stimulating day. Watch this space to find out more about what we did, and how that unfolds in the life of the church over the coming months and years.

January itself promises to be an exciting time, as we launch two new services in very different styles. The first is a time to be with God in peace and quietness – a time of gentle music, readings and meditations to help us find time to listen to God in the quiet of our hearts. It begins on the 16th of January at 9.30 am in the Carew Chapel and then on the third Tuesday of every month.

I suspect that ‘Praise and Play’ will be a bit noisier! It’s for pre-school children and their carers, and lasts about an hour including a short service in church and then time time to play and chat. We hope it will be a time of fun and fellowship for children and those who look after them, and a chance to get to know about Jesus from a very early age. It starts on 18 January and is then on the first, third and fifth Thursdays of the month starting at 10.00 am.

New beginnings, building on the strengths and experiences of the past - that perhaps is what New Year is about.

May I, on behalf of St Mary’s wish you all a peaceful, love-filled and joyful 2007.

Justine

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What’s on in January?
Tue	2	Magazine Panel meets at 35 Vanguard Way	10.30 am
Wed	3	St Mary’s Guild New Year Party. St Mary’s Court MU Epiphany Service at St John’s, Belmont	2.30 pm 2.30 pm
Thu	4	MU&OG. New Year Party. The Centre Ringers’ AGM at 2 Peaks Hill, Purley	7.30 pm 7.45 pm
Sat	6	Handbell Ringers Rally at Caterham
SUN	7	EPIPHANY
SUN	14	EPIPHANY 2
Mon	15	PCC Meeting. The Centre	8.00 pm
Tue	16	Quiet Worship. The Carew Chapel	9.30 am
Wed	17	MU Corporate Eucharist MU outing the Secombe Centre Pantomime Friends of Beddington & The Grange Parks meet at The Grange	10.00 am 7.30 pm 7.30 pm
Thu “	18 “	Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins ‘Praise and Play’ pre-school children and carers group	10.00 am
SUN	21	EPIPHANY 3
Sat	27	PCC ‘Away Day’ at St Michaels	10 am to 4 pm
SUN	28	CANDLEMAS

Saints, Commemorations and Feast Days in January

Mon 1 Naming and Circumcision of Jesus

Tue 2 Basil the Great and Gregory of Nazianzus, bishops, teachers of the Faith, 379 and 389

“ “ Seraphim, Monk of Sarov, spiritual guide, 1833

“ “ Vedanayagam Samuel Azarish, bishop in South India, evangelist, 1945

Sun 7 The Epiphany of Our Lord

Wed 10 William Laud, Archbishop of Canterbury, 1645

Thu 11 Mary Slessor, missionary, 1915

Fri 12 Aelred of Hexham, Abbot of Rievaulx, 1167

“ “ Benedict Biscop, Abbot of Wearmouth, scholar, 689

Sat 13 Hilary, Bishop of Poitiers, teacher of the Faith, 367

“ “ Kentigern (Mungo) missionary bishop in Strathclyde and Cumbria, 603

“ “ George Fox, founder of the Society of Friends (the Quakers), 1691

Wed 17 Antony of Egypt, hermit, abbot, 356

“ “ Charles Gore, bishop, founder of the Community of the Resurrection, 1932

Thu 18 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins

Fri 19 Wulfstan, Bishop of Worcester, 1095

Sat 20 Richard Rolle of Hampole, spiritual writer, 1349

Mon 22 Vincent of Saragossa. deacon, first martyr of Spain, 304

Wed 24 Francis de Sales, Bishop of Geneva, teacher of the Faith, 1622

Thu 25 The Conversion of Paul

Fri 26 Timothy & Titus, companion of Paul

Tue 30 Charles, king and martyr, 1649

Wed 31 John Bosco, priest, founder of the Salesian Teaching Order, 1888

For Your Diary : 2007

Pancake Day Lunch

Shrove Tuesday, 20 February, 12 for 12.30 in the Centre

Celebrate the 10th anniversary of this popular annual event - join Betty and her helpers for a

simple lunch followed by the dessert-of-the day - Pancakes

* * * * * * *

Fair Trade Food & Fashion

Saturday, 10 March, Lunchtime in the Centre

Watch a fashion show of fairly traded clothes modelled by the mannequins of St Mary’s,

while you enjoy a buffet lunch of delicious Fair Trade food.

After lunch, place your orders for the clothes. They will be delivered to you later in church or at home.

