NEWSThe March Equinox Event at Barsham produced a fine spectacle on the days either side of the Equinox but not on the day itself, when the sky was overcast. The turn-out included a small core of regular attenders.Pots of spring flowers were distributed in church on Mothering, Sunday 27th March, and palm crosses on Palm Sunday, 10th April. The Annual Parochial Church Meeting took place at the church on Thursday 31stMarch. Bridget and Diana kindly agreed to continue as Churchwardens and current members of the PCC agreed to continue. A team of six gathered on the afternoon of 12th April for the cleaning of the church brass. 157 items were kindly donated to the Food Bank in March. Growing pressures on the cost of living make our contributions ever more important and for the time being we have been asked particularly for items such as nappies, toothpaste, toothbrushes, soap and washing up liquid. Regarding Sunday collections, Colin reminds us that GIFT AID is a vital part of our church’s finances, permitting us to claim the tax element on all contributions and donations we receive. Whilst it is important to secure support in this way from tax payers, non-tax payers too have a major role to play as up to £8,000 per annum of their total donations are also eligible for the same tax relief. It is, however, imperative that non-tax payers do not attempt to use the Gift Aid Scheme (gift aid envelopes or standing orders) as HMRC will almost certainly demand reimbursement from the donor concerned. A tax payer is defined as one who pays Income Tax and/or Capital Gains Tax. With Gift Aid we are able to enhance all contributions by 25%. If you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact Colin, our Church Treasurer. Since the last Newsletter Sarah Jane has achieved two further sales of the Learners’ legacy teddy bears, yielding £197 and £55, bringing the cumulative total for the bears to an impressive £879. The sales table organised by Bridget raised an excellent total of £178 which, together with the surplus Easter lily money, will be donated to the Diocesan Responding to the Crisis in Ukraine Appeal. Looking ahead to the winter, the Love Box Appeal has been suspended this year due to the crisis in Ukraine and Moldova. In its place there is likely to be a fund-raising appeal for the Mustard Seed charity later in the year to support the charity’s aid work with refugees from the war. FORWARD PLANNINGThere 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 Minister for the Lightwave Rural Hub and Heather Land as Director of the Lightwave Community Choir. There are still some places available for the wine tasting at the Old Rectory, 6pm to 8pm on Saturday 14th May, at the kind invitation of Howard Trust. Tickets can be purchased at the back of the church after Sunday service. Tickets cost £15 each and will cover all costs for the evening with the balance contributed to a Ukraine charitable fund. The Concert by the SuAnLo Trio on Saturday 21st May will be from 3pm to 4pm at Barsham Church. The time for this concert is now confirmed as 3pm. There will be no interval, but tea and cakes will be served afterwards. Tickets are available from Bridget and Diana and cost £12.The Trio, from San Sebastian in Spain, consists of Loreto Aramendi (‘Lo’), Professor at the Conservatoire of San Sebastian and principal organist at the Basilica de Santa Maria del Coro in San Sebastian; Ana Salaberria (‘An’), an accomplished singer and teacher of classical and popular music; and Suzanna Guterl (‘Su’), a concert flautist. The Queen’s Jubilee Lunch at the Village Hall on Sunday 5th June is likely to be a bring-your-own picnic event. Further details to follow.SNIPPETS – Saints and Martyrs: a Lesser Festival in MayOn May the 4th a Lesser Festival in the Church of England celebrates the Saints and Martyrs of the English Reformation. Whilst the heresy laws of Henry VIII (1509-1547) and Mary I (1553-1558), targeted Protestants, a smaller number of Catholics and dissenting radical Christians were put to death at the hands of the Protestant regimes of Edward VI (1547-1553), Elizabeth I (1558-1603) and James I (1603-1625). In Mary’s reign at least 280 Protestants were burned at the stake for standing by their beliefs and rejecting Catholic doctrine. Amongst them were three men – Thomas Spicer, John Denny and Edmund Poole – brought to Beccles to be tried and then burned at the stake in the same fire in May 1556. According to Foxe’s Book of Martyrs, a certain Beccles resident called Robert Bacon (no relation!) incited the onlookers to throw faggots onto the fire ‘to stop the knaves’ breaths’. The collect for 4th May begins: ‘O merciful God, who, when thy Church on earth was torn apart by the ravages of sin, didst raise up men and women in this land who witnessed to their faith with courage and constancy…’Thus, on 4th May we celebrate the courage and Godliness of the martyrs on both sides during the English Reformation and recall the evils of bigotry. Maybe too, with the rise of authoritarian regimes around the world, it is apt that we should celebrate the freedom of conscience that we enjoy in the UK today. MAY DIARYSunday 24th 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.Sunday 8th May – Fourth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 15th May – Fifth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (CW). Rev Roy Wormald. Sunday 22nd May – Sixth Sunday of Easter. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Canon John Fellows.Thursday 26th May – Ascension Day. 9am Holy Communion. Ilketshall St Margaret. Rev Josh Bailey.Sunday 29th May – Seventh Sunday of Easter – Benefice Service at Barsham, 10.30am. Sung Eucharist (BCP). Rev Edward Land.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
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.
