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St Margaret’s, Harpsden cum Bolney
All Saints, Dunsden
St. Peter and St. Paul, Shiplake
MAY 2014
HARPSDEN PARISH NEWS
PARISH
In the United Benefice of Rector: The Rev’d Paul Bradish Tel: 0118 940 1549 Email: [email protected] Associate Priests: The Rev’d Michael Forrer Tel: 07899 926020 The Rev’d Pam Gordon Tel: 0118 946 3727 The Rev'd Michael Seymour-Jones Tel: 0118 947 8632 Benefice Office: Tel: 0118 940 6098 email: [email protected]
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REFLECTIONS FROM THE CLERGY
I have enjoyed the final series of the BBC comedy ‘Rev’ which finished last Monday evening. For those of you who are unfamiliar with it, it tells the story of the Revd Adam Smallbone who is Vicar of St Saviour in the Mashes, a depressed and run down part of East London and his small, faithful, but idiosyncratic flock. This last series (so they say) has culminated in the fictional portrayal of many of the big issues that face the Church of England and its clergy concertinaed into five 30-minute programmes. It has been both funny, yet poignant with Revd Smallbone apparently leaving his parish in a parallel re-telling of the crucifixion and resurrection. I won’t divulge anything further about the story line, just in case you want to take the chance and watch it on iPlayer or another catch-up devise.
I’m still pondering the story and its implications but so far I have been struck with two things: the first is the power of the simple prayers prayed by the characters in the cast. It a reminder that we don’t need fancy word, or the right setting necessarily, but that prayer happens all around us and perhaps
the desperate prayers that come deep from within is when we are at our most real with God and ourselves. That is certainly true in the cast of the last episode when many of the characters are moved to pray in simple and powerful ways. Secondly, the ending is not as neat or tidy as we might have wished. There are some loose ends, messy bits, uncertainty and it feels a bit unfinished – perhaps leaving the door open for another series? But there is hope. Somehow there’s a profound sense of God being part of it all even if it doesn’t turn out as we might have wished or hoped, which is, I think very often true to life itself and one of the points that has been well captured by Tom Hollander and James Wood, the writers.
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This finding God in the middle of our mess and uncertainty, reminded me of a story I shared at the PCC recently. It was reported that a certain Lord Radstock was staying in a grand hotel in Norway in the mid-nineteenth century. He heard a little child playing the piano downstairs in the hallway.
She was making a terrible noise: ‘Plink ... plonk ... plink ...’. It was driving him mad! A man came and sat beside her and began playing alongside her, filling in the gaps. The result was the most beautiful music. He later discovered that the man playing alongside was the girl’s father,
Alexander Borodin, composer of the opera Prince Igor. God calls us into a relationship that involves cooperation with him. The Christian faith is primarily about what has been done for us by God in Christ. However, we are not mere spectators. We are called to respond. God involves us in his plans. God comes and sits alongside us and ‘in all things ... works for the good’ (Romans 8:28). He takes our ‘plink … plonk ... plink ...’ and makes something beautiful out of our lives, even though at times we might not nor cannot easily see it. We are now through Easter Day and the Annual Parochial Church Meeting. I am grateful to everyone who has served on the PCC and to those who have been elected to serve on the PCC this coming year. The meeting we shared on Sunday 6th April when we reviewed the work and activities of 2013 and looked ahead to 2014 encouraged me. The new PCC will be discussing many of the items that we raised at that meeting and making plans for the coming year to consult and communicate with you when it meets in mid May. Please pray for the PCC and their work within the life of our church. I do hope that each one of us will find a way of serving each other in whatever way and by doing so we will contribute to the mission and ministry and God’s Church in this area and beyond. God bless you as we journey together as disciples and pilgrims of Christ, Paul
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FROM THE REGISTERS
In Memoriam – We offer the sympathy and the assurance of our prayers to the relatives and friends of the following, whose funerals and thanksgiving services were conducted by clergy of the Benefice as follows: 2nd May 2014 John Mitchell (Burial of Ashes) Shiplake We rejoice with those families who have brought (or will bring) their children to baptism or who have been (or will be) married in the Benefice. Baptisms: 20th April, 2014 Caroline Julia Wright Shiplake 20th April, 2014 Ruby Layla Wright Shiplake 4th May 2014 Emilia Alexandra Adams Shiplake 25th May 2014 Robyn Kaithlin Gregory Shiplake Weddings: 3rd May 2014 Jamie Hamilton & Anna Ransom Shiplake
WEEKLY PRAYER GROUP The Tuesday Prayer Group meets every week.
