NEWSGlorious music, familiar Christmas readings and a full nave, beautified with elegant floral decorations and candle light, made for a magnificent Carol Service on 21st December. Sarah Emes released the magic with a beautifully rendered solo first verse of Once in Royal, before the choir processed under the spectacular, candle-lit candelabra to their stalls. The choir sang the anthem Still, Still, Still and led the singing splendidly, their descants rising majestically over the hearty singing of the congregation. Many thanks particularly to Sarah and to organist David Blunkell for the preparation of the music. After the service the draw took place for the two amazing hampers (filled by generous donations), and the delicious and beautifully decorated cake made by Jean Cooksley. This raised a record £315.00 for church funds. This memorable evening was rounded off with mulled wine, spiced apple juice, mince pies and hot sausage rolls. We were delighted to welcome the Very Revd Joe Hawes, Dean of St Edmundsbury Cathedral, to preside at Eucharist on Christmas Eve. Having travelled from windowsill to windowsill down the nave over the Christmas period, the figurines of the three Magi arrived at the crib in time for 6th January and Epiphany, the feast celebrating the visit of the Magi to the new-born Jesus, having been led by the star to Bethlehem. The event is depicted in stained glass in the left-hand window of the side chapel (see Snippets). New lighting will be fitted in the nave on 2nd February which, appropriately, is the day of Candlemas. These LED lamps will provide an improved quality of light and be more efficient in terms of electricity consumption and longevity. Funded from the sale of the Learner teddy bears, this project offers a neat symmetry since it was Mike Learner who installed the electrics after the fire of 1979. The visitors book contains 112 entries for the year 2023, representing 219 people (83 entries and 131 people in 2022), including groups such as the Hempnall Walking Group, the U3A, the Wensum Ramblers and a Salvation Army group from Chelmsford. Not all visitors sign, of course. Overseas visitors came from Finland, Canada, and four States of the USA (Massachusetts, Connecticut, Wisconsin and Florida). Closer to home, there were visitors from Northern Ireland, London and 17 English counties. Two thirds of entries were made by people from Norfolk and Suffolk, and a quarter of these were from Beccles. The rectors who went to such lengths to beautify this church in the later 19th and early 20th centuries would be gratified by the appreciative remarks of today’s visitors – adjectives springing from the pages of the visitors book include: ‘heavenly’, ‘divine’, ‘very special’, ‘beautiful’, ‘superb’, ‘delightful’, ‘splendid’, ‘stunning’, ‘amazing’, ‘wonderful’, ‘magnificent’. Many thanks for your donations towards post-service refreshments, which totalled £338.00 over the past year. Christmas card tree donations raised £125.00 for Water Aid. Food Bank donations in December amounted to 233 items. Amy reports that donations for the whole of the year 2023 amounted to 2,346 items – a very similar quantity to the previous year (2,352 in 2022). Many thanks to Amy for continuing to administer this service and to everyone who contributes. FORWARD PLANNINGThere will be a Service of Confirmation on Sunday 17th March celebrated by the Right Revd Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough. SNIPPETS – Edward & Agnes Finlay: chapel benefactors When the present chapel of St Catherine was built in 1908 a number of benefactors provided the means for its beautification, including Colonel William Churchman (The Madonna Sewing) and the Revd Edward Bullock Finlay and his wife Agnes Maria Finlay, who are remembered in an inscription on the Epiphany window: In pious memory of Edward B Finlay, priest: who died at Salisbury January 13th 1896 and Agnes Maria his wife who died October 27th1908: wherefore may God propitiate their souls. Three items in the chapel are associated with the Finlays. The Epiphany window, the trompe d’oeil and an old oak reading desk, originally from the library of Merton College, Oxford and donated in 1896, the year Edward died. The trompe d’oeil was painted in 1909, the year after Agnes died, and the memorial window was installed in 1916, both paid for with a £50.00 Finlay gift, which may have been a legacy left by Agnes: the Rector, Allan Coates, was one of two people granted probate in December 1908 after Agnes died. Both the trompe d’oeil and the window were designed by Frederick Eden, designer of stained glass and church fittings, who specialized in Anglo-Catholic interior embellishments.The