Issue Number 462 August 2019 From Revd Nicholas Mercer As the Rector of Bolton Priory, I am daily reminded of the Reformation and the birth of the Church of England nearly five OUR MISSION hundred years ago. A community seeking to live well with God, The ruins behind the Rectory remind us all of the turbulence gathered around Jesus Christ in prayer and fellowship, occasioned when we broke from Rome in 1539. However, the Priory and committed to welcome, worship and witness. Church also reminds us that, out of this political cauldron, a new Church emerged called the Church of England. The Church Office Bolton Abbey, Skipton BD23 6AL The growth of the Anglican Church across the globe has been 01756 710238 remarkable ever since. Largely due to the British Empire, the Anglican [email protected] Church became the third largest Christian community in the world. It The Rector has also found a special place in the heart and soul of our nation. The Rectory, Bolton Abbey, Skipton BD23 6AL Fifty years ago, the poet Philip Larkin wrote in a poem entitled 01756 710326 [email protected] ‘Church Going’ that Church was Website ‘A serious house on a serious earth it is, in whose blent air all our www.boltonpriory.church compulsions meet’. The philosopher, Roger Scruton wrote that Anglican Churches have SUNDAY always made a deep impression on those who enter them, saying 08.00 Holy Communion ‘You came away with a sense that time and eternity meet in this place 09.15 Liquid Family Worship First Sunday of month as they have always met and both have a human face’. 10.30 Sung Eucharist In the light of this, the report this month of the British Social Attitudes 16.30 Evening Prayer (BSA) Survey for 2018 makes for depressing reading. Only 1% of Evensong as announced young people between the ages of 18-24 identify themselves as Church of England and, more generally, the number of people WEDNESDAY identifying themselves as Christian has fallen from 66% to 38%. As the report states, religious decline is generational. 10.00 Holy Communion This is a challenge for all of us at Bolton Priory. In the Diocesan 18.45 Choir Practice Strategy Plan we have been asked to consider how we enable children and young people to be part of our church family and All regular services are according to the Book of Common Prayer (BCP), except encourage people of all ages to grow as disciples. This is a vexed for the Family service, an informal service for young and old. question, not just for Bolton Priory, but for all Anglican Churches WEDDINGS and BAPTISMS: By arrangement via the Church Office. across the world. 1 2 However, the words of the poets and philosophers above might give JEAN HOLME RIP us a clue as to what sort of Church we wish to be in the future. A My mother was born in Lothersdale in 1937. She was the eldest of six sacred community in the heart of a secular world might well provide children, a farmer’s daughter. The family moved several times but a beacon of light in an increasingly secular world. A light that not only when Mum was twelve they settled at Storiths House. attracts but also helps guide all those who want to find their way. During her teenage years at Bolton Abbey Mum was very much Nicholas involved in village life, enjoying the Youth Club, choir, Sunday School teaching and attending church. EVENING PRAYER Mum was educated at Silsden Secondary Modern School and Keighley Technical College. Her first job, after leaving school, was at Mrs Evening prayer will be resume on 8 September and will be said each Ambler’s, a high class ladies outfitters in Skipton; then she went to Sunday thereafter at 16.30 . I am hoping that we will also have a Ilkley where she was a receptionist at Thornton's Dentists on the service of Choral Evensong once a month including guest choirs, Grove. when available. On New Year’s Eve in 1955 Mum met our Dad, Geoffrey. They were Rector married in the Priory in 1957. They farmed together at Cowling for three years before coming to Low House Farm in their beloved Dales. FROM JOE AND BARBARA PICKERSGILL In 1960 Duncan was born followed by me, Nicholas and Gordon. Mum We would like to thank everyone for their messages, love and was the most kind, patient, gentle mother that you could ever wish kindness at this sad time. for. As the four of us grew up to share the workload, Mum did a few extras, always for other people! When the village began raising MAY FIGURES money to build our Village Hall - Mum helped. She helped run the The average weekly attendance