If you would like someone held in prayer please contact Susan Vimpany.
01491 572081
ROTA FOR MAY READERS
4th Pippa George Acts 2. 14a, 36 – 41 or 1 Pet. 1. 17 – 23 11th Sarah Bevan Acts 2. 42 – end or 1 Pet. 2. 19 – end 18th Jennie Griffiths Acts 7. 55 – end or 1 Pet. 2. 2 – 10 25th Kester George Acts 17. 22 – 31 or Pet. 3. 13 - end
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PRAYER LEADERS FOR MAY
MAY SERVICES
SUNDAY 4TH MAY
8.00 am Holy Communion (BCP) Harpsden
9.30 am Sung Eucharist & Sunday School Harpsden
11.00 am All Age Family Service (Baptism at 1.00 pm) Shiplake
11.00 am Sung Eucharist Dunsden
5.00pm Benefice Choral Evensong Shiplake
SUNDAY 11TH MAY
9.30 am Sung Eucharist & Sunday School Harpsden
11.00 am Sung Eucharist & Sunday Club Shiplake
11.00 am Sung Eucharist Dunsden
7.00 pm Sunday @ Seven@ Shiplake
Evening Worship & Bible Teaching Service
Shiplake
WEDNESDAY 14TH MAY 10.00 am Midweek Holy Communion
& Julian Group Harpsden
SUNDAY 18TH MAY
8.00 Am BPC Communion Shiplake
9.30 am Sung Eucharist & Sunday School Harpsden
11.00 am Parish & Family Communion & Sunday Club Shiplake
11.00 am Morning Praise Dunsden
4th Duncan/Mary Selvester 11th Brenda Wright 18th Paul Barrett 25th Pat Needham
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SUNDAY 25TH MAY
9.30 am Sung Eucharist & Sunday School Harpsden
11.00 am Sung Eucharist & Sunday Club
(Baptism at 1.00 pm) Shiplake
11.00 am Sung Eucharist Dunsden
COFFEE ROTA
SIDESMEN FOR MAY
Our Spring Programme - Badgemore Golf Club at 7.30pm
Thursday 1st May
Gerald Coates – Gerald is best known as a speaker, Charismatic Church leader, author
and Broadcaster
Thursday 5th June
Father John Chadwick – John is a Roman Catholic priest with a ministry to the
Traveller Community and a heart for Unity.
4th 8.00am Stuart Thompson 4th 9.30 am Hazel Cooke & Susan Hunt 11th 9.30 am Brenda Wright & Angela Liveing 18th 9.30 am Bruce Brown & Susan Hunt 25th 9.30 am Roger & Jenny Griffiths
MAY JUNE 4th Jo Taylor 1st Hazel West-Manning 11th Jo Pavey 8th Hazel Cooke 18th Brenda Wright 15th Sarah Bevan
25th Anne Brown 22nd Lyn Goodwin 29th Kay Morris
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Christian Aid Week 2014
Dear Friends, Once again Christian Aid week is nearly upon us! This year it is May 11th to May 17th and I am asking for kind volunteers for our usual ‘door to door’ collection Last year our Church raised the magnificent sum of £1786.15p and a further £329 recoverable through Gift Aid. It would be wonderful if we could raise that sum again for such a worthwhile cause. As we all know the people of many countries are suffering extreme hardship, it is heart rending to see their pain brought to us by the media, so let us make a special effort again this year to bring them whatever help we can. If anyone feels they can help by collecting from just one road, please let me know. If you do not feel you can collect I will leave envelopes at the back of the church if you would prefer to make a donation and give it to me to include in the main collection. I will put the Christian Aid bags for the roads allocated to St Margaret’s out in the Church porch at the Sunday services from the end of April. Please take one & put your name on the list so that I know who is collecting & from which road The Christian Aid sponsored walk is on Saturday May 17th starting & finishing at Bix Village Hall. It is a lovely country walk of 5 or10 miles whichever you choose. Why not get a group together and make it a healthy social occasion. I will sponsor the 1st two walkers from our church to sign up. To get your sponsorship form ring Mike Hails on 01491 576961, or ask me, Pat Needham Tel 01491 576961. Thank you for all your work & donations for Christian Aid
HARPSDEN VILLAGE FETE! SUNDAY, 15TH JUNE 2014
12.30 – 4.00 pm Please make a note in your diary
IONA RETREAT
