The Clarion, April 2011 - St Mary The Boltons

THE CLARION
Looking forward to Easter
As I write, the season of Lent is well underway
and as we journey through Lent, so we look
forward to Easter and prepare ourselves for
the great celebration. Ten days ago we marked
Shrove Tuesday with a parish pancake party at
the vicarage and on the following day, Ash
Wednesday, Lent began with a Sung Eucharist
and the Imposition of Ashes. It was
disappointing that more people attended the
pancake party than the service. While it was
good to have the vicarage full with people
enjoying themselves and eating pancakes, it was
sad and somewhat dispiriting to have the
church so empty the following evening.
Beginnings are always important; they set down
a marker and set the tone for the time that
follows. On Ash Wednesday the tone is
solemn; as we receive the sign of the cross on
our foreheads with ash, we are reminded of
our frailty and our mortality, that we are but
dust and to dust we shall return. We are
reminded too of our spiritual shortcomings; we
are urged to ‘turn away from sin and be faithful
unto Christ.’
Lent is usually thought of as a joyless time,
when we have to give up things we enjoy so
that we might show contrition for the
shortcomings and failures of our lives, the sins
we have committed, our faithlessness and our
failure to love God as God loves us. While
contrition is important and we are called to
genuine repentance and to change our ways so
that they conform to the ways of Christ, we
should not become too immersed in ourselves.
As Bernard of Clairvaux, the 12 th century
Cistercian monk, wrote, ‘Sorrow for sin is
indeed necessary, but it should not involve
endless self-preoccupation. You should dwell
also on the glad remembrance of the loving
kindness of God.’
It is this balance between ‘sorrow for sin’ and
‘dwelling on the glad remembrance of the loving
The Magazine of The Parish of St Mary The Boltons
APRIL 2011
kindness of God’ that is the hallmark of our
Lent journey. It is this balance that enables us
to look forward to Easter with confidence and
joy as we prepare once more to celebrate the
mystery of God’s extraordinary love not only
for each one of us, but for the whole creation.
It is through this extraordinary love, poured
out in the pain and agony on the cross, that
new life has been opened up for us. When
Easter Day comes, may we be ready to rejoice
and embrace that new life once more.
Ginny Thomas
Annual Parochial Church Meeting
This year our APCM will be held on Sunday 10
April at 12 noon, following our Sung Eucharist
service. Light refreshments will be served.
Please join us for this important meeting when
we look back on the past year and look ahead
to the coming year, as well as vote for new
members of the PCC.
St Mary The Boltons Summer Fair
Saturday, 18 June 2011,
2.0 - 5.0pm
Please tell all your families, neighbours and
friends!
With summer hopefully on its way, there is
much to look forward to at St Marys, one of
the highlights of course being our annual
Summer Fair. The organising committee of
Katrina Quinton and Joanna Hackett would
very much appreciate offers of help from ‘old
hands’ as well as anyone new who would like to
be involved in the Fair, in order to make 2011
as successful as all previous fairs.
Along with all your favourite stalls and
activities, this year the Fair will feature a
magician, build-your-own bird boxes, children’s
tombola and running races and a not to be
missed surprise Basket/Hamper event. Watch
this space!
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As always, areas where members of the church
are needed include the manning of stalls, the
donation of goods (see below) and volunteers
on the day for setting up and taking down.
Are you able to donate any of the following to
make the fair a continued success?
• Bric-à-brac
• Second hand books
• Bottles for the tombola
• Raffle prizes
• Homemade cakes and jams
• Children’s toys
• Volunteering on the day
If you are able to help in any way with the Fair,
Katrina and Joanna would be delighted to hear
from you. As always, the profits from the Fair
go to St Mary’s chosen charities of the year.
More information will be put in next month’s
Clarion. Thank you.
Katrina Quinton
07753 986 523, katrina.quinton@virgin.net
Joanna Hackett
07720 850 482, jhackett@geraldeve.com
St Mary the Boltons
Quiz Night!!
In Aid of Christian Aid
Saturday 21May 2011
7.0pm in the Church Hall
£12.50 per ticket
to include buffet supper
Tickets available from
Joanna Hackett and the Parish Office
Community Engagement Lunch
On Thursday 17 March 32 people sat down for
an un-Thursday lunch. By this I mean it was like
our regular Thursday lunch, but with a different
audience and a different purpose. It was the
third step in our outworking of our Community
Audit, the process the Diocese of London
invites its churches to carry out to understand
better the parish that is entrusted to them.
