The of Acton ST MARY’S and ALL SAINTS

Rector The Revd Nick Jones 020 8992 8876 020 8993 0422 (parish office) [email protected] Twitter: @georgenewbrook

Associate Rector The Revd Dean Ayres 020 8992 9384 [email protected] The Acorn The Revd Mary Spredbury 020 8995 8879 [email protected]

Facebook (www.facebook.com/stmaryacton).

Churchwardens Yvonne Kisiedu 020 8248 4891 Vacancy

Other Church Officers PCC Secretary: Janet Coker Treasurer: Elizabeth Simpson Stewardship Secretary: Phyllis Kwan

January 2021 Parish Secretary: Janet Coker Telephone: 020 8993 0422

Email: [email protected] Website: http://www.stmaryacton.org.uk Registered charity no. 1130252

The Parish Office remains closed at present ‘An inclusive and progressive Christian community at the heart of Acton reimagining our faith for the 21st century’ The magazine is edited by Alan McCallum Items for inclusion in the December edition should be sent by email to [email protected] by 23rd January

Services at St Mary’s Volume 25 No.1

CONTENTS Sunday 10.30am All Age Eucharist

Thursday 11am Page From the Rector 5 Midweek Communion Giving to the Church 7 This short service without music is very suitable for those still The Kalender 8 anxious about being in large crowds as well as those Christmas overspend 9 still working at home. Ealing Foodbank 10 A prayer for all those affected by coronavirus 10 St Mary’s is closed at present for personal prayer Daily Readings for January 11 and reflection Holocaust Memorial Day 12 Our Monthly Giving Project 13 Some Diary Dates for January 14 These details will be reviewed regularly The Afterlife of the Magi 15 God Knows 16 World Leprosy Day 18

Remembering the departed 19 Please wear a face covering and ensure you follow the social distancing guidelines

and let fresh air in 4 I’ll also be starting the New Year with a period of extended leave. From the Rector It’s important that we know our limits and these past nine months have been extremely taxing for us all, including those in leadership roles in the church. The usual quiet start to the year – most likely in ongoing Lockdown this time – gives me chance to rest and recharge my batteries. Dear friends th th I’m away from 4 January until 7 February. As well as resting, I’ll be As we step into a New Year, I have an increased sense of working on my New Year’s resolution. I have been doing well with this hopefulness. tradition in recent years. In 2018, I resolved to buy more hats – that didn’t prove hard! Last year, I took up the Parkrun. Whilst this had to stop in The first reason for this is simply that we cannot surely have a March, I continued running throughout the year, stepping up my physical more difficult and challenging year than we did in 2020! The second is fitness levels. This year, I’m aspiring to relearn Latin. Whilst I’m away, I’ll that we have reason for great confidence that the vaccination roll-out will be making a start on that. Latin was, of course, for a very long time the help us on the road to recovery from the Covid pandemic sooner rather language of the Church in the West and the principal language of than later. Vaccinations are already under way in our borough as I write learning. As part of a monastic community – Ealing Abbey – worship to and we will be opening a clinic at St Mary’s Church hall soon. Once older this day is often in Latin and I want to be able to enter into that more people and the most vulnerable people have been successfully meaningfully. I haven’t studied the language for more than 40 years, but I vaccinated, then we will be looking at a life that is much closer to normal do have a degree in it! with fewer deaths, hospitalisations and restrictions. That doesn’t mean we will be out of the woods, but it does mean that by Easter we will be in a It’s my prayer that, as the New Year starts, you will find both hope better place. At least in this country. Challenges of inequality remain for yourself and fresh purpose and enjoyment in your relationships, in globally as well as locally, and I fear the poorest countries of the world will what you already spend your time doing, as well as in new ventures. And be far behind us in this. here’s to a healthy year for us all and better days to come.

We are now in the season that the Church refers to as Epiphany, Wishing you a blessed New Year. when we contemplate the manifestation of Christ to the nations and the transformation Christ’s presence brings into our lives. We begin with the story of the mysterious visitors from the East to the baby in Bethlehem bearing gifts – the kings, wise men or “Magi.” We consider the baptism of Jesus and ponder its meaning, in particular the words from heaven “this is my beloved son” which features in those narratives. And we enjoy the story of Jesus turning water into at a wedding in Cana, Galilee, recorded by St John as his first “sign”. All are stories of hope and better days. They are uplifting stories for a gloomy month. I always hold back my nativity scene for these weeks, including both the Christ child and the three kings. This year, I will also be keeping lights up at the Rectory. Even the Christmas tree outside St Mary’s will remain until mid-January! I encourage you to do the same as a sign of hope in the midst of darkness.

