Great Meeting Chapel Newsletter
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Great Meeting Chapel Newsletter February and March 2009 Chapel built in 1708 300 years of freedom, reason and tolerance Great Meeting Chapel Newsletter for February and March 2009 SERVICES IN FEBRUARY Sunday 1st 11am The Minister Sunday 8th 11am The Minister Sunday 15th 3pm Rev. P Timperley Sunday 22nd 11am The Minister SERVICES IN MARCH Sunday 1st 11am The Minister Sunday 8th 11am The Minister Sunday 15th 3pm The Minister Sunday 22nd 11am Mothering Sunday The Minister Sunday 29th 11am The Minister Items intended for inclusion in the Spring edition of the Newsletter should be in the minister’s hands no later than Sunday 15th March, if possible. Thank you. DIARY FOR FEBRUARY Sunday 1st 3pm Loughborough Unitarians meet. Saturday 7th 10.30am-12.30pm Coffee Shop Sunday 8th 12.30pm Lunch in the Garden Room followed by a visit to Ernest Gimson Exhibition at New Walk Museum. Saturday 14th 10.30am -12.30pm Coffee Shop Saturday 21st 10.30am - 12.30pm Coffee Shop Saturday 28th 10.30am - 12.30pm Coffee Shop DIARY FOR MARCH Sunday 1st 3pm Loughborough Unitarians meet. Saturday 7th 10.30am - 12.30pm Coffee Shop 2.30pm East Midland Unitarians Quarterly Meeting, at Chapel. Saturday 14th 10.30am - 12.30pm Coffee Shop Saturday 21st 10.30am - 12.30pm Coffee Shop Saturday 28th 10.30am - 12.30pm Coffee Shop Dates and times of the Vestry and Making Things Happen Group meetings will be announced from the pulpit. From The Minister…... Dear Friends, During recent weeks our Caretaker Stephen has been doing an excel- lent job of keeping our ancient chapel clock wound and quietly ticking away. Set high up in the balcony it is strategically placed so that during the service the congregation cannot easily see it, and only the minister can keep his eye on the time as he rambles his way through the Sun- day sermon! I don’t imagine that very many of us have wind-up clocks at home any more. The bothersome chore of turning the key every evening has been replaced by the battery and the lovely old tick of the clock- work mechanism has been either lost or replaced by an artificial tick, which is somehow less comforting. My family was given a battery-operated clock last Christmas and one which at first acquaintance we felt uncertain about and couldn’t ini- tially think where we might like to put it on display. However we have changed our minds about it completely. It is a bird-song clock, rather like a modern day version of a cuckoo clock such as Annie had in her bedroom as a child. However instead of chiming or cuckooing there is a different bird-call on the hour. At midnight the owl hoots , and in the morning you can be awakened by the call of a blackbird or a song thrush. Illustrations of the birds sit by the numerals. It is light-sensitive, so that as in nature, during the hours of darkness silence prevails. As I say we have all grown to love it. Especially on the dark winter days when the light is weak outside and the poor birds are rarely heard, the twittering comes as a happy surprise and cheers us with its promise of warmer days to come. Our clocks mark the passage of time. It’s how those hours are spent that is significant. As springtime approaches, may all our days be filled with optimism and peace. With warm good wishes, Arthur Winter Sunshine On one of the sunshine Warm winter days My hearth joins its signal To the evening haze And on street corners The street lamps glare As dark birds fly Through the still bright air. I found a flower In the afternoon Come out of the black ground Much too soon And a butterfly With its brilliant wings Lay on the pavement Trembling. Tonight stars shall Shine glittering cold Where the earth was brushed By a touch of gold A.S Chapel outing to “Simply Cinderella” at Curve…….. It is difficult to review “Simply Cinderella” positively. What is hard to understand is why any director should choose this particular production to inaugurate a spanking new theatre recently opened by Her Majesty the Queen. I felt, as Cinderella herself said once or twice, “I don’t know what’s going on…”, and as the story unfolded I was left not any the wiser. Good points included the live music and the ambitious sets, all of which worked well. Nevertheless, not to pull any punches, in my opinion, it was a terrible show. But that was not the fault of the performers. Oddly enough, many members of the congregation seemed to have a reasonably good time. Some, especially the children, loved it despite all the obvious failings. It was just good to be out together doing something sociable and entertaining (in the most generous