THE ANCHOR & KEYS

Bi-Monthly Parish Newsletter April / May 2021 St Clement with St Peter, Dulwich

The Parish Directory Priest in Charge : Rev’d Cécile Schnyder Mobile No : 07384 464 885 Email : [email protected]

Parish answerphone 020 8693 1890

website : http://[email protected] Twitter: @stclementwithstpeter Facebook : St Clement with St Peter, East Dulwich

Churchwardens : Miss Phyllis Anderson & Mr Brian Scott Organist Mr Chris Caine Magazine Editor Miss Jane Packman [email protected]

The Editor’s Notes….. Easter already and we’re not yet quite out of lockdown but hopefully we’re now on the right path. Plenty of things to keep you occupied again in this edition, remember if you have any articles you might like to share please do send them in. A reminder that Stewardship Matters is now only appearring to provide details of how to make your donations —our finances remain a great concern and should not be forgotten. The deadline for me to receive the June/July articles will be Sunday 23rd May please. Happy Easter to you all! Take care and please stay safe! Jane

Dear Friends….

Christ is risen! After the kind of year that has passed, this season of Paschal joy carries so many additional notes of thanksgiving, reflection and new beginnings. It has been wonderful to be able to gather once more in a place that holds so many memories and that lifts our hearts towards God. We have missed seeing each other and we have missed the fuller participation in the Sunday Liturgy that we have had to forego for so much of the last year in order to keep each other safe from the virus shaping our lives so unexpectedly over that time. My overwhelming emotion is one of deep gratitude, not only for the ability to gather once more, but also for the extraordinary faithfulness of our community over the last year. We have not been hibernating, but have continued to pray together, support one another, make plans, learn together, care for our building and deepen our faith through these very significant challenges. We have done so much – perhaps more that you imagine. Much has happened during the last lockdown: We had Bishop Christopher with us to celebrate our Silver Jubilee, we joined Inclusive Church (finally after a huge delay), the PCC has voted for St Clement with St Peter to become an Eco church and our churchyard and St Clement Orchard are looking beautiful. All this is very exciting and you will hear more about each of these events in the upcoming months. As we emerge from the lockdown I am inviting you and the members of the PCC to think creatively in how we can bring our community together safely. As we regain some of our meeting places we may want to contemplate restarting the coffee mornings on a Thursday. Outdoors perhaps. We may want to think as to whether the knit and stitch group could start again and we could aim to have an outdoor tea party in the summer. All this needs to be

done slowly and safely – but is really something to look forward to. Easter is reminding us that death has not had the last word but hope has. As we journey as Easter people may we re-discover how much we have grown this past year, personally but also as a community. I wish you all a happy Easter! With love, Cécile & Lina

APCM - ADVANCE NOTICE!

Due to lockdown restrictions last year which were all very new to us we were unable to hold our annual AGM/APCM and therefore our PCC Officers who were voted in at our 2019 meeting continued in post. It is planned that we will have a joint 2020/2021 AGM/APCM in some form or another on Sunday 16th May - please make a note of the date!

NOTES FROM THE CHURCH MOUSE...

Hooray, we’ve got people back in church, how lovely. I know we’ve all still got to be very careful and safety conscious—remember Face, Hands, Space! But isn’t it lovely to be able to greet people again even if socially distanced…...

We got back together just in time for Mothering Sunday and the Anniversary of 25 years since the St Peter’s Congregation first started worshipping here with us and we became 1 church. We also had the privilege of having Bishop Christopher join us in person for this wonderful event and then to top it off he went round and blessed our new community garden… what a way to reboot our journey out of lockdown! We have so much to look forward to now what with Summer months and hopefully warmer weather to come and with luck all restrictions being lifted in June, so let’s hope the numbers continue to fall and please remember you can play your part and take that vaccine if it’s offered to you, I’ve been reliably informed by many of our friends that it doesn’t hurt and they didn’t have any adverse reactions so for now take care and look after yourselves and hopefully see you on Sunday. Until next time…….

Clementine

Bishops lead churches’ call to take up Covid vaccine

Church of England Bishops have joined an NHS-backed campaign calling on congregations, communities and individuals to play their part in encouraging everyone who is offered a Covid-19 vaccine to take up the opportunity.

With concerns over misinformation and significant numbers indicating mistrust, including in some UK BAME communities, the bishops were speaking as part of a recently launched united churches campaign called Give Hope.

The , together with the Bishops of Dover, Durham and Truro added their voices to a video which was launched on Sunday, together with members of other churches and groups.

It is hoped that faith communities will use their networks to share trustworthy information about vaccines, helping to bust myths and reassure those who have been offered a vaccine of the true levels of associated risk.

