The Abbey DABbler

'Nature and Art’ Key Stage 2 Study Day

2011-11-29T11:53:00.000-08:00

Dorchester Abbey Education Department in conjunction with the Hurst Water Meadow for the first time launched a joint full day art workshop initiative to create a ‘Nature and Art’ study day for our local St. Birinus Primary School in October 2011. Over 30 Key Stage 2 children were able to take advantage of this exceptional experience where they spent half the day in art workshops at the Hurst Water Meadow and the other half at Dorchester Abbey. At the Hurst they were able to create artworks using natural materials inspired by the work of the famous 20th C British artist Andy Goldsworthy. The artworks they created used leaves, acorns, twigs and other found objects arranged to evoke innovative patterns ranging from spirals and undulating lines of leaves to carefully arranged acorns ‘lids’, thus introducing the children to the role of colour, pattern and line in art and nature.

At the Abbey the pupils were introduced to the fantastic range of art and architecture dating from the 12th to 20th C originally inspired by nature. The architectural and decorative progression of which was best seen in the Abbey’s Cloister Gallery displays, as well as throughout the Abbey with its rich sculptural, glass and painted decorations. Children were introduced to this rich fabric of history and encouraged to find inspiration from these original medieval craftsmen, for example to create their own version of our remarkable Jesse Window.

It is hoped that this small-scale pilot project will develop into a much larger programme involving many more of our local Oxfordshire schools taking part in the not too distant future!

Pilgrimage and Worship Inter-faith Key Stage 2 Study Day 15th June 2011

2011-07-14T09:43:00.000-07:00

The Pilgrimage and Worship Inter-Faith study day was a great success, being attended by 173 children from five local Oxfordshire schools, with over 20 teachers and adults accompanying them. The Bishop of Dorchester even dropped in for an afternoon visit to see us in action!

We represented the four world faiths of Islam, Hinduism, Judaism and Christianity, arranging them into four individual areas of focus, with each session being presented by members of the relevant faith community. It was a fantastic demonstration of co-operative faith in action! The four faith sessions took place simultaneously, with schools subdivided into small groups enabling them to meet and interact with pupils from other schools. At the beginning and end of each session we rang a bell to signal the end of the session and to create a moment of reflection for the children before moving on to the next faith presentation. Three sessions took place before lunch and the final one after lunch, with a final plenary where some children were able to contribute their thoughts about what they had learned during the day.

Judaism was located in the St. Birinus chapel, Christianity used the high altar and the Shrine Chapel, Hinduism was located at the west end of the nave and Islam was accommodated in the Abbey Guest House. Both Hinduism and Islam incorporated Powerpoint presentations, as well as demonstrations. Hinduism had two faith providers with a focus on worship at a shrine and the role of food as part of puja, with a shrine set up and demonstrated to the children. The children were given small packets of sweets and dates to take away with them. Islam had three faith providers with a focus on the role of prayer, the impact on genders, the mosque, fasting and the Hajj pilgrimage.

Judaism had two faith providers with a focus on the festival of Shavuot, the celebration of Sabbath and the role of the synagogue, with children being given challah. The Christianity session examined the High Altar before going to a mock up of an altar, where the Eucharist was re-enacted.

Some of the children were able to dress up as medieval pilgrims and take part in a ‘Medieval Pilgrim Hot Seating’ session where they could ask questions about pilgrimage. The children were each given a shell brooch to take away with them as a memento of the day. In addition, as part of the day each child was given a pilgrim’s passport that was then endorsed by each faith area after the children had visited each one.

We had a range of very positive responses from both pupils and teachers. Here are some of the comments they made:

Children:
‘Thank you for showing us about the different religions. I really enjoyed it. I learnt about pilgrimages.’
‘We all loved the day trip to Dorchester Abbey. Thank you for letting us come. It was lovely. I really enjoyed it because I have not been there [before]. It was fun. I liked the bit where we said Om. I learnt about different religions. It was fun.’
‘Thank you for arranging the trip to Dorchester Abbey. I would really like to go to Dorchester Abbey again for another day. I learnt that in March at springtime they splat paint at each other. I really liked the Islam because it was interesting and very good.’

