February 2019 Photo by Luke Michael on Unsplash Audrey meets performer Rachael Bird, Active Fakenham are seeking volunteers for their work this year, Kay is out and about on travels with her granddaughter, and we have the final charity results for the Christmas Tree Festival. Contact Who’s Who St Peter & St Paul Fakenham Parish Church Christ Church, Fulmodeston Rector Marriage Preparation Rev’d Francis Mason 01328 862268 Amanda Sands 01328 878218 or Croxton Road, Fulmodeston, [email protected] 07789 225011 NR21 0LZ The Rectory Office 01328 862268 Stepping Stones Priest in charge Rev’d Francis Mason 01328 862268 Gladstone Road, Fakenham, Elaine Burbidge 01328 851848 NR21 9BZ [email protected] [email protected] Messy Church Churchwarden Ann Rae Sims 01328 864537 For parish information, baptisms and Andrew Lee 01328 878870 wedding bookings also see our Mothers’ Union Please feel free to contact us about website. Felicity Randall 01328 862443 Church postcode (for satnav) - services and events or the Rectory Office where enquiries about NR21 9BX Church Women’s Guild baptisms, weddings and funerals can The Church is open from 8.45am - Joy Gill 01328 863632 2.00pm every day. be made. Church Flowers Readers Judith Smyth 01328 864061 Elaine Burbidge 01328 851848 Linda Frost 01328 862919 Bell Ringers Amanda Sands 01328 878218 Kevin Allcock 01328 853928 John 14.17 Churchwardens Support in Loss Group Roger Burbidge 01328 851848 Judith Smyth 01328 864061 This is the Spirit of truth, whom the Keith Osborn 07887 877650 world cannot receive, because it [email protected] Christmas Tree Festival neither sees him nor knows him. You Anne Peppitt 07999 532002 know him, because he abides with you, Fabric Officer and he will be in you. Judith Inward 01328 855269 Beacon Editor and advertising Linda Frost 01328 862919 Church Treasurer [email protected] Via Rectory Office 01328 862268 Beacon Treasurer Sacristan / Verger for weddings & John Dunn 01328 856644 funerals Find us online: Patrick Sheppard 01328 855013 Beacon Distribution Elaine Burbidge 01328 851848 Web Child Protection Officer [email protected] www.fakenhamparishchurch.org.uk Paul Nielsen 07798 766357 Website Administrator Fakenham Parish Church Vulnerable Adults Officer Keith Osborn 07887 877650 via Rectory office 01328 862268 [email protected] @fakenhampchurch Organist/Choirmaster Jonathan Dodd 01328 862268 via Rectory office The copy date for the March 2019 Beacon is 5th February. Deliverers, please see note with this edition for collection date & arrangements. - The BEACON - 2 - Contents Viewpoint Page 2 Contact details Although the hours of daylight Page 3 Viewpoint are increasing by February, it is still a month associated more Page 4 Prayer Space with the inside world than that of the outside. Readers of the children’s classic “ The Wind in Page 5 Looking within the Willows”will recall the description of Mole’s cosy Page 6 Town Talk underground home and all the comfort it offered as the Wood Page 7 Bits n’ Pieces lay carpeted under a blanket of snow. If the keen gardeners among us spend time tending our Page 8 Audrey meets plots, the subtle signs of growth Rachael Bird are often to be found on the smaller end of the scale - such as Page 9 Community a clump of crocus, swelling buds Archive on a shrub, or the delicate whites ourselves to look at what is there Services and creams of the hellebores (or and ask ourselves if we are using Christmas roses). This tends to it to its full potential. Is there Page 10 Out and about with give an overall sense of inhabiting something within this room, Kay smaller rooms, which hopefully street or town which we have wrap us round with a sense of failed to notice? Page 11 Catch up with warmth, rather than the bigger, bolder horizon. The parish church is impossible to Fulmodeston miss and at certain times of the Rather than finding any such week is filled with movement, Page 12 Christmas Tree physical limitations frustrating, it activity and – yes- noise which is Festival results may offer the chance to think a good thing. The baskets full of and charity totals afresh about what lies within, the prayer stars from our whether this be within our living Christmas trees recently, also Page 13 What’s On area, our garden or maybe were a clear reminder of its allotment, our office or work importance for our prayers. The Pages 14- 20 space. It is so easy, and so building may be of a fixed size, Advertising understandable, to leave things yet its capacity as a place of as they are, rather than prayer knows no limits. Similarly, assessing what lies around us our lives and our hearts, in God’s Page 16 Mothers’ Union with a fresh pair of eyes. I am