NEWSBridget and Cheryl attended the Service of Welcome and Enthronement of The Right Reverend Dr Joanne Grenfell, 12th Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich on Saturday 24th January at St Edmundsbury Cathedral. A full nave, flickering candles in all the candelabra and contemplative Taizé chants made for a special atmosphere at the Benefice Evensong for Candlemas at Barsham onSunday 1st February. Special thanks to Sarah for leading the choir, and to those who provided such a delicious tea. The sales table understudied and organised by Bridget raised a splendid £140.00. Amy reports that 123 items were donated to the Foodbank in January.FORWARD PLANNINGLight Show, St Michael’s Beccles, Saturday 14th March, 6.30-8.30pm. See St Michael’s as never before with light installations by visual artist William Lindley. Come and go any time during the evening. Booking not required. Donations gratefully received. Refreshments on sale. Vernal Equinox, Friday 20th March. The illumination of the rood, weather permitting, will be on the 19th, 20th & 21st March at about 5.15pm. Annual Parochial Church Meeting and Annual Meeting of Parishioners, Sunday 22nd March. These will take place in the church immediately after morning service and before coffee. If you cannot attend and would like copies of the audited financial statements, please contact Dominique (dominique.bacon@gmail.com).Easter Day, Sunday 5th April. The Bishop of Richborough, The Right Reverend Luke Irvine-Capel SSC, will be presiding at Eucharist. Organ recital and tea, Saturday 30th May at 3pm. Dr David Flood, for 32 years Organist and Master of Choristers at Canterbury Cathedral, will be giving a recital at Holy Trinity Barsham. Details to follow. Summer Lunch, Wednesday 1st July. At the kind invitation of Nick and Jenny Caddick, at St Bartholomew’s, Shipmeadow.SNIPPETS – Colin’s Historical Reflections on the APCMIt is the time of year when Church Officers are busily preparing their reports on the previous year’s activities for presentation to the Annual Parochial Church Meeting (APCM). The meeting, which must take place by the 31st May, appears to be one meeting but is in fact two. First is the Annual Meeting of Parishioners (AMP) at which the only business is the election of the Churchwardens, and not only those on the Church electoral role but also all parishioners listed on the Parliamentary role, church-goers or not and people of any faith, are entitled to vote.Immediately following the AMP, and generally quite seamlessly, the APCM takes place and at this only those listed on the Church electoral role may vote. The purpose of the APCM is to receive the reports on fabric, finance and the general activities of the church, and to elect PCC members, Deanery Synod representatives, and to appoint an independent auditor.Historically the situation was very different. The meeting often then referred to as either the Vestry or Easter Meeting was, until late Victorian times, responsible for all activities within the parish whether secular or religious. In addition to the Churchwardens, also elected were, an Overseer of the Poor who administered the Poor Law, a Surveyor of the Highways responsible for the maintenance of thoroughfares in the parish, and the appointment of sexton. Financial and fabric matters were normally undertaken by the incumbent, who often met the cost of church repairs himself.Whilst at a small parish like Barsham the proceedings were relatively straightforward, in larger parishes they could be more complex. At the Vestry meeting of 1797 at St. Peter Mancroft Norwich, in addition to the two churchwardens, also elected were two sidesmen, a pew opener, a bellows blower, an organist, an upper and lower sexton, a clerk, four overseers of the poor and remarkably, twelve auditors.During the nineteenth century there was a growing discontent at the Church’s involvement in secular matters. This culminated in the passing of the Local Government Act of 1894, which removed all secular business from the Vestry Meetings, transferring it to the newly established elected Parish Councils. This transition was not without issues, the literacy and numeracy so evident in the clergy was not always present in the local population, who were now expected to chair and conduct business. Additionally, charities previously administered by the Church were, if of a secular nature, transferred to the Parish Councils, but many charities were of indeterminate status and posed a divisive issue.In Barsham the incumbent, the Rev. Allan Coates, a traditionalist, was strongly opposed to the new legislation and believed sincerely that Church and State could best work together. His response to the newly formed Parish Council’s desire to take over the single charity paying £2 9s 0d for churchyard maintenance was somewhat brusque. The final sentence of his letter to the Parish Council states ‘I do not care to have it said even by one person that I am dealing with funds to which I have no legal right, especially in the face of the fact that every year I dispense from my own pocket over £30 in cash aid of the Clubs and pensions to my parishioners’. The matter was