PLATFORM The Parish Magazine of St. Matthew’s, Redhill April 2020 Digital Edition Picture sourced from dreamstime.com Say hello! our website: www.stmatthews-redhill.org.uk on facebook: facebook.com/StMattsRedhill on twitter: @StMattRedhill ind us : Station Road, Redhill, Surrey, RH1 1DL email the team : [email protected] — — THE PARISH CHURCH OF SAINT MATTHEW, REDHILL THE DIOCESE OF SOUTHWARK: THE BISHOP, RT REVD CHRISTOPHER CHESSUN THE AREA BISHOP (CROYDON): RT REVD JONATHAN CLARK ARCHDEACON OF REIGATE: THE VEN MOIRA ASTIN AREA DEAN OF REIGATE: REVD ANITA COLPUS The Vicar: REVD CANON ANDREW CUNNINGTON, St. Matthew’s Vicarage, 27 Ridgeway Road, Redhill 01737 761568 [email protected] (day off Friday) The Vicar’s PA: Helen Simmons, [email protected] The Parish ofice remains closed during this time of the COVID19 lockdown. Please contact the vicarage for enquiries about Banns, Weddings, Baptisms and Conirmations. The Parish Magazine Team: Tim Whittle, Mark Mann, Margaret Philipson and Freda Dugan. St. Matthew’s PCC is registered as a charity with the Charity Commission - no. 1132579 Mission statement for the Parish of St. Matthew, Redhill We welcome all We follow Jesus We worship God Welcome to our digital edition of Platform. In our best efforts to continue publishing the news of our parish, we’ve opted to distribute the magazine digitally during this period of lockdown. Certain sections have been removed in the effort to maintain privacy of individuals while we ind our feet in this new format. If you want to print PLATFORM, please remember that PLATFORM is usually created in an A5 booklet format. Therefore, you may have to be prepared to iddle with the printer’ settings when using A4 paper. We would suggest looking for the “zoom to 140%” or “it to printer margins” or “multiple pages per sheet”. —2— In This Edition 4 Foreword By Tim Whittle 5—6 “Dear Friends” By Anne Currie 6 COVID-19 NOTICE 7 Our Life Together By Father Andrew 8—9 Mothers’ Union By Hilary Richardson 9 Lunchtime Music By Edward Crutchield 9 FROM THE REGISTERS Baptisms, Marriages & Funerals. 10 DATES FOR DIARIES Church events for the coming months. 10 READINGS Service readings for this month. 11—12 By The End Of The Week By Father Andrew 12 Relections 13 The Month In Review By Father Andrew 14—15 Growing Up In 1960’s Redhill By Tim Whittle 15—16 The Bishop’s Letter A message to the Diocese of Southwark. 17—end ADVERTISEMENTS If you are a UK taxpayer, the Government’s Gift Aid scheme means that St Matthew’s PCC can reclaim 25p for every £1 that you donate, at no extra cost to you. For further information please speak to Christine Mann. Submission Guidelines Word count for submissions should be kept within 500 words. The editorial team reserve the right to make such editorial revisions as in our opinion may be necessary to make all content suitable for publication. These may include revisions for the sake of consistency of style, layout, reduction in word count, correction of grammar or spelling, or greater readability. —3— Foreword In 1957, having been in hospital to have my appendix removed, I returned to my class at Cromwell Road, Redhill to find that, out of my class of over forty children, there were only three children plus the teacher in the class; the rest were ill with Asian flu. None of my class died as a result of Asian flu but it is estimated that out of the nine million who caught it in Britain, 14,000 died; worldwide the figure was around two million dead. I was thinking about how Britain and the world have changed since 1957: no motorways and fewer cars then (we did not have one); fewer airports and very few people holidaying abroad (I first went abroad in 1972); only two TV channels (we did not have a TV) and four radio channels (three BBC plus Radio Luxemburg); and no internet. One thing that has not changed though is that if humanity think they can control this world, we do so at our peril. As I write this, things are changing so rapidly with regard to Coronavirus that while putting this addition of Platform together, I was aware that some of the information is probably already out of date. By the time you read your copy of Platform, it is extremely likely that even more will be out of date and so please do check with the church website for the latest information as to what is and what is no longer on and what is happening at St Matthew’s. Tim Whittle PLATFORM DEADLINE Article contributions for the next edition should be emailed to Tim Whittle via [email