‘Thank you for arranging the trip. I really enjoyed it. I liked learning about Hinduism.’

‘Thank you for arranging the trip, it was so good. I really enjoyed it. The Christianity part and the pilgrimages were good. I learnt that pilgrims have shells on their tops and hats. Also I learnt that Christian’s wine was grape juice for the children.’

Teachers:
‘We learnt a lot about each religion – the practical parts were most enjoyed.’
‘The chance to compare the four faiths in a day was fantastic and really helped the children to see the similarities rather than just think about the differences.’
‘The Christian workshop was by far the most interactive which was very motivating...’
‘The organisation was very good and the day flowed well. The contributors of all faiths were very welcoming, warm and friendly… All the children said their favourite part of the day was the 'Christian' presentation - the children liked the dressing up, getting up and moving around and found [the] hot-seating both interesting and fun.’

Blogged by Margaret Craig, Education Officer for Dorchester Abbey

Activities Day in Dorchester - Monday, 14th March 2011

2011-03-29T01:36:00.000-07:00

This day was organised by Ridgeway branch of the U3A (based in Watlington) as part of the Thames Valley Network’s Riverside Project and over 100 members turned up. We were really lucky to have a lovely sunny spring day, which everyone enjoyed. Participants were greeted on arrival in the Abbey by coffee about 10 a.m. and then heard a fascinating illustrated talk on the history of Dorchester and it’s Abbey by Margaret Craig, the Education Officer.

She was followed by John Metcalfe MBE, who talked about the multi-million pound restoration project, which has been only recently completed. Jane Sellwood nobly stood in at short notice to make a presentation on the Industrial History of the Thames to a smaller interest group.

Lunch, in various local hostelries or sandwiches in the sun according to taste, was followed by a range of activities. Some members chose a Natural History visit to the Water Meadows with one of the leading conservationists. Others took a conducted tour of the Abbey and St Birinus Church with Margaret Craig and Fr John Osman respectively.

Six energetic people were driven over to lunch at the Wagon and Horses at Culham, from where they undertook the six mile walk back to Dorchester along the Thames Path.

Another group strolled down to Day’s Lock for an explanation of its workings and that of the weir from David Stanley, the duty lock-keeper.

Two groups ‘Walked into History’ around the village under the expert guidance of Professor Malcolm Airs and Mrs Margot Melcalfe, both very knowledgeable local historians.

Tea and cake back in the Abbey rounded off the day. Many, many thanks to those of our members who helped make it a success. Many thanks also to all the experts who gave lectures, led groups and generally shared their knowledge with us all in so generous a manner. This surely is what “lifelong learning” is all about.

www.u3atvnetwork.org.uk

The U3A is a worldwide organisation for retired and semi-retired people who are interested in lifelong learning. There are around thirty-five branches in the Thames Valley area alone so there is certain to be one near you. Further details may be found on our website. If you are interested why not come and join us. We are a university in the true meaning of the word with no entrance exam and no degree at the end but we have fun and improve our knowledge of a huge range of subjects with lectures, visits, study days, interest groups and activities.

(Blogged by Susie Berry of Ridgeway U3A, Thames Valley Network)

Some Kimberley Reflections

2011-02-12T14:41:00.000-08:00

(On many days in Kimberley I came home and began a ’blog post’ which was ’overtaken’. This is a collection of some of those - I’ve edited some but the tenses do vary and I decided to leave those that do for the sense of immediacy!)
Arriving In Kimberley in January is rather like arriving somewhere in England in the middle of the August Bank Holiday!!

We were fortunate to have stayed with Tom and Emma Moffatt in De Aar on our way across the Karoo as they had suggested a Guest House near the Cathedral where we stayed for four nights. On our first morning I donned clerical collar and went to introduce myself at the Cathedral and the Diocesan offices next door. I didn’t even get to the door before being welcomed by Gladys who appointed herself my guardian and introduced me to Mother Anne in the Cathedral Office and Maureen in the Diocesan Office who were most welcoming and encouraged me to ‘come back next week’ when everyone was back! Although we had been told that everything ‘shuts down’ over Christmas and New Year and although we knew that quite a few people wouldn’t be around, it was still quite a shock to find just how deserted things become at this time of year.