Owing to a last-minute cancellation one twin-bedded room has become available at Bishops House, Iona for this summer’s Retreat. The dates are Saturday 19th July to Saturday 26th July. Full board cost will be around £400. For further details please contact Paul Barrett on 01491 578051 or [email protected]
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GARDENING NOTES FOR MAY 2014
PROBLEM OF THE MONTH – APHIDS
These pests – greenfly and blackfly – come in every shade, from white, pale yellow and right through to black. They feed by sucking sap and in the process they may seriously debilitate plants especially soft tender growth. There are many ways to control aphids, a strong jet of water directed at the aphids, hand squashing or a
suitable insecticide.
The middle of May can be one of the driest times of the year and most gardens will begin to dry out! Use water butts to collect rainwater. Target your watering to
when and where plants need it, often at fruit set and fruit swelling times, or recently
planted shrubs. Plant out bedding plants towards the end of the month; however watch out for late frosts. Cover tender plants with fleece.
Apply a liquid fertiliser to spring bulbs after they have flowered, to encourage good
flowering next year, and this should prevent daffodil blindness. Tubs can be planted up with summer bedding towards the end of the month.
Winter bedding plants for the following winter can be sown from now until July. Divide herbaceous perennials that you want to propagate.
Lift and divide overcrowding clumps of daffodils and allow them and other spring flowering bulbs to die down naturally.
Earth up potatoes and continue to hoe off the weeds.
Mow regularly and continue adding clippings to the compost heap. Apply high nitrogen summer lawn fertiliser to encourage a healthy looking lawn. If moss is a problem, choose a combined fertiliser and moss killer when feeding
the lawn. Check for nesting birds before clipping hedges. Watch out for viburnum beetle and lily beetle grubs.
Sweet peas need training and tying in to their supports. Sow indoors seeds of runner beans, French beans, courgettes, and tomatoes into small pots or cells. Create some productive large pots for Tomatoes, courgettes,
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French and broad beans. Use multi-compost or 50:50 mixture of multi-compost and loam free compost. Water well and feed with high-potash fertilise
HARPSDEN CRICKET CLUB
The following is an edited version of a speech given by Rod Birkett, Chairman of the John Hodges Trust for Harpsden Hall, at the Re-Opening of the Harpsden Cricket Ground on Saturday April 12th by Angus Fraser, former Middlesex and England cricket player. Ladies and Gentlemen, welcome to the celebration of the Re-Opening of Harpsden Cricket Ground after a winter of £185,000 of re-modelling and re-building work. I think the best place to start today is in 1887. Cricket in Harpsden started that year at the other end of the village, by what is now the Village Hall. Following a gift of land by John Hodges, a wealthy cricket lover, cricket started at our current site in 1906, a year before the opening of Henley Golf Club across the road. Other than some very significant works to the pavilion by John and Susan Myatt and their children about 25 years ago, which included the introduction of showers and toilets, the ground and pavilion were very much as they were when they were put in 108 years ago. So what made us decide that we needed to embark on this ambitious project? It was 2009 and cricket balls were flying regularly into the golf club car park at significant risk to both people but also to the Cricket Club bank balance as we, quite rightly, had to pay for any damage - and although we were insured, insurers don't like losing money. Two near misses, a ball shattering the ladies captain’s sun roof, fortunately at a time when she was on the golf course, and when a ball struck a parked car shattering the windscreen when the driver was sitting in the driver's seat made up our minds. One game against Woodley in 2010, where eight sixes were hit into the golf