Step one was the conversations and
questionnaire filled in by our congregation on
Sunday 14 June 2009, which saw the nearest to
a riot, I suspect, St Mary The Boltons will ever
get in response to a sermon. During the
sermon slot people teamed up with someone
of another generation they did not know and
began to explore some questions about the
Church in a questionnaire, which was to be
completed by the end of the service. What was
so encouraging was that all those conversations
were lively and so enjoyable that people simply
did not want to stop talking to one another.
The responses were reflected on and analysed
by a small group over the summer and
presented to the PCC in the autumn.
Step two was an audit of our parish
community in 2010. This involved taking a
similar questionnaire to the streets and asking
local people about the area. The results of
these questionnaires were then analysed
together with in-depth conversations with
people who had particular expertise and insight,
the 2001 Census data and three Reports from
the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.
The Community Audit Report was completed
in September 2010, was presented to the PCC,
and copies were made available to the
congregation generally at the back of Church.
It was reflected on extensively at the 2011 PCC
Away Day, and the PCC decided to take two
further steps to reach out in our community:
• To develop pastoral contact and
support for isolated people: a
befriending scheme.
• To host a monthly Thursday Tea for
people in the community.
Step three was our Community Engagement
Lunch. This was our opportunity to present
our findings to people and organisations active
in the local community. The presentation was
about the parish, but also about what we, as a
Church, are doing to make a difference to
people locally. It was a chance to tell ‘our story’
to people who might now know much about
the Church.
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We were delighted to have all three
Councillors from Redcliffe Ward, and one each
from Courtfield and Earl’s Court, as the parish
includes parts of all three wards. In addition we
had representation from our local schools,
Bousfield and St Cuthbert and St Matthias,
MetroBank (who had helped with our street
questionnaires), Age Concern, local Advice
agencies, the Earl’s Court Community Trust,
our new Metropolitan Police Safer
Neighbourhood Team Sergeant , and the
Servite Church.
Margarete Geier served a simple and delicious
lunch of rice and vegetables, and I made my
presentation about half-way through the meal.
I was a little unnerved, and not a little delighted,
by the attention with which people were
listening to the presentation. I had to remind
people to continue eating. There was a short
time for questions afterwards, and what came
out strongly was that people from very
different ‘sectors’ of work in the local
community had been very interested in what
we had discerned about our parish and in our
plans for the future. It was also for them a rare
opportunity to step aside from agenda driven
meetings, to meet one another, talk and eat
together.
The next step is to recruit volunteers for our
befriending scheme and our community tea.
We are in conversations with Age Concern
Kensington and Chelsea and hope to work in
partnership on both projects. Watch this
space! In the meantime, copies of the Report
are available from the back of Church or from
me.
Revd Ruth Lampard
wider public and encourage people to add a
bottle with the Fairtrade symbol to their
shopping trolley when they visit the local
supermarket. About 20 people enjoyed the
wines and ‘tapas’ and gave their feedback on
their favourites. The top white was the
Sauvignon Blanc and the top red, and overall
best buy, was the Pinotage. We continued to
appreciate the wines as they were served at the
Parish lunch that followed, and again at the
Vicarage Pancake Party.
We all know and enjoy Fairtrade bananas,
chocolate and coffee, but now Fairtrade Wine
is becoming more mainstream and standards
are rising, so that there is already a very broad
selection in many supermarkets, especially the
Co-op, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s. St. Mary’s
had selected four very different wines from
South Africa to showcase the variety and styles
readily available. There are lots of other
varieties and countries represented in the
Fairtrade Foundation list, currently 270
different wines. (browse Fairtrade
Products/Wine) In addition to paying a fair
price to the farmers and producers, some
organisations plough back profits into
community projects. Check out the stories in
the Co-op/food ethics/wine. All wines below
are stocked by Sainsbury’s on Cromwell Road.
Tasting Notes:
SA Sauvignon Blanc, Western Cape; Crisp dry
white; 13% alcohol.
Elegant, crisp, vibrant with lingering tropical
flavours and passion fruit aromas.
Typical light easy drinking aperitif style or good
with fish and starters. Good body for this
grape. *** £5.99
Chenin Blanc 2010; Wild Valley, Wellington,
Medium dry white; 13.5% alcohol
Report of Fairtrade
Wine tasting
6 March 2011
As a kick-off to Fairtrade fortnight Ruth, Mary
Gabrielle Blanchet and Anne Mulcare arranged
to raise the profile of Fairtrade wines by
holding a tasting of two reds and two whites
after the morning Service. The goal was to
introduce the up and coming vineyards to a
Bursting with juicy tropical aromas, lively citrus
notes, vibrant, fresh, zesty acidity.