The Give Hope campaign is being run by YourNeighbour.org, a convening group working with Government, the NHS and faith communities in response to the challenges of ensuring a wide uptake of the vaccine. It encourages communities to

• Have a conversation, • Offer information, • give Practical support and • Engage through communication channels such as social media.

St George’s Day The film How to Train your Dragon is set in a Viking village under attack by dragons, who steal livestock and burn down houses. Hiccup, the village Chief’s son, invents a machine to capture them. However, when he catches the most dangerous one, Night Fury, he cannot kill it. This is because when he looks into the dragon’s eyes, he sees that he is just as frightened as himself. Through their friendship, the people and dragons eventually come to live in harmony. It’s appropriate to think about dragons this month, when we remember St. George, England’s patron saint, famed for slaying a dragon. Whether he actually killed a dragon is open to question! We do know that the original George was a Roman soldier at the time of Emperor Diocletian. He refused to renounce his faith, as commanded by the Emperor, resulting in his death on 23 April 303 AD. So, we have here St George who slayed a dragon, while Hiccup refused to kill one. They seem like opposites: one a brave soldier and the other a weak boy! However, both acted according to their conscience, going against what people expected and not worrying about the cost to themselves. St George was martyred for standing up for his faith in Jesus, while Hiccup risked rejection by his father and village because of his compassion. Today, we are still called to stand for Christ against wrongs and injustice in a daily life, despite the personal cost. We need to look into the eyes of apparent enemies and meet their hostility with love and compassion. And for all of us the most important place where we need to slay evil is in our own hearts. Don’t forget that we have the power of the Resurrection at our disposal!

The Revd Dr Jo White continues her Reflected Faith series with what it can really mean to ‘wait.’ Reflected Faith: with all your soul, strength and mind This month I’m thinking about what we are all ‘doing’ in times of ‘waiting’. It’s very easy to just sit quietly and let the time pass by or just fill it in. Not exactly wasting time, but not using it for any useful purpose either. But as Christians we live in expectation all the time, don’t we? We live in the hope and promise of Christ’s return – even though we don’t know the ‘when’ or the ‘where’. Of course, there’s waiting and there’s waiting. I won’t say I’m the most patient person I know! If the internet goes down or something mechanical takes a few seconds too long to process, you can often hear me chuntering. But there are other times when the waiting itself is precious. I’m thinking this month of when we receive the bread and wine at the distribution of Holy Communion. Perhaps you have avoided church since the original lockdown in March, or been going but not receiving communion, or indeed you have been participating with an online service with your own equivalents at home. Whichever it is for you, cast your mind back to when you were last in that position – or indeed look forward to when we are all able to gather together again and we ‘queue’ to approach the altar. Actually, we don’t ‘queue’. We ‘process’ to the altar. We join the procession – a line of like-minded people with a similar intention to receive Christ. A time of physical movement and spiritual anticipation for holding those elements of Christ Himself: God being placed into our hands. How amazing is that!

Just a thought…….. The good news about your forgetfulness You know the scenario – you go into the lounge, and then wonder what you wanted. Or you need to make a phone call but can’t find the phone. You go to the cash point and forget your pin number. Or your car keys are lost in the kitchen, but even when you find them and go shopping, you forget stuff on the list. If at times you find yourself living in an annoying brain-fog, the good news is that it is not because you are ill or getting old. To varying extents, everyone does it. A recent study at the University of Edinburgh has found that for- getfulness is as common in people in their 20s as it is in people in their 50s. Although some of the people in the study were worried about getting dementia, a neuropsychiatrist at the university reassured them: “People think that if you are starting to forget things – something like misplacing your keys – that is something to worry about. But it is normal.” Good reasons for forgetting things range from the fact that too much was happening in your life at the time, you were stressed about something, not paying attention to what you were doing, or just too busy thinking about something else entirely.

** In praise of the afternoon nap A short nap in the afternoon improves your memory and keeps your brain more agile. People who nap tend to speak more fluently, have greater mental agility, and remember things better than those who do not break up their day with sleep. Even a five-minute nap can offer your brain a chance to down-time and replenish itself, so that it is ‘good to go’ again.

If you want longer than five minutes, try to stop at 40 minutes, before you enter the deepest stage of sleep. If you do carry on, sleep for two hours, which is a full sleep-cycle. The study was published in the British Medical Journal.