* * * * * * * *

Some other dates to watch out for:

The Ringers’ Annual Quiz Night

Fun and Games for all the Family

and

…. more music from some of St Mary’s talented musicians, including Guy Middlemiss in July,

Hugh Crozier in September, and a visit from Chimes Musical Theatre on 17 November

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Pickled Tongues and Gentlemen’s Sons

A 92-year-old St Mary’s church magazine has come into my possession. It is dated December 1914 so I thought I would share some of its contents with today’s readers. There’s so much of interest that it will probably reach you in instalments.

The front cover shows a good-quality picture of the church taken from the SW corner. There are four clergy named, the Revd Hodgson being the Rector at the time. Of the others, presumably at least one was attached to All Saints, Beddington Corner, our daughter church.

Inside the front cover, the sidesmen, Church Council and choir are all named in full. There is a very long list of Parochial Organisations. They make interesting reading.

Apart from Sunday and day Schools and Bible Class, there is a Young Men’s Friendly Society, a Choir Football Club with the Rector as President (how about that post, Justine?), a Church Lads Society with a Cricket Club - again, Justine, there’s a presidential role for you! - and a Band of Hope.

As well as a Mothers’ Union, there was a Mothers’ Meeting (sounds like a joke but I doubt it was). Can anyone tell us what happened at that? There was a list of District Visitors, a Slate Club (whatever for?) which met alternate Mondays, a Provident Fund group and 10 named ringers - we can beat that at the moment.

All Saints sported a Brass Band, a String Band and a Band of Love. A what? Explanations welcome! Notices of Baptisms and Churchings (remember those?) had to be given to the Verger. It’s good to think there was so much activity.

The back three pages were covered with advertisements, some of which were refreshingly quaint when compared with today’s form of advertising.

Stanley Bros of Croydon and Sutton, claiming to be “High Class” tailors, offered Costumes from 3 guineas and Lounge Suits from 37/6. Probably quite expensive for many people in Beddington. Remember Kennards? (It’s now Debenhams in Croydon) They made a point of their address covering from 11 to 31 North End - and listing all the numbers!

Among the local tradesmen, Parr’s Devon Stores informed us that Denny’s Bacon and Lard were always in stock and Beddington Park Farm Dairy assured us that B. Thirlby was the only Dairyman in the district “that keeps his own herd of cows and retails his own milk”. Mind you, Mr Petchey countered with the claim that his Jersey cows could be seen at any time on application. Now there’s an idea for a trip out.

Mr George Pannett offered fine pickled tongues and St Hubert’s School in Maldon Road was “run on definite church lines for the sons of gentlemen”. We were encouraged to try Tarrant’s Afternoon Tea Fancies and A. W. Brown (Pastrycook and Confectioner) had “all kinds of Dainty Cakes for Afternoon Teas”. I doubt the modern generation is familiar with that rather out-dated custom!

Next time we will take a closer look at the main contents of the magazine. Bearing in mind Beddington, like the rest of the country, was at war, there are some messages that have stood the test of time and are worth repeating in 2007.

Jean Kimber

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Holy Trinity Church on Clapham Common

Two hundred years ago a group of people, inspired by their Christian faith, prayed and planned here to get rid of the iniquitous transatlantic slave trade. Their campaign was successful when Parliament passed the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act, introduced by William Wilberforce, MP for Hull, in 1807.

But slavery itself did not disappear. Sadly, it persisted then and, in many forms, it still persists today.

On 4 November 2006 another group pf people brought there by Churches Together in South London, met at Holy Trinity, Clapham Common to remember, to reflect and resolve to find ways of combating slavery in the twenty-first century. Justine, Heather and Pat were all at this meeting. It was entitled ‘Set all free - Act to end slavery’.

We joined with the others there in resolving to play our part in the 2007 Campaign to eradicate the evil of modern day slavery. St Mary’s will be hearing more about this as 2007 goes on.

Clamping down on the gangmasters

New regulations came into force last October that will help to protect migrant agricultural workers who are being lured to the UK by unscrupulous gangmasters who then exploit them.

It has been estimated that there are 1,000 providers of temporary labour in the farming sector in this country, most of whom work within the law, but there are many who, through adverts or employment agencies in Portugal or Poland, make false promises of well-paid work and accommodation here. Applicants are persuaded to pay a big ‘arrangement fee’ for a flight on a cheap airline, which means that they arrive burdened with debt and become virtual slaves, living in overcrowded rooms in so-called ‘houses of multiple occupation’.

Factories and farmers may pay proper minimum wages but the guest workers receive only a fraction from crooked gangmasters. They may be charged for transport, in uninsured vehicles without seat belts, and even for work clothing. Passports taken for the officially required registration with the Home Office are often not returned but are sold on or used for fraud. Then the workers can’t prove who they are.

Church folk who are aware of this situation are trying to help the migrants. Churches in Lincolnshire, for example, have set up chaplaincy services in the county, which is one of those most affected (others include Kent and Worcestershire). The chaplains enter into dialogue with all the parties involved and seek to help the migrants in practical ways.

