parish newshtboa.org/pnarchive/2008 parish news aug-sept 2020.pdf · 1 parish news benefice of...
TRANSCRIPT
1
Parish News
www.htboa.org
Benefice of Bradford on Avon Holy Trinity, Westwood and Wingfield
August/September 2020
In this issue… Details on reopening our churches Welcome to Sarah Jackson Daggers in the keyboard … and all the news from around the Benefice!
2
DIRECTORY FOR HOLY TRINITY
Rector The Revd Canon Joanna Abecassis, 18A Woolley St, BoA BA15 1AF [email protected] Tel: 864444 Associate Priest The Revd Dr Ali Green, 36 Budbury Close, BoA BA15 1QG [email protected] Tel: 0785 547 0069 Licensed Lay Minister Graham Dove, 32 The Old Batch, BoA, BA15 1TL [email protected] Tel: 0798 9930950
Churchwarden David Milne, 37 Palairet Close, BA15 1UT Tel: 864341 Churchwardens’ Tony Bruun, [email protected] Tel: 790291, Team Vernon Burchell, [email protected] Tel: 862782 June Harrison, [email protected] Tel: 863745
Benefice Administrator Sally Palmer-Walton [email protected] (on furlough)
Admin Assistant Aylene Clack [email protected] Retired Clergy Canon David Driscoll, The Revd Alun Glyn-Jones, Canon Peter Hardman, The Revd Jim Hill, The Ven Ian Stanes, The Revd Karl Wiggins. Director of Music Martin Cooke [email protected] Tel 01985 248866 Times of Services ALL THOSE IN GREY CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE Holy Trinity (Check Bulletins and notices or Church website) Sundays 8am Eucharist (Traditional language) 9.30am Eucharist (coffee afterwards) 2nd Sundays 9.30am ‘In the Round’ (coffee afterwards) 6pm Compline, Eucharist for Healing & Wholeness or Evensong Weekday Eucharist 10am Wednesdays 12 noon Fridays (Traditional language) with lunch out afterwards Daily Morning and Evening Prayer at 8.30am and 5.30pm (except Sunday and Tuesday) Times of Meetings CANCELLED UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE mainly music 10.30am, Tuesdays Choir Practice 6.15pm, Thursdays Mothers’ Union 2.30pm, usually 3rd Wednesday of every month Saxon Club 2.30pm –4pm every Tuesday except August Bell Practice 7.30–9pm 2nd and 4th Mondays Benefice website www.htboa.org Weekly Bulletin Notices to Joanna not later than Wednesday for the following Sunday please.
Please see the bulletin or visit www.htboa.org for more details on service times and locations.
3
4
HOLY TRINITY, WESTWOOD & WINGFIELD
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020
‘For one day in your courts is better than a thousand’.
Psalm 84. 9
WELCOME BACK TO HOLY TRINITY!
9.30am every Sunday – Parish Eucharist with organ music (this will
be the only service in the week) This will be a slightly shorter service with two metre social distancing, and
some seats for couples. Whereas everyone is of course always welcome, the
capacity is reduced by about three-quarters and so, to be sure, it is advisable to book with Joanna.
Please bring a face-covering and wear it once inside the Church (unless
you are exempt). The doors will open at 9am, but please try and stagger your arrival times and maintain social distancing on the path, and please
use BOTH South (glass) doors and West (back) doors to ease the flow.
You will be greeted at each entrance, your hands sanitised, name checked if booked (and we plan to assist the ‘NHS Test & Trace’), and
shown to your seat. Service Sheets & Bulletins will be on the allocated
seats, and please remain quietly in your seat once you are there. Worship will be shorter (less than an hour) with no hymns, but Martin
will play the organ for us. There will be no sharing of the Peace, and no
collection taken, but there will be a plate at both doors. We shall follow to the letter the government and Church of England guidelines re Holy
Communion: so ‘one kind’ (wafers) only, no words spoken over uncovered
elements and we shall receive in a single line. Please remain in your seats until the organ voluntary is finished, and then leave row by row in turn
quietly starting from the back.
WELCOME BACK TO ST MARY THE VIRGIN, WESTWOOD!
11.15am every Sunday – Holy Communion with organ music
This will be a slightly shorter service with two metre social distancing, and some seats for couples and families. The church will also be open to
visitors on a Wednesday morning from 10am - 12 noon.
Please bring a face-covering and wear it once inside the Church (unless you are exempt). The doors will open at 10.45am, but please try and
5
HOLY TRINITY, WESTWOOD & WINGFIELD
AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2020
stagger your arrival times and maintain social distancing on the path and as you enter. You will be greeted warmly, your hands sanitised, name
noted (we plan to assist the ‘NHS Test & Trace’), and then please sit in a
pew marked with a green √. Service Sheets & Bulletins will be on the seats, and please remain quietly in your seat once you are there. The
Parish Room toilet will be available.
Worship will be shorter (less than an hour) with no hymns, but there will be organ music. There will be no sharing of the Peace, and no collection
taken, but there will be a plate at the door. We shall follow to the letter
the government and Church of England guidelines re Holy Communion: so ‘one kind’ (wafers) only, no words spoken over uncovered elements, and
please remain seated to receive the sacrament where you are. After the
service: please remain in your seats until the organ voluntary is finished, and then leave row by row in turn quietly starting from the back.
WELCOME BACK TO ST MARY, WINGFIELD! 9.30am every Sunday from 6 September – Holy Communion; with
Morning Prayer on 20 September
This will be a slightly shorter service than usual with two metre social distancing, and some seats for couples and families. And we shall be able to
celebrate and thank God for our beautifully restored organ!
Please bring a face-covering and wear it once inside the Church (unless you are exempt). The doors will open at 9am, and please maintain social
distancing on the path and as you enter. You will be greeted warmly, your
hands sanitised, name noted (we plan to assist the ‘NHS Test & Trace’), and then please sit in a pew with a Service Sheets & Bulletin already on it,
and remain quietly in your seat.
Worship will be shorter (less than an hour) with no hymns, but there will be organ music. There will be no sharing of the Peace, and no collection
taken, but there will be a plate at the door. We shall follow to the letter
the government and Church of England guidelines re Holy Communion: so ‘one kind’ (wafers) only, no words spoken over uncovered elements,
and please remain seated to receive the sacrament where you are. Please
remain in your seats until the organ voluntary is finished, and then leave row by row in turn quietly starting from the back.
6
F or some reason as I started to reflect on the months of August and
September this year, my mind turned right back to the Season of Epiphany and to that remarkable poem, ‘The Journey of the Magi’
by T S Eli0t. And I think it is because we find ourselves in this strange
hinterland where we do hover in a very real way between ’life’ and ‘death’ in a way in which some of us have never done before, and others have
not d0ne since the Second World War. So in many ways – as we do in
the Season of the Epiphany – we are enjoying a ‘birth’, as it is summer-time and we can see family and friends, we can go away on holiday (to
certain places), we can have our hair cut, we can stop ‘shielding’ (if we
have been), we can go out to pubs, restaurants and cafés (half-price on the government at times in August!) – and we can even come back to
church. And all that is wonderful and truly something to celebrate and
for which to thank God – and they are things for which many of us have longed during lockdown. It is so important to live for the day – ‘carpe
diem’ – and as another poet, R S Thomas would say, ‘Life is not hurrying
on to a receding future, nor hankering after an imagined past’. Never has that been more true!