100 years of the PCC - what is it It’s a hundred years since parish churches gained the power to run their own affairs, separately from what we now regard as local government. The religious affairs of a parish, as well as its secular business had been controlled by a single committee, which met in the church and was known as the ‘Vestry’. Then, in 1894, Parish Councils were formed to deal with secular matters; the Vestry continued to oversee church affairs until 1921, when Parochial Church Councils (PCC) were established. People still get confused by the two. Churchwardens have been around since the 13th Century and legally ‘own’ the movable contents of the church. They are meant to maintain order in the church and churchyard, with the assistance of their staves, if necessary. In the event of serious disorder today, a mobile phone might be a safer instrument, with staves reserved for ceremonial occasions! Churchwardens are now chosen by parish- ioners, though the Incumbent (ie Vicar or Rector) has a limited right of veto. Today, anyone on the Electoral Roll of the church (sorry, this is another confusion, for the secular Electoral Roll is entirely separate) can attend the Annual Parochial Church Meeting, which elects the PCC. The Incumbent is an ex officio member, as are other licensed clergy and Churchwardens, members of the Deanery Synod, plus any member of the Diocesan Synod and General Synod who lives in the parish or is on the Roll. The Incumbent chairs the PCC, which

elects a Vice-Chair and appoints a Standing Committee to transact business between meetings. The purpose of a PCC, which must meet at least four times a year, is to consult together with the Incumbent “on matters of general concern and importance to the parish”, and that includes the “whole mission of the Church”. Did you know that changes to the forms of service, or the vesture or the minister, can only happen after consultation? Inevitably, money and building maintenance take up a lot of room on the Agenda, though we all know they are less important than mission. It’s a real challenge for every PCC member to pray for non-churchgoing parishioners and to find imaginative ways of introducing them to Christ and His Church. If you’ve got this far and are a member of your PCC – congratulations – you are a hundred years old this year! ** The Revd Peter Crumpler, a priest in St Albans, Herts, and a former communications director for the CofE, considers the PCC. The history of the PCC—who are we And we know that all things work together for good to those who love God, to those who are the called according to His purpose. Romans 8:28 When you next attend a PCC meeting, which is probably more likely to be by zoom than in person, you could say “Happy 100th Birthday!” to your colleagues. It is a hundred years since The Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1921 which was an important stage in the birth of PCCs. During the First World War army chaplains found that many men who thought of themselves as church goers were ignorant of the

basics of religion. This led to a new interest in mission for the church. There were national days of prayer during the war and in 1915 there was a National Mission of Repentance and Hope. The public were more in the mood for victory than repentance. After the Armistice there was a desire for change in the national church and this led to a discussion about the links with the state. There was a concern that Parliament was often slow to enact laws for the church and many people felt the national church should have more authority to govern itself. The setting up of Parochial Church Councils was part of that process. In the past a lot of local secular administration had been the responsibility of churchwardens in the vestry meetings. Gradually their functions were passed to local councils. Most of their remaining powers were transferred to PCCs by The Parochial Church Councils (Powers) Measure 1921. The purpose behind these new councils was to give the laity a more prominent role in parish life to go alongside the deaconry, diocesan and national councils which became the synods and have an important role in church life. Some conservative clerics were concerned at this reform and felt that congregations would pick and choose clergy or object to a new incumbent chosen by a patron. The process of starting PCCs to share in decision making in parishes was widely accepted but a few older incumbents and those in more rural areas, failed to do either out of reluctance or ignorance. A leading churchman in the reform movement was who became leader of the ‘Life and Liberty movement’ which hugely influenced the move towards democratic government in the Church of England. He was Bishop of in the 1920s, Archbishop of York from 1929 to 1942 and (1942-4). He had been a secretary of the National Mission of Repentance and Hope in 1916 and became chairman and joint leader with H. R. (Dick) Sheppard of the Life and Liberty movement. ‘We demand lib- erty for the Church of England’ he declared at a meeting in July 1917. One difficult issue was what level of commitment to church life enabled a person to be eligible to serve on a church council. It

was decided that anyone on the electoral roll whether they attended services or communion regularly could participate. The then resigned over the issue because he thought that councils must only be made up of committed regular communicants. The next Bishop of Oxford in his monthly diocesan magazine endorsed the principle of democracy and reassured people that it was a not negative step or would limit the powers of clergy or wardens. He encouraged the congregations to consider how to use each other’s gifts. In Aylesbury the idea of the new PCCs had been discussed as early as 1918. It was felt that they would support the clergy particularly with financial issues. It is strange to think that the proposal for clergy and congregation to work together for the benefit of the church could be controversial. The birth of PCCs was a major step in the life of the church. I wonder what the next one hundred years will bring? Do you think you’ve got what it takes to be a member of our PCC? Now’s your chance the APCM is on Sunday May 16th. For more information you can speak to Cecile, Penny, Brian or Phyllis, we’re always looking for new members to give us a fresh perspective!

Could these be the requisite principles of the perfect PCC member?

God in the arts……….