resolved by the Charity Commissioners, who deemed that the charity be divided equally between the two councils, with trustees Rev. Allan Coates, George Self and Walter Felgate appointed to ensure good management of the charity. However, Coates was resolute in his refusal to act as chairman of the Parish Council, which resulted in no meetings being conducted from the 22nd April 1897 until the 4th August 1915 when, partly because of the war time situation, he finally relented and took the chair! Parish Councils in Barsham were thereafter held successfully on a regular basis.In contrast, Parochial Church Councils since 1894 have successfully undertaken their reduced role, and today the Most Holy Trinity Barsham is blessed with an excellent Council whose dedicated members are unified in their resolve and industry to ensure the continued success of this beautiful Parish Church with its friendly atmosphere and very special style of worship. If possible, please spare a little of your time and remain in Church after the morning service to attend the APCM on the 22nd March to discover the activities and events of your PCC over the past year.MARCH DIARYSunday 1st March – Second Sunday in Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk. Sunday 8th March – Third Sunday in Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 15th March – Fourth Sunday in Lent. Mothering Sunday. 11.15amSung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.Sunday 22nd March – Fifth Sunday in Lent. Passion Sunday.11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor.Sunday 29th March – Palm Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSAt the end of their journey along the nave, the figurines of the three Magi arrived at the crib in time for the Feast of the Epiphany on 6th January. The festival celebrates the visit by the Magi to the baby Jesus, indicating that Christ, the Jewish Messiah, had also come for the salvation of the Gentiles. The PCC met for routine business on Thursday 8th January. Holy Trinity Barsham now has its own Facebook page. To find it, enter into the Facebook search bar ‘Church of the Most Holy Trinity Barsham’.Although probably only a minority of visitors use the visitors book, an audit of entries nevertheless reveals something of the profile of our visitors. In 2025 there was a significant increase in the number of entries, with 115 entries representing 242 people (just 123 named people in 2024). Visitors came from 19 of the 39 historical English counties as well as from Wales, and more than half of all visitors came from Norfolk or Suffolk. Overseas visitors came from Germany, the USA (Virginia), Mexico and Australia. Remarks typically referred to the beauty of the church, its atmosphere and historical interest, and 11 sets of visitors came in search of ancestral links. Others were impressed by its care, and one appreciative visitor wrote, ‘Blessings and praise to the cleaners’! The Christmas raffle organised so expertly by Diana raised a record sum of £321.00. The PCC acknowledges with thanks the kind anonymous donation at Christmas of £40.00 towards the cost of providing church candles.Donations from the Christmas Card Tree in the Lady Chapel have enabled us to send £200.00 to WaterAid. Many thanks to Sarah Jane for arranging this once again.160 items were donated to the Beccles Foodbank in December, bringing the total number of items donated in 2025 to 2,364.FORWARD PLANNINGThere will be a Benefice Evensong for Candlemas at Holy Trinity Barsham at3pm on Sunday 1st February, with tea afterwards. SNIPPETS – Spotlight on the East Window The tracery of the East window at Barsham has been the subject of much debate and comment but less has been said about the stained glass. Installed in the 1870s, the glass was commissioned by Barsham’s first Anglo-Catholic rector, the Revd RAJ Suckling (Rector 1868-1880 and Patron 1868-1917), and made by Charles Kempe, a devout Anglo-Catholic, who would go on to become one of the most celebrated stained glass makers and designers of church fittings of his day. The commission was typical of the Anglo-Catholic Movement, which favoured a form of elaborate church decoration not seen since the Reformation of the 16th and 17th centuries. The subject matter in the glass was inspired by some key tenets of Anglo-Catholicism, and understanding these is the key to appreciating the window. The Anglo-Catholic Movement emphasised its continuity with the historic Catholic Church, drawing its beliefs, liturgy and practices from the early Church, including the authority of early Church teachings, which had been shaped by the seven Ecumenical Councils and the writings of the theologians collectively known as the Early Church Fathers. So too, Anglo-Catholics emphasised the Apostolic Succession, believing bishops to be the successors of the Apostles of Christ, performing the same functions (preaching, governing, ordaining) and passing on the authority of the Apostles from one generation of bishops to the next in unbroken line. Three further elements of Anglo-Catholic practice and belief relevant here are the central place of the Eucharist with the Real Presence of