Box River News January 2020 Boxford • Edwardstone • Groton • Little Waldingfield • Newton Green Vol 20 No 1 A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy and Healthy New Year to you all GROTON’S CHEESE AND WINE PARTY The Feast Rosie and David – “Kiss me under the mistletoe” Above: Bryn Hurren, Auctioneer. Photos David Lamming Forty-four people attended this year’s annual Cheese & Wine party at Groton Village Hall on Saturday 7 December. ‘Cheese & Wine’ is perhaps a misnomer, as patrons were faced with a veritable spread of delectable tasties to suit every palate. The £1 ‘secret present’ dip provided amusement, and auctioneer Bryn Hurren cajoled bids for items ranging from a brace of pheasants to a decorative reindeer. This, and the raffle, helped boost the net proceeds of the event (to go to St Bartholomew’s Church) to around £850. Thanks to all who came, and especial thanks to those who provided the food and helped in many other ways to make this another unmissable event in Groton’s calendar. Alan Barnes Fleece Jazz At the Stoke by Nayland Club AFrlaidn aBya r2n7e sD Oecteemt ber 8 £25;00. Just a taste of the January through April season... "Mr Music" himself returns with his Octet to amaze and delight us. Ian Shaw and Barry Green: sublime vocal and piano pair Alan Barnes Saxes, Robert Fowler Sax, Karen Sharp Sax, Bruce Adams Trumpet, Mark Nightingale Trombone, Dave Newton Piano, The wonderful Georgia Mancio brings her quartet Simon Thorpe Bass, Clark Tracey Drums. I canʼt think of a better band for a holiday gig than the Alan Barnes Octet. Just look at the and Derek Nash brings "Picanti" to Fleece Jazz. lineup. Alan Barnes is on anything with a single reed in it, with his virtuosic playing and comedic presentation (posh for the guy is Our doors open 7:30pm on Fridays very funny). Robert Fowler has a reputation as a broad-toned, swinging tenor player. Of Karen Sharp, Downbeat said this February, “Sharp loves melody, whether composed or improvised Bruce Adamsʼ top grade trumpet action, in the grand manner, is To buy tickets for any gig, obtain further information or add your name redolent of the great days of swing but with an updated confidant to the mailing list please telephone the BOX OFFICE: air. you canʼt find a better jazz trombone player than Mark 01787 211865 Nightingale said John Dankworth. David Newton is a world class pianistwith a great sense of humour. Simon Thorpe is one of the All cheques (with S.A.E. please) to: most popular bassist in the country. Clark Tracey is British Jazz Jazz at the Fleece, 18 The Causeway, Boxford, Suffolk CO10 5JR Best Drummer two years running, THE CHRISTMAS AND NEW YEAR LETTER BY REV ROB THIS MONTH’S GOOD READ Crime in Progress; A Warning; Inside Trump’s White House “Get over it”: that is how Mick Mulvaney, acting chief of staff at the White House, dismissed evidence that his boss bribed a foreign government to publicise bogus charges against his chief political rival. But it’s about as easy to get over Trump as it is to shrug off a cancer diagnosis. With Hillary Dear Friends, Clinton archly hinting at her readiness for a As we approach Christmas, I warn you that I have a tendency towards over- rerun of the 2016 election, others are enthusiasm. All the joy and joviality of Christmas really can bring out the reinterpreting the past either to delegitimise best in folk. Christmas is the most wonderful time of the year. A time when Trump after the event or to prepare for his we celebrate the fact that God’s merciful compassion is so awesome that he vindication at the polls next November. is willing to give His son. As we gaze at our mysterious God, we see a God A weary, regretful deja vu pervades Crime in who gives, even of himself, for us. Progress, written by the researchers who Sadly, Christmas will not be so wonderful for everyone. Homelessness is at brought to light the notorious dossier that epidemic levels, foodbanks are overworked and once again we have seen traced Trump’s grubby dealings with research that suggests levels of mental illness continues to rise. Did you Russian gangsters; the same document described a cabaret act know that 1 in 5 children suffer from depression and there has been a 200% supposedly staged for him by some micturating Moscow hookers, increase in child suicides since 2014? Or that 1 in 5 men will experience commended by Putin as “the best in the world”. Simpson and Fritsch prolonged depression or severe anxiety during their lifetime and suicide hoped the FBI would use the information they provided to indict Trump, rates in men are at their highest since 2002? Added to this, 1 in 4 men have though its then director James