The Rev Michael Burgess continues his series on God in the Arts with a look at Come, risen Lord, and deign to be our guest I like the story of the vestry noticeboard of a church in Hampshire: after a Holy Week performance of Stainer’s ‘Crucifixion’, the choir- master wrote: ‘“The Crucifixion” – well done, everyone!’ Later that day, someone had added, ‘The Resurrection – well done, God!’ For the two disciples treading the road to Emmaus, there was no such sense of victory and celebration. Their minds and hearts were numb with the sense of loss and failure. They had seen their Lord tried and crucified. As Luke recounts that walk in his Gospel, he shows how it began with absence and loss, but journeyed to presence. It was a road that took the disciples from blindness and despair to sight and insight. They talked over past events with the stranger who joined them, and Luke uses ten different Greek words to describe that conversation – all stages in their understanding. And when they share a meal with the stranger, who becomes the host, taking the bread and giving thanks, then the understanding becomes vision and insight. That meal is the theme of Caravaggio’s painting of 1601, ‘The Supper at Emmaus.’ Caravaggio had a reputation for being a violent, irrational artist, given to bouts of anger and forced to spend part of his life in exile in Naples and Sicily. His paintings as well as his life- style shocked and provoked comment. This portrayal of Jesus with a plump, youthful face and his depiction of the apostles as ordinary labourers upset the church authorities. But by giving Jesus a beardless face, Caravaggio was trying to show Him in the new likeness of Resurrection – an Easter image of our Lord. The light from that Easter Jesus fills the scene as the two disciples look on, astonished and finally understanding. When we read the Gospel, we are drawn into the scene. For Caravaggio the movement is the other way: the scene reaches out

to us from the canvas. Look at the outstretched hand of Jesus, the elbow of one disciple and the left hand of the other: they are being projected into our world. And that basket of fruit, full of apples and figs and grapes, symbols of the fall and the eucharist: it is about to topple off the table and into our laps. It is an Easter encounter two thousand years ago, reaching out to us through light and shade and the skill of the artist. In many ways the Gospel story in Luke is of an ordinary encounter between travellers and a stranger. But it is made extraordinary by the transforming power of the risen Lord, talking with the disciples in the open air and then going inside for a meal. However, the doors are not shut to us. For Caravaggio shows how that special moment of encounter for the two disciples can reach out to enter our world. And he shows the hand of the risen Lord beckoning us to step into that Easter world of sacrament and new life.

‘The Supper at Emmaus’ by Caravaggio. It now hangs in the National Gallery.

A YEAR OF CORONAVIRUS The Queen recently spoke for the whole country when she said that many are, “tinged with sadness. Some (are) mourning the loss of those dear to them and other missing friends and family members, distanced for safety. When all they really want … is a simple hug or a squeeze of the hand.” We may have become accustomed to wearing face masks in public, keeping our distance from others, cutting out social gatherings, and attending church services online, but ‘no touching’ seems the cruellest of punishments. As one vicar friend of mine said, the Church has had to learn a lot from lockdown: “That Zoom is no substitute for meeting together, sharing warmth, laughter, tears – and drinking from the same cup. We have a commonality in Christ, whoever we are. Christianity is more ‘us’ than ‘me’. “Also, we cannot ignore those who will bear considerable cost arising from the pandemic. People have lost loved ones, businesses, confidence, jobs. It is vital that the church becomes a place of hope – not glib, cliched words – but solid hope drawn from Scripture and made real in action. The church could become a real hub of the local community. “But we have to rethink much of what we do and how we say things. The money has all but gone now and the church has to refocus on how it attracts people, what it says in plain English, how it presents itself and provides a warm welcome to those who haven’t a clue what Christianity is…. and all this on a very tight budget!” He’s got to be right. And some of us could begin to apply some of his ideas right now, even before the pandemic is under control. As a direct consequence of lockdown, many of us have much more

money in the bank than we bargained for. We could send a substantial sum to our local church, and some to an overseas charity, to make some of those ambitions come true. With time on our hands, we could earmark an hour or two for emailing or phoning those in our address book who live alone. We could buy extra supplies for a food bank on our next visit to the supermarket. And we must ask God to make our church more comprehensible to those who consider themselves outsiders.

Oranges & Lemon’s Puzzles, Quizzes and Colouring for All

Can you find your way through the maze?

A Word Search for Spring

BOGGLED PUZZLE

How many words can you make of 3 letters or more from the letters given in the grid below— remember you can only use each letter once per word. Make it fun and challenge the family. Once you’ve completed your list add up your score—who scored highest?