not eyes, are never full to capacity Advertising thinking in terms of decluttering, with his love - he always has which will have featured in many more to give us. a New Year or spring clear out in Francis previous times. More a nudge for Choir Practice 5.15pm every Thursday - The BEACON - 3 - Prayer Space Looking within … Do you know what you are? Someone wrote: “You are a manuscript of a divine letter. You are a mirror reflecting a noble face.” Look inside yourself; everything that you need to find, you will find there. If you look to others for fulfilment, you will never truly be fulfilled. If your happiness depends on money, you will never be happy with yourself. Be content with what you have; rejoice in the way things are. When you realise there is nothing lacking, the whole world belongs to you. “Your vision will become clear only when you can look into your own heart. Who looks outside, dreams; who looks inside, awakes.” - Carl Jung Loving God, be with me as I look within, that I may find your divine spark there, along with everything I could need; and in finding the spark, may I rejoice in you. Amen. Parish Prayers for February Daily prayers are said for Fakenham, its people and organisations During the weeks in January we will be specifically praying for: 27th Jan - 2ⁿd Feb The environment, our commitment & care for it. Those who live or work in North Drive, Thorpeland Road, Lee Warner Avenue, Whitelands. 3rd Feb - 9th Feb Those involved in fostering, adoption, IVF. Those who live or work in Lancaster Avenue, Cranmer Court. 10th Feb - 16th Feb Children who do not know love. Those who live or work in Nelson Road, Hamilton Court, Hayes Lane, Woodlands, Olive Fisher Court. 17th Feb - 23rd Feb People suffering addiction, their families and support workers. Those who live or work in Alethorpe & Fulmodeston. 24th - 2ⁿd Mar Guides, Brownies, Rainbows. Those who live or work in Eckersley Drive, Wigg Road, Arthur Road, Norman Close. - The BEACON - 4 - Revelation 3:8 Look, I have set before you an open door, which no one is able to shut. Photo by Filip Kominik on Unsplash - The BEACON - 5 - TOWN TALK Town Talk of mourners. My thoughts are with his and help us to raise funds for Tapping At the start of the 1979 football wife Brigitte and their three children. House Hospice. season I had just arrived in Fakenham Wayfarer Singers should register by Monday 11 to teach at the Grammar school. An February. For more information early port of call was to join our Editor’s note: I’ve known Stephen about the day and registration forms football club which then played its since we were 4 years old at school go to fakenhamchoralsociety.org or home matches on Barons Hall Lawn - together until 18. He was always the contact Rosemary Dear 01328 851776 now The Lawn housing complex. It same; hard working yet mischievous. or on [email protected]. seemed the obvious thing to do at the Always fun, friendly and had time for time as the ground was close to our everyone. He will be missed. first house in Westmead Road and I still had a few years in the tank so far Fakenham Choral Society as playing the game was concerned. Come & Sing Day 16th February As a newcomer I needed to establish There is still time to register for myself and get on with all the other Fakenham Choral Society's Come & members of the club, both players Sing Day on Saturday 16th February and management. Almost from the 2019 in Fakenham Academy when we kick off I became aware of a joker in shall be learning and performing John the pack whose extrovert personality Rutter's exuberant cycle of spirituals, made him stand out from the rest. Feel the Spirit. Set for choir and mezzo Active Fakenham is a small voluntary This was Steve Doughty who sadly soprano soloist the cycle includes group which aims to promote the died towards the end of 2018. On the familiar spirituals such as 'Steal town and run activities open to locals field we developed an understanding Away', 'Deep River' and finishes with a and visitors of all ages and abilities. which had to do with our relative wonderfully uplifting version of They have no staff and rely heavily on positions - Steve at left-back, me at 'When the Saints go Marching in'. volunteers. left midfield. Like every other The day is aimed at encouraging all In 2019 Active Fakenham hopes to put defender he enjoyed any opportunity singers to come along and have fun on activities ranging from an Easter to cross the half-way line and when singing and learning together and to Sunday Funday on 21st April, duck race playing out of defence would help raise funds for Tapping House and raft races on the Wensum in June invariably look out for my runs.