Our first contact with Galeshewe parish was in the ‘Spur’ restaurant opposite the Cathedral which was where we met Mrs Joy Crutze one of the St James’ churchwardens for the first time. Joy had been given the job of taking care of us as she was just about the only person on the Church Council who was at home! It was very good to meet her, she was most welcoming and arranged to take us to St James the next morning. I’m not certain whether our introduction to St James was amusing or embarrassing! Joy was going to meet us at the Guest House where we were staying at 9am to arrive in good time for the 9.30am service. We were ready and waiting at 8.55am and she arrived at 9 so it was about 10past when we arrived at the Church - very early by African standards! However the sermon had nearly ended the service having begun at 8.30 not 9.30!! (First Sunday in the month syndrome!!) Fortunately we were forgiven!!

That afternoon we had our first car disaster - we went to the car hire office at the airport and arranged an extension of the hire for a week and keeping it for the rest of our time here. As we left the airport (on one of the best roads we had travelled on!) a passing lorry threw up a stone and with a crack that sounded more like gunshot the windscreen cracked.

Joy and Simon, the Treasurer AND alternate Churchwarden helped us look for accommodation. We spent four nights in the Ikhaya (means at home) guest house in Galeshewe which was great in the sense that it was at the centre of the community but less so partly because it doesn’t feel like part of the community at all (in the same way as staying at one of the pubs in Dorchester might have done) and also because a month long stay was going to be quite costly (even at their best rates!) Whilst Father Reggie was still away Joy (who had some time off work) and Dougie (may not be spelt right!) took me to visit many of the housebound ladies of the congregation. They (Joy and Dougie) had grown up in St James and were well known and welcome visitors everywhere we went. We chatted, prayed for the home and in many cases the household and I left a postcard of the Abbey - later when I went to take communion to the housebound with Fr Reg it was good to be welcomed back to some of these homes.

On Thursday, remembering that the Dean would have returned I picked up the phone to make an appointment to see him. He was in and I was invited for tea!! The Dean of Kimberley is newly appointed - he is an Englishman (very unusual now in a senior appointment even though once it was the norm) from the Blackburn Diocese who came to work in Bloemfontein as sub Dean after organising a link visit to the Diocese of the Free State! This was definitely a Holy Spirit meeting - the next day Simon was meeting his fellow Deans of Bloemfontein and Maseru and I was invited to join their meetings and to give them some idea of the academic work I was doing.

After much thought and discussion we moved out of Galeshewe on Friday and into a ‘granny flat’ attached to the home of the owners of the Jungnickel Guest House. The granny flat is comfortable and has everything we need and it’s a relief both to be able to cook for ourselves and not to have to go out for meals all the time although we have a lovely evening out with Joy’s family and Simon at Joy’s home. Although Joy and her mother have been involved in St. James since its foundation they now live outside the parish and Esther (her mother) worships at the Cathedral. Next day is a Saturday and we decide to visit the Big Hole - everyone asks if we’ve been there and it’s certainly very impressive - it is a VERY big hole - the site of the original Kimberley Diamond mine and it has an excellent historical and scientific interpretation as well as an underground ’real’ display complete with blasts! (See the photo of the Big Hole at the beginning of this blog.)

The next day we meet Father Reggie for the first time - a young and gentle giant of a priest he is immediately welcoming and arrangements are made for the next couple of days. We will meet again properly on Tuesday morning as Fr Reggie has things to catch up with on Monday. We have lunch with Mr and Mrs Masithela. This older couple had offered to have us to stay in their spare room for a whole month so it was important that our first meal was with them! They were most hospitable although Mr Masithela spoke mostly to Richard and I put my foot in it slightly as everywhere else I have been asked to pray beginning middle and end of every visit - naturally when Mr M suggested we pray I launched in - at the same time as my host (whoops!) so I shut up pretty quickly!! After this false start we have a great time together. Mr Masithela comes from Lesotho and was brought up by missionaries with whom he was sent as a servant/translator as a young boy by his grandmother. The Masithela’s are amongst the people who can remember moving from St Matthew’s Church to St James and the building of the new Church. She was a teacher and is a member of the Mothers’ Union to whom I am going to speak next week! Before we leave they invite us to visit a project for the elderly (GAASCA) of which Mr Masithela is Chairman of Trustees and we agree to do this on Wednesday. Mrs M insists that we breakfast with them too!