R M P A S O R O I E W L R I S F

Points 3 letters = 1 point 4 letters = 2 points 5 letters = 3 points 6 letters = 4 points My Score 7 letters = 5 points 8 letters = 9 points

CROSSWORD OF THE MONTH

Across

1 Relating to the whole universe (6) 4 The disciple who made the remark in 8 Across (John 20:24) (6) 8 ‘Unless I see the nail marks — — hands, I will not believe it’ (John 20:25) (2,3) 9 He urged King Jehoiakim not to burn the scroll containing Jer- emiah’s message (Jeremiah 36:25) (7) 10 Baptist minister and controversial founder of America’s Moral Majority, Jerry — (7) 11 ‘Look, here is — . Why shouldn’t I be baptized?’ (Acts 8:36) (5) 12 Repossessed (Gen 14:16) (9)

17 Port from which Paul sailed on his last journey to Rome (Acts 27:3–4) (5) 19 ‘Moses was not aware that his face was — because he had spoken with the Lord’ (Ex 34:29) (7) 21 Roonwit, C.S. Lewis’s half-man, half-horse (7) 22 Grill (Luke 24:42) (5) 23 ‘The lot fell to Matthias; so he was added to the — apostles’ (Acts 1:26) (6) 24 ‘I was sick and you looked after me, I was in — and you came to visit me’ (Matthew 25:36) (6)

Down

1 Coastal rockfaces (Psalm 141:6) (6) 2 Academic (1 Corinthians 1:20) (7) 3 Publish (Daniel 6:26) (5) 5 For example, the Crusades (4,3) 6 11 Across is certainly this (5) 7 He reps (anag.) (6) 9 Liberator (Psalm 18:2) (9) 13 Man who asked the question in 11 Across was in charge of all her treasury (Acts 8:27) (7) 14 They must be ‘worthy of respect, sincere, not indulging in much wine’ (1 Timothy 3:8) (7) 15 The human mind or soul (6) 16 ‘O Lord, while precious children starve, the tools of war in- crease; their bread is — ’ (Graham Kendrick) (6) 18 ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not — ’ (Matthew 11:17) (5) 20 Bared (anag.) (5)

Answers to all our quizzes and crosswords etc are on the final page of Oranges & Lemons

Debar. 20, Dance. 18, Stolen. 16,

Psyche. 15, Deacons. 14, Candace. 13, Deliverer. 9, Sphere. 7,

Moist. 6, war. Holy 5, Issue. 3, Scholar. 2, Cliffs. 1, DOWN:

Prison. 24, Eleven. 23, Broil. 22,

Centaur. 21, Radiant. 19, Sidon. 17, Recovered. 12, Water. 11,

Falwell. 10, Delilah. 9, his. In 8, Thomas. 4, Cosmic. 1, ACROSS:

THE COMMUNITY ORCHARD GARDEN

In our last edition we ran an article from Owain Harding on the building of our new Community Garden . In February it was looking like this

Now we are in March it has already been transformed and we can see the many spring bulbs poking through in the flowerbeds

It is now open and accessible every day during the week. Do come and have a look at the transformation. We are still awaiting a

delivery of trees and fruit bushes before the wildflower meadow can be sown. Two benches have also been ordered (one by Win and her family and one by Jane P and the uniformed groups in memory of Geraldine Cox our former Brown Owl). The churchyard and the orchard look beautiful in the sunshine – why not come and have a look. On Sunday 14th March we celebrated Mothering Sunday & Silver Jubilee - 25 years ago the congregation of St Peter joined St Clement and this was a reason to celebrate. We had the honour of having the Bishop of Southwark, , with us on that day. He preached and presided at the service and then blessed the new St Clement Orchard after the service

We are still fundraising with a target of £15,000 to complete the project and fund new garden fences, trellises, trees and flower beds. If you can, please do support the project. https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/stclement-orchard Alternatively if you don’t have online access you can go old style and send your donation by cheque marked for the St Clement’s Orchard - cheques to be made payable to St Clement w St Peter please.

We have also received a £1000 grant from the community Lottery Fund which is amazing. With the money three wooden benches have been bought for the wider churchyard to allow you and others to come and sit in the green oasis around the church.

Nigel Beeton writes: ‘I’m sure for many people isolated at home the time since Christmas has hung heavy. It can be challenging to make the most out of every day, and it is perhaps always a worthwhile exercise to consider our priorities:

Can it be Easter Already?

Can it be Easter already? Can that be really so? The carols and the Christmas tree Don’t seem that long ago!

Can it be Easter already? Do April showers splash? The weeks gone by since Christmas day Have gone in just a flash!

Can it be Easter already? The time of Lent has passed The forty days and forty nights Went by so very fast.

If it is Easter already, That time has sped away. Perhaps it’s time to ponder, pause And savour every day!

By Nigel Beeton

Meetings to hopefully resume from 20th April For more details ask or contact Jane P

God in the sciences……….