And as we plan our opening worship at Holy Trinity and at Westwood for the month of August, we are very conscious of that. So for example our
service on the first Sunday, 2 August, Trinity 8, will be and feel very
different to how it would have been for ‘just another Sunday’ on Trinity 8 in ‘normal’ times. As we have to go back to the drawing-board and plan for
every detail with the newly added objective of keeping everyone safe from
the coronavirus, it does feel very similar to the painstaking process involved in restoring worship for Christmas 2016 in our newly ‘reclaimed’
Holy Trinity. But that was in every sense a ‘birth’ – 100% exciting! ‘I have
seen birth and death, but had thought they were different’ wrote Eliot – going on to reflect that they were actually two sides of the same coin…
So in this summer of 2020, as we enjoy (hopefully!) the sunshine and
worshipping together, and all the other things – there will be a bittersweet element. We shall find ourselves lamenting the enormous losses which the
world has sustained this past year, especially amongst the most
‘Were we led all that way for Birth or Death? There was
a Birth, certainly, we had evidence and no doubt…’
7
vulnerable, and being all too
conscious and mindful of the
fact that, at the end of July, the WHO stated that ‘…the
pandemic continues to
accelerate. In the past six weeks, the total number of
cases has roughly doubled.’ The
Magi in the poem conclude that they would be ‘glad of another
death’ – and of course the
Christian faith is all about birth, death and resurrection! Hard on
the heels of Epiphany comes
Lent, and then we find ourselves on a relentless journey towards
Good Friday. But then… So we
are Easter people, Alleluia people – whatever the world
might throw at us!
As you will read later in ‘Parish News’ we have a very exciting new ‘birth’
this summer in the benefice, as a new priest joins us as soon as she is able,
the Revd Sarah Jackson! Sarah is in the process of moving down permanently to live in these parts from London, and has been serving at
another Holy Trinity, in Upper Tooting. So we shall have a lot to learn from
her about a very different ministry context, and look forward very much to her joining the benefice ministry team.
With my love and prayers and every blessing for these summer months
8
F ollowing a plea for help from
Archbishop Ezekiel Kondo in
Khartoum, Bishop Nicholas launched an Emergency Appeal to
raise £50,000 for the Sudans.
Bishop Nicholas said: “Our own problems with COVID-19 in this
country are significant, but our
brothers and sisters in South Sudan and Sudan face even greater
problems with even less resources.
The pandemic has added another frightening aspect to lives in the
Sudan where ‘normal’ includes
hunger and the threat of disease”. Throughout Sudan and South
Sudan, adults, babies and children
are dying of hunger and of COVID-19. Archbishop Ezekiel has pointed
out most people are so poor they
cannot afford not to work, and have to choose between risking
coronavirus or starving; they
choose to risk coronavirus. There is an urgent need for the provision of
basic food items and for soap to
help resist the coronavirus in a population weakened by famine.
In Kadugli Diocese specifically,
there are reports of continued
outbreaks of violence and terrorism, and these have
disturbed many activities in the
towns of Kadugli and Dilling. Prayers have been requested
for a cessation of violence and
terrorism, and that those doing such things will be led into ways
of peace.
The funds raised by the appeal will be divided equally between
the Churches in Sudan and South
Sudan. “I hope and pray we will be generous” said Bishop Nicholas,
as he invited people to give for this
desperate need. To donate to the Salisbury-
Sudan Emergency Appeal visit:
www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sudansemergencyappeal, or send a
cheque made payable to Salisbury
DBF, marked on the back: 'Salisbury-Sudan Link Emergency
Appeal' and post to:
Church House, 99 Crane St, Salisbury SP1 2QB.
URGENT APPEAL FOR THE SUDANS
LAMBETH CONFERENCE NOW IN 2022
T he Archbishop of Canterbury announced in July that the Lambeth
Conference will now be rescheduled to summer 2022, a full two years
later than had originally been planned. The conference will meet in Canterbury. This follows ongoing consulta-
tion with primates, bishops across the worldwide Anglican Communion
about the impact of COVID-19 in their own countries.
9
LEARN HOW TO SHARE THE GOSPEL AFRESH
T he new Archbishop of York, Stephen Cottrell, has called on the
Church of England to “learn afresh how to share the gospel in the
world” as Church and society face “turbulent times” in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
In his first public address since his confirmation as Archbishop,
he spoke of the pain and loss many have experienced in recent months and the major challenges ahead. Speaking remotely to members of the
General Synod, Archbishop Stephen talked about lockdown as a time
when people have experienced a “stripping back of our lives”, bringing hardship but also clarity and a renewed focus on God.
He warned that the Church has allowed itself to become “tribal and
divided” and spoke about a group he is leading to discern a vision and strategy for the Church for the next decade. He acknowledged that
the Church will have to make decisions about priorities amid limited
resources, but he emphasised that it has reached no conclusions and hopes to bring some proposals to Synod next year.
“At the moment I am engaged in a very wide ranging discussion with
people from all across the Church, but with a particular determination to draw in and listen to the voices of younger Christians and those whose
voices are not usually so easily heard in church,” he added.
He concluded: “We are just going to have to learn again how to love one another, love the world and love God so that, both individually and collec-
tively, we can be the place where God is revealed”.
TRIBUTES TO BISHOP OF GOMA
T ributes have been paid follow-
ing the sudden death of
Bishop Désiré Mukanirwa Kadhoro, the first Bishop of the Diocese of
Goma in the Anglican Church of
Congo. Bishop Désiré was highly respected around the world for the
role he played in reconciliation and
in helping to tackle the Ebola crisis. It has been reported that he died
after contracting COVID-19.
Bishop Désiré had served as the
first Bishop of the new Diocese of
Goma since its creation in Novem-ber 2016. In that time, he devel-
oped a reputation as a reconciler,
educator and evangelist. The Bish-op of Hertford, Dr Michael Beasley,
said that Bishop Désiré was a
“much respected figure [who] worked across faiths to enable the
training of more than 60 leaders”.
10
SPOT THE SIGNS OF MODERN SLAVERY
M others Union Diocesan
President Rosie Stiven has
called for members to be alert to the signs of slavery and to take action.
She has spoken about the millions
of victims currently caught up in modern day slavery.
"There are over 40 million men,
women and children of all races and creeds who today are the
victims in this country and world-
wide”, she said. “They cry out in pain and suffering but no one
hears them. They are hidden away
– they have no voice.” She asked for posters produced by the Clewer
Initiative to be displayed in newly
opened places of worship to help to raise awareness and to eradicate
Modern Day Slavery.
In July a new app designed to help tackle labour exploitation and
modern slavery in the farming,
horticulture and food production sectors was launched by the
Church of England’s modern
slavery initiative. The Farm Work Welfare App, developed by The
Clewer Initiative, provides infor-
mation on employment rights in eight languages and is aimed at
the thousands of workers who
come every year to help with the harvest of fruit and vegetables on
UK farms. In a sector which often
uses recruitment agencies or third-
party labour providers, the app
also gives guidance to farmers
and growers on how to prevent labour exploitation. Farmers
will be able to access practical
information on licensed labour providers, document verification
and the rights of workers.
Loretta Minghella, First Church Estates Commissioner, said:
“We are delighted to support The
Clewer Initiative in the creation of the Farm Work Welfare App which
we hope will lead to greater safety
for those working in this sector. The Church Commissioners for
England are committed to support-
ing the eradication of modern slavery and labour exploitation.”
11
I n another step towards the long-term aim of being carbon-neutral by
2030, Salisbury Cathedral has installed 93 solar panels on the roof of the
Cloister, and Bishop Nicholas was invited onto the roof to see them in action. He said: “The Church of England is working hard towards a Net Zero car-
bon footprint by 2030. As the Church of England’s lead bishop for the envi-
ronment I am delighted that Salisbury Cathedral is making a contribution that takes us towards this. With clear purpose and helpful partnerships
even iconic buildings can make a difference towards sustainability. In
these strange times the possibilities of living differently seem all the more important and this project even more significant.”