6 5

Giving to the Church The London Kalender

These are anxious times for all of us and that includes our 4th January - Thomas Sterns Eliot, Poet, Churchwarden, 1965 personal finances. Until recently we had been unable to hold church T.S. Eliot was born in 1888, in St Louis, Missouri. His father was a services and we are only just starting to let out our hall. Although our successful businessman and the home life was affluent and cultured. church house has recently been let we have lost several months’ income After local schooling at Smith Academy in Missouri, Eliot went to Harvard and currently, both the Language School in the office block next to St where he studied philosophy. He came to Merton College Oxford in 1915 Mary’s and the Nursery at All Saints, are struggling to pay us. As a result to continue his studies. In 1917 his first book of poems was published, we have seen a heavy decline in our income and will make a substantial but he made his name in 1923 with the publication of his major poem: The loss this year. Please consider if you are able to make a donation tor to Waste Land. The poem is based in London and is a reflection in a increase your regular giving. Every little really does help at a time like remarkable set of different images of the profound malaise, cynicism and this. So, only if you are able, please: ennui that was prevalent in a country that had just lost millions of young • join our Parish Giving Scheme or transfer to it men in a world war. This publication changed Eliot's life. In 1927 he • increase the amount you are regularly giving through the became a British subject and a confirmed member of the Church of Parish Giving Scheme or Standing Order England. It was from now that his poetry tackled more overtly Christian • Make a one off donation as you can via this link or QR themes, and that he turned to writing drama in verse, often with religious https://givealittle.co/campaigns/97b6a1f3-1d62-4b43- themes. The Rock, a drama written and performed in 1934 in support of the 45 Churches Fund (an initiative of the of London to 80a1753222745d3a evangelise the burgeoning suburbs of Middlesex), incorporates some of his most profound spiritual reflections. In 1948 he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature and admitted to the Order of Merit. He was churchwarden at St Stephen’s Church, Gloucester Road for twenty-five years. He died on this day in 1965. His cremated remains are interred at East Coker, Somerset, the ancestral home of the Eliots.

If you use the online giving page and are able to complete the Gift Aid declaration then your donation will be increased by 25%.

If you prefer you can make donation directly to our bank account at Barclays 20-92-60 Account no. 30116521 Please use your name as a reference. Thank you for your support at this difficult time. 7 8 14th January Mandell Creighton, of London, 1901 Mandell Creighton was born in in 1843. He was educated Ealing Foodbank locally, at Durham Grammar School and Merton College, Oxford, Graduating in 1866. After four years academic work he was ordained and became Vicar of Embleton, then in the Diocese of Durham. In 1885 he The Ealing Foodbank is open and will welcome clients with referrals, became the first Dixie Professor of Ecclesiastical History at Cambridge between 10am and 12noon, at St Hall, 1 Church Rd, Hanwell and a of Worcester. In 1891 he was appointed to be Bishop of W7 3BA on Peterborough and in 1897, . He suffered ill-health and Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays. died on this day in 1901. Whilst he was remembered as much as an NOTE - NOT WEDNESDAY as a churchman he was particularly involved when in London in That day is reserved for donations to be received, between 10am - 4pm. supporting the Voluntary School Bill of 1897. Also that year he played a During lockdown we will only be able to receive donations at our Central leading role in arranging the Diamond Jubilee service for . Store in Hanwell on Wednesdays between 10am and 4pm. He is buried in the Crypt of St Paul’s Cathedral and there is a memorial in Please check the website: . (c) the https://ealing.foodbank.org.uk/give-help/donate-food/

Christmas overspend

A prayer for all those affected by coronavirus I know that the month after Christmas can be a worrying time financially as the credit card bills with Christmas expenditure on all start coming through the door. If you are worried about being in debt or feel unable to with repayments do seek some help. Keep us, good Lord, The charity Step Change offers free debt advice. Its phone number is under the shadow of your mercy. 0800 138 1111 or you can visit the website at http://www.stepchange.org/ Sustain and support the anxious, Another source of help is the CAP debt advice centre at the be with those who care for the sick, Oaktree Anglican Fellowship who are able to offer help and advice – there and lift up all who are brought low; are details on their website at https://www.oaktree.org.uk/cap-debt-centre that we may find comfort https://www.oaktree.org.uk/cap-debt-centre knowing that nothing can separate us from your love To help avoid the worry in future years you might also like to think in Christ Jesus our Lord. about joining the Hillingdon Credit Union which also covers Ealing – there Amen. is further information at https://hillingdoncu.co.uk/index Mary 9 10