Christ, devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary, and the intercession of the saints. This is the context for the window and its 21 saints. There in the very centre is the Blessed Virgin Mary with Christ child, and in the bottom row Mary and the Annunciation. The top row of four depicts the Apostles John and Peter, and two other foundational figures from earliest Christianity, John the Baptist and Paul. Two rows below are the figures of the so-called Great Church Fathers: St Gregory, St Augustine of Hippo, St Jerome and St Ambrose, theologians and pillars of the early Church whose writings did much to establish the intellectual and doctrinal foundation of Christianity. Of the five saints in the row below the Great Church Fathers, St Felix (centre) and St Edmund (far left) are local saints, the latter also regarded as one of the patron saints of England until the Tudor period. St Benedict (centre right) was the founder of the Benedictine Order, selected presumably to reflect the Anglo-Catholic revival of Benedictine monasticism within the Anglican Communion. Likewise, the inclusion of St Mildred (centre left), the 8th century abbess of the Benedictine abbey at Minster in Thanet, highlights the revival of religious orders for women (two of RAJ Suckling’s sisters were Anglican nuns in the order All Saints Sisters of the Poor). St Lucian of Antioch (far right) was a significant theologian of the early Church but his presence here is more likely to symbolise the central importance of the Eucharist and in it theReal Presence of Christ, especially in times of persecution (in the 1870s Anglo-Catholic priests were persecuted both by the conservative Church hierarchy and by Parliament). The story goes that whilst awaiting execution alongside fellow Christians in a Roman prison, Lucian lay down and allowed the bread and wine to be placed on his chest as a ‘living altar for the Living God’ as there was no proper altar or suitable surface available, thus enabling his fellows to receive communion before they were martyred. In Christian art, as in the Barsham window, Lucian is often depicted with the elements of the Eucharist on his chest.FEBRUARY DIARYSunday 1st February – Septuagesima. Fourth Sunday after the Epiphany. Presentation of Christ in the Temple - Candlemas. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk. 3pm Evensong for Candlemas with tea after. Revd Graham Naylor. Sunday 8th February – Sexagesima. Fifth Sunday after the Epiphany. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 15th February – Quinquagesima. Last Sunday after the Epiphany. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Banister.Wednesday 18th February – Ash Wednesday. Holy Communion with Ashing: 10am at Holy Trinity Bungay and 7pm at All Saints Mettingham. Revd Graham Naylor. Sunday 22nd February – First Sunday in Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSAdvent Candles have been lit on each of the Sundays in Advent, and a Service of Lessons and Carols for Christmas was held on Thursday 18th December. A peal of five bells welcomed a large congregation to the beautifully decorated church, and the service opened with Sarah’s charmingly rendered, candle-lit solo first verse of Once in Royal. The choir added much to the atmosphere with the anthem Stille, Stille, Stille and their glorious, soaring descants in the carols which, with the readings, told the familiar story of the Nativity. Afterwards the raffles were drawn for a fabulous Christmas cake and two hampers full of delights, and there was mingling and good cheer over refreshments of mulled wine, spiced apple juice and tasty bites. Many thanks to all those who contributed to the evening and to those who offered items for the hampers. A group from the Diss U3A Round Tower Study Group visited the church on Tuesday 18th November.The church brass received its annual shine thanks to the team of volunteers on 20thNovember. It would be a great help to have new volunteers for the church cleaning rota. If you can help, please let Bridget know. The PCC extends its gratitude to everyone who has contributed to the busy life of Holy Trinity Barsham in 2025: in worship, music, administration, maintenance and decoration, in special events, fundraising and charitable giving. Particular thanks are extended to our licensed retired clergy.The sales table organised by Jenny raised £85.00 bringing the cumulative total for 2025 to a record sum of £1,376.00. Well done and many thanks to those who have staffed the table, generously donated items for sale or supported by making purchases.Many thanks as well to the Beccles Lions who kindly donated £652.00, representing the cost of transporting the Love Boxes to Moldova.The Barsham PCC acknowledges with much gratitude a legacy of £1,000.00 from the estate of the late Mrs Penny Banks.The Beccles Foodbank was delighted to receive our 251 items in November. A list of items currently most needed by the foodbank may be found on the chest at the back of the church. SNIPPETS – New Year, New HopeTraditionally, the New Year has been a time both to take stock and to look ahead. 