The Cathedral has already achieved a Silver Award under leading charity
A Rocha's Eco Church scheme. The new installation will reduce its carbon footprint by 11,764 kilograms per year. The panels are located on the
South Cloister roof and cannot be seen from the ground. Only visitors
climbing the Spire will get a glimpse of them. Canon Robert Titley, Canon Treasurer of Salisbury Cathedral said: “We
are delighted to be the second English cathedral to install solar panels as
part of our continuing green initiatives, which have included draft proofing our medieval building, moving to green tariff energy and installing LED
lighting. We are called to preach good news, and through this we are tak-
ing another small step toward being good news for God’s earth and not just part of the problem.”
CATHEDRAL CLOSER TO CARBON NEUTRAL
GREENER BOA
A t a recent Full Council meet-ing, a motion was passed
to encourage biodiversity across
the town in areas which the Town Council manage, in recognition
of the threat posed by loss of
habitat, the use of chemicals and climate change.
All use of glyphosate and other
chemical weed-killers and peat based compost will cease;
To promote re-growth and re-
generation of natural
biodiversity, mowing operations not required
for safety, maintenance of rights
of way, or to promote the primary purpose of a site (i.e. sports or
leisure), are ceased or reduced
The Town Council has commis-sioned a survey and analysis of
local biodiversity in order to inform
the plans for safeguarding and enhancing the town’s biodiversity.
12
You can contact the editorial team on: [email protected] The October issue copy deadline is Friday, 11 September 2020.
FROM THE HOLY TRINITY REGISTERS
Funerals
Cissie Green (Semington) 9 July
Crossword Answers: ACROSS: 1, John. 3, And James. 8, Near. 9, Omission. 11, Theocratic. 14, Asleep. 15, By-path. 17, Stalingrad. 20, Backbone. 21, Baca. 22, Whose eye. 23, Seth. DOWN: 1, Jonathan. 2, Heavenly. 4, No meat. 5, Justifying. 6, Maid. 7, Sins. 10, Ac-ceptable. 12, Marriage. 13, Shadrach. 16, Plenty. 18, A bow. 19, ECHO.
S ome of the Wiltshire Messy Church leaders and helpers
have with our Regional Co-
ordinator, Hannah Tarring, come to-gether to plan and create a virtual
Messy Church video for families to
share and enjoy. The theme is water and
the Bible story is told by
Bob Hartman, there are three crafts, plus prayer,
worship songs (My Light-
house by the Rend Collec-tive), a reflection oppor-
tunity about how do we
use water and thinking of others who do not have
this basic necessity and of course
the Messy Grace. The Holy Trinity team took part
in the early planning of making this
video. If you’d like to download the
video it can be found at:
https://
share.icloud.com/photos/0n 6a7ebTD_ KCTlsxOx_wtQNLw
until the 11th of August. Or if you’d
like more details please contact Marlene at:
marlene.haffenden
@googlemail.com. You can also check out the
resources section on
the Messy Church website www.messychurch.org.uk/
resources for lots of fun
activities. Even though our families may make use
of Messy Church Online at home,
it will be so much more fun to do it together when we are able to
meet again!
Marlene Haffenden
MESSY CHURCH ONLINE
13
I ’m pleased to introduce myself to
you all, and I’m hoping to join
you in the benefice soon. I live in Norton St Philip and over the past
six years I have sometimes visited
Holy Trinity church. I am looking for-ward to getting to know you in
Bradford on Avon and in Westwood
and Wingfield. I have been working in a benefice
of two churches (Holy
Trinity and St Au-gustine’s) in Tooting,
south-west London in
Southwark Diocese, and have worked in
various roles in the
Diocese. I am used to diverse and lively inner
-city urban church
communities with lots of interfaith and
ecumenical links. These
are not without their problems but working with them
and finding ways through commu-
nication to work together has been an enriching experience.
The two churches in Tooting
have a history of going on pilgrim-age together and in recent years
we have taken pilgrimage groups
to the Holy Land, Turkey, Rome and Assisi, Ethiopia, and with
another pilgrimage planned for
Jordan in October – although sadly
that may now be post-
poned. We have also taken smaller pilgrim-
ages to Iona, Kent and
most recently Wessex, when we all stayed at
Sarum College. Even
more local, London area pilgrimages have
included the annual St Albans
pilgrimage which is a favourite, the National Gallery, City Churches
and Brookwood Cemetery (the
London Necropolis). Everywhere offers us some surprising new
learning about God’s wonderful
work in the world. I’m a Londoner born, and I grew
up in Sheffield and Birmingham,
returning to London after gradua-tion. During my childhood I spent a
Welcome—Sarah Jackson!
14
lot of time in the west country, my
parents being Cornish and Welsh, and remember travelling up and
down the A38 or A303 on what
were rather slow journeys in those days. I have worked as an occupa-
tional therapist with a special
interest in mental health, and as a psychoanalyst. I am always
interested to learn about some-
thing new, which I am sure I will do in the lovely surroundings of this
area. I trained for ordination at St
Augustine’s College of Theology in Southwark and Canterbury.
I have always had an interest in
vocation and in people’s life stories and vocational journeys, wherever
they may lead. In Southwark
Diocese alongside ministering in parishes I have been privileged to
work as a Vocations Adviser with
people exploring their vocation to lay and ordained ministries, and
as a Bishop’s Examining Chaplain
with those about to go forward for selection panels for ordained min-
istry. I am hoping to continue work
of this kind in Salisbury Diocese. My family are spread around the
country now, having been brought
up in London. I have three children and I have four grandchildren,
ranging in ages from 14 years to 8
months. My interests include see-ing my family of course, and also
visiting theatres and art galleries
when circumstances permit. I en-
joy writing things and reading and gardening and would love to return
to my art activities of earlier years.
I found a rather serendipitous link from my childhood when
thinking what to tell you about
myself. Whilst studying for my O levels (which shows my age) one
of my subjects was a course which
included church architecture and I remember carefully drawing a
pencil sketch of the church of St
Laurence, Bradford on Avon. I found this fine example of a Saxon
building illustrated in a book, but
had to wait many years until I could see the church in reality.
Little did I know that much later
in my life I should have the oppor-tunity and privilege to be more
closely connected with it.
I look forward to learning more about the historic buildings
in the benefice and much more
importantly to getting to know the people who love them and
use them and to learning about
ministry in a rural and market town setting. I send my best wishes and
prayers to you all and hope that as
lockdown is increasingly lifted through the summer I may be able
to meet many of you.
Sarah Jackson
15
What Are You Up To?
T his month, in our series looking at how people are
spending lockdown time, we
hear from Ann Bostock, a member of Holy Trinity who lives just yards
from the church at Abbey Mill. She
has been recording her memories of her husband and an enterprising
family business.
My husband Roy was born into a farming family in Cheshire in 1926.
He went to the local village school
until the family moved to another farm in Warwickshire. Things were
not easy for the farming communi-
ty in the 1930s and another move was made to a Coventry farm, but
bad fortune followed them there
when the sale of some sheep fell through due to a bankruptcy and
they were left with neither sheep nor money.
Hard times call for drastic
measures. A neighbouring dairy farmer, besides producing milk,
sold it in the local area. The farmer
was not in very good health and Roy’s father took over some of his
duties. He became the local milk-
man, with milk in a churn and a milk float and pony. Milk was
served straight into the customer’s
jug with a series of measures of a gill, half a pint and a pint. When the
dairy farmer retired Roy’s father
kept on with the deliveries. At last circumstances and hard
work paid dividends, and this small
business flourished, the pony and float were replaced by a van and
new houses being built in nearby
Coventry needed milk supplies. There were some milk bottles be-
sides the jug deliveries. These were
filled in a purpose-built out-building in the family garden.