Daily Readings for January Holocaust Memorial Day 27th January Date Psalm 1st Reading 2nd reading 1st 103 Genesis 17:1-13 Romans 2:17-end 2nd 18:1-30 Isaiah 60:1-12 John 1:35-42 World Leprosy Day is actually on 24th January but it is usually observed 3rd 89:1-37 Isaiah 61 John 2:1-12 on the last Sunday in January each year 4th 89:1-37 Isaiah 60:13-end John 1:43-end 5th 48 Isaiah 61 John 2:1-12 “We will continue to do our bit for as long as we can, secure in the 6th 127 Isaiah 62 John 2:13-end knowledge that others will continue to light a candle long after us.” 7th 99 Isaiah 63:7-end John 3 Gena Turgel MBE, survivor of the Holocaust (1923-2018) 8th 46 Isaiah 64 1 John 4:7-end 9th 148 Isaiah 65:1-16 1 John 5:1-12 The theme for Holocaust Memorial Day (HMD) 2021 is ‘Be the 10th 89:19-29 1 Samuel 16:1-3, 13 John 1:29-34 light in the darkness’. It encourages everyone to reflect on the depths 11th 2 Amos 1 1 Corinthians 1:1-17 humanity can sink to, but also the ways individuals and communities 12th 8 Amos 2 1 Cor. 1:18-end resisted that darkness to ‘be the light’ before, during and after genocide. 13th 20 Amos 3 1 Cor. 2 Be the light in the darkness is an affirmation and a call to action for 14th 21 Amos 4 1 Cor. 3 everyone marking HMD. This theme asks us to consider different kinds of 15th 67 Amos 5:1-17 1 Cor. 4 ‘darkness’, for example, identity-based persecution, misinformation, denial 16th 33 Amos 5:18-end 2 Cor. 5 of justice; and different ways of ‘being the light’, for example, resistance, 17th 145:1-12 Isaiah 62:1-5 1 Cor. 6:11-end acts of solidarity, rescue and illuminating mistruths. 18th 146 Amos 6 1 Cor. 6:1-11 Increasing levels of denial, division and misinformation in today’s 19th 132 Amos 7 1 Cor. 6:12-end world mean we must remain vigilant against hatred and identity-based 20th 181 Amos 8 1 Cor. 7:1-24 hostility. Rapid technological developments, a turbulent political climate, 21st 76 Amos 9 1 Cor. 7:25-end and world events beyond our control can leave us feeling helpless and 22nd 27 Hosea 1.1-2.1 1 Cor. 8 insignificant. The utterly unprecedented times through which we are living 23rd 122 Hosea 21:2-17 1 Cor. 9:1-14 currently are showing the very best of which humanity is capable but also 24th 113 Jonah 3:1-5,10 John 3:16-21 - in some of the abuse and conspiracy theories being spread on social 25th 66 Ezekiel 3:22-end Philippians 3:1-14 media - the much darker side of our world as well. 26th 36 Hosea 4:1-16 1 Cor. 10:1-13 We can all stand in solidarity. We can choose to be the light in the 27th 46 Hosea 5:1-7 1 Cor. 10.14-11.1 darkness in a variety of ways and places – at home, in public, and online. 28th 47 Hosea 5.8-6.6 1 Cor. 11:2-26 29th 65 Hosea 6.7-7.2 1 Cor. 11:17-end From the Holocaust Memorial Day Trust website https://www.hmd.org.uk/ 30th 68 Hosea 8 1 Cor. 12:1-11 31st 71:1-6, 15-17 Jeremiah 1:4-10 Mark 1:40-end

11 12 as long as we are able and needed." Our Monthly Giving Project If you think you can help, contact the manager Ian on 020 8992 5768 during office hours.

If you would like to make a donation to Acton Homeless Acton Homeless Concern Concern, then please consider doing so through JustGiving. It Emmaus House/Damien Centre couldn't be simpler to donate. Just visit www.justgiving.com, search Jesus said, “...I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me for Acton Homeless Concern and make your donation. UK something to drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you taxpayers can claim Gift Aid at no extra cost. Gift Aid enables us to gave me clothing.” claim 28p in every Pound donated in additional funds. The Gospel of St Matthew Further information about the charity can be found at Acton Homeless Concern runs Emmaus House and the Damien www.actonhomelessconcern.org and their Facebook page. Centre to provide the needs of many local homeless and poor who came to the centre seeking food clothing, friendship, counselling and professional advice. They function as the practical Christian response to the social realities of the poor, the homeless, the alcoholic, and the mentally anxious. Normally, Emmaus House would provide a good meal and visitors would have access to a wide range of other services too. Amongst many services provided it had been possible for clients to see a doctor, dentist, chiropodist, barber, or even an optician (all of whom give their time on a voluntary basis). A drug counsellor visited the house once a month and clients could get referrals for further advice and counselling. The activities at the house endeavoured to meet a very broad range of needs. However, all that has now changed owing to Covid-19.