From now on, gangmasters will have to be licensed by the Gangmasters Licensing Authority and all applicants are vetted by inspectors. It will also be an offence for farmers to use an unlicensed labour provider.

The new rules are fully supported by the big supermarkets, which have been criticised for indirectly contributing to the problem by imposing short delivery times on farmers (who at busy times then have to find extra workers very quickly).

The new system is designed to create a level playing field for all gangmasters so that the crooks can’t undercut legitimate labour providers who pay proper wages and tax.

John Bosco

31 January

John Bosco was born in the year of the Battle of Waterloo, in a cabin in a small hillside village near Turin. His father died when John was two and his mother was very poor. He spent his early years as a shepherd boy but soon realised he wanted to become a priest. When he was nine, he had a strange dream in which he saw himself changing a group of wild children into “gentle lambs”. He took it to mean he was in some way to give his life to looking after rough children.

He decided to find ways of attracting other boys’ attention and interest. He learnt to walk the tight-rope and to become an acrobat. He made himself a first-class juggler and an athlete. When he began to attract crowds, he would finish by saying the Rosary or giving a little sermon. He studied hard in his spare time and when he was 26, he became a priest.

While he had been studying in Turin, he had seen the slums and the poverty and wretchedness of the boys who lived there and he longed to be able to help them. One day he befriended a ragged boy who had come to his church looking for work. The boy was so impressed that someone cared about him, that the next day he brought some of his friends to the church. More and more of the roughest boys from the streets of Turin came to him as he was the first person to treat them kindly. He played games with them, taught them, helped them and in three years his “school” was numbered in hundreds.

This was the beginning of Bosco’s work among poor children which soon spread throughout the world. By the time he died in 1888, over 120,000 children were being cared for and trained in various countries by the Order of St Francis de Sales - the Salesians - which had been founded to look after them. A year before his death, the first Salesian House was founded in this country, in Roehampton.

Today, the Salesians still work for disadvantaged children all round the world. They are responsible for schools, parishes, youth work and retreat centres in this country and support a Mission in Liberia, where the Salesians work especially with children who were soldiers in the recent wars.

Let us remember all disadvantaged young people in our prayer on John Bosco’s special day.

Jean Kimber

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Jean Sargeant

Jean Sargeant lived a busy and fulfilled life - first at her work, which was where she met her husband, Bryan, and then as a wife and mother to Caroline

After her family came her other two great interests, people and gardening, and it was these which helped her to keep going after Bryan’s death 12ago.

Jean’s interest in people was reflected in the large congregation gathered for her funeral at St Mary’s on 29 November when the church was full of family and her many friends. Members of the Townswomen’s Guild came from all over Surrey to give thanks for Jean’s life and remember all that she had done for them.

It was the Townswomen’s Guild who chose to commemorate Jean’s love of flowers by giving St Mary’s a substantial donation towards the tree and other decorations for Christmas 2006. They said they were sure this was what she would have liked.

Many people at St Mary’s will remember Jean for some act of kindness. The Evensong congregation will enjoy their memories of her reading the lessons - her firm, clear voice and sometimes her look of satisfaction after successfully reading an awkward passage from the Old Testament. We shall all miss seeing her in church, Sunday by Sunday, and at many parish events, and we shall miss her ever ready laughter.

May she rest in peace.

Twenty Years Ago

(January 1987)

There had been a couple of special services; one was “Called to be a Family” and had been produced with a lot of hard work by Heather Cosgrove and the Junior Church. The other was an Advent Carol Service which had involved our choir together with staff and children from the Royal Alexandra & Albert School in Gatton.

“Do you think there should be a local Council of Churches?” was a question posed; “What should be its purpose?” and “How much could or should we work together locally?” We were exhorted to give our answers to these questions at a special meeting at St Elphege’s church on January 2. Twenty years later, what would our answers be?

MU&OG had raised £284 from a Ploughmans Lunch, which was designated for MU work overseas.

There was a vivid description of life in prison by Rosemary Newton. She was reporting on a conference she had attended during Prisoners Week. It was entitled “Prisons: Punishment or Rehabilitation?” This is a question still troubling many. What do YOU think?

Do you remember Carshalton Ponds being emptied and the bottom concreted over? Stewart Kimber reported on this in his ‘20 Years Ago’ and commented on the apt title chosen for that year’s Youth Fellowship play - “Fish out of Water”!

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What does the Mothers’ Union do?

Many people still believe that we spend our time making tea and cucumber sandwiches, and that we consist mainly of elderly ladies sitting in a circle knitting squares for blankets! So we are holding an MU Awareness Week from Sunday, 4 February. On that day the former Vice President of the MU will be speaking at our 9.30 Eucharist.