Setback And Opportunity War arrived, but people wanted
as much milk as was available. It
was eventually rationed, with young children and pregnant ladies
having priority. Roy was 14 at the
beginning of 1940 but because his birthday was during the Christmas
holiday he actually left school Above: Ann Bostock
16
while he was still 13. He already had a job lined up as an apprentice
engineer. He had to work seven
days a week with Sunday after-noon off once a month to comply
with the national war effort.
Roy’s father soldiered on with his milk round, not without setbacks:
his van and garage were destroyed
by an incendiary bomb so he reverted to the boot of his Ford 8
car to make deliveries, and had to
negotiate all the debris on the roads after the blitz.
Meanwhile Roy didn’t receive
his call-up papers until after the end of the war, as apprentices were
allowed to finish their training and
get their qualifications before doing National Service. But in 1946
he became a member of the RAF
where, after initial training, he was selected to work on Radar,
so although he never flew in an
aeroplane he learnt a lot about electronics and circuits. This served
him well later in life, and he was
always willing and able to help out
family and friends.
Romance and Business
I met Roy during his apprenticeship days when we both went to a
local youth club at a church in
Coventry. While he was in the RAF we were married at the same
church. Roy was demobbed in
1948 but, after working on some isolated and country locations
for the last few years, he had
no desire to go back and work in factory conditions. His father
was now suffering from a terminal
illness so he decided to help him out for a while. During this
time legislation was brought in
that all milk had to be pasteurised and bottled. So they set about
doing this.
To purchase the essential machinery, farm magazines were
avidly scanned for second-hand
equipment as at this time some processors were enlarging their
Above: The filling machines seals bottles with foil tops
Right: The electric hand-cart
17
premises. Eventually all the
necessary pieces were purchased
and the work of installing it began. This fell mainly to Roy with his
acquired knowledge of engineering
and electrical expertise. When all was in working order,
the workload increased from mere-
ly delivering the milk, most of which was being bottled by hand,
to a full processing routine: collect-
ing cooled milk in ten-gallon churns from four local farms, tak-
ing it to the dairy, heating it in a big
stainless steel vat to a prescribed temperature, holding it for the re-
quired precise time, then pumping
it through to the filling machine where it was bottled and sealed.
At first cardboard tops were
used, then, as methods pro-gressed, foil tops. After all this the
milk was ready for delivery. They
had one motor van, one electric milk float and one electric hand-
cart, with which they delivered to
the local area.
A Job Well Done New estates were being built and
most householders wanted milk
delivered daily, so trade increased. Roy’s father died during this time,
and the capacity of the old dairy
was being overwhelmed, so new premises were required. Fortu-
nately, some new properties were
being built close by and one plot in the far corner was up for sale. Roy
obtained planning permission and
construction started all over again, on a bigger scale, including a de-
tached house for the family.
On his retirement in 1987 he sold the business to one of the big re-
tailers. It turned out that this was a
good time to sell as doorstep deliv-eries were in decline and super-
markets were taking over. Roy had
a long and happy retirement, and we travelled most parts of the
world. He died in 2018 and, as one
of his sons said at his funeral, “His was a job well done”.
Left and below: Different generations of milk floats ready to deliver milk
18
Sounds of the Times: Daggers in the Keyboard
Left: Dave
prepares to
set off for
the festival
Below:
Emerson,
Lake and
Palmer
G raham Dove’s reminiscence last month on a formative
song from his training
days reminded Dave Green, of Holy Trinity’s churchyard team, of a
youthful experience…
On the August Bank Holiday weekend of 1970, I was walking in
almost complete darkness under a
moonless night sky, following a snake of similar travellers making a
two-hour trek from the ferry to Af-
ton Down on the Isle of Wight. Our destination was the third Isle of
Wight Festival, and it turned out to
one of the largest human gather-ings in the world at the time, sur-
passing Woodstock with an attend-
ance of about 600,000.
I had driven down from my home in Ealing, where I spent all my
spare time watching bands, grow-
ing my hair and transitioning from Mod to Hippy. The local music sce-
ne was thriving, and I saw young
bands such as Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd and Genesis playing in our
local pubs and clubs. They all went
on to become household names. Once I reached the festival site I
found a patch of grass among the
crowds, dodging the antics of a group of French anarchists intent
on pulling down the perimeter
fence and making it a free festival (tickets cost £3). For three days I
soaked up familiar and new sounds
from the likes of Procol Harem, Moody Blues, the Doors, Jethro
Tull, The Who and Jimi Hendrix –
although I have to admit I slept through most of the Hendrix set, a
great shame as he died in London,
aged just 27, a few days later, one of the greatest rock stars ever.
19
Ph
oto
by
Kim
i95
htt
p:/
/ww
w.v
inta
ge
syn
th.c
om
/mo
og
/
Hendrix had been a
celebrity through
most of the 1960s. But there was anoth-
er band making
their first appear-ance. This was
Emerson, Lake and
Palmer’s second gig, but each man had
already made a name
for himself. Emerson from The Nice and Lake from King
Crimson already knew each other,
and they were joined by Carl Palm-er of Atomic Rooster. At the Isle of
Wight the centrepiece of the new
band’s set was Pictures at an Exhi-bition, Emerson’s take on the suite
by Mussorgsky, which featured
Emerson on the Moog synthesizer. They released it as an album the
following year, and it became a
best seller in the UK and the USA. Emerson Lake and Palmer were
down the excessive end of progres-
sive rock, and they made a hugely energetic sound – and a spectacle
too, with Emerson jabbing daggers
between the keys to get feedback, and then manhandling the organ
so that it was pivoting on one cor-
ner, so as to create an oscillation on the feedback – definitely not
something my auntie would have
liked to hear. But their sound made
quite an impression on me, and when I got home, after sleeping for
two days to recover, I bought their
LP – vinyl, of course. Alongside the success of ELP’s
prog rock albums, society was
changing. Hippies – and the way we dressed, and the music we lis-
tened to – were becoming more
mainstream. Even our mums and dads were influenced – dads grow-
ing longer hair and perhaps a
beard, mums with beads and maxi dresses, and all of them wearing tie
-dye shirts, high boots, denim and
bell-bottoms. And this was when I started to wear an earring – it’s still
there half a century later.
Dave Green
Above: The Moog Synthesizer was devel-oped by American engineer Robert Moog. The first Moog Synthesizer appeared in 1964 and the company continued making instruments until the 1980s.
20
Pr
ayer
Pa
ths
T he first day of September
marks the start of
Creationtide, a season that ends with the Feast of St Francis on
4 October, around the time of our
harvest festivals. Many of us, through lockdown, became
increasingly aware of our natural
environment as we heard more clearly the spring dawn chorus
rather than rush-hour traffic and
noticed fresh, clear air and blooming wayside flowers along the lanes
less busy with passing traffic.
Lockdown days have reminded us how urgently we need to
respect and safeguard our
environment. No longer an optional extra to our lifestyle, it’s
actually a life-or-death choice for
many species, for millions of vulnerable people and their homes,
and for the planet itself.
Environmental issues are intimately bound up with other
current justice questions: the
deplorable persistence of racism; economic systems that favour the
wealthy and powerful over the
most vulnerable; the precariously fragile state of many two-thirds-
world nations carrying the extra
burden of COVID19; inequalities of gender, colour, class and age; weak
leadership more concerned with
self-interest than challenging a
status-quo that is wreaking so
much environmental damage.