175 years ago in his New Year poem, Ring Out, Wild Bells, Alfred, Lord Tennyson did exactly this, naming some of the social and political ills of his day and suggesting remedies. The poem has lost none of its relevance today! Ring Out, Wild BellsRing out, wild bells, to the wild sky,The flying cloud, the frosty light:The year is dying in the night;Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.Ring out the old, ring in the new,Ring, happy bells, across the snow:The year is going, let him go;Ring out the false, ring in the true.Ring out the grief that saps the mindFor those that here we see no more;Ring out the feud of rich and poor,Ring in redress to all mankind.Ring out a slowly dying cause,And ancient forms of party strife;Ring in the nobler modes of life,With sweeter manners, purer laws.Ring out the want, the care, the sin,The faithless coldness of the times;Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymesBut ring the fuller minstrel in.Ring out false pride in place and blood,The civic slander and the spite;Ring in the love of truth and right,Ring in the common love of good.Ring out old shapes of foul disease;Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;Ring out the thousand wars of old,Ring in the thousand years of peace.Ring in the valiant man and free,The larger heart, the kindlier hand;Ring out the darkness of the land,Ring in the Christ that is to be.For us, there are new concerns, unimaginable in Tennyson’s time, amongst them the ongoing depletion of nature. Often driven by short-termism and vested interest, governments around the world are failing to give the nature crisis the priority it deserves. Yet there is hope. Hope lies not in government but in society. In the UK, at least, public awareness and understanding of the need for nature recovery is expanding fast, especially amongst the young, and there is a gathering momentum of meaningful nature-friendly activity undertaken by individuals in their yards and gardens, and by communities, businesses and organisations in their operations and on the land they control. At Barsham the nature-friendly management of the churchyard and the swift boxes in the belfry are a case in point. So too is the public support that has enabled the Suffolk Wildlife Trust to add 381 acres of Worlingham Marshes to its existing reserves in the area to create a protected landscape rich in natural habitat across much of the Lower Waveney Valley. Hope lies in the sum of all of society’s small actions being sufficient to tip the scales in nature’s favour.A healthy natural world plays a vital role in climate control and provides the essential resources mankind needs for survival. It is also invigorating and healing for those who engage with it: there is a redemptive quality in the cyclical processes of the natural world – the seasons, the life cycle of plants – which are symbols of hope and renewal. With all this in mind, let the contemporary poet Matt Goodfellow ring in our New Year: Poem for a New YearSomething’s moving in,I hear the weather in the wind,sense the tension of a sheep-fieldand the pilgrimage of fins.Something’s not the same,I taste the sap and feel the grain,hear the rolling of the rowanringing, singing in a change.Something’s set to start,there’s meadow-music in the darkand the clouds that shroud the mountainslowly, softly start to part.JANUARY DIARY 4th January – 2nd Sunday of Christmas. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 11th January – First Sunday after the Epiphany. Baptism of Christ. 11amSung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 18th January – Second Sunday after the Epiphany. 11.15am Sung Eucharist (BCP), Barsham. Revd Desmond Banister.Sunday 25th January – Third Sunday after the Epiphany. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWS123 Love Boxes were blessed by the Revd Graham on Sunday 26th October and are now on their way to Moldova. Congratulations and thanks to Cheryl on organising such a successful operation. Cheryl herself would like to thank everyone who wrapped boxes, as well as those who filled them. Contributions have come from our own congregation, the Suffolk Stitchers and Knitters (thanks in particular to Jenny Henwood for all her help), residents of the Foundry in Beccles and the Beccles Lions, who also funded carriage of the boxes to the Mustard Seed Relief Mission in Eastbourne. Remembrance in Barsham was marked at Sunday service on Remembrance Sunday with the Reading of Names by Neville Smith, followed by the Two-minutes Silence at 11am and a thought-provoking sermon by the Revd Canon John Fellows. The Revd Graham officiated at the Service of Remembrance in the village hall and the laying of wreaths at the war memorial on Tuesday 11th November, with the Two-minutes Silence at 11am and the Last Post and Reveille played very capably by Sir John Leman student Anna Knight. The PCC met for routine business on Thursday 6th November. At the annual Inter-churches Quiz at Mettingham village hall on Friday 14thNovember the Barsham team came joint 2nd out of nine teams. The team comprisedBridget, Cheryl, David, Dominique and Robert.A Christmas hamper and a Christmas cake will be raffled at the Service of Carols and