Immediate impact, full yellow colour, typical
forward taste from a grape that is well suited to
the climate but not integrated and perhaps a
little young. ** £5.25
Cabernet Sauvignon 2009; Bosman Family;
Wellington. Medium bodied red; 14% alcohol.
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Rich and full bodied with soft balanced tannins,
intense notes of ripe blackberries and plums.
Easy drinking, upfront, little aftertaste, typical
lighter Bordeaux style.
*** around £6.00
Pinotage Citrusdal Wines, Western Cape; Full
bodied red; 14% alcohol.
Rich and generous wine bursting with plum and
cherry aromas, hints of violet and well
integrated spicy oak. Uniquely South African
grape variety, can sometimes have a faded
aftertaste but this is velvety and big on the
palate. **** £5.99
Other wines tasted included Argentinian
Torrontes Chardonnay, Chilean Los Unidos
Carmenere Franc, and best reviewed was the
Tilimuqui Organic Torrontes 2009 from La
Rioja, Argentina (Waitrose £6.64)
Pease consider supporting the people who
benefit from Fairtrade conditions by trying to
locate any of these or other marked wines, and
by doing so we will continue to raise the living
standards for many poorer agricultural
workers, and get considerable pleasure as we
drink them!
Patrick Thomas
Earl’s Court Festival 2011
Your Festival needs you!
Dear All,
I am delighted that St Mary The Boltons has
supported the Earl’s Court Festival, through
your participation, the events you have hosted,
and your giving. I am writing in my capacity as
the Recruiting Sergeant for the 2011 Earl’s
Court Festival, provided by the Earl’s Court
Community Trust. Midsummer may presently
feel a long time away but in point of fact it is
only just over sixteen weeks till this year’s
Festival formally begins with the annual Street
Fair on Sunday 19 June.
2011 Festival Programme Planning
This year’s Programme is planned for an
intensive three weeks from 19 June until 10
July, including all the other Festival staples such
as the Strawberry Cream Tea Garden Party,
the open air Jazz Night and the Film in the
Square, as well as repeating some of last year’s
particular successes such as The Great Garden
Adventure for children and The Heartthrob
Breakfast for the young-at-heart. Most
excitingly, there is planned to be a highly
innovative Fashion Show in which competing
students will show designs made entirely out of
recycled fashion magazines. Many other ideas
are currently in development, particularly with
the Literary Team (inventor of the unique Earl’s
Court Festival ’Three Course Meal’), and the
way to ensure you have your say in these plans
is to come to the regular meetings of the
Festival Community Advisory Group. These are
held fortnightly on Mondays, alternately at
Philbeach Hall and the Festival Office at 1a
Nevern Place. For more information, please
contact Revd Ruth Lampard.
Sponsors and Supporters
Last week saw the launch of a new campaign
‘Support the Earl’s Court Festival,’ aimed
primarily at securing corporate sponsors from
among local businesses, tiered in Bronze, Silver,
Gold and Platinum categories (full details of
which are available from the Festival Office).
There is also a ‘Supporters’ category for
individual residents and others who may wish
to commit to a small subscription of £20.00
(£35.00 for two), in return for which
subscribers receive advance Festival
information, priority booking and £1.50 off
ticket prices for up to two tickets per Festival
event (or up to four, if dual supporters). This
scheme could be extremely helpful to the Trust
in meeting costs. For example, if 75% of the
Society’s members would commit to giving this
support, the Trust would be able to upgrade
the Office IT capabilities in good time for an
advance booking period or pay a significant
amounts towards the cost of hiring and
projecting the feature film.
Review of 2010
An electronic copy of the 2010 Festival Report
is available, (from Revd Ruth Lampard) which
highlights the huge range of events and gives
important feedback from volunteers and
participants, as well as giving personal
acknowledgement to all those who helped to
make it happen. Please also look at the Festival
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website www.earlscourtfestival.co.uk where
you can access several galleries illustrating 2010
events. I hope that this will give you sufficient
reason for supporting the Festival this year and
– even better – acting in whatever voluntary
capacity suits you best to help us to repeat and
build on our previous success.
Publicity Please!
Please pass on this information to everyone in
your residents’ associations and to your
families, friends and neighbours. The Earl’s
Court Community Trust wants to engage with
as many Earl’s Court residents as possible and
to produce a Festival that truly offers
something for every interest.
Nick Woollven
Vice-Chairman, Earl’s Court Society
Chairman, Earl’s Court Community Trust
Thursday Lunch
On Thursday 14 April we have a Eucharist
at 11.45am followed by the popular Thursday
Lunch at 12.30pm. Our speaker this month is
Verena Tschudin and the title of the talk is
‘Nurses’ Human Rights Work.’