Our stewardship of the natural world is part and parcel of our
faith. The fifth mark of mission in
the Anglican Communion is “To strive to safeguard the integrity of
creation, and sustain and renew
the life of the earth”. In our own diocese, our local area and our
benefice we’ve made some real
progress, but we need to continue to be steadfast in prayer for our
created world, and in finding
sustainable ways to put our prayers into action in nurturing the natural
world that God created for us, so
that our children and future generations of plants and animals
will be able to live and flourish
together as God intended. Lord, grant us the wisdom to
care for the earth and safeguard
its bounty. Help us to act now for the good
of future generations and all your
creatures. Help us to become instruments
of a new creation, founded on
the covenant of your love. Amen Ali Green
Prayer Paths: Creationtide Questions
Above: A visitor adds comments to the Greener Bradford stall
21
Target Carbon Neutral: Green Cuisine
A nything connected to food production is closely linked
to the health of the planet.
So even if we have a tiny garden or none at all, or live on our own, we
can all do our bit for environmental
protection. And we can all exercise our consumer choice in climate-
friendly ways.
Clean-up Operation
Cleaning products often come in
plastic bottles that usually get used once and then add to the moun-
tains of plastic waste across the
globe. But left-over food can come to the rescue.
If you have an odd bit of left-over
lemon lurking in the fridge, use that for cleaning down and fresh-
ening up the draining board, mi-
crowave, cutting boards and kitch-en counter. Lemons are also good
for decalcifying – very useful in this
hard water neighbourhood.
Squeeze half a lemon into your
kettle and let it soak for a couple of hours. Then fill the kettle with wa-
ter and bring to the boil.
You can also use potato skins to clean kitchen surfaces. Their high
starch content makes them very
efficient at breaking down grime. Just rub on, wait a minute or so
and clean off with a moist towel.
They contain oxalic acid, which makes them good for removing
rust. Simply cut into the pota-
to and rub the raw flesh on the rusty area. They work on tarnished
silver as well. Rub the silver with
raw potato, or place your tarnished silver in used potato water and
let it soak for about 20 minutes.
They are even good at dabbing on textiles to remove light stains.
Even better, make a snack of
your potato peelings. Thoroughly clean the potatoes before peeling
them, and then toss the peelings in
a little olive oil. Spread them on a baking sheet covered with parch-
ment or tinfoil, season and cook in
a hot oven for 15-20 minutes until they are browned.
Toxic Coffee Coffee grounds have been found
recently to be toxic to slugs and
snails, and even in small quantities Above: Lemons are a great way to clean!
22
they can be a useful deterrent. As
an experiment I’ve been drying
spent coffee grounds whenever I’ve had the oven on, and storing
the dried grounds in airtight
containers through the winter. This spring, whenever I’ve
planted any vulnerable seedlings,
such as peas, lettuce and beans, I’ve surrounded them with a gener-
ous sprinkling of my saved coffee
grounds. The result: not 100%, but definitely effective enough to help
seedlings make a good headstart
against mollusc predators. And infinitely preferable to environ-
mentally-damaging slug pellets
in plastic containers. Another deterrent for slugs and snails is
ground egg shells. If you’re cook-
ing, save the shells and when you have enough, sprinkle them round
vulnerable garden pot plants such
as hostas and dahlias.
Anyone For Tea?
Of the 165 million cups of tea drunk each day in the UK, 96%
of them are made using a bag
rather than loose leaves. So a huge number of tea bags go into the
food waste bin – and many of them
are not entirely biodegradable. Most contain around 25% plastic
(used as sealant) which doesn’t
break down in the compost bin. So
the answer is either to go for loose
tea leaves, or opt for a plastic-free tea bag, such as Co-op Fairtrade
99. Since the Coop started making
plastic-free tea bags a couple of years ago, they reckon that
they are preventing nine tonnes
of plastic per year making its way into compost and food
waste collections.
Of course, if you’re looking for a virtually free, refreshing and
environmentally-friendly drink,
just gather some mint leaves from your garden and make an infusion
– guaranteed plastic-free! I have
several varieties on the go, as they all have a distinctive flavor, from
peppermint to lemon and apple.
Mint grows happily in a pot, so a balcony or windowsill is all you
need to give it a home. Other
plants destined for the kitchen can also do well in pots if you’re short
of space. The results are fresher
and tastier than shop-bought veg, and they don’t come in plastic bags
or incur transport costs.
Ali Green
23
Ph
oto © A
lan
Ben
son
River Story: Part 7 Mysterious Mammal
T his month we look at the hidden life of a mammal
that frequents our local
stretch of the Avon, but leads such a secretive life that we’re usually
not even aware of its presence.
The otter’s story is one of a remarkable come-back. Prior to
the 1950s these animals were
abundant in England, but numbers subsequently crashed catastrophi-
cally. They are carnivorous and
although they will also go for in-sects, frogs, birds and other small
mammals, their main food source
is fish – and this preference made them unpopular with fishery
owners who saw their fish stocks
threatened. Along with weasels, polecats and badgers, all members
of the Mustelid family, they were
hunted remorselessly. Another major contribution to
their decline was habitat pollution.
Chemicals in pesticides sprayed on crops contaminated rivers, making
them uninhabitable for fish and
otters. Then there was habitat destruction, particularly the drain-
age of wet areas. Under all these
adverse conditions, otters com-pletely disappeared from the rivers
of most of central and southern
England in just 50 years. Otters are semi-aquatic mam-
mals and very much at home in the
river, having webbed feet that ena-ble them to swim quickly and
dense fur to keep them warm. But
they are elusive animals, highly
Watery home: An otter on a branch of the River Avon
24
sensitive, and in danger from road accidents, fishing and
crayfish traps, building works and
polluting pesticides. To save the otter from extinc-
tion, a ban on hunting them was
introduced in 1978, and the use of certain pesticides was stopped.
Gradually, water quality and
fish populations improved, and further legislation was introduced
to protect the species. It’s against
the law, for instance, to capture, kill, disturb or injure otters
(whether on purpose or by not
taking enough care). These animals breed slowly, so
numbers could not expand quickly.
Otter cubs, usually in litters of just
two or three, are normally born in dens, called holts, often in a tree
root system, a hole in a bank or
under a pile of rocks. After about 10 weeks the cubs venture out of
the holt with their mother, who
raises the cubs without help from the male. It took several decades
for otter numbers in the UK to
recover, and populations remain very fragmented.
Back In Town By the turn of this century otters
were being spotted around
Bradford on Avon, and in 2003 signs of otters were reported on
the Kennet and Avon Canal at
Semington. In 2016 a sighting
Water health: Otters on the a river a welcome sign that the river is in good health
Ph
oto © A
lan
Ben
son
25
near the town bridge was reported in the Wiltshire Times. Having
otters along our stretch of the river
is a welcome sign of the health of the watercourse, since it means
that the water quality is good and
that there is enough river life to support them.
Just as otters were beginning
to reappear along the Avon, Dave and I were running an ecological
consultancy in Bath. We were
contracted to install an artificial otter holt near the city to encour-
age otters to settle in the area.
The resulting construction of logs and twigs was intended to
offer a relatively dry refuge for
otters resting during the day (they hunt at night), and perhaps for
breeding. The chosen location was
Weston Island, Twerton, on the western end of the city, which
was earmarked for use as a bus
terminus. It was a promising loca-tion since, once the hardstanding
for vehicles had been put in place,
the isolated island would be relatively free from disturbance
by passers-by and dogs. That
stretch of the river is now well-documented and tourist
information for visitors to Bath
describes it as a place to catch a glimpse of otters, or at least their
tracks and spraints (droppings).
Otters use their spraints to
communicate information to one another, often leaving them on
small heaps of grass, mud or
gravel. They contain tell-tale fish bones and scales, or occasionally
feathers, frogs’ leg bones or fish
eggs, but not often fur. As with other mustelids, otters have five
toes, so the typical foot print
shows five teardrop shapes around a central pad.
Nearer to home, I was chatting
last year with a man who had been sleeping for some time on a bench
near BoA town bridge. When I
asked whether he had been sleep-ing well, he told me he had been
fine, other than the nights when
he was awoken by the otters. Apparently he had been kept
awake on several occasions by the
animals calling along the banks by the bridge in the very early hours.