Acton Homeless Concern is asking residents for help in their Some Diary Dates for January efforts to provide support to the homeless during the present pandemic. Like everyone else, the restrictions on shopping and movement are affecting the charity by disrupting their normal suppliers and donors 1st The Naming of Jesus and clients. Currently, they can only give a take away service to clients to 6th The Epiphany reduce the risk of infection. 18th – 25th A Week of Prayer for Christian Unity Donations of sliced bread and takeaway drink containers with lids th would be much appreciated. If there are takeaway services in the area 24 Holocaust Memorial Day 24th World Leprosy Day with spare supplies any they can spare this would be invaluable. th Chair of Acton Homeless Concern Trustees, Anne Gray, has said, 25 The Conversion of St Paul "We are still up and running services at Emmaus House for our clients who need us more than ever. We are all passionate about carrying on for

13 14 which is a translation of a Greek text probably composed in Alexandria The Afterlife of the Magi round about 500 AD. However, there’s no indication here that the names were a new creation at that point, so the tradition doubtless goes back quite a bit farther. It’s generally thought that the name Caspar may be

traceable to Gondophares (subsequently reduced to Gaspar/Caspar), who The ‘big story’ of the season of Epiphany, starting on 6th January, is appears as a king of in the apocryphal Acts of Thomas, which the Coming of the Magi. Epiphany continues for several weeks, with the seems to have been written before the middle of the third century. There lections focussing on the manifestations of the divinity of Jesus - the aren’t any comparable candidates for the names of Melchior and Greek word ἐπιφάνεια (epiphaneia), which gives us ‘Epiphany’, means Balthazar, but not surprisingly, in view of their exotic associations in just that: ‘manifestation’. So we have the veneration by the Magi, Matthew’s narrative, later legends have them coming from distant lands: symbolising recognition by the world beyond Judaea of Christ’s kingship, Melchior from Persia and Balthazar from Babylonia or Arabia. It was soon priesthood, and death as represented by the gold, frankincense and assumed that, because of their encounter with the Christ-child, they were myrrh; his recognition as the Messiah by Simeon and Anna in the Temple; converted and were martyred for their beliefs. Constantinople (founded in the demonstration of his understanding of the Scriptures at the age of 330) claimed to have their relics, but these moved to Milan later in the twelve, when he disputed with the scholars it the Temple; John the fourth century and to Cologne in the twelfth, where the present gold shrine Baptist’s acclaim and God’s proclamation, together with the descent of of the Three Kings dates from c. 1200. the Holy Spirit, at the baptism; and the first miracle when, at the wedding feast of Cana, Jesus turns water into wine, prefiguring the Eucharist. Joyce Hill These were all subjects of preaching in Epiphany from the earliest centuries. But it is the Coming of the Magi which is tied to the feast-day itself. As John Barton has said in his recent History of the Bible God Knows (thoroughly to be recommended if you enjoy a scholarly read), this is a story ‘for which it is hard to imagine any historical source’. But it has undoubted power as a symbolic narrative and it has always seized the God Knows was the original name of the poem which is now imagination, so much so that stories have grown up around these generally known as The Gate of the Year. intriguing figures. On the basis of the three gifts, the Western church has The poem was written in 1908 by Minnie Louise Haskins and always assumed that there were three Magi, although other Christian privately published in 1912. It was part of a collection titled The Desert. It traditions have different numbers: there are twelve, for instance, in the caught the public attention and the popular imagination when King George Syriac tradition. But whatever the tradition, it wasn’t long before they were VI quoted it in his 1939 Christmas broadcast. The poem may have been given names. Later, in a further imaginative elaboration, they were brought to his attention by his wife, Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Consort). represented in art in ways that distinguish them one from another, for The book The Servant Queen and the King She Serves, published example in age and ethnicity, in order to draw out the essential symbolic for the 90th birthday of Queen Elizabeth II, its foreword, being by her, meaning: that this story’s purpose was to ‘manifest’ the divine and says that it was the young Princess Elizabeth herself, aged 13, who prophecy-fulfilling nature of the young child and to foreshadow his handed the poem to her father. recognition by people of all ages and races. The poem was widely acclaimed as inspirational, reaching its first The names we are familiar with in the traditions of Western mass audience in the early days of the Second World War. Its words Christendom - Caspar Melchior and Balthazar - differ from those in in the remained a source of comfort to the Queen Mother for the rest of her life, east. It’s impossible say where they come from. We first find them in a and she had its words engraved on stone plaques and fixed to the gates Latin text of the sixth century, known as the Excerpta Latina Barbari, of the King George VI Memorial Chapel at , where the King