sense of the word). Some 27 of us including children attended, and we are grateful to An- nie for organising the arrangements and bookings for everyone. I personally came away thinking that I hope it will not be too long be- fore Chapel does another theatre outing to Curve again, perhaps this time to something --- (what’s the word I’m looking for?) --- good ! Arthur Down Memory Lane……. After mention of Cathedrals in Arthur’s sermon of late, I was reminded of a poem from my schooldays. I had been asked to select a poem of my choice to recite at the end of term concert; I chose ‘The Cathedral’. I could only recall the first two lines and many times on visiting these wonderful old buildings I would say them to myself. But through the magic of the internet Annie managed to trace the whole poem and its author– and here it is! The Cathedral “The high embower’d roof With antique pillars, mossy proof, And storied windows, richly dight, Casting a dim religious light. There let the pealing organ blow To the full-voiced choir below, In service high and anthems clear As may with sweetness through mine ear Dissolve me into ecstasies, And bring all Heaven before mine eyes.” Taken from “ A Summer Vacation” By Lucia Barney Downing. 1907 Freda Betts Craft and Design: Ernest Gimson and the Arts and Crafts Movement This is the title of a new exhibition focusing on Pair of brass and steel firedogs, the work of Leicester-born Ernest Gimson at c.1904. Courtesy of New Walk New Walk Museum & Art Gallery, Leicester. It Museum & Gallery. opened on 8th November and runs until 1st March. There is a particular association with Great Meeting. Although Ernest and his brother Sydney were major figures in the Leicester Secular Society, their brother Josiah Mentor and sister Margaret were members of the Great Meeting. The exhibition has examples of Gimson’s furni- ture and that of his partners, Ernest and Sidney Barnsley and Peter Waals, at the Sapperton workshops in the Cotswolds. Although best known for his furniture, the exhibition demonstrates Gimson’s interest in metal work, his architectural interests, including his designs for Canberra, the new capital of Australia. There are examples from the Museum collection of all these crafts. In Leicestershire Ernest Gimson is perhaps best known for the cot- tages he built in Charnwood Forest for his brothers and sister, Lea, Stoneywell and Rockyfield. Many a chapel outing was held at Lea Cottage at the invitation of Russell and his son and daughter-in-law, Ben and Gwen Gimson. Ebony Box (1910) Cherry lined box inlaid with silver and ivory. Enest Gimson 1864 -1919. (Copyright Leicester City Council, with kind permission) Pictured above: A Great Meeting Congregational outing to Lea Cottage. You will have the opportunity to judge the exhibition for yourself dur- ing the Chapel outing on Sunday 8th February. I and my sister, Mar- garet, did not find it entirely satisfactory. It mixes the modern with ex- amples of the original Gimson and Barnsley furniture. There could have been more on the houses and cottages that Gimson designed which are only briefly covered. Ben and Gwen Gimson. There is still plenty of interest. David Wykes Thanks to Freda for identifying some of our forebears pictured at Lea Cottage before the Great War. 1. Richard Mason (Freda’s Father). 2 3 2. Rev. Edgar Fripp. 1 3. Ernest Northfold 4. Lily Blackwell 5. Mrs Lilley 4 5 (Dr E Lilley’s Wife) 6. Sophie Flower 7. Maud Wells (Mother of George Baker and Betty 6 7 8 Meadows). 8. Edith Flower (Mother of Freda and Margaret Mason). Gini’s Poem Gini died in Illinois just before Christmas aged 90. She was the foster mother of a good friend and, for nearly 60 years, had loved her adopted daughter as her own. Gini never professed any interest in spiritual matters so it was a great surprise to find this poem at the top of her personal papers. This poem, and the circumstances surround- ing it have been a rich source of contemplation. There is no indication of who wrote it, but may it be of benefit to everyone. A Poem for Today God and I God and I in a place alone And nobody else in view. "And where are the people, O Lord," I said, “The earth beneath and the sky o’erhead, And the dead, whom I once knew?" "That was only a dream,” God smiled, and said, "A dream that has ceased to be true, No earth beneath and no sky o’erhead, There was only myself and you." "And why do I feel no fear," I said "Meeting you here, this way; For I have sinned, I know full well And is there no heaven, and is there no hell And - is this the Judgement Day?" "Nay, these were but dreams," the great God said, "Dreams that have ceased to be.