Parish of Fordingbridge News & Views November 2020 Remembrance Sunday 8 November Please see November services inside for details St Giles’ Godshill Sandleheath Church St Mary’s Fo rdingbridge St Giles Godshill, Sandleheath Church and St Mary’s Fordingbridge are part of Avon Valley Churches. Our Values: Growing in Faith, Reaching Out to All Our Vision: To live the mission of Jesus Our Aim: We are here to share the love of God by knowing Jesus and making him known to others In this issue Cover Field Poppies Page 3 Canon Gary writes... Page 5 Warden’s View - Catherine Haworth, Hale & Woodgreen Page 7 AVC Services for November Page 8 What to do in the Garden - Graham Fry Page 9 My Life in Lockdown — Helen Tague Page 10 The Spitfire—a local story Mike Ireland Page 11 An Alternative Christmas Present? Toilet/Tap Twinning Page 12 The Salt Path: A book review - Olive Baker Page 14 From the AVC Parish Registers Page 15 This Month’s Recipe - Mike Ireland Page 17 This Month’s Quiz Page 18 Remembering Rosemary Durant Page 21 Notes from Fordingbridge APCM Page 22 My Early Childhood Years - Patricia Winder Page 25 Crafts and Photo gallery Page 30 Kinkiizi Smartie Tubes & Kinkiizi Action Group Jigsaw Puzzle Latest Page 31 Morse Code Bracelets — Pat Bloomfield Page 32 Mission Matters - Pat Bloomfield Page 34 News from Fordingbridge Museum - Julian Hewitt All items for the December2020/January 2021 issue of the magazine need to be sent to one of the editorial team by Thursday 12 November at the latest please. We expect the Dec/Jan issue to be available on-line from the AVC website from Friday 27 November. Partners is the AVC weekly news leaflet available via the web- site , limited copies available in church. If you would like to receive a copy via email please send your request to the Church Office. (Contact details on the back cover) 2 Canon Gary writes: Looking Forwards and Backwards We are, as everyone keeps saying, living in strange times! One of the results is that it’s been very difficult to plan ahead, as we don’t really know what life will be like, even in the time between my writing this and your reading it. However, plan we must, and, whatever happens, Christmas is definitely not cancelled (see my Thought for the Day for Oct 5th, on Facebook or our website). We’re looking at how we do our Christmas Services, with a mixture of in Church and on-line, and with a booking system for some of the larger Services. Keep your eyes on Partners for the latest news. By the time you read this, we will have had the four Annual Parish Celebrations, and I’d like to offer particular thanks to those who’ve not stood again for office as Churchwarden, or Deanery Synod/PCC members. And, thank you, all those who have been elected for all you will be doing over the coming year. Most will have heard that the four PCCs have voted by a large majority (two members against and one abstention across the four PCCs) for there to be one PCC for the AVC, with four Local Church Committees. The legal arrangements for doing this are out for their first consultation at the moment, and the Scheme (as the legal document is called) should be finalised, if all the hurdles are overcome, during the first half of next year. Thank, you, all those who have been involved in this arduous process. I’m very hopeful that it will help to draw us together as the AVC, and release the Local Church Committees (LCCs) to have more energy for local mission. We have also completed the revision of the Worship Pattern across the AVC, which is available on our website, meaning that all of our main Sunday Morning Services will be at 10.00 – full details each week in Partners. Unless things change, we have now returned to our normal pattern of Services in Church, whilst also maintaining our on-line presence at 10.00 every day, with lots of extra events on the Youth, Children’s and Families Facebook page, and on YouTube. Before we get to Christmas, there are a number of other significant Sundays: November 1st, All Saints’ Day in the Morn- ing, and the Services of Thanksgiving for those who have died (All Souls’ Services) in the afternoon – details further on. Sunday 8th is Remembrance Sunday – Services at 10.50a.m. in each Parish. Sunday 29th is Advent Sunday – instead of a 3 Benefice Service in one of our Churches (none of which has enough room for all of us), this will be an on-line Benefice Service, with the Archdeacon of Winchester as our visiting preacher, and Zoom Coffee after the Service – details in Partners nearer the time. There will also be an Advent Carol Service at 6.00p.m. at St Mary’s, Fordingbridge and on-line. Lots to think about, plan, and look forward to. If ever you want to talk, do please give me a call – always happy to talk by phone, or meet in person. Blessings