December 2019/January 2020 £2.50 News & Information from Southwell Minster Follow us on twitter @SouthwMinster www.southwellminster.org Contents… At a Glance … Welcome 3 The full list of services is on the What’s On pages at the centre of the magazine. Pause for Thought 3 Worship: not just for Christmas 4 December Green and eco friendly Christmas tips 4 Sunday 1 Usual morning services, 8.00, 9.30, 11.15am Advent Sunday 6.30pm Advent Procession Refugees in Nottingham 5 Friday 6 12.15pm Concert: Britten’s Ceremony of Carols From the Registers 5 7.00pm Framework Carol Service Saturday 7 7.30pm Concert: Cantamus Girls’ Choir Newwark Foodbank 6/7 Monday 9 5.30pm Festal Evensong for Blessed Virgin Mary Education News 7 7.00pm Reach Learning Disability service Christmas comes but once a year? 8 Tuesday 10 7.30pm Beaumond House ‘Light up a Life’ service Wednesday 11 7.00pm Emergency Services Carol Service Nativity or Presepe—the Italian connection 9 Thursday 12 7.30pm Concert: Handel’s Messiah Bethlehem 10 Saturday 14 7.30pm ‘Carols for Everyone’ The story of In the Bleak Midwinter 11 Sunday 15 5.00pm Christingle Service 7.30pm Carols in the Great Hall Notes from Chapter 12 Monday 16 7.00pm Concert: Minster School What’s On 13-16 Tuesday 17 7.00pm Concert: G4 (sold out) News from our Mission Partners 16 Friday 20 7.30pm Concert: Southwell Music Festival Christmas through the ages 17 Sunday 22 6.30pm Organ Meditation: Messaien’s Nativité Monday 23 7.00pm Cathedral Carol Service News from Framework 18 Tuesday 24 11.00am and 2.00pm Crib Services News and Views from Sacrista Prebend 19 Christmas Eve 7.00pm Cathedral Carol Service Visit to Mothers’ Union Link Diocese 20 11.15pm Eucharist of Christmas Night Welcome to Uganda 21 Wednesday 25 8.00am and 12.30pm Holy Communion Did you know that...? Christmas Day 9.30am Family Eucharist 11.15am Festal Mattins The airmen’s chapel holds much local history 22 29 Sunday 10.30am Sung Eucharist Bible Verses for Reflection 22 January Fairtrade Church 23 Wednesday 1 12 noon Holy Communion A Need to Change Perspective 24 Sunday 5 10.30am Sung Eucharist Contacts 26/27 4.45pm Faith & Light / Westgate service Christmas 2019 28 Monday 6 5.30pm Festal Evensong The Epiphany 7.00pm Sung Eucharist Sunday 12 Usual morning services, 8.00, 9.30, 11.15am 6.30pm Epiphanytide Procession Tuesday 14 9.45-4.00 Quiet Day at Sacrista Prebend Front cover: Nativity Scene by Anton Raphael Mengs Friday 18 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity begins 1728-1779 Sunday 19 5.00pm ‘Families at Five’ service Saturday 25 5.30pm Festal E’song, Conversion of St Paul Join us on Facebook - search for southwell-minster and click 'like' to February keep up to date with news and information. Saturday 1 5.30pm First Evensong of Candlemas. and Admission of Stewards Sunday 2 10.30am Sung Eucharist and Procession Patronal Festival 3.30pm Festal Evensong of Candlemas If you are interested in submitting an article for consideration for the next issue, please email your offering to [email protected] by 10th January 2020 . This magazine is produced and printed by Jubilate Communications CIC Welcome to the December/January edition of Southwell Leaves his edition takes us from an old year The Church of England has released the following prayer ahead T into a new one, from Advent Sunday to our Patronal Festival at Candlemas, via a of the General Election: general election, concerts and carol services, Christmas, New Year’s Day, and the rigours of January. You will find nothing about political parties or Brexit here! Even the official Church websites have no message from our archbishops about principled voting to pass on. So we include a prayer for our country which speaks of courtesy, truth, mutual respect and the common good. Hugh Middleton’s article has relevance at election-time, though; he reports on the Minster’s harvest weekend when we were challenged by the facts of climate change, and questions the accepted wisdom that our possessions must always get ‘more, newer and bigger’. Canon Richard Frith, the Precentor, kicks off our coverage of Christmas with its services, and we have two articles about the background and meaning of popular carols. Two contributors describe the customs that people in different countries use to celebrate this special season. The Bible tells us that Jesus was born in a cow- shed, and we have articles about people near us who live without security or homes of their own – both locals and refugees. We celebrate the Minster building again and have a good look at symbolism in the Airmen’s Chapel, where RAF personnel killed in action Pause for Thought are