April 2013
Annual Parochial Church Meeting
The Vestry and Annual Parochial Church Meetings were held on Sunday 28 April during the 10.00 service. Carolyn Allen and Ken Gordon were elected churchwardens.
Download: [Rector’s Report] [Other Reports] [Accounts]
London Marathon
Congratulations to Joshua who finished in 4h 19m and raised nearly £2,000 for the Nehemiah Project, and to Philip Henwood who finished in 3h 54m.
Mandy’s Africa Blog
The Rector has recently visited Africa. Read her travel blogs here:
St Leonard’s Music Group
I want to start a Music Group at St Leonard’s, aimed at anyone in our church family - singers or players of instruments - who would be interested in contributing to our service music in a less formal way, and on a more occasional basis, than through our regular choir. The group would convene every month or so for a workshop on a Saturday morning (part rehearsal and all fun!) at which we’d prepare a short piece which we’d then perform at the Sunday service the next day. Anyone, young or old, individuals or families, who wants to come and play or sing would be welcome - no prior musical expertise would be required - and the idea would be to explore the less formal end of the church music repertoire - worship songs, spirituals, Taize chants and so on.
To give the idea a trial run, I’d like to propose that we have an initial session on Saturday 4 May, 10.30-12.00 in church, at which we’ll create a piece that we can perform at Celebrating Together the following morning, Sunday 5 May. If you think you might be interested in coming along, please letting me know whether you’re a singer or a player (and what you play) - so that I can have some idea about numbers. And if you’re interested in principle but can’t make that date, send me an email too and I’ll keep you in touch about future plans.
Michael Emery, Director of Music
Church Roof
We have been awarded a grant from English Heritage towards the cost of replacing the leaking roof (but we still need to raise a quarter of the cost). Once done, it should be good for another 100 years.
Outing to Chartwell (Winston Churchill’s Home)
The Freedom Group have booked a coach on Monday, 13 May - probable cost £16 for travel and entry to the House, Grounds, Shop and Cafe.
Leave St Leonard’s at 10 am sharp - back at 5 pm. Name and deposits of £10 to as soon as possible. Everybody welcome.
Freedom Group Extra.....
Last call for your old towels to go to Battersea Dogs’ Home. Contact (020) 8769 8669.
The squares which were knitted at the Olympic Fun Day last Summer have all been incorporated into 12 dog blankets which Moyra has knitted and made up. Well done all, especially Moyra.
Lisa
Please Sponsor our Curate
Joshua is running the London Marathon on 21 April in aid of the Nehemiah Project, a really wonderful local charity that helps men who have got caught up in the cycle of drugs and crime to rebuild themselves so that they do no more harm to themselves or others, but live good, happy and productive lives. These men go on a huge and arduous journey that makes a marathon look like a nice lie in with a cup of tea and the paper. If you’d like to support this great work, the simplest way is to go to www.justgiving.com/joshuarey and follow the instructions. But if you prefer cash or cheque, then please sign the sheet in the Narthex and the curate will come and find you...
ELECTORAL ROLL REVISION
The church’s Electoral Roll is a register of members entitled to vote at the Vestry and Annual Parochial Church Meetings and to stand for election to the PCC. It is nothing to do with the political Register of Electors or the church’s Contact List.
The Church of England in its wisdom decrees that every six years each parish must scrap its Electoral Roll and compile a new one. This was last done in 2007 so, as the mathematically-astute among you will have already deduced, 2013 is one of those years.
So, even if you were on St Leonard’s Electoral Roll, you must re-apply this year. If you have not previously been on the Electoral Roll but are eligible, now is the time to apply. We need to compile the new Roll in good time for the APCM on 28 April - that means effectively by the end of March.
You are entitled to be on the Electoral Roll if you:
- are aged 16 or over,
- are a baptised member of the Church of England (or another church in Communion with it), and
- either reside in the parish or have attended worship regularly for the past six months.
There are forms in the Narthex. Please complete one and return it to me, Mimi or one of the churchwardens as soon as possible. If you have any questions, please see me after the service.
Tony Nunn - Electoral Roll Officer
* If your 16th birthday is during the next few months you can apply provisionally.