club car was the final straw. Something had to be done. So what was the situation like in 1906 when the ground was put at this site? There was no golf club, there were no cars and hence there was no golf club car park. Also in those days, people, and therefore cricketers, were on average 3 inches shorter than they are today and, hence, with commensurately shorter levers, the average bat that was only just over 2 pounds in weight and is nowadays much closer to 3 pounds. As a result the number of missiles leaving the site was growing exponentially. We were reading in the papers about a significant number of cricket clubs with the same problem. The benefit for us is that we had the size of site to be able to create a solution. The collateral benefit of this move is that we needed a new square anyway given the significant contours that had appeared on the square after many years of settlement and that the fact that more cricket on the site, including a lot by the Henley Cricket Club Juniors, deserved a flatter and, therefore, better track. After an incredible amount of time spent by a significant number of people planning, fund-raising and managing this project we are where we are today. The new square is now 15 + metres further away from the Golf Club than it was before and an 8 metre high net has been erected to stop balls hit in the direction of the Golf Club. All in all people in the Golf Club Car Park are now a great deal safer than they were before. And, in addition, our Pavilion is now significantly expanded to accommodate our ‘larger’ players and their very big kit bags! I do HOPE that if our original benefactor, John Hodges, is looking down on us today that he would be delighted with the investment and development that will hopefully protect cricket at his site for the next 108 years.
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DATES FOR YOUR DIARY
WEDNDSDAY 7TH MAY THE MALTSTERS
12.30
HARPSDEN FELLOWSHIP LUNCH PLEASE CONTACT HAZEL COOKE
(01491 575876 or on [email protected]
to reserve your place by Monday 5th May
MONDAY 12TH MAY COMMITTEE ROOM HARPSDEN
VILLAGE HALL 6.00 PM
THE ROYAL BRITISH LEGION
HARPSDEN BRANCH (We will be discussing our involvement in the Harpsden Village Fete in June
2014.) Apologies for absence can be phoned to
the Hon Sec on Henley 576631
SATURDAY 17TH MAY
ALIQUANDO CONCERT
CHRIST CHURCH CENTRE, HENLEY FRIDAY 23RD MAY
WOODVALE 10.00 – 12
COFFEE MORNING/PLANT SALE/BRING A CAKE/BUY A CAKE
WEDNESDAY 30TH MAY 7.00 pm
PARISH COUNCIL’S ANNUAL PARISH
MEETING IN HARPSDEN PARISH HALL
This will be an opportunity to discuss the Henley/Harpsden Neighbourhood
plan
30 AND 31 MAY
WALLINGFORD CHARITY BLUES AND BEER FESTIVAL, THE REGAL CENTRE,
WALLINGFORD
SUNDAY 15TH JUNE 12.30 – 4.00 pm
HARPSDEN VILLAGE
FETE
P R
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E R T
CHURCH WARDENS - open
P.C.C. TREASURER Parish Magazine Editor Jonathan May (Harpsden) Sue Wright 15 Manor Road, Henley-on-Thames, RG9 1LT [email protected] (01491) 575 [email protected] 0118 9406220\ Harpsden Parish News is written for and by the people of this parish, and contributions are always welcome. However, the views expressed therein are those of the writers and are not necessarily shared by the Rector, the Editor and Churchwarden.
HARPSDEN EVENTS!
BRING-A-CAKE, BUY-A CAKE COFFEE MORNING AT
WOODVALE, HARPSDEN [by kind invitation of The Burtts]
Friday, 23rd May, 10 am – 12 noon
Selection of Plants, Flowers & Veg Marmalade, Greeting Cards etc.
THE TRADITIONAL FÊTE
on Father’s Day, Sunday, 15th June HARPSDEN FIELDS
New timing 12.30 – 4.00 pm to include lunch time BBQ & Beer/Pimms Tent
TRADITIONAL TEAS FROM 2.30 pm
DOG SHOW, DANCING DISPLAY, CIRCUS SKILLS
Childrens’ Races & Tug-of-War And all the Usual Stalls
Please contact: Jane Burtt [01491 572156, Adrienne Pratt [01491 577237] or Hayley Young [01491 410879] if you would like to help & especially if you can offer the loan of a gazebo!
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