Besides the rough-sleeper,
another person who has made close-up contact is local wildlife
photographer and regular PN
contributor Alan Benson. With many threats remaining, protect-
ing them is essential to ensure that
they continue to thrive in the UK. If you have seen otters locally, or
signs of their presence, I’d love to
hear from you. Ali Green
26
M y thanks to everyone
who sent in photos, questions and comments
about what they have been noticing
in nature all around us. This month we have a selection of
families including birds, fungi,
beetles and grasses. Let’s start with Anne Willis’
broad bean patch. She wrote in
early July to say, “I went to pull up my broad beans…They had not
cropped well because of a bad
blackfly attack which soapy water did not cure, and the odd ladybird
didn’t seem to be helping. The
‘cure’ is now happening with dozens of ladybird larvae around. I
have never seen so
many before.”
A few days later I was looking through a patch of wildflowers in a
raised bed in town, and caught on
camera the moment a dozen or so pupae metamorphosing into adult
beetles. You can see the hardening
spotted wings appearing under the old exoskeleton. The new wings
start quite pale but soon colour up
to give the scarlet hue we all know and love. Ladybirds begin life as
tiny bright yellow eggs laid on the
underside of leaves. They take about a week to hatch into bug-
eating larvae, shedding their outer
skin as they grow. After the final skin-shedding they change into
immobile pupae before emerging
as adult flying beetles. A few days later Anne emailed
again to say, “Earlier this even-
ing I had a wonderful experi-ence. My beans, still full of
blackfly and ladybird larvae,
had another predator in the form of a flock of long-
tailed tits. They surrounded
me, I could have reached out and touched one, and I
could see them cleaning up
the stems. I think blackfly
Nature Now—August
Far left: A ladybird emerges Top: Ladybirds attack Anne’s broad bean aphid infestation Left: A long-tailed tit
Ph
oto © A
lan
Ben
son
27
must be sticky; they kept stopping and
wiping their beaks! A
great illustration of our local food chain in action!”
Anne added, “I couldn’t take a
photo, I didn’t dare move until they moved away next door. I am so
glad my sole anti-blackfly measure
is soapy water. And I am not even using that at the moment.” Luckily
our talented local photographer
Alan Benson provided this photo for us (pictured on page 26). Long-
tailed tits feed on small insects and
their larvae, and also mall spiders. In winter months they can struggle
to find enough food, so will be
attracted to gardens with bird feeders offering suet balls and
small seeds.
Rare Beasts
Thanks to Chris Hodge who
emailed to say, “Wandering around the gardens in Stonor Park, Ox-
fordshire, I saw a bit of fungus, it
looked to me like a teddy bear wedged in there!”. Yes, it is a bract
fungus growing on a tree trunk.
But to identify it further the sort of clues that are helpful are the spe-
cies of tree it’s on, whether it has
pores or gills underneath (and their
colour), and any distinctive smell. So other than confirming it’s a
bract fungus, I think we’d better
just call this one the rare Teddy Bear species!
I can’t tell you how excited I
was to discover the strange fellow pictured above right. I was drop-
ping off some freshly-picked
lettuce to neighbour Louise Proud-man when she pointed out a
strange-looking toadstool by her
front door. I was quite stumped by it – its cap looked as if it was inside
out: its top was covered in rusty
brown spores, which normally you find underneath. I got in touch with
Dr Alan Rayner, retired lecturer
at Bath University and one-time President of the British Mycologi-
cal Society. He emailed back with
Right: The ’Teddy Bear’ fungus
Far right: The rare Sandy Stiltball
28
an identification,
adding that he had never seen it
himself - so I
knew it must be a pretty special
find. It’s called
Sandy Stiltball (Battarrea phal-loides). Very rare in Britain, it’s
known mainly in southern coun-
ties, and this is only the second record for Wiltshire.
Louise and her girls, Amelia and
Olivia, told me that the wood bark surrounding the fungus had come
from a B&Q store, so I wonder if
the fungal spore was hiding amongst bark imported from else-
where in Europe or from Asia,
where it also occurs. The pretty pink flowers (pictured
middle above) spotted by Janet
and Jim Brown are Hard-head, or Common Knapweed Centaurea
nigra. They look a bit like thistles
(but without prickly leaves) and
with their good quality nectar they are a firm favourite of several
butterflies and other pollinating
insects. The resulting seeds provide food for many birds. The base of
the flower head, as you can see
from my photo (top right) of a sin-gle plant, is dark and hard – hence
its name. It flowers until the au-
tumn and often grows on rough grassland and along hedgelines.
The other flower Janet and Jim
noticed was also pink: a Pyramidal Orchid Anacamptis pyramidalis.
These exotic-looking wildflowers
Above: Purple Tansy Phacelia tanacetifolia
Above right: Pyramidal Orchid
Left & above: Common Knapweed
29
N ot long after finishing John
Barton’s ‘A History of the Bible’ (Reviewed in June
PN), I was sent an online copy of
‘Climate Crisis: The Challenge To The Church’ written by David
Rhodes (Kevin Mayhew 2020). I
have to say straightaway it was one of the most disturbing and
challenging books I had read for a
long while! It would take a sea
change for the church to take its mes-
sage seriously.
Once a journalist, Rhodes spent much of his ordained ministry in
the poorer parts of Leeds. A Director
of the Bible Reading Fellowship, chaplain to the Children’s Society,
and a member of General Synod,
he has written widely on social justice and the Gospel as good news
for the poor.
Book Review: Climate Crisis by David Rhodes
often grow in the most unprepos-
sessing places, such as road
verges, railways embankments and patches of derelict land. The flow-
ering head appears in June and July
and is more or less the shape of a cone, tapering towards the top.
The spike, with maybe a hundred
densely-packed flowers, attracts a range of butterflies and moths.
Another flower of waste ground
and odd field corners is Purple Tansy Phacelia tanacetifolia. It’s a
plant that I only started seeing this
century, and was first recorded in Wiltshire in 1940. It comes from
southern USA and Mexico. You can
see how bumble bees love it! Muriel Freeborn has been col-
lecting more grasses in her garden.
The one on the left here is Wall Barley Hordeum murinum and flow-
ers in June and July. It’s also known
as Flea Darts, I guess because
it’s the go-to
grass as a handy missile
that youngsters
aim at a classmate’s jumper or the back of a dog. On the right is
Meadow Foxtail, so called because
the flower head is like a long bushy tail with silky hairs. Its scientific
name, Alopecurus pratensis, actual-
ly comes from the ancient Greek for fox tail. It is one of the first
grasses to appear and flower in
spring, so it makes a good “early bite” for livestock as well as food
for a variety of invertebrates.
Do get in touch if you have any nature photos, comments
or questions, and I’ll share
them in October PN. Ali Green
Right: Muriel’s grasses
30
The world already faces serious trouble with millions of people
blighted by poverty, injustice and
racism. Climate change will make things a lot worse. The survival of
our human species is threatened,
and climate justice is vitally im-portant, but the church allows a
conspiracy of silence on the sub-
ject. Rhodes wrote this book to demonstrate that climate
justice must become the
church’s key priority. Rhodes begins with Je-
sus within the context of
1st century Palestinian so-ciety, shaped much like a
spherical onion. Its long
stem represents the 2% in Palestine who are the rul-
ing elite. Below them, 8%
represent landowners and traders. The 75% majority is the
peasants and the final 15% those
living in destitution. Probably 90% experience genuine poverty. Pales-
tine had been occupied since
63BCE by Rome, whose main prior-ity by the time of Jesus was
‘keeping the peace’. This meant a
strong military presence, support-ed by an indigenous elite, including
the Temple establishment in Jeru-
salem. Rhodes believes that some-thing of the authentic Jesus can be
found in Matthew, Mark & Luke,
the synoptic gospels.