Irene Pfarrer
There will be a Communion Funeral Service for Irene Pfarrer on Friday 12 April at 12 noon (followed by refreshments in Church). No flowers please but a donation to Macmillan Cancer Support if desired.
Youth
A group of young people in the church are meeting monthly to plan their hospitality to a party of youth from the Evangelische Kirche of Furfeld in Germany (where Cristoph Kiworr is the Pastor), who will be visiting in October. If any other young people (12yrs+) would be willing to get involved, please contact Joshua. There will be a certain amount of fun involved too.
Party Date
As many of you know nine of the congregation will be 60 this year. We are planning a parish celebration and you are all invited, so please put 20 July 20 in your diary now so that you will be able to join us. If there is anyone who has a 60th birthday this year and we have missed you out please let Sue Heeley know.
Changing Light Bulbs
No one should change the light bulbs in church except the lighting team and the clergy and Churchwardens. The lighting system is unstable and dangerous at the moment. We have a team of electricians coming in to inspect and make recommendations about what we should do in three weeks’ time. In the meantime if you have any concerns about the lighting please speak to the Rector or Churchwardens.
Thrale Almshouses
The Thrale Almshouse and Relief in Need Charity is based in “the ancient parish of Streatham” and runs the Almshouses in Polworth Road (next to St Andrew’s school). We are financially sound and are about to begin a major refurbishment and extension of the existing properties to provide quality housing for single women over 60. We also give out grants for projects for local people in need.
We are currently tooking for new trustees to join the small, friendly and a purposeful group at a very exciting time. Trustees commitment will be to attend four meetings annually plus project meetings during the redevelopment period. In particular we need a new chairperson and a trustee with financial experience. If you would like to know more please speak to or send a letter briefly outlining your experience and skills by Monday 29 April to:
Jennifer Rogers, c/o Thrale Almshouse and Relief in Need Charity, House 10, 27 Polworth Road, London, SW16 2HA.
March 2013
Rector’s Visit to Africa
The Rector will be away from 3rd to 24th April. For the first week she will be the guest of the Bishop of Freetown in Sierra Leone, and will be preaching in Bishop Crowther Church on the 7th April. She then flies to Lagos, Nigeria, to be the guest of Chief Kayode Ogunmekan. She will be having a week’s holiday from 18th to 24th April in Norfolk. Please pray for her and the Diocese she is visiting.
She hopes to send a blog with photos to keep you informed of her travels.
Palm Sunday
This year we have a donkey to lead our procession from the Green into Church. Tell your friends and do encourage them to join us. Also, do give them a card with all our services over Holy Week and Easter.
Participation in Holy Week
If you would like to take part in the Palm Sunday Passion Reading, please sign your name on the list in the Narthex.
If you would like to be one of the twelve to have their foot washed on Maundy Thursday, please sign the list in the Narthex.
A New Passiontide Oratorio
Saturday 23 March at 7.30 pm in All Saints, West Dulwich (corner of Rosendale Road and Lovelace Road, SE21 8JY)
Opus XVI Chamber Choir will give the first performance of Gordon Carr’s new work “Ibis in Crucem” ECCE HOMO. It was specially commissioned by the choir, retelling the Passion of Jesus, and includes hymns for audience participation. Don’t worry, we will teach you the hymns before the performance begins!
Tickets £12 or £10 concessions, from or or on the door.
Handel’s Messiah
Saturday, 23 March at 7.30 pm in St Leonard’s Church. Streatham Choral Society with the Aurelian Ensemble. Musical Director: Simon Gregory.
Tickets £10 or £8.50 concessions on the door or from .
Building Development
Following feedback from the congregation, mostly concerned with the inadequacy of the proposed “kitchen” area, the plans have been revised. Please see the Redevelopment page for details.
LMAG New Secretary Required
Lambeth Multifaith Action Group need a new Secretary. They organise events two or three times a year where representatives of different faiths discuss topical issues. The committee meets every two months. If you would like to be involved please contact Simon Kewer on 020 8677 4997.
February 2013
Children’s Society
Thank you all, I have been able to send £200 to the Children’s Society from our Christingle service.