for the Season, Canon Gary Warden’s View: In this extraordinary year we have been faced with many unexpected problems and have found some unexpected opportunities. We have lost both Nicky Davies and Mike Trotman and his family, who both served us and helped us in so many different ways. We miss them and their new neighbours are very lucky to have them. Covid-19 has involved many restrictions, with associated social and economic problems, and has revealed new opportunities. Locally, and also nation-wide, there have been all sorts of community initiatives, helping to overcome the limitations imposed on our communications and freedom to travel, even locally. Different new and established groups and individuals have been very busy: shopping for, and delivering to, others; telephoning regularly older, anxious and other vulnerable people; offering all kinds of help outside the homes of those who cannot get out themselves; raising money by sponsored activities; making PPE and face masks; etc.; etc. In Hale and Woodgreen we had 2 competitions in the summer, organised by our Support Group. The first, a Behind the Hedge competition, was for scarecrows in our front gardens, made from objects from our houses and sheds, related to lockdown conditions and the second was for limericks. Photographs of these clever, amazing and amusing contributions, which raised our spirits, are available in our wonderful Village Shop. In the current circumstances computer-based skills are clearly more desirable and important, providing new services of all kinds. This has made more obvious the relative isolation of all those who do not have access to computers. For some time it has been becoming increasingly difficult for people without IT access to contact other people and organisations, especially as so many 4 provide only website or email addresses. Trying to talk to a real person on the telephone, rather than a suffering a succession of automated messages, is very frustrating, irritating and time consuming. Emailing is a wonderfully easy way of chatting to family members and friends and is an increasingly important way of keeping in touch with others as well as being useful for shopping. In some villages and even in some urban areas there are people providing formal and informal teaching of IT skills to encourage and enable others to acquire the smart phones, tablets, laptop computers, etc. to meet their needs, and make contact with others so straightforward from within one's own house. Almost every musuem, art gallery, the National Trust and other houses and gardens have expanded their websites to provide 'virtual' tours, videos, and lectures. We can visit these in many different countries, often being able to choose an English-language version. It is, however, very important to use our local shops, etc. which are suffering badly at the moment. We are very grateful for all those working in the shops and in other places, where they are so useful to us but are exposing. One very interesting development is the provision of 'on-line' services: almost all churches are now offering services on-line, as well as 'thoughts for the day' every day, making it possible for all those with IT access to "attend" a wide variety of services and other offerings from almost anywhere. (I am being encouraged by my sister to "attend" services from Montreal Cathedral, which, as with those from other churches, are available not just at the time they happen but at any time which is convenient). It has been fascinating, for those with the necessary skills, to find out how many people are appreciating on-line worship, both local people who cannot, or prefer not to at present, attend in person and also people from many different places and countries who choose to investigate other forms of worship, from the informal to the formal. It is clear that we will all continue to offer this service. With best wishes, Catherine Haworth 5 AVC SERVICES FOR NOVEMBER 2020 Online services available live on our Facebook page and Website, or afterwards on YouTube. ‘Avon Valley Churches’ Every weekday 10.00am Thought for the Day Mondays & Wednesdays 9.00am Morning Prayer (Zoom) Mondays 11.00am Assembly Wednesdays 11.00am Messy Church Fridays 11.00am Open the Book Online All available on AVC Children, Youth and Families Facebook page Saturdays 10.00am The Saturday Conversation Sunday 1st November 8.15am Holy Communion, Fordingbridge 10.00am Holy Communion, Hyde 10.00am All Saints’ Service, Fordingbridge 10.00am Morning Service, Breamore 10.45am Morning Service, Sandleheath 3.00pm All Souls’ Service, Hyde 4.00pm All Souls’ Service, Woodgreen 6.00pm All Souls’ Service, Fordingbridge and online 6.00pm Sanctus, Fordingbridge (and online t.b.c) Sunday 8th November 8.15am Holy Communion, Hyde