15 16 was interred. The Queen Mother was also buried here in 2002, and the words of The Gate of the Year were included in a reflection in World Leprosy Day her funeral's order of service. 26th January

And I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year: “Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown.” And he replied: “Go out into the darkness and put your hand into the Hand of God. That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way.” So I went forth, and finding the Hand of God, trod gladly into the night And He led me towards the hills and the breaking of day in the lone East.

Minnie Louise Haskins was born in Oldland in Gloucestershire in 1875. Her father was Joseph Haskins, a grocer, and her mother was Louisa Bridges. Her father acquired a pottery at Warmley, also in Gloucestershire, making drain pipes, which was continued after his death by her mother. Haskins was a Congregationalist and she taught Sunday School for many years. She studied informally at University College, while From Yohei Sasakawa, WHO Goodwill Ambassador for Leprosy undertaking voluntary work for her local church. By 1903, she was Elimination working in , London, for the Springfield Hall Wesleyan Methodist On the occasion of World Leprosy Day 26th January, I think of the Mission. In 1907, she departed for Madras, India with the Wesleyan harsh life that persons affected by leprosy have had to endure - Methodist Missionary Society to work in one of the Zenana missions to abandoned by their families, isolated from society and deprived of their Women. In 1912, to raise funds, she published a small volume of freedom. poetry The Desert, which included the poem "God Knows". In 1915, poor Today, through the efforts of many people, leprosy is an easily health led Haskins, now 40 years old, to return to England where she ran curable disease. The drugs are distributed free of charge. Early detection a munitions workers' hostel in Woolwich for six months. and treatment help prevent disability. At the age of 43, Haskins enrolled at the London School of But despite the progress of science and the fact that leprosy can be Economics to study for the Social Science Certificate. After gaining the treated with drugs, just like other diseases, there are still people suffering Certificate with distinction in 1919, she took the Diploma in Sociology, from the unwarranted discrimination that exists toward leprosy. gaining a further distinction in 1920. From 1919 to 1939 she worked as a Because of leprosy, there are people who have been separated tutor in the Social Science Department. During this time, Haskins wrote from their families; who have been unable to continue at school; who have two novels Through Beds of Stone (1928) and A Few People (1932) and a lost their jobs; and who have missed out on the chance of marriage. After further volume of poetry Smoking Flax (1942). they have been cured, they are labelled ‘ex-patients’ and continue to face Although she retired in 1939, Haskins soon returned to teach at discrimination. the LSE at the outbreak of Second World War. She finally retired in 1944 We have not only to fight the disease, but also the prejudice and at the age of 69. She died at the and Sussex Hospital in Royal discrimination that have infected society. Tunbridge Wells, on 3rd February, 1957 at the age of 81. New cases of leprosy are still being discovered in many countries and regions. But fearful of being diagnosed, people often do not go to a 17 18 clinic or hospital because they think of leprosy as a shameful disease. This is one of the biggest obstacles to early diagnosis and treatment. In order for leprosy patients to feel they can go to hospitals and clinics to receive treatment, just as they used to before they contracted leprosy, and for them to be able to lead full lives in society, all of us need to have a correct understanding of leprosy and compassion toward those with the disease. This year, organizations representing persons affected by leprosy, which is also known as Hansen’s disease, are issuing messages on World Leprosy Day. I hope you will listen. Leprosy is not a disease of the past. It is an ongoing issue. On this World Leprosy Day, I would like to join together with as many people as possible in thinking what we can do to make a difference to the lives of persons affected by leprosy.

Remembering the departed

We remember those of our parish who have recently died, especially: Suzanne Greenwood Hazel Dilley George Thomas We also remember all who have died and particularly those who suffered from the Covid-19 virus.

God of compassion, be close to those who are ill, afraid or in isolation. In their loneliness, be their consolation; in their anxiety, be their hope; in their darkness, be their light; through him who suffered alone on the cross, but reigns with you in glory,

Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

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