Sue Heeley
Spires
Christina Ball, the new Director of Spires was commissioned her at the end of the morning service on 17 February. Spires is going through a difficult time with funding at the moment, so any help will be gratefully received. There will be a retiring collection in aid of Spires after each service on 24 February. Do please contribute so the invaluable work of Spires with the most disadvantaged members of our community can continue.
Lent Groups
There are five Lent Groups this year, running on Mon / Tue / Wed / Fri evenings, and on Wed at 2 pm. They take place in people’s homes (except the Wed 2 pm group is in Church). A notice in the Narthex gives details - please contact the leaders direct, or sign up on the notice, or contact .
Each group meets five times, and uses a book called Finding a Voice: a Lent Course Based on The King’s Speech by Hilary Brand. Manna bookshop over the road from the Church will be stocking this book (they should have 25 copies by Ash Wednesday). Lots to think/pray about this Lent.
Lenten Events
The Queen of Hearts (and 6th Streatham Guides) invite you to the Mad Hatter’s Tea Party on Wednesday 13 March from 7.00 to 8.30 pm in St Leonard’s Church Hall. A prize will awarded for the best hat! If you plan to attend, please let the guides know by or sign the list in the Narthex.
Both of the above events are in aid of the Bishop’s Lent Call. Details of this year’s appeal are on the notice board in the narthex. Please think what you might give up for Lent and also what you can contribute to the appeal. At the end of Lent, please put your offering in an envelope marked Lent Call along with the mauve Lent Call Form and put it in the collection.
Choral Evensong in Oxford
On Saturday 16 February at 4.00 pm, our choir sang Choral Evensong in the chapel of Merton College, Oxford. For our Director of Music, Michael Emery, it was something of a homecoming - he was formerly Organ Scholar there. The choir and the Rector were warmly welcomed by the Chaplain, Rev’d Dr Simon Jones. He and Mandy were at theological college togther.
Merton is one of the oldest colleges in Oxford University, founded in 1264. The old library, which we were privileged to see, is the oldest continuously functioning academic library in the world and has an impressive collection of ancient leather-bound tomes, together with globes, astrolabes, an alms chest with an amazingly ingenious lock, and what are reputedly the oldest bookshelves in England.
The beautiful mediaeval chapel is an unusual T shape; apparently it was to have have been a much larger building on the cruciform plan but only the chancel, tower and transepts were completed. (Had the proposed nave been built, the chapel might have become the Cathedral when the Diocese of Oxford was formed in the 16th century; instead that honour went to Christ Church). The tower houses a ring of bells with what is probably the scariest ringing chamber in the country, an open gallery around the tower walls some 40 feet above ground level.
Aren’t spell-checkers wonderful?
Spotted on the service sheet for Evensong - “Hymn before the sermon: There’s a wilderness in God’s mercy”. That could be taking Lenten themes a bit too far!
Toddler Church Wine Tasting
Many thanks to ail those who came along to the very successful Toddler Church parents’ wine tasting evening which raised a total of £140 for Save the Children’s UK work. We’re particularly grateful to Richard Grenfell-Hill, a toddler church parent, who organised and hosted the evening for us.
First Communion Preparation
First Communion Preparation will be on Sunday from 11.30 am to 1.00 pm. If your child would like to be admitted to communion before confirmation, please fill in one of the forms in the Narthex and return it to Mandy or Joshua as soon as possible.
Free Notebooks
We have been donated 100 notebooks for making notes about sermons! If you would like one for that or for any other purpose, please help yourself. They are in the narthex.
January 2013
Eddy Adams (1938-2013)
It is with great sadness that we heard that Eddy Adams, a bell ringer and member of the 8 o’clock congregation for many years, died on the night of 18 January. He had been suffering from cancer for some months although, in keeping with his stoical nature, few people were aware of it.
Edward John Adams, who was born in Suffolk and grew up in Dorset, came to Streatham in the 1960s and joined the band of ringers at St Leonard’s. He was Tower Captain from 1968 to 79 and also rang regularly at Southwark Cathedral and St Giles, Camberwell. A quantity surveyor by profession, he was semi-retired for many years and divided his time between Streatham and Broadwey near Weymouth, where he had a house built to his own specification on the plot of land he inherited from his mother. He finally moved to Dorset permanently about five years ago and spent his retirement tending his compost heaps (which apparently were the main reason he built a new house on the site of his parents’ bungalow rather than move to a new garden) and growing his wonderful vegetables. He will also be remembered for his wry sense of humour and for his culinary skills which, coupled with his infinite patience and meticulousness, enabled him to produce perfect meringues.