Finlays’ only link with Barsham appears to have been their connection with Allan Coates, and the nature of that connection remains obscure, though it is tempting to wonder if Edward Finlay was an Anglo-Catholic priest, like Coates. Only a sketchy record of Edward Finlay’s life remains. He graduated from Worcester College, Oxford in 1849 and next appears in the record as Second Master at Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Dedham from 1853 to 1854. In the latter year he was ordained deacon, and priest in 1855 in the Diocese of Norwich. There followed a restless string of curacies, at Stratford St Mary (1854-1857), Frittenden, Kent (1857-1859), Gazeley with Kentford, near Newmarket (1859-1861) and Lavington, Sussex (1863-1864). His ministry then appears to come to a halt and he is described in the 1871 and 1881 census returns as ‘priest without cure of souls’, living respectively in Folkestone and Beaconsfield, and by 1891 he was living in Avebury, Wiltshire. I wonder if his wandering curacies and his apparently truncated ministry were the result of the persecution of Anglo-Catholic priests by the ecclesiastical and political establishments of the time. Edward’s wife Agnes was the daughter of an Indian woman recorded only as ‘Culoo’ and Gerald Wellesley (1790-1833), the East India Company Resident in the Indian State of Indore, whose own father was Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley, Governor-General of India from 1798 to 1805. Gerald Wellesley had three children with Culoo, who was his mistress, but in 1830 he decided that he and his children would return to England. He travelled separately from his children, who were put in the care of guardians, given the name Fitzgerald and described as Wellesley’s ‘adopted children and protégés’. Culoo does not appear to have come to England, so perhaps she died or was simply abandoned in India by Wellesley, who himself died in 1833. By this time Agnes was only eight years old and was brought up by guardians, eventually marrying Edward Finlay in Dedham in 1856 at the age of 31. It seems Edward and Agnes did not have children. FEBRUARY DIARYSunday 4th February – Second Sunday before Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevdJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 11th February – Sunday before Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.Wednesday 14th February – Ash Wednesday. 10am Holy Communion, Holy Trinity, Bungay. Revd Josh Bailey.7pm Holy Communion, All Saints, Mettingham. Sunday 18th February – First Sunday of Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.Sunday 25th February – Second Sunday of Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.No Service of Matins on Wednesday mornings in February. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSThe Christmas card tree in the side chapel is for those who wish to place on it a Christmas greeting to the whole church family, rather than sending individual cards. If you would like to make a charitable donation with the money thus saved, please use the box provided and the proceeds will be forwarded to WaterAid. Many thanks to Sarah Jane for organising this. After morning service on Sunday 10th December Sarah Jane was presented with a Christmas hamper by the PCC as a mark of its appreciation for the considerable initiative, effort and perseverance she has shown over the last two and a half years raising funds through the sale of the Learners’ legacy teddy bears. Sarah Jane added her thanks to Doreen Springall and Amy Hogan for their help in manning sales stalls at various events. There are now just 33 bears left from the original 1,300 and the cumulative total of legacy bear sales now stands at £3,108.00, which is a remarkable achievement. This money is to be spent on modernising and improving the church lighting: an appropriate use of these funds since it was Mike Learner who installed the electrics during the post-fire restoration work of 1979-1982. Many thanks to those who contributed items for the Christmas hamper, and to Jean Cooksley who made the Christmas cake. Both are to be raffled after the Service of Carols and Readings. Sunday collections in November amounted to £1,231.00. The sales table organised by Chris Bardsley raised a record-breaking £285.00, largely as a result of her highly desirable and beautiful festive greeting cards.Barsham PCC acknowledges with deep gratitude a very generous donation of £1,000.00. Many thanks also to Beccles Lions for funding the cost of love box carriage, which amounted to £429.00.Thank you for the144 items donated to the Foodbank in November, as always fully appreciated by the Revd Pam Bayliss and her team. As