protected] before Monday 6th April 2020 The Platform team will try to be flexible with late submissions but it may not be possible to consider them for publication in that month. Please contact Margaret Philipson for all advertisement enquiries. —4— “Dear Friends” Writing this somewhere near the beginning of March I was beginning to wonder whether we were facing the re-enactment of the story of Noah! However, the rain which has plagued us for what seems like years, is finally giving way to some spring sunshine. Great for our well-being and the gardens, but we still must give a thought to those who are clearing up or who remain inundated by flood waters. But it is good to see the odd green leaf appearing along with the crocus and daffodil flowers. At the start of April, we will be preparing for our Easter celebrations and I do hope that by the time you read this we will have seen the end of the Covid-19 Coronavirus epidemic around the world. If not, our Easter celebrations may well be somewhat different to those in past years and I am sure we will find ways of celebrating this great festival together, even if we are kept at a distance. The evening Lent group has been looking at the stories of Noah and Jonah among other things. One thing they both have in common is the generosity of God in his giving of second chances or new beginnings. Noah is pivotal in the new beginning of humankind’s relationship with God after the flood, and Jonah is given the chance to rethink his actions. In fact, God chose to place him in the belly of a big fish to make sure he stayed still long enough to do this! April and Spring are synonymous with new life, new beginnings and this is one of the main themes of Easter itself. Salvation through the suffering of Jesus on the Cross and his resurrection gives us that chance of redemption, a change of thought, a new way to be. Beginning with Palm Sunday, our services during this week would have offered a great opportunity to engage with the Easter Story in all sort of different ways. Through quiet reflective services at the start of the week, walking with Christ on his final journey via the Stations of the Cross on Wednesday evening and Good Friday morning too, although in a more informal way. The great drama of the Maundy Thursday service would have followed by the all-night vigil. The solemn continued on next page... —5— “Dear Friends” continued... liturgy of Good Friday afternoon, followed by the service of waiting and darkness on Saturday evening; and then, of course, the great celebration on Easter Day itself. I wish you a thoughtful and prayerful Lenten journey followed by a blessed Easter. Yours in Christ, Anne Currie The Archbishops and Bishops of the Church of England have urged everyone to follow the instructions given by the Prime Minister to stay in their homes in a national effort to limit the transmission of the coronavirus (COVID-19). But they called on the Church to “continue to pray, to love, to care for the vulnerable”. It follows the announcement by the Prime Minister Boris Johnson of sweeping restrictions aimed at slowing the spread of the virus. It means all Church of England churches will close with immediate effect in line with the Government’s instructions. There will also be no Church weddings or baptisms. Funerals at the graveside or in crematoriums can still take place, but only in line with the Prime minister’s Statement. In a joint statement the bishops said: “In the light of the Government’s measures, announced by the Prime Minister this evening, we urge everyone to follow the instructions given. “We will give a fuller statement of advice as soon as possible. Let us continue to pray, to love, to care for the vulnerable, and build our communities, even while separated.” —6— Our Life Together As of Tuesday 24th March: Today is the irst day of our enforced self–isolation and it has come like a bomb shell to our well-ordered lives. There are now no worship activities in the church and the only way we can keep in touch pastorally is by phone or email. We will strive as best we can to provide worship via social media, but of course, I realise that this can only touch part of our church family. We continue to pray as a staff team in our own homes at 8.30am and 5.30pm and we can be united in God’s presence by observing those same times wherever we happen to be. We can continue to light a candle in our windows each evening at 7pm. We can each make sure that in the above ways, we keep in touch with one another.