Eddy’s funeral took place at St Laurence, Upwey, on Thursday 31 January. A number of his ringing friends from London joined with family and local parishioners to give thanks for Eddy’s life, and the vicar spoke movingly of his enduring faith and of “that Eternity which is our future and Eddy’s present”. When we returned to the house for refreshments there was a Dundee cake on the table; one knew instinctively from the rich texture and the almonds arranged with geometric precision that Eddy himself had made it, and indeed it was the last one he ever made.
May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
Candlemas and Christingle
Our Candlemas Christingle service for Celebrating Together on 3 February will be on the theme of Christ the Light of the World. We would like to encourage everyone to bring a torch with them to the service, more than one if you have them, so those who forget can borrow one.
Christingle making will be at 10.00 am on Saturday, 2 February.
Farewell Eucharist with Chris Skilton
Chris Skilton is moving to become the Archdeacon of Croydon in the spring. We are going to say farewell to him as a parish by having a Eucharist with him at 7.30am on 30 January and then going out to breakfast together. Chris was a regular and eventually the only member of our 7.30am Eucharist congregation and often presided at the service so it seems like an appropriate way to say goodbye. We would like to invite you to join us for the service and breakfast to give our own goodbye to Chris, who is also a member of the parish.
Building Development
The steering group for the building development met recently. We considered the comments made by members of the congregation and others about the most recent set of plans and it seems that while responses were generally very positive to the plans, it is the proposals for the kitchen that have raised the most concerns. We have discussed this again and now have some radically different proposals to suggest for the narthex. If you would like to hear what they are so that we can decide whether to take them further or go back to the drawing board again, the Rector will be making a presentation about them soon (not after the 10am and 6.30pm services on 27 January as previously announced).
Guest Preachers at Evensong
This year we will be welcoming a number of guest preachers at Evensong. For more details, please see the Events page or pick up a card in the Narthex.
Also starting this year: to make Evensong as hospitable as possible, a glass or two of wine, and an equally delicious non-alcoholic drink, will be served in the Narthex after the service.
Toddler Church Wine Tasting
Come and enjoy an evening of wine tasting at St Leonards Church on Saturday 2 February from 7.30 to 9.00 pm. Prepare to be guided through the classic grape varieties by Richard Grenfell-Hill (a former wine merchant and toddler church regular) who will hunt out some great value everyday wines from around the world for people to try in a relaxed and social atmosphere. We will be raising money for Save the Children so tickets will be on sale for £10 per person from Richard.
First Communion Preparation
We will be running first communion classes for children who will be 7 or over on Easter Day after the Christmas holidays. If your child would like to be admitted to communion before confirmation please fill in one of the forms in the Narthex and return to Mandy or Joshua.
Open Meeting for all Church Members
All are invited to the next meeting of Lambeth South Synod which will be held on Tuesday 29 January at 7.45 pm at Christ Church Gipsy Hill. Please do your best to attend as our Bishop Richard Cheetham will join us as part of his visitation to the Lambeth South Deanery.
Christ Church Gipsy Hill is located at 1 Highland Road, SE19 1DP, off Gipsy Hill. Gipsy Hill rail station is nearby and bus 322 stops at Highland Road.
Ministry to Children and Young People
Our next meeting is at 7.30pm on Monday 21 January at the Rectory. We are going to be reviewing Celebrating Together. If you would like to contribute to this discussion you would be welcome at the meeting, or you might like to share your views with the Rector before the meeting.
Christmas Greetings Board
Despite a late start with our Christmas Card Greetings Board, we managed to raise £130 which means The Spires Centre and The Children’s Society will each get £65.
Children’s Church
It has been agreed that our children will now come into church at the start of the 10am family service, stay until the Gloria, then go to Sunday school accompanied by our Sunday School helpers. We will start doing this from 13 January. The children will then return at the end of the service. Sunday School will also change its name to Children’s Church.
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