Upcoming Dates for your Diary
April
Sunday 3, Mothering Sunday, All Age Worship
Sunday 10, Annual Parochial Church Meeting
at 12 noon
Holy Week begins
Sunday 17, Palm Sunday
Monday 18, 7.00pm Eucharist
Tuesday 19, 12 noon Eucharist
Wednesday 20, 7.00pm Eucharist
Thursday 21, Maundy Thursday
Blessing of oils at St Paul’s Cathedral, 10.30am
7.30pm Sung Eucharist followed by Vigil
Friday 22, Good Friday
10.30am Children’s Service
12.00 to 3.00pm, Three Hours service
Saturday 23, Easter Eve
8.0pm Vigil Service
Sunday 24, Easter Day
8.00am Said Eucharist
10.30am Sung Parish Eucharist
Saturday 18 June
2.00pm Summer Fair
Thursday Lunch Meeting Report:
10 March: ‘Sundays and Weekdays’
with Sir Jeremy Morse
Our guest speaker at the 10 March lunch was
Sir Jeremy Morse, formerly Chairman of the
Committee of 20 of the International Monetary
Fund and of Lloyds Bank. Among a wide range
of distinctions in the banking world and in many
other fields, Sir Jeremy had, for instance, been a
Director of ICI and Zeneca, Governor of
Henley Management College, a FIDE
International judge for chess compositions, and
President of the British Chess Problem Society.
More than 30 people much enjoyed Jeremy’s
remarks. He recalled his family’s long
connection with The Boltons, past members
having lived at Nos 6 and 13, but attended St
Peter’s, Cranley Gardens, which was then a
very active church. His own involvement with
St Mary’s dated back to the 1930s, and he and
Belinda have had a home in Drayton Gardens
since 1955.
He mentioned becoming a church warden at
the same time as Sheila Gibbs’ late husband,
Tom, although as he put it, being very much a
junior partner. Attendance in those days at the
main Sunday morning service was much as it is
today, and there was an Evensong service to
which 20 – 30 people came.
Jeremy reflected on the challenge of matching
one’s behaviour on Sundays with behaviour on
the other six days of the week. How should
banking ethics and morals be brought to bear
on everyday decisions? He advocated the
approach that he took, to try to be fair to the
differing claims on the business of the various
stakeholders, such as depositors, shareholders,
customers, and employees. He favoured
positive discrimination for the weakest in any
situation. A golden rule was that before taking
any major decision bank staff should think three
times whether they would have acted in the
same way personally, and not hide behind any
supposed imperative always to maximise the
bank’s profits. One example would be whether
to gazump when the bank was selling a
property. He urged caution about
triumphalism, and urged his staff always to be
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eady to apologise and explain. The right spirit
was vital. The reference to motes and beams in
St Matthew’s gospel was very relevant, when
fault-finders’ shortcomings are worse than
those of the people they are criticising.
Commenting on the Christian background of
the formation of many banks, Jeremy said that
in earlier days it was the norm to seek to fit
professional judgements to a clear view of
relevant ethics, whereas today ethics seems to
be tailored to fit professional business needs.
He referred to Procrustes’ bed, the Greek
legend that the robber of that name placed his
captives on a bed and cut off the body parts
that overhung it or if too short, stretched the
victim to fit the bed, implying ‘do not try to
reduce people to one standard or way of
thinking or acting.’ He lamented today’s
apparent lack of ideals in so much organisation
work, urging the need to try to find ways to
inject idealism and Christian beliefs into society,
difficult though that is.
On a lighter note during ‘Question Time’
Jeremy was asked about his link with Inspector
Morse of literary and TV fame. He confirmed
that the author, Colin Dexter, was a member
with him of a small group of crossword and
problem solvers, and that Dexter had taken
names from the group for his characters.
‘Lewis’ was one such person, although actually a
woman! Similarly Jeremy emphasised that
Morse’s character bore little relation to his, but
much more to Dexter’s!
(Note: in the books ‘Lewis’ was a Welshman,
although in the TV series he sounds more like a
Newcastle man, which the actor playing him
actually is!)
John Barker, Arthur Tait.
Sustainability Group Top Tip for
April
The days are getting lighter and brighter and a
spring clean is traditional about now. One of
the regular jobs was to clean the windows
inside and out, for good reason. Clean windows
let in more daylight and also allow the sun to
warm up cold rooms. Both reasons hold good
today for energy saving, as well as the spring
‘bounce’ to the spirits that warmth and light
bring.