Dr Ruth M Bancewicz, who is Church Engagement Director at The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion in Cambridge. Ruth writes on the positive relationship between Science and Christian faith. MENTAL HEALTH IDEAS FOR UNCERTAIN TIMES We may have all had rather mixed feelings on reaching March this year. On the one hand, it is lovely to see the onset of Spring, and vaccinations and better weather may make handling the pandemic a little easier. On the other hand, marking a year from the start of the first UK lockdown will be painful for some, especially as many of us are likely to be experiencing restrictions or ongoing hardships for quite some time. We may need to find new ways to keep going, so here are some suggestions that draw on both science and Christian theology. Getting outside Time outdoors in a natural environment is very good for you – and you can’t argue with the happy hormones produced by exercise. Attending to the details of nature can also inspire awe, which has been linked to positive mood, and increased life satisfaction. Enjoying creation can also help us connect with God. Looking outside If you are truly stuck indoors, try putting bird feeders outside your window so creation comes to you. This is also an act of kindness (see below)! Lament and praise The Psalms are a rich resource to help us express both our grief and our thanks to God. Try reading one or two each day.

Journaling Keep a journal of thoughts, experiences or practices you have engaged with during the day. Constructing a personal narrative or story is now recognised as a very powerful psychological and spiritual tool for building resilience. It is also a vital learning tool that we can go back to when tough times return in the future. Acts of kindness Helping or encouraging someone else is obviously a good thing to do in itself, but it also has a very positive effect on the giver – spiritually, mentally, emotionally, and even physically. Whichever way you look at it, finding new ways to show kindness to others can be a very effective way to help ourselves feel better too. Gratitude Gratitude is another natural drug – in a sense – that can help us feel better. Try keeping a grateful diary, adding a few things each day. Laugh, sing, make music, dance All of these activities are deeply rooted in our physical and mental makeup. You may have forgotten how great they feel, especially in times of sadness, but we can learn from children who do them very naturally. I hope these ideas may help bring us closer to God, each other, and His creation.

AS WE COME OUT OF LOCKDOWN (HOPEFULLY) Here’s a challenge for all of you readers, if I ask you all to share ‘A day in my life under lockdown’? – and send me 100 words of how you are spending your time at home, and what you actually like about it? Or 100 words on ‘The three things I most want to do when coronavirus is over’ I wonder how many of you will actually do it? I’ve made a start but go on surprise me and we can read them in future editions of the A&K Jane P

The three things I most want to do when coronavirus is over’

Wow, after so long there are so many things I want to do once restrictions are lifted, meeting friends again, being able to sit in a group and have a long chat with a cup of tea or in my case coffee, having a cuddle with my friends grandchildren and to say hello to their new baby born at Christmas, celebrating a special birthday that had to be put off last year. So what are my top 3: • Going to visit friends and stay overnight • Meeting friends for a meal at a restaurant • To be able to have a cuddle!

There you are, that’s my 100 words. Jane P

Lockdown and Girlguiding

As many of you know we are very fortunate in having a thriving Guiding group here at St Clement with St Peter’s but sadly since last March we have not been able to meet face to face with our Rainbows, Brownies, Guides and Rangers and it has been very hard for all of us. The girls just want to meet with their friends but as Leaders we have to think of our safety first as what many people still do not get is that we are all volunteers and have lives, jobs and families outside Guiding to consider as a priority as it would be awful if one of our Leaders were to contract the virus from a meeting when they are a teacher or doctor and some of us are also considered vunerable by age or health. BUT our girls and parents have been very supportive and our hope is to return to face to face meetings in September. Our Guides and Rangers have continued to meet virtually on Zoom which has been a revelation for all of us and a real learning curve for the Leaders attendance has had an average of 16 and seems to have been enjoyed by all even the camping at home! Although we already know that we have lost a small number of our members we have many more on our waiting lists chomping at the bit to join us so we are not worried about reforming. You will also have read previously that our ’old’ Brown Owl, Geraldine Cox, sadly died in January and our Units wanted to remember her in some way and what better way than purchasing a bench in her memory for the new garden. It has been ordered and will hopefully be with us very soon and I’m sure when we get back to our meetings we will definitely be using the area to enable us to get out of the Hall and do some of our activities safely and comfortably in the open!