remembered; the altar is made from timbers taken from a dismantled war plane and or the last few years there has A suggestion for prayer the message of peace is quietly presented. F been a Thought for the Week in Try placing some symbol of your faith Apart from the obvious presence of scaffolding, the Minster's Pew News, usually taken in the place where you feel 'trapped' there is nothing new to say about the building from books in Sacrista Prebend library. or where it is hard to feel connected work on the roof; but we do pray for the Here are two quotes from 2015 with God, for example, in the office, in scaffolders and builders as they work through the kitchen, in the car. This could be a the cold weather. The Christmas story says that candle, a flower, an icon or some small The Minster’s work among children and young something is happening that will break thing that is significant for you. Let this people goes on well. Junior Church continues boundaries and cross frontiers. The become a constant reminder that this on Sunday mornings in holidays as well as in most unlikely people will find that they is sacred space, because God is there. term-time under its new coordinator. Our are looking for the same thing, and Similarly, try taking five minutes every Award-winning Education Department, which recognise each other instead of fearing so often during the day to be away works mostly among school parties, needs each other. There is something here from your work, perhaps just by taking volunteers; read the article. The boy and girl that draws strangers together: as if a short walk in the garden or down the choristers work hard to present world-class what humans really want is not corridor or round the car park, or even music to praise God. revenge, endless cycles of miserable to the coffee machine. Be deliberate scoring off each other, but to stand about taking this time just for yourself We have two articles about the church in together in shared astonishment and alone, but, equally deliberately, ask Uganda. Many people in Southwell support gratitude, held together by something God to walk with you. them with prayer and money, while they quite outside the usual repertoire of Margaret Silf, 'Landmarks' (DLT 1998,) inspire us with reports of their hospitality and human events. This baby is the place p. 69. enthusiasm. The life of prayer continues and where the power of the Creator of the we write about that. Enjoy reading what we universe is completely present. This is offer! a story of defenceless love, and it touches something universal. Vincent Ashwin Rowan Williams, ‘Radio Times’, 18-31 December 2010 Worship: not just for Christmas From the Precentor, Canon Richard Frith ’m delighted to be writing for Southwell Leaves for the first November was intended I time as Canon Precentor. Emma, Stephen, and I have now to begin a lively been in Southwell for nearly three months, and we have been conversation on these delighted by the welcome that we have received into the Minster matters; I look forward to community. This time has been a steep learning curve for me, its continuing. acclimatising to the work of leading the worshipping and musical life of a cathedral. But the curve is probably about to get steeper, It is sometimes said that as we enter the deeply blessed and yet deeply busy month of the word ‘liturgy’, which December, and we prepare to celebrate again the appearing of we use to describe the God in human form; Jesus Christ, the child of Bethlehem. (usually more formal) worship of the Church, means ‘the work of the people’. Actually, this is probably a mistranslation. But it is For churches in general, Christmas is a high point of the year, with quite a good mistranslation. Worship works best when the most a significance that goes far beyond its obvious theological one. It’s voices are heard. been one of the striking statistical facts of recent years that Christmas attendances across the Church of England have risen even as figures for the rest of the year have fallen. Cathedrals of course have a special place in the nation’s heart as a focal point for Christmas celebrations. I have never worshipped regularly in a cathedral in my life until now, but during the nearly ten years I lived in or close to Oxford, the festival of lessons and carols at Christ Church Cathedral was a cherished part of our routine each December. Christmas provides cathedrals with a glorious opportunity each year to connect with people through the worship of God – surely one of the key things that we are here to do. Cathedrals generally do Christmas very well; that is, at least in part, why people come.