A key text for Rhodes, at the start of Jesus’ ministry, is the
reading from Isaiah in the syna-
gogue at Nazareth, when he sets out his manifesto (Luke 4:18).
Jesus reveals the ‘unconditional
love of God’ as the basis of his ministry. As we know, the story
doesn’t end well for Jesus, who is
nearly killed by the con-gregation on that day,
and of course, the conflict
continues throughout his life. Siding with the poor
is dangerous, as it chal-
lenges civil, military and religious elites. Speaking
the truth to power results
in crucifixion! Rhodes then shows how
this vital message is wa-
tered down in later periods, espe-cially by Paul, as churches become
increasingly institutionalised.
Rhodes doesn’t dwell on the rise of Constantine in the 4th century,
which resulted in a gradual ac-
ceptance of Christianity as the priv-ileged religion of the later Roman
Empire. But, importantly, he shows
the effect of rising doctrinal con-troversies which created tribalism
within and between churches,
made worse by later controversies even up to our own time. This is the
31
D iocesan Director of
Communications Carole Peters-King recently wrote
a reflection on her ancestor William
Wilberforce. Amid the many re-sponses of the CofE and other faith
communities to the growth of the
Black Lives Matter movement, we thought we would share her
thoughts with you…
In a recent Midweek Message I mentioned that my 5 times (I think)
Great Grandfather was William
Wilberforce and how proud I was of that heritage. The connection
is on my paternal Grandmother’s
side of the family and my Father remembered the house he grew up
in on Clapham Common, proudly
displaying a collection of William’s pipes and watches in a cabinet in
the front sitting room. Sadly, in the
William Wilberforce, My Ancestor 1950s the house was converted into flats
and rented out, and
much of the furniture was stored in the
attic. It must
have been too much of
a temptation
to one set of tenants, who
cleared the
attic along with their
flat when
they left.
very antithesis of Jesus, who ab-
horred tribalism, along with the in-
defensible imbalance between rich and poor.
But Rhodes sees light at the end
of the tunnel. If the Church took the radical Jesus seriously, those
who self-identify as Christian could
make a crucial difference to the climate change crisis – along with
many of other faiths who also
teach respect for neighbours,
and therefore the planet. Acting
collaboratively alongside other groups, they could influence
governments and international
corporations. Working for the com-mon good of all might exert mas-
sive influence as well as political
leverage. This is an idealistic book, and open to strong disagreement.
Nevertheless, it is a relatively easy
read with a deep prophetic vision. David Driscoll
Right: William Wilberforce
and 5x great-granddaughter
Carole Peters-King
32
As a family we may have lost
some physical connections with William, but his legacy, as a deeply
religious social reformer who was
very influential in the abolition of the slave trade and eventually
slavery itself in the British Empire,
continues to make us proud. William was born on 24 August
1759 in Hull. The son of a wealthy
merchant, he went to Cambridge University where he met and
began a lasting friendship with the
future prime minister, William Pitt the Younger. No doubt influenced
by this friendship, in 1780 - aged
just 21 - William became the MP for Hull, later representing the whole
of Yorkshire.
Reports say that he had led a rather dissolute life, but this
changed completely when he
became an evangelical Christian. William was persuaded to lobby for
the abolition of the slave trade,
and for 18 years he regularly intro-duced anti-slavery motions in
parliament. All the same, it wasn’t
until 1807 that the slave trade was finally abolished.
William fought poverty as well
as slavery. His Christian faith prompted him to become interest-
ed in social reform, particularly the
improvement of factory conditions in Britain. He worked with the
reformer Hannah More to provide
all children with regular education in reading, personal hygiene
and religion. He was also closely
involved with the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to
Animals and was instrumental in
encouraging Christian missionaries to go to India.
William finally retired from
politics in 1825 and died on 29 July 1833, shortly after he had seen the
act to free slaves in the British
Empire passed through the House of Commons. He is buried near his
friend Pitt in Westminster Abbey. I
have visited his grave occasionally along with his wax replica at
Madam Tussauds, which
incidentally bears a striking resem-blance to my Grandmother.
Carole Peters-King
T homas Clarkson, a clergyman who influenced Wilberforce,
was one of many important figures campaigning for the abolition of the slave trade.
Among black campaigners was Olaudah Equiano, an ex-slave living as a free man in London whose autobiography sold widely and was translated into many different languages.
SLAVE TRADE CAMPAIGNERS
33
Wiltshire Butterflies: Late June—July 2020
W hat an extraordinary
butterfly season this is turning out to be.
Following the hottest, driest,
sunniest May that most of us can remember, June and the first half
of July have been much more
changeable and yet the butterflies continued to flourish.
The so-called ‘browns’ – the
Marbled Whites, Meadow Browns, Ringlets and Small
Heaths were often in
their 100’s on many of the grasslands and im-
possible to accurately
count. It is good to report that many of
the species we usually
expect to see in our gardens have been
much more frequently
reported this year. In particular, Large
and Small Whites, Red
Admirals, Peacocks and Commas have visited the buddleias most
days. Small Tortoiseshells were less
often seen but still are having a good season. Also, the immigrant
moth the Humming-bird Hawk has
been widely reported whereas the Painted Lady has yet to appear in
reasonable numbers and only a
handful of Clouded Yellows have been reported so far.
In the woodlands the Silver-washed Fritillary and the White
Admiral have appeared in good
but not high numbers and the elusive (and much sought after by
photographers) Purple Emperor
needs to be carefully searched for, generally in the oak canopy in its
restricted habitats. It appears not
to have done very well, suffering from some windy, stormy weather
in June.
The much smaller Purple Hairstreak
also seems to have
experienced a similar fate. Its numbers
have been the lowest
ever this year at a site where I have
been monitoring
it since 1981. In contrast, its near
relative, the White-
letter Hairstreak, equally elusive, has been widely
reported across the county but as
is usual, only in ones and twos. It occurs in very small colonies on
elm trees.
I hope you have noticed more butterflies around this year and
have enjoyed seeing some of them
during the lockdown. Mike Fuller
Wiltshire Butterfly Recorder
Above: A Common Blue Photo by Alan Benson
34
35
coast of Scotland, where the small
community of monks founded a
monastery. About 633, Aidan was sent to Northumbria at the request
of King Oswald, who was anxious
for his kingdom to become fully Christian. At that time Northum-
bria extended from the River
Humber to the far side of the present border with Scotland.
Lindisfarne was an ideal place
for Aidan to establish his mission, especially with its proximity to
the Royal Castle at Bamburgh on
the mainland. Shortly afterwards in 635, Northumbria became a
diocese and Aidan was consecrated
as its first bishop. From the start King Oswald was keen to assist
Aidan in his work and soon became
a good friend. Aidan set up a monastery on Lindisfarne as a base
Saint for the Season:
Left: St Aidan’s Church, Bam-burgh - the present church dates from the late 12th century
R eaders of PN will recall that
I wrote about St Augustine
of Canterbury and St Petroc in the May and June editions,
when I mentioned the differences
between the Roman Church, represented by Augustine, and the
Celtic Church by Petroc. In many
ways St Aidan provides a link between the two. He is often
described as Aidan of Lindisfarne,
an island where he founded a base for his missionary work in Northum-
bria, later acquiring the title of the
‘Holy Island of Lindisfarne’. Aidan was born in Ireland. His
date of birth is unknown; however
Bede (672/3 – 735) wrote a valuable account of his missionary work. He
became a monk and a follower of
St Columba (521- 597), going with him to the island of Iona, off the
36
for his regular missionary journeys
on the mainland, and it was also a community for training monks and
clergy. Aidan’s journeys soon creat-
ed results with new churches being built. He gained a reputation for
enthusiastic preaching, but also
showed a great concern for the poor. At the same time, the
monastery was growing and
became a centre for learning. King Oswald died in 642 and was
succeeded by Oswin, also a friend
to Aidan. The work continued to grow until pagan hostilities broke
out in 351 and the abbey attached
to the monastery nearly got burnt, but was miraculously saved when
the wind changed direction! How-
ever, very shortly afterwards, King Oswin was betrayed and murdered
and Aidan died a fortnight later on
31 August, it is said from grief at Oswin’s death.
Bede described Aidan as ‘a man
of remarkable gentleness, good-ness and moderation, zealous for
God’, but adds, ’not fully given to
knowledge’. This was a criticism that Aidan hadn’t entirely given up
Celtic forms of prayer and worship!