150 YEARS OF THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL Joyce Grenfell wrote a wonderful song, Joyful Noise, about three lady choristers: Miss Clissold, Miss Truss and Ivy Trembley. Their greatest delight was to sing in an oratorio at the Royal Albert Hall. ‘It may be like a gasworks with a green-house roof above it, and it may lack convenience, but all the same we love it.’ That love has marked the life of the Royal Albert Hall over 150 years as last month we celebrated its opening on 29th March 1871. After the success of the Great Exhibition, Prince Albert dreamed of creating a more permanent cultural area in London to promote and popularise the arts and sciences. On his death in 1861 at just 42 years, it was decided to erect a memorial and a ‘Central Hall.’ And so the Royal Albert Hall was built. At heart it is an impressive concert hall promoting classical music with an annual performance of Handel’s Messiah from 1876, and from 1941 the BBC Proms: 8 weeks of concerts in the summer welcoming musicians from all over the world and culminating in the memorable Last Night. Composers from Wagner and Verdi to Bernstein and Britten have conducted and had works performed there. But the Royal Albert Hall has also hosted an amazingly wide variety of events through its life: the Beatles in 1963, Ella Fitzgerald in 1990, poetry evenings, sport (boxing, tennis and basketball), the Cirque de Soleil, Teenage Cancer Trust concerts, and the 25th anniversary performance of The Phantom of the Opera in 2011. It has provided a platform for Winston Churchill, Einstein and the Dalai Lama. Many of us will have poignant memories of the annual RBL Festival of Remembrance held every November since 1923: a moving occasion that culminates with the shower of poppy petals. Sadly, because of the restrictions with the pandemic, the Hall’s programme of events has had to be limited in scope since last year, but the frieze on the outside of the building remains to inspire. There we see a celebration of the rich variety of arts and sciences that include music, sculpture, painting, astronomy and navigation,

and the words Thine O Lord is the greatness and the power and the glory and the majesty – a reminder that all our creative work here is a reflection of the wonder of God the Creator. ‘He will never forget at all The day he played at Albert Hall’. That line from the Kinks’ song Session Man invites us all to celebrate and give thanks for the richness of the life and work of the Royal Albert Hall as we look back over its 150 years and as we look ahead with hope and faith to a richer future.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ! To all of our Church family who celebrate their special day during February & March :

Any of our younger members Birthday’s are in italics

APRIL : Helen, Edith & Linda MAY : Hugh, Chris, Nicola, Blossom, Ama, Sam & Else “SPECIAL BIRTHDAY” wishes to Sharon

MANY HAPPY RETURNS TO YOU ALL - If you or your child aren’t on our Birthday list please let the editor know now for next year!

Historically, the Church of England has had its share of eccentric clergy. Even nowadays, hiding away in remote parishes, there are still some colourful clergy about. Clergy such as the elderly, Anglo-Catholic Uncle Eustace, who is incumbent in the small parish of St James-the-Least-of All, somewhere in Very Rural England. Eustace despairs of his nephew, Darren, who has become an Evangelical curate in a busy urban parish… and so he writes letters, to try and properly ‘educate’ Darren in parish life.

ON HOW TO DEAL WITH YOUR CHURCH’S CORRESPONDENCE

The Rectory St James the Least

My dear Nephew Darren You may have had several years of intensive training on biblical interpretation, preaching and church history, but that doesn’t cover the really important matters in parish life: how to evade disgruntled parishioners, run a brisk Summer Fete and, in your case at present, deal with correspondence, either by letter or email. My regular practice, which I recommend to you, is to read all the letters/emails you receive and then discard them. If the matter is truly important, you will receive a second message, to which you respond; more likely, the sender will either have forgotten all about his first letter/email after the second month or will write to some other cleric instead. In either case, you will be saved a great deal of trouble. You only need two folders for your filing system, either for post or emails. The first is for complaints; they are to be filed and ignored, no matter how many duplicates you are sent. Should you be

confronted personally, you simply say that the matter has been passed on to the bishop. Those truly dogged complainants who pursue the matter will eventually receive an episcopal reply saying he knows nothing of the matter, for which you then blame the postal system/spammed email. After letters and emails have ricocheted round the country for many months, the person complaining will either have lost energy to pursue the matter, or the will to live. The second file receives all other correspondence/emails chronologically. The earliest letters and emails will be at the bottom of the pile and the most recent on the top. In my experience, the postal file only needs attention when it reaches a height of about two feet and becomes unstable. The practice then is to discard the lower six inches and allow it to continue its steady growth. If the stack is kept in the church vestry, then mice usually attend to the papers on the bottom of the pile. Sadly, your own church, with its electronic systems for filing, sorting and retrieving correspondence and with your parish secretaries, removes all of these blessings at a stroke. You have therefore no excuses for not dealing instantly with every note that comes your way. As ye sow, so shall ye reap. May I also remind you that not even St Paul, that unflagging letter-writer, ever ended one of his letters with a request for a prompt reply. Need I say more? Your loving uncle,

Eustace

Nigel Beeton writes: For those of us fortunate enough to have gardens one reliable source of joy and pleasure over the past dark months has been the birds visiting our gardens. I even saw goldfinches in mine, they are not common visitors but it’s lovely to see them when they come! They really are spectacular birds!