the calendar year comes to an end and a new one begins, the PCC would like to thankeveryone who has contributed to the life of our church through the year: in worship, at special events, in the upkeep and beautification of the church and churchyard, and in the support of charitable causes. By the same token, we should also acknowledge the commitment shown by members of the PCC in the essential and varied tasks that keep the church functioning.Best wishes for Christmas and a happy New Year!FORWARD PLANNINGThe Service of Carols & Readings will be on Thursday 21st December at 6.30pm.Mulled wine, mince pies and sausage rolls will be served after the service. The Revd Canon Philip Banks, Canon Precentor at St Edmundsbury Cathedral, will be our visiting celebrant and preacher at morning service on Sunday 24th December. There will be a service of Sung Eucharist at 10.30am on Christmas Day (no refreshments after the service).There will be no Wednesday morning services of Matins throughout the cold months of January and February. SNIPPETS – Christmas 1909 and the Madonna SewingThe large painting of the Madonna Sewing in the side chapel (photo, front cover) is eye-catching and frequently attracts the attention of visitors. It was a gift to the church from Colonel William Churchman (later Colonel Sir William Churchman, 1st Baronet, JP, DL) on Christmas Day 1909. Colonel Churchman spent most of his life in the Ipswich area and was Mayor of Ipswich in 1899/1900, but he lived for a brief period in Barsham as tenant of Ashmans Hall. He was a partner with his brother in the family tobacco firm of W A & A C Churchman, with branches in Ipswich and Norwich. In 1896 in the early days of ‘white cigarettes’, the firm installed one of the first cigarette-making machines, which could produce 20,000 cigarettes an hour, and Churchman’s No.1 became one of the most famous brands of the day.The side chapel was built in 1908, replacing an earlier one that had been demolished in 1785, and the Madonna Sewing was one of several gifts made at the time to furnish and beautify the new chapel. Thought to be early 19th century, the painting gifted by Colonel Churchman is a copy of a 17th century fresco in the Chapel of the Annunciation at the Quirinale Palace in Rome. It is the same size as the original, which is one part of a series of frescos around the walls of the chapel, depicting episodes in the life of the Virgin Mary, starting with the Archangel Gabriel’s announcement to her father Joachim, finishing with the Virgin meeting God the Father in heaven and featuring an altar piece portraying the Annunciation. The Chapel was built on the orders of Pope Paul V, who employed Guido Reni, one of the great masters of the time, to paint the frescos in 1610. The Chapel was dedicated to the devotion of the Virgin Mary. It was Paul V’s private – and secret – chapel, hidden behind a mirrored door in the Tapestries Room of the Quirinale, but was nonetheless one of the great repositories of artistic treasures of the age. The painting portrays a largely domestic scene, though the arches at top right (now only dimly visible) hint at a temple and Mary’s faith, and the two angels helping her in her sewing task point to her connection with God. The meaning of the scene is clarified by the inscriptions on the scrolls, which are in Italian on the original fresco in Rome, but in Latin on the Barsham copy. The first scroll translates as, ‘He who calls her, called her from the beginning’ and refers to the divine plan of predestination for Mary as the Mother of Christ. The second scroll quotes part of a verse from Isaiah and refers to Mary’s Immaculate Conception: ‘The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son’. Originally a papal palace, the Quirinale later became the residence of the King of Italy, and since 1946 it has been the official residence of the President of the Italian Republic. These days it is open to the public and it is possible to visit the chapel.January DiarySunday 31st December – First Sunday after Christmas. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.Sunday 7th January – First Sunday of Epiphany. Baptism of Christ. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 14th January – Second Sunday of Epiphany. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 21st January – Third Sunday of Epiphany. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.Sunday 28th January – Candlemas. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.Sunday 4th February – Second Sunday before Lent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevdJonathan Olanczuk.No Service of Matins on Wednesday mornings in January and February. Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSA Christmas hamper will be raffled at the Service of Carols and Readings on 21stDecember. Donations of suitable foodstuffs and drinks for the hamper would be much appreciated. Please liaise with Diana if you would like to contribute. The church was beautifully decorated with poppies, real and knitted (photo, front cover), for Remembrance Sunday. At morning service Neville Smith read the names of the Barsham and Shipmeadow men lost in the First World War, and the names of the American airmen killed in the Second World War when their B-24 Liberator bombers crashed, one in Barsham and one in Shipmeadow. The Two-Minute Silence was observed at 11:00am, followed by the National Anthem. A congregation of 28 people attended the Service of Remembrance at Barsham Village Hall on Saturday 11th November. The service was led by the Revd Josh, whose introduction to Remembrance was followed by the reading of names by Zane Blanchard, Peter Holmes and Neville Smith. The Two-Minute silence was observed at 11:00am, with the Last Post and Reveille played by a trumpeter from the Sir John Leman High School. Wreaths were then laid at the village war memorial and refreshments were available in the village hall afterwards.The PCC met for routine business on Monday 13th November and on Wednesday 22ndNovember the PCC will be holding the annual ‘Clergy Lunch’ as a means of expressing the appreciation of our entire congregation for the greatly valued service of our volunteer clergy, John Fellows and Jonathan Olanczuk. Warm thanks to everyone who filled Love Boxes. With the Beccles Red Hat Ladies, we donated 134 boxes: a record number. Special thanks to Chris and Carolyn, for their hard work in organising and running this project so successfully this year. Including the items presented at Harvest Festival, we donated a fine total of 284 items to the Foodbank in October. In her letter ahead of Christmas, the Revd Pam Bayliss of the Beccles Foodbank writes: ‘As always please would you thank your church for the donations which you so faithfully send in each week’. She goes on to explain the Foodbank Christmas plan: ‘This year we aim to fill socks! The idea is to take a pair of new socks, roll one sock up and put it in the toe of the other. Then fill the sock with small items, eg sweets, packets of tissues, small sachets of shampoo, shower gel, toothpaste and brushes, pens, chocolate money, small toys etc. Whatever your imagination takes you! The completed socks need to be labelled ‘man’, ‘lady’, ‘girl’ or ‘boy’. We will of course also be collecting sweets, mince pies, chocolates, selection boxes, puddings etc.’The monthly sales table raised a useful £50.00. Barsham PCC acknowledges with gratitude donations of £200.00 in memory of the late Peter Wittey. Many thanks to Doreen Springall whose Farm Gate Produce Stall this year raised a magnificent £391.00 for church funds.FORWARD PLANNINGThe Service of Carols & Readings will be on Thursday 21st December at 6.30pm.Mulled wine, mince pies and sausage rolls will be served after the service. There will be a service of Sung Eucharist at 10.30am on Christmas Day (no refreshments after the service).A Message from the Revd Josh Bailey for Advent“But of that day and that hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father. Take ye heed, watch and pray: for ye know not when the time is.” (Mark 13:32-33)Hopefully, even if Advent Calendars have been purchased, they have yet to be opened. This last expression of the cultural salience of Advent does manage to retain a little, if not much, of the traditional purpose of the season. Advent means ‘coming’, appearing; the Greek word is παρουσια (parousia). It is a coming that changes everything; long anticipated; immediately transformative.Jesus says something so surprising in the above passage that it seems some manuscripts assumed it was a typo and removed the offending word. Contrary to our assumption that Jesus’ divinity equates to omniscience, Jesus calmly tells His disciples that He does not know the date of His return.This gives still more force to His ensuing command. The certainty of His arrival combined with the unknowability of its day or hour creates an indefinite need for attentiveness. He is happy to entrust the specifics to His Father, but promises to continually be praying for and empowering us until that day dawns.The reason for this combination of trust and attentiveness is entirely contained within the event itself. Only two hundred to three hundred years ago, Christians had a radically different view of history. It still appears occasionally in modern accounts. On this understanding, events in the past only become