at all Sunday services early Youth Club and start the Village Show. of adults and children in June was 124. The average Throughout the years Mum worked alongside Dad on the farm, a real weekly receipts to the Priory in June was £ 1,725. In partnership. She loved the area, friends and neighbours. She was June there were 16,384 visitors. content and happy with her lot. Mum was a fountain of knowledge about this area, not facts and PARISH MAGAZINE DEADLINE SEPTEMBER MAGAZINE figures, just the place and its people, families past and present, our Please can we have any copy for the September magazine by 15 community. August sent either to the Editor or the Church Office. As the years went by Mum thoroughly enjoyed being a Grandma, first to Alan and Ian and then a little later to Zoe, constant security for them. In 2014 Mum became a great grandma! First came Raff then POSTAL MAGAZINES Belle and Martha. If you would like to receive your magazine by After Dad’s death in 2003 Mum continued to be there for us all and post just let the Church Office know, 01756 also helping Duncan on the farm. 710238. The cost is £10. You can also read it On 29 May Mum died at home, her home where she had lived for 59 online at the Priory website years. She was a very extraordinary lady and the four of us were lucky www.boltonpriory.org.uk to call her Mum. Karen Hartley 3 4 BOLTON ABBEY PAROCHIAL NOTES The Children’s Day at Morecambe The children of Bolton Abbey 100 YEARS AGO AUGUST 1919 parish, to the number of 75, will remember all their lives the great Peace Celebrations The chief event in the past month was the day they spent at Morecambe on July 9th, 1919, in celebration of celebration of Peace. Our little effort in Bolton Abbey to join in the peace; the day was brilliantly fine; the meals in the restaurant were National rejoicings was an unqualified success and, of course, far all that could be desired, thanks to the untiring and efficient more important to us than the vast happenings in London; naturally organization of Mrs. Carr. The Midland Railway authorities kindly put it matters far more to us whether Mrs. X. got a really good cup of tea on a special train from Skipton in the evening. There were no in our marquee than whether Marshall Foch got a really good accidents and judging by the cheering on the return journey the reception in London! ‘kiddies’ had a perfectly glorious day. The Procession There was a little delay in starting as the Darley THE WEDNESDAY NIGHTERS Temperance Brass Band was late in arriving. When the musicians Wednesdays Bolton Abbey Village Hall 19.30 came on the Green the procession was soon marshalled by the Rector, Mr. T. Moon and Mr. J. S. Hagar. Representatives of all the After our summer break we will return on 04 September when Jane choirs in the parish led the way, then followed the band heralding Houston will give a talk and PowerPoint presentation entitled the demobilized soldiers; after them came the school children and ‘Fountaine Hospital Alms Houses, Linton’. parishioners. A considerable number of visitors brought up the rear. The Service in the Abbey The service was simple and dignified. The three hymns were accompanied by the brass band in the choir stalls and was most effective in the Abbey. The large congregation filled the building from end to end and sang the well known hymns with great fervour. Mr. Ellis Hey read the lesson and at the end of the address, the Rector requested the congregation to stand while he read out the names of those who had given their lives in the war. The Cricket Match This was played under the usual rules - gentlemen batting left handed with broomsticks and bowling and fielding with the ‘wrong’ hand. The teams were chosen by lot from the numerous candidates for the game. Dorothy Haythorne and Edith Hey were the highest scorers for the ladies; Edgar Birch was the only gentleman who made any stand against the lady bowlers, his score of 17 out of 34 was quite the feature of the match. An exciting game, full of incident, ended in a tie of 34 runs each. Mr. H. Carr kindly Tea and cakes are served after the talk. Entrance is free as we hold a undertook the scoring. raffle to cover our costs. Do come and join us. Everyone is very The Tea The Bolton Abbey Ladies are famed far and wide for their welcome. teas, but on this occasion they excelled themselves! It is no easy matter to organize a ‘ham’ tea for 600 people in a scattered parish like ours and the greatest credit is due to the secretaries, Mrs.