On Tuesday, 6 February 2007, from 10 am to 12 noon, we will be holding a Coffee Morning in the Church Centre, at which there will be an exhibition of the work we do worldwide; there will also be a video shown and members will be present to answer any questions you may have. Tea, coffee, fruit juices, cakes and biscuits will be served - but sorry, no cucumber sandwiches!

The MU is as relevant today as it was to Mary Sumner, its founder, in 1876:

- Upholding Christ’s teaching on the nature of marriage and promoting its wider understanding.

- Encouraging parents to bring up their children in the faith and life of the Church.

- Maintaining a worldwide fellowship of Christians united in prayer, worship and service.

- Promoting conditions in society favourable to stable family life and the protection of children.

- Helping those whose family life has met with adversity.

With 3.6 million members, our diversity is rich and extends around the world. Parenting classes have been a great success story for the MU: now held all over the world, the UK heralded the first formal classes. The MU is keen to support the father as well as the mother, the husband as well as the wife. Literacy classes in Africa have been seen to improve marriages in addition to family life, and now many more men attend the courses.

Membership consists now of both women and men, single or married, parents or non-parents, anyone who supports its aims. All families, whatever their status or circumstances, are included in our concern.

There is so much more that I could tell you, but do come along and be prepared to be surprised ….

Jenifer Davison, Branch Leader

What a way to spend Christmas!

It was in the year 2000 that Churches Together in Wallington & Beddington first conceived the idea of providing a Christmas lunch for anyone who might otherwise be without company at Christmas.

That first meal was hosted by St Michael’s and about 60 people were entertained. This year it was held at the United Reformed Church in Stanley Park Road and 85 guests sat down to enjoy a really good Christmas meal. The Mayor and Mayoress of Sutton came along to chat with the guests and thanked all the helpers and especially the team of organisers for the great work they were doing. And no Christmas Day would be complete without a visit from Santa Claus, so he paid a visit too.

All the Wallington and Beddington churches get involved some way or another. Obviously, to actually host the event requires the availability of a large hall and equally extensive catering facilities - something not all churches have. But donations of money, food items and gifts for the guests came in from many congregations; the Brownies at St Elphege’s and St Patrick’s made table decorations and a wonderful card for each guest; the Rotary Club contributed, as did local stores, and Woodcote Nurseries were gently persuaded to provide potted bulbs for each guest at an advantageous rate. Last but not least, over 50 helpers came along to help with the many tasks needed to make the day go well, whether acting as drivers, greeters, table hosts, waiters, cooks or washers-up.

But special thanks must go to our guests, they are the ones that make it all worthwhile and without them there would be no fun.

It might mean giving up Christmas Day, but what a great way to spend Christmas. Roll on 2007!

Daily prayer topics in January

Mon 1 Thanksgiving for a New Year and a new start

Tue 2 For peace and justice in the troubled areas of the world

Wed 3 An extension of Fair Trade to all who provide our food and goods

Thu 4 The teachers and pupils in our local schools

Fri 5 Carew Manor and Beddington Infants schools

Sat 6 Childre in care or in hospital

Sun 7 Thanksgiving for the Revelation of Christ to the World

Mon 8 That the Gospel may bring strength and hope to all in need

Tue 9 The Womens World Day of Prayer Conference being held in Godalming

Wed 10 Freedom and equal rights fore women world-wide

Thu 11 Our homes and loved ones

Fri 12 Broken homes and families in difficulties

Sat 13 The Society of Friends (the Quakers)

Sun 14 Mission and outreach in the Parish of St Mary’s

Mon 15 Our PCC meeting tonight

Tue 16 The war torn areas of our world

Wed 17 The Community of the Resurrection

Thu 18 WEEK OF PRAYER FOR CHRISTIAN UNITY BEGINS TODAY

Fri 19 Thanksgiving for the diversity of the Anglican Communion

Sat 20 Orthodox Churches in Communion with the Patriarch of Constantinople

Sun 21 Churches Together in Wallington

Mon 22 All Churches in Communion with the Bishop of Rome

Tue 23 Churches in dialogue with the Anglican Church

Wed 24 Churches whose roots are in the protestant reformation

Thu 25 Revd Justine Middlemiss on her first anniversary at St Mary’s

Fri 26 The courage to speak out against evil and tyranny

Sat 27 Christians being persecuted for their faith

Sun 28 Thanksgiving for Christ the Light of the World

Mon 29 That we may reflect Christ’s presence and show forth his love

Tue 30 That the whole Church may show forth Christ’s glory

Wed 31 Our link dioceses in Zimbabwe

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