understandable on the basis of what future realities they contribute towards. An otherwise random political assassination in Sarajevo on this reading becomes what we all now understand it to be: the spark which ignited the First World War. Viewing past events as in some sense determined by their consequences is frequently rejected as bad history: ‘Whiggish’ history. People in the past did not know about the consequences of their actions 50 years hence. One thoroughly modern analysis of history is that it is the catalogue of unintended consequences.But with Advent, Jesus weans us away from this human-centred, ultimately meaningless view of history. He tells us to keep watch for the ultimate future which will turn even the smallest details of our daily experience as His Church into deeply poignant steps towards the redemption of the cosmos. We cannot hope to truly discern pattern in the apparent chaos of personal and world events until the day and hour known to no-one but the Jesus’ Father.Advent is an opportunity to gaze forwards and backwards with the eyes of faith. We trust that all the events of our life and the history of the world will be clothed with glory through Jesus’ glorious appearing. We also trust that the uncertainty of date has no effect whatsoever on the certainty of the event itself.One way we will be attempting to express this as a Benefice is to approach Advent as a fasting time. Everyone is free to understand this how they wish, though one pattern that may be helpful for some is having one day in the week where we don’t eat until 3pm and avoiding meat and dairy on Wednesdays and Fridays. The reason to do this is that every time we are reminded that we would like whatever food it is, we use this as a prompt to thankfulness and prayer.DECEMBER DIARYSunday 3rd December – First Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). RevdJonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 10th December – Second Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 17th December – Third Sunday of Advent. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey.Thursday 21st December – Service of Carols and Readings at 6.30pm. Revd Josh Bailey.Sunday 24th December – Fourth Sunday of Advent, Christmas Eve. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Christmas Day, Monday 25th December – Sung Eucharist at 10.30am. Revd Josh Bailey.Sunday 31st December – First Sunday after Christmas. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham (except 27th December).Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
NEWSOn consecutive Sundays in September, we were pleased to welcome visiting preachers Archdeacon Sally Gaze and Archdeacon Rich Henderson. On the latter occasion, 24th September, a congregation of 53 included a Salvation Army group from Chelmsford, some of whom returned in the evening for the Barsham Equinox Event. For our Equinox Event, 58 people came over three days in the hope of seeing the rood lit by the sinking Equinox sun. 29 attended on the day of the Equinox itself. Results were mixed. Cloud obscured the sun on the evening before the Equinox, but on the day of the Equinox (23rd September) a magnificent display saw the figure of Christ gloriously illuminated. The following day, after a promising start, the sun sank into cloud at the critical moment. Many thanks to Colin for introducing the event on the first two days.We were delighted that the Right Revd Norman Banks, Bishop of Richborough returned to be our visiting preacher at Choral Evensong for Harvest Festival on Sunday 8thOctober (photo, front cover). An augmented choir led the music and the inclusion of an anthem in this fine service was a treat for all 49 in attendance. The flower arrangers had beautified the church most impressively, Colin and Margaret’s squashes were everywhere lending colour and extraordinary form, and a display of tinned produce blessed at the morning service and destined for the Beccles Food Bank decorated the front of the nave.50 guests, including Bishop Norman, sat down for a magnificent harvest supper in the village hall after choral Evensong. Excellent company and fabulous fare were complemented by the beautifully decorated tables, the whole making for a joyful and festive atmosphere. Heartfelt thanks to the team who worked so tirelessly to prepare and serve the food and drinks, decorate the tables – and clear up afterwards: all involving many hours of hard work over several days. This was quite possibly the most successful Barsham harvest supper yet and raised a record sum of £735.00 for Church funds. Thank you to everyone who has been filling Love Boxes for the Mustard Seed Relief Mission Christmas