The Goldfinch

A flash of yellow, gold, and red Dancing in our flower bed Flocked together, bringing charm Their joyful song restoring calm.

Through centuries since times of old We’ve always loved their plumage bold; As they gathered round to feed Seeking grubs, and thistle seed.

So, go ahead, and plant some thistles You will see, among the bristles. Golden birds who dance and dart Bringing joy to warm your heart.

By Nigel Beeton

STEWARDSHIP MATTERS! Ways you can now Give to YOUR Church

For our church to continue to prosper and grow please resume your Giving if you haven’t already done so. And if at all possible please change to paying online so that we know this is a regular payment! If you would like to become a member of our Regular Giving Scheme and are not already please let Jane know a.s.a.p.

The details you will need for Online payments are : account no. 40775541 sort code 20-66-51 Barclays Bank Account name : St Clement with St Peter Please remember to use your surname as reference and please let Jane Ball our new Giving Co-Ordinator know if you move over to this method of payment.

However, if you are not a member of the Scheme and don’t want to be there are now two alternative ways that you can help us by making a donation. • A Giving Page has been set up for one-off donations to be made to the Church (this is different from the Community Garden Just Giving page).

Please go to: https://tinyurl.com/y42lemfq

Here you will be given options of the amount you wish to donate, although it offers you £5 £10 £20 etc the Other Amount button allows you to indicate a lesser or higher amount of your choice. The link can also be found on our Facebook page OR use your smartphone to click on the QR Code

If you don’t have online access you can still go old style and send your donation to : Jane Ball, 95C Barry Rd, SE22 0HR (cheques made payable to St Clement w St Peter)

In this time of the pandemic we as well as other business have made huge losses and we now stand on a less financially secure ground. The PCC together with the newly appointed treasurers are looking at ways in how to best move forward. In the coming months you will hear more about external fundraising, increased giving and going cashless (if that is possible). In the meantime, we would like to thank all of you who are supporting the work of the church regularly. If you are able to change your regular cash donations through online giving or a standing order then that would be amazing. Cash on a Sunday plate means for us to queue for at least an hour at a bank which is not safe at the moment. Please know that if you pay by standing order you will not need a giving envelope. Jane Ball our treasurer can help you will any questions you may have. Her email address is: [email protected] Thank you for your ongoing help.

Please remember them in your prayers :

The Diocese and the Parish : Bishop Christopher, Bishop Karowei, Jane Steen our Archdeacon, the Dulwich Deanery and Jill our Area Dean, for Cecile, our Parish and Church Wardens Phyllis and Brian.

The Sick & Home Communicants : Beryl, Cedric, Clifford, Edith, Elaine, Frank, Harry, Joan, John, Judy, Lucinda, Mark, Myrtle, Octavia, Pam, Paul, Pauline, Philip, Rhoda, Ryan, Susan, Susett, Vicki, Win, William, and all others known to us.

The Departed : For all those who have recently died Kathleen Francis and for those whose anniversary falls at this time April : Jeanne Quick, John Nicholas Robinson, Joyce Packman, Dorothy Dormer May : Frederick Barlow, William Omeda May they rest in peace and rise in glory. 

Hall User Groups and Children’s Party Hiring details

Once our Hall User Sessions resume we may have some availability for new Regular Group lettings - however, the Hall may not be used from Maundy Thursday to Easter Monday or from Christmas Eve to New Years Day or on Bank Holidays. All initial enquiries are to be made via our website. Please be aware the Hall is not available to hire for any Adult Parties, Receptions, Baby Showers or Concerts BUT only for Children’s Parties (toddler’s to age 7 only) on Saturday afternoons from 2-5pm. Our Hall Manager Mrs Alia Waheed will then contact you with further details.

Every Sunday we celebrate the Eucharist at 10am in church. Restrictions have now been lifted and we are back to worshipping in church, spaces do not currently have to be booked but we ask you to arrive well on time and wear a face mask. The service is also live streamed on our Facebook page.

The church is once again open on Sunday until 3pm for private prayer. Come and enter this place of worship to spend a moment before God, the blessed sacrament and light a candle.

All Requests / arrangements for Baptism’s, Weddings, Marriage Banns or Funerals are currently to be made directly to Cecile by calling 020 8693 1890

We continue to collect food for Southwark Foodbank our collection boxes are situated at the Friern Road Gates and emptied twice daily.

Southwark Foodbank Shopping List • Rice Pudding • Tinned Meat (pork and non-pork) • Tinned fish • Tinned Vegetables • Jam • Tinned Fruit • Fruit Juice - (UHT/ long life only) • Washing powder/tablets • Toiletries (Toothpaste & toothbrushes) • Men and Women’s Deodorant • Sanitary towels/pads (please no tampons)