Thankfully Celtic spirituality didn’t die out and since the 1980s there
has been a revival of interest,
particularly through David Adam’s many books of Celtic prayers. It
was appropriate that David Adam
later became Rector of Holy Island Lindisfarne, which included minis-
tering to the thousands of pilgrims
and visitors to the island. Aidan’s tomb is in St Aidan’s
Church Bamburgh, and there is a
modern statue of Aidan near the ruins of the mediaeval priory on
Holy island. Aidan is remembered
on 31 August, the date of his death. David Driscoll
Right: Holy Island,
Lindisfarne. The monas-
tery of Lindis-farne was
founded circa 634 by Irish monk Saint
Aidan
37
The Parish Church of St Mary the Virgin, Westwood
Churchwardens: Paul Slade
PCC Secretary Jill Ross
The Parish Church of St Mary, Wingfield
Churchwarden:
David Robinson
[email protected] PCC Secretary
Vacant
For Prayer and Reflection
August
The Revd Sarah Jackson as she comes to join us
Martin and the Holy Trinity Choir, Muriel, Hugh and David - and all church musicians
Those living with fear and dementia
The carers in our community
September
Care Homes and Abbeyfield and their staff
Schools and universities as they start a very different new term – students and staff
The appointment of a new Headteacher at St Laurence
The Benefice PCCs
38
Quick Crossword The Bible version is the NIV
Source: Crosswords reproduced by kind permission of BRF and John Capon, originally published in Three Down, Nine Across, by John Capon
Solutions on page 12
Clues across 1 and 3 Two of the disciples who witnessed the transfiguration of Jesus (Luke 9:28) (4,3,5) 3 See 1 Across 8 ‘Let us draw — to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith’ (Hebrews 10:22) (4) 9 O Simon is (anag.) (8) 11 Form of government under the direct rule of God or his agents (10) 14 How Jesus found his disciples when he returned to them after praying in Gethsemane (Luke 22:45) (6) 15 In The Pilgrim’s Progress, the name of the meadow into which Christian strayed, which led to Doubting Castle (2-4) 17 Glad sin rat (anag.) (10) 20 Spinal column (Leviticus 3:9) (8) 21 Valley of the Balsam Tree with a reputation of being a waterless place (Psalm 84:6) (4) 22 ‘The oracle of Balaam son of Beor, the oracle of one — — sees clearly’ (Numbers 24:3) (5,3) 23 Adam and Eve’s third son (Genesis 4:25) (4)
Clues down 1 David’s great friend (1 Samuel 20:17) (8) 2 ‘The Lord... will bring me safely to his — kingdom’ (2 Timothy 4:18) (8) 4 ‘I, Daniel, mourned for three weeks. I ate no choice food; — — or wine touched my lips’ (Daniel 10:3) (2,4) 5 Seeking to vindicate (Job 32:2) (10) 6 Female servant (Isaiah 24:2) (4) 7 ‘For Christ died for — once for all’ (1 Peter 3:18) (4) 10 ‘Offering spiritual sacrifices — to God through Jesus Christ’ (1 Peter 2:5) (10) 12 Jesus said that some people had renounced this ‘because of the kingdom of heaven’ (Matthew 19:12) (8) 13 One of the three men thrown into the furnace for refusing to worship Nebuchadnezzar’s golden image (Daniel 3:20) (8) 16 ‘You have — of good things laid up for many years. Take life easy; eat, drink and be merry’ (Luke 12:19) (6) 18 ‘There before me was a white horse! Its rider held — — , and he was given a crown’ (Revelation 6:2) (1,3) 19 Equipment to Charity Hospitals Overseas (1,1,1,1)
39
HOLY TRINITY PCC AND OTHER GROUP MEMBERS
PCC MEMBERS
Ex Officio Members
The Revd Canon Joanna Abecassis, Chair
The Revd Dr Ali Green (Associate Priest)
Graham Dove (LLM), Secretary
David Milne (Churchwarden), Vice Chair
Members
Tony Bruun
Elaine Giles (Treasurer - co-opted)
Jeremy Lavis (Deanery Synod representative)
Anna Melluish
PCC Standing Committee
Chair, Churchwarden, Associate Priest, LLM and Treasurer
Churchwardens Emeriti
Jeremy Lavis, Mike Fuller, Anne Carter, Tony Haffenden, Joan Finch, Trevor Ford,
Judith Holland
The Pastoral Care Team
Joanna, Judy Bruun, Anne Carter, Joan Finch, Marlene Haffenden, Tony Haffenden,
Heather Knight and Sue Lavis .
The Friends of Holy Trinity Church
Chairman: John Cox, Secretaries: Mike and Jenny Fuller, Treasurer: Judith Burchell
Committee: Michael Cottle, Chris Hodge, Alison Craddock, Anne Willis
Ex officio: Revd Canon Joanna Abecassis and David Milne
Bradford Group Ministry
This is a longstanding body which now comprises the two benefices of North
Bradford on Avon and Villages and our own. We look forward to establishing a
much closer bond, and the Group clergy meet regularly.
40
OTHER OFFICERS AND ORGANIZERS PCC Secretary Graham Dove [email protected] PCC Treasurer Elaine Giles [email protected] Benefice Administrator Sally Palmer-Walton [email protected] Benefice Admin Assistant Aylene Clack [email protected] Benefice Eco Church Team Ali Green, Joanna Abecassis & Judith Holland Benefice Safeguarding Rep Roni Ross 07541 025241 [email protected] Bellringers David Godwin 01225 867329 [email protected] Coffee on Sunday Joan Finch 863878 Director of Music Martin Cooke 01985 248866 [email protected] Electoral Roll Officer Alan Knight 860991 Flowers c/o Sally [email protected] Food Bank Heather and Alan Knight 860991 mainly music Marlene Haffenden 864412 [email protected] Mothers’ Union Jill Wright 287786 Mothers’ Union Prayer Circle c/o Chris Hodge 869357 Saxon Club David Driscoll 865314 Saxon Church and St Mary Tory Trustees: Chairman Anna Tanfield (all bookings) 863819 Secretary Anne Carter 862146 Treasurer Jeremy Lavis 863600 Sidespersons Churchwardens Stewardship Secretary Benefice Office Street Market: Community Stalls John Cox 864270 Communications Church Stalls Mervyn Harris 863440
Parish Representatives on other organisations: Bradford Group Council: The Churchwardens Children’s Society: Liz Forbes Christian Aid: Judith Holland Deanery Synod: Jeremy Lavis BoA Churches Together: c/o The Revd Canon Joanna Abecassis St Laurence School: The Revd Canon Joanna Abecassis and Lindsay Driscoll (Foundation Governors)
Printed at the Parish Office, 18A Woolley Street, Bradford on Avon. Parish News also appears (in colour) on the Holy Trinity web site: www.htboa.org. Previous issues of the magazine can also be found in the magazine archive on the church web site.