campaign. Please return all boxes before Sunday 22nd October, when the boxes will be blessed at the beginning of the Sunday service. The Beccles Lions have kindly agreed to cover the cost of carriage and representatives of the Lions will be present for the blessing. A special service of Choral Evensong in celebration and thanksgiving for the work of the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust on its 50th anniversary was held at St Edmundsbury Cathedral on Sunday 17th September. At the invitation of H.M. Lord Lieutenant of Suffolk, the Countess of Euston, who is also the Patron of the SHCT, Cheryl attended as Area Organiser for Beccles, and Malcolm and Chris Bardsley attended to represent Holy Trinity Barsham. After the Lord Lieutenant, High Sheriff and Resident Judge had taken their seats, the service opened with a magnificent procession, which included: the Ride and Stride Organisers, Vice Presidents of the SHCT, representatives of the Church Architects who advise PCCs on the repair and maintenance of churches, representatives of the Church Historians who research and bring to life the history of our legacy of churches, the Trustees and Officers of the SHCT. These were followed by singers from a local primary school and then the Cathedral Choir, and after them the clergy – Ecumenical and Clergy representatives, the Archdeacons, the Cathedral Chapter, the Dean, the Roman Catholic Bishop of East Anglia, and the Bishop of St Edmundsbury and Ipswich. Symbolically, a bicycle leaned against the High Altar.The PCC thanks Fr Desmond Banister for his generous gift to Holy Trinity Barsham of two chasuble sets, one green and one white. Barsham PCC acknowledges with deep gratitude very generous donations of £1,000.00 and £200.00 which will greatly aid the Church finances for the current year. The sales table organised by Jenny raised a creditable £90.00.Our donations to the Foodbank in September amounted to 188 items.FORWARD PLANNINGAll Saints Day will be marked with a celebration of Holy Communion at 10am on Wednesday 1st November at Holy Trinity, Bungay. All welcome.The Service of Remembrance at Barsham Village Hall will take place on Saturday 11th November. The service will start at 10.45am and the Last Post, two-minute silence and Reveille will be observed at 11.00am. Wreaths will be laid at the village war memorial and the names of Barsham’s First World War dead will be called, as will the names of the American airmen killed when their aircraft crashed opposite the village hall in April 1944. Refreshments will be served afterwards in return for a donation. Everyone is welcome.The Commemoration of St Martin will be marked by the celebration of Holy Communion with the Community of All Hallows at 9am on Saturday 11th November at 23 Trinity Street, Bungay. All welcome. SNIPPETS – 50 Years of the Suffolk Historic Churches TrustBy the mid-20th century, the great era of Victorian church restoration was long gone and many Suffolk churches had fallen into disrepair and even ruin. Responding to this crisis in the late 1960s, Canon Fitch of Brandon wrote a manifesto detailing the dilapidation of Suffolk churches and the remedies needed. Simultaneously, Hugh Fitzroy, 11th Duke of Grafton and Patron of the Suffolk Preservation Society, was working towards establishing a body that could support the restoration and upkeep of Suffolk’s 600 churches and chapels. Out of these initiatives sprang the Suffolk Historic Churches Trust in December 1973. Initially, the Trust relied upon the generosity of benefactors and funding from County and District Councils, but the idea of the Bike Ride (later renamed Ride & Stride) was born in 1982 and this very quickly became the principal source of funding. These days Ride & Stride raises approximately £20,000 a year, half of which is returned to the churches nominated by the Ride & Stride participants, and the other half goes to SHTC, where it is added to the legacies and membership fees that make up the funds from which grants are made. (Adapted from a historical note in the order of service for the 50th Anniversary Choral Evensong)November DiarySunday 5th November – All Saints. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Jonathan Olanczuk.Sunday 12th November – Third Sunday before Advent. Remembrance Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Canon John Fellows.Sunday 19th November – Second Sunday before Advent. Safeguarding Sunday. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey. Sunday 26th November – Christ the King. 11am Sung Eucharist (BCP). Revd Josh Bailey. Wednesdays at 8.45am – Matins at Barsham.Church correspondent: Robert Bacon 07867 306016, robert.bacon@yahoo.co.uk