Comey instead reprimanded Clinton for no close friends and millennials (those under 40) as well as the elderly her insecure email server. They were disappointed a second time by the suffer from concerning levels of loneliness and isolation. The real sadness noncommittal Mueller report. This “secret history” of their persecution is that these figures will only increase over the Christmas period as people by angry Republicans who disputed their findings attempts to relitigate succumb to secular pressures of a commercialised world and its unrealistic the case. agenda. We can easily see why it is claimed that Western society is Simpson and Fritsch aspire to be latter-day versions of Bob Woodward experiencing ‘spiritual deprivation’ . There are cultures in our society that and Carl Bernstein, the reporters who exposed Nixon’s Watergate cover- affect us all for the worse. Statistics show that the more a news report up: their book opens with Fritsch sneakily foiling Bernstein’s appeal for produces anger and fear in its audience, then the more individuals are likely information, and later Simpson derides Woodward for cosying up to to want to engage with it. Our society has a tendency towards unfair Trump. But the new guys lack the crusading bravado of their criticism, negativity and doesn’t encourage us to see the best in others. predecessors. Their opposition to Trump starts out as a “business Such a climate distorts our vision with a negative lens, if we are not careful. opportunity”, not a quest for truth or a challenge to power, and they go to So the real Christmas message is more important and urgent than ever. work like conscientious geeks, assisted by a man they call “a human hard Christmas is not about maxing out on credit cards or spoiling each other drive” and a woman who serves as their “in-house cyber-ninja”. silly. Christmas is about simply sharing, giving and loving. Christmas is The retold tale is revved up by hyperactive verbs – Simpson “cracks about unfettered generosity and joy: finding happiness and contentment in open” his MacBook, “pops” a beer can, and “shoots” a text message to the simplest of things and rejoicing in the greatest story ever told. Fritsch – and includes a strained homage to the episodes in All the Why would you want to believe in something awful, when you can believe in something wonderful? President’s Men when Woodward ventures into an underground car park Recently, Harvard University produced research on the effects of attending for creepy confabs with the CIA informant he nicknamed “Deep Throat”: church regularly. The study found that children and teenagers who attended summoned to testify at the US Capitol, Simpson and Fritsch are ushered church services at least once a week were 18% more likely to report being into “a dimly lit chamber” in the basement where poor lighting gives their content, resilient and happier as adults than those who never attended Republican inquisitor “a lizard-like appearance”, then sequestered in services. This comes on the back of other research published in 2016: that another office that feels “like a weird terrarium out of a sci-fi movie”. Yet those who attend church more than once a week live longer than those who there is no “cathartic finale” to match Nixon’s fall, and the ominous title do not. All the evidence suggests that the modern obsession with of Crime in Progress deflates when the authors admit that Trump’s possession, self-interest and striving for unrealistic personal ‘happiness’ is “conspiring with Russia may not be a crime provable in federal court”. actually doing us severe harm. Church, at its best, teaches us another way Last year an unidentified White House official wrote an op-ed in the – lives of genuine service are often lives lived in fulfilment. New York Times about the efforts of aides to frustrate the president’s A lot of people recognise this, but struggle because they wish to see more most “batshit” proposals. Trump denounced the article as an act of physical proof of the God stuff. And yet, sometimes the proof is before our treason, but because his only means of self-defence is name-calling, he eyes but we cannot see it - a little like King Herod in the Christmas had trouble mocking his nameless detractor. At a rally in Montana Narrative. And to put it more candidly, if you are unable to take some “Anonymous” got entangled with “Anomalous” on his flapping tongue things on faith, then you are limiting yourself to a life of doubt and and, after some slurs and gobbles that suggested dodgy dentures, the scepticism . Once we can see the world through God’s compassionate, self- compound word expired in a sibilant whistle.