Katrina Quinton and Brian Hallock both use
and highly recommend the traditional means of
cleaning windows. Get a bucket of water, add a
good glug of malt vinegar, dampen a scrunched
up sheet of newspaper to clean the windows
and wipe off with dry scrunched up newspaper,
saying ‘it soaks up the moisture and leaves no
smudge!’
Ruth Lampard
Nonsuch Singers concert
St Giles, Cripplegate, Fore Street
Saturday 9 April 2011 at 7.30pm
Nick Scott tenor
Richard Pearce organ
Graham Caldbeck conductor
An English Passiontide
Thomas Tallis – Suscipe quaeso
William Byrd – Emendemus in melius &
Miserere mihi, Domine
Samuel Sebastian Wesley – Cast me
not away from thy presence
& Wash me thoroughly
Kenneth Leighton – Crucifixus pro nobis
Herbert Howells – Requiem
Gerald Finzi – Lo, the full, final sacrifice
Tickets £15 (£12 concessions) available at
www.nonsuchsingers.com/concerts.html or
at the door.
Nearest Underground stations: Moorgate &
Barbican
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Lent Poems
On the notice board in Church we have a
selection of Easter Poems and a commentary
on the poem and poet. Below is one of the
Poems on display.
Please do try to have a look next time you are
in church.
Easter Hymn
Death and darkness, get you packing:
Nothing now to man is lacking.
All your triumphs now are ended,
And what Adam marred is mended.
Graves are beds now for the weary;
Death a nap, to wake more merry;
Youth now, full of pious duty,
Seeks in thee for perfect beauty;
The weak and aged, tired with length
Of days, from thee look for new strength;
And infants with thy pangs contest,
As pleasant as if with the breast.
Then unto him who thus hath thrown
Even to contempt thy kingdom down,
And by his blood did us advance
Unto his own inheritance -
To him be glory, power, praise,
From this unto the last of days!
Henry Vaughan
Henry Vaughan 1621- 1695
A Welshman, Vaughan went to Oxford, sided
with the King in the Civil War, and spent most
of his life as a country physician. He was deeply
influenced by Herbert and is considered one of
the finest of the metaphysical poets, (so called
because their poetry moves far beyond the
merely physical). His well-known poem ‘The
Retreat’ envisages the child coming directly
from God and gradually moving away as he
grows up, and his poem ‘The World’ opens
with the startling line ‘I saw Eternity the other
night.’
Contributions for the May Clarion should
be sent in to the church office by 15 April
2011
Years Mind
Linda Beauchamp
Roy Denman
Vera Sloane
Alan Payne
Geoffrey Payne
Arthur Fell
David Lewis
Clas Groth
Edward Mason
William Rogers
John Warwick
Karl-Hans Osbahr
Margaret Stubbs
Molly Kemm
John McLean
Gillian Brown
Jytte Lynner
Diana McLean
Claudine Allport
Michael Bryceson
Richard Barton
Jytte Mackenzie-Charrington
James Bolton-Dignum
Yvonne Madley
Sidney Perry
DIRECTORY
Parish Postal Address, Telephone, Fax & Website
St. Mary's Church House, The Boltons, London
SW10 9TB Tel 020 7835 1440 Fax 020 7370 6562
www.stmarytheboltons.org.uk
Office open 9.15am – 2.15pm Monday to Friday
Churchwardens; Mark Nichols 020 7370 0752
Leo Fraser-Mackenzie 020 7384 3246.
Director of Music Graham Caldbeck 07774 655028
Verger / Caretaker David Ireton
020 7244 8998 / 07881 865386 Day off Wednesday
Co-ordinators:
Monday Bible Study Group Pat Schleger 020 7589
2359
Wednesday Bible Study Group Margarete Geier
0207 373 1639 Clarion Editor Verena Tschudin 020
7351 1263, tschudin@fastnet.co.uk,
Flowers Boo Simpson 020 8878 9898
Mother & Toddlers parish office
Prayer Network Verena Tschudin 020 7351 1263
Readers & Intercessors Rota call parish office
Reading at St Cuthbert's and St Matthias School
Sheila Gibbs 0208 788 9744,
Thursday monthly lunch
June Brudenell 020 7352 7815 & Ann Tait 020 7352 5127
Social Secretary Margarete Geier,
Sunday School Jane Dass 0207 370 5309, A
Assistant Treasurer Bill Gallagher 020 7384 3246.
Treasurer Carolyn Stubbs 020 7835 0074
Gift Aid Secretary John Barker 020 8571 0737
Children’s Advocate Verena Tschudin 020 7351 1263
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