NEWS
We were delighted to welcome the Rt Revd Dr Mike Harrison, Bishop of Dunwich, to celebrate Eucharist with us on Sunday 16th July.
A contingent from Barsham attended the Benefice Choral Evensong at Bungay onSunday 30th July.
The Love Boxes team has started to wrap the boxes and the Love Box season will soon be upon us!
Annual haymaking took place during a spell of dry weather on the 11th and 12th August and the churchyard now looks splendid. Wasp nests featured this year, and Colin surprised a large grass snake. Huge thanks to those who laboured mightily in extremely humid conditions on the Friday (team photo, front page), to those who joined on the Saturday, and especially to those who toiled so hard on both days. Grateful thanks as well to Chris Bardsley for providing two delicious lunches.
In this centenary year of the Suffolk Guild of Ringers a group from its North-East District rang the church bells at Barsham on Saturday 12th August, ringing Plain Bob Doubles and Grandsire Doubles. As for the character of our bells, Kate Gill, Tower Captain at Beccles, described them as ‘a nice country ring’. In addition to ringing, the group held a routine meeting and enjoyed a picnic, before walking to the Locks Inn for further refreshment.
This year’s Ride and Stride event takes place on Saturday 9th September. Do sponsor our participants, who are riding or striding in aid of Barsham Church and the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust, which makes grants towards the repair and restoration of churches and chapels.
The sales table organised by Jenny for the second consecutive time raised the splendid sum of £100!
Barsham PCC gratefully acknowledges a donation of £200 and also donations amounting to £220 from the Hempnall Sunday Walking Group event held on the 30th July. This was a most successful and enjoyable occasion with the Group exploring the byways of Barsham and Ilketshall St Andrew in fine weather; many thanks to Cheryl for her skilled organisation of the ramble and to all who provided the fine fare and beverages for the walkers at their journey’s end.
228 items were gratefully received by the Foodbank in July, nearly 100 more items than the previous month.
FORWARD PLANNING
The Right Revd Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough will be joining us for Harvest Evensong and Harvest Supper on Sunday 8th October.
SNIPPETS – A Medley of Hymn-writers
Most would agree that congregational singing in church is an uplifting experience and small wonder, with so many inspiring tunes and beautifully crafted lyrics. Down the centuries hymnody has attracted eminent composers – in our hymnals at Barsham the likes of Gibbons, JS Bach, Handel, Haydn, Parry, Ireland, Vaughan Williams, Holst – and a high proportion of hymn writers were well-established poets. Many hymnodists, of course, were divines: clerics and theologians.
The 17th century Anglican cleric George Herbert, 1593-1633 (‘Let all the world in every corner sing’) was one of the celebrated metaphysical poets. During his short adult life he was also Orator at Cambridge University (ie its official spokesman) and a Member of Parliament. The 18th century Welsh Methodist preacher William Williams, 1717-1791 (‘Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer’), was one of the great literary figures of Welsh language prose and poetry. In the following century, Frederick William Faber, 1814-1863 (‘There’s a wideness in God’s mercy’), was a friend of William Wordsworth and wrote both secular and sacred poetry. An Anglo-Catholic priest, he followed John Henry Newman into the Catholic Church and was one of the founders and the first Provost of the London Oratory.
Some hymnodists were more than clerics. Cyril Argentine Alington, 1872-1955 (‘Ye that know The Lord is gracious’), was a prolific writer of poetry as well as biography, history, religion, and fiction, including detective stories. He was successively Headmaster of Shrewsbury School, Head Master at Eton, Chaplain to George V and Dean of Durham Cathedral. John Raphael Peacey, 1896-1971 (‘Tell out my soul’), was a missionary and headmaster in India and latterly a Canon of Bristol Cathedral. Earlier, as an army officer, he had won a Military Cross during the First World War and afterwards played first class cricket for Sussex.
Several well-known hymnodists were involved in the campaign for the abolition of slavery. The American Quaker poet John Greenleaf Whittier, 1807-1892 (‘Dear Lord and Father of mankind’), was a passionate abolitionist campaigner. John Newton, 1725-1807 (‘Amazing Grace’; ‘Glorious things of Thee are spoken’), spent some years as a slave trader before his Christian conversion, ordination, and work as an abolitionist. He recruited to the cause his friend William Cowper, 1731-1800 (‘O for a closer walk with God’), hymnodist and one of the most popular English poets of the 18th century. The Anglican parish priest and poet Henry Francis Lyte,
1793-1847 (‘Praise, my soul, the King of Heaven’; ‘Abide with me’), was a friend of William Wilberforce and in 1833 petitioned Parliament to abolish slavery in the British Empire.
There were, of course, lay hymnodists too, and women are prominent amongst them. In the 19th century Charlotte Elliott, 1789-1871 (‘Just as I am’), wrote popular humorous verse and was a successful portrait artist before turning to hymn-writing and producing about 150 hymns. In more recent times, Eleanor Farjeon, 1881-1965 (‘Morning has broken’), was a poet, playwright, children’s author, biographer, historian, satirist, journalist and broadcaster. The agnostic Jan Struther, 1901-1953 (‘Lord of all hopefulness’; ‘When a knight won his spurs’) wrote for Punch magazine and was a Times columnist and radio quiz panellist. Amongst the men, William Whiting, 1825-1878 (‘Eternal Father strong to save’), was a secular poet and the Master of Quiristers (choristers) at Winchester College. James Edmeston, 1791-1867 (‘Lead us, Heavenly Father, lead us’) is said to have written some 2,000 hymns. He was an architect and surveyor as well as a poet and one of his architecture pupils was George Gilbert Scott, the great Gothic Revival architect. In the 20th century Robert Bridges, 1844-1930 (‘All my hope on God is founded’) practised as a medical doctor and was Poet Laureate from 1913 to 1930.
As this small sample demonstrates, the heritage within the pages of our hymn books is rich indeed and, for me at least, this enhances the glory of hymn singing.
SEPTEMBER DIARY
Sunday 27th August – Twelfth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.
Sunday 3rd September – Thirteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 10th September – Fourteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Jonathan Olanczuk.
Sunday 17th September – Fifteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows with Archdeacon Sally Gaze, Archdeacon of Rural Mission in the Diocese of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich.
Sunday 24th September – Sixteenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey with Revd Canon Rich Henderson, Archdeacon of Suffolk.
Sunday 1st October – Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevJonathan Olanczuk.
Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham, but not 27th Sept and 4th Oct.
Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, [email protected]