Readings on 18th December. Donations of suitable foodstuffs and drinks for the hamper would be much appreciated. Please liaise with Diana if you would like to contribute. The October Sales Table organised by Sarah Jane raised a magnificent £185.00. Additionally, Sarah Jane’s Market Stalls have yielded a further £305.00 for the restoration of the Rede Tomb, the total now standing at £2,272.00.We are most grateful for the continued support of Doreen Springall, whose farm gate stall has raised £379.00 for the church this year. 155 items were donated to the Beccles Foodbank in October. I visited the Foodbank recently and found the staff outspoken in their appreciation of Barsham’s constant support. FORWARD PLANNINGAll help will be gratefully received for the cleaning of brass on Thursday 20thNovember at 9.30am. Christmas Carol Service, Thursday 18th December at 6.30pm – Followed by refreshments including sausage rolls, mince pies & mulled wine. SNIPPETS – Origins of the Rectors and Patrons BoardThe Rectors and Patrons Board has recently been updated to include the Revd Graham’s name (front cover photo). The board’s frame is a copy of the original (on the other side of the tower entrance) and was crafted from oak in 2019 by Jonathan Bacon (no relative) at the Harry Stebbing Workshop at Hingham, Norfolk. Ruth Murray, who added the new entry, pointed out that there are three styles of calligraphy across the two boards, the first up to the 1921 entry, the second from 1944 to 1960 (note the change in the letter ‘u’), and a third on the newer board (the style of ‘e’ changes). Records left by the Revd Allan Coates indicate that the original frame and board were donated by the then Patron, the Revd RAJ Suckling, who had salvaged the frame from the redundant Roman Catholic chapel of St John the Baptist in St John’s Alley, Norwich, where it had held a Benefactors Board. Suckling acquired the list of former rectors and patrons from the Norwich Diocesan Registry and commissioned the Barsham Rectors and Patrons Board from a workshop in Oxford, possibly that of Lawrence Turner, who undertook several other projects in this church. A modern transcription of Allan Coates’ notes suggests that Suckling’s gift was made at Christmas 1890, though it may more likely have been 1896 (see below).So, what of the story behind the Catholic chapel in St John’s Lane? Following the 16thcentury Protestant Reformation, Catholic worship in England was illegal and driven underground. By the mid-18th century, while public Catholic worship was still forbidden, the use of private chapels was tolerated and from the early 1760s the Catholic community in Norwich could worship in a small private chapel in Ten Bells Lane and from 1764 in a chapel at the Duke of Norfolk’s Norwich palace (the site of which is now St Andrew’s multi-storey car park). Circumstances eased in 1791 with the Roman Catholic Relief Act, which permitted public Catholic worship in registered chapels, provided worshippers took an oath of allegiance to the Crown and chapels were discreet – steeples and chapel bells were not allowed! The Duke of Norfolk’s private chapel closed in 1794 but that year a new public Roman Catholic chapel was built off St John’s Alley in the garden of Strangers’ Hall, and dedicated to St John the Baptist. The frame salvaged by RAJ Suckling housed the chapel’s Benefactors board, honouring those who had funded and endowed the chapel. Its style is consistent with the late Baroque/Rococco of the later 18th century and features stylized pelicans (symbolizing Christ in the Eucharist) in the spandrels. The Chapel of St John the Baptist served the Catholic community in Norwich for a century. However, with the 1829 Catholic Emancipation Act and the growth in Norwich’s Catholic community in the age of industrialization, larger premises were needed. A new and large Catholic parish church of St John the Baptist was constructed in Unthank Road between 1882 and 1910, becoming the Catholic Cathedral in 1976. With the nave completed in 1894, the Catholic community migrated from the small chapel off St John’s Alley to the new church and the old chapel was abandoned and sold in 1896 – which is likely when RAJ Suckling acquired the frame. After 1896 the old chapel in St John’s Alley was repurposed variously as a baking soda factory, a grocery warehouse and a Salvation Army hall. Finally, in 1921 it was purchased by Nugent Monck for his Norwich Players, and it became the Maddermarket Theatre, which thrives to this day.DECEMBER DIARYSunday 7th December – 2nd Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Desmond Bannister.Sunday 14th December – 3rd Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Thursday 18th December – Service of Carols & Lessons, 6.30pm. Revd Graham Naylor. Sunday 21st December – 4th Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP), Barsham. Revd Jonathan Olanczuk. Thursday 25th December – Christmas Day – 10.30am. Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor.Sunday 28th December – 1st Sunday after Christmas Day. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Graham Naylor.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