Bishop Ossie invites all the clergy who live within travelling distance of the Cathedral to Mass at 8am on Tuesdays, celebrates and gives a brief homily. I have arranged to meet Fr Reggie and Fr Wallace there and then to talk with them and visit the hospital as this is part of their pattern for Tuesdays. The Bishop also asks to see us. He hopes all is going well, is very friendly and makes some suggestions about link parishes. He is also very complimentary about Fr Reggie.

Reggie, Wallace and I borrow a room in the Diocesan office to meet and the conversation is probably easier than I expected. Reggie outlines his week. He and Fr Wallace say morning prayer at 9am and Evening prayer at 5.30pm and I say that I will join them as often as I can - it is unfortunate that I am already not able to do this tonight (a meeting at the Cathedral) or tomorrow morning after a week of having been able to! Fr Reggie’s sounds like the kind of week I aspire to with different kinds of activities on different days. (In retrospect it’s aspiration rather than reality for Reggie as well!!) So Monday is catching up after the weekend, Tuesday is Bishop Ossie’s Mass (for which Fr Reggie organises the rota), Wednesday planning for the weekend, then Thursday communion and sick communion.
This communion has relatively few people attend and so he has encouraged the pre school staff to bring the children - I’m looking forward to this! He and Fr Wallace then normally take the communion to the sick after this service. I am struck again by the fact that Fr Wallace Joy and Simon all seemed to wait for Fr Reggie to come back before suggesting that I might go to any of these ‘regular’ events.

When I ask about projects it feels like I’ve hit some kind of a nerve. The previous priest had a ’project’ and Reggie begins to talk of ’the problems’ of projects - people expecting a lot - questions about where money has gone etc etc. He says that the project caused big divisions in the Church and that even now you can see the battle lines draw up along these ‘sides’. He is very honest - this year has been a difficult year for him personally - the previous priest did not want to leave and he appears in peoples homes ’telling the story they want to hear’ because ’everyone wants a story'. Fr Reggie sees his ministry at the moment as being one of healing and getting back to the gospel. (Building community again?) He says several times what Joy and Simon have said about the fact that St James was one of the most important parishes in the Diocese and it is sad that it no longer has that place. He says what they don’t say which is that they should be paying much more assessment (parish share) - ‘you only have to look at the cars parked in the car park on a Sunday morning to know that’ he comments. I am reminded of Langa township parish in Cape Town with its wonderful poster (home made) on the wall of the church saying…”God gives with open hands - how do you give?” We talk briefly about a less formal meeting where we can get to know one another and Fr Wallace begins to look rather anxiously at his watch - time to go to the hospital.

We visit two hospitals - the private ‘state of the art’ - the place where people who have private medical insurance will be treated. Here a lady has had a major operation (Fr Reggie says when it is ladies he doesn’t ask for the details!) She is worried about her sons at home and he will visit them. Across the road in the public hospital we cannot find Mrs Olifant’s name on the list - not with any spelling! Fr Wallace goes off to look for her and comes back saying he has found her. We follow him, can’t find her, he talks to a nurse and they go off whilst Reggie and I wait in the corridor. The posters here are similar, even the same as those at home - Diabetes and STD advice - but these are joined by posters about HIV (people here rarely say AIDS) and cholera. Reggie is getting impatient - he goes to find Fr Wallace…the nurse…Mrs Olifant. A few minutes later Reggie and Wallace return - Mrs Olifant has been discharged!

Everywhere we went folk greeted Reggie - he is still known for being at St Matthews even though it is a year since he left - outside the hospital he met a guy whom he had played football with when he was a youngster and went to catch up with him. He is a lovely gentle kind of a man. I am really looking forward to getting to know him better. But for now we are going to make some new friends as we have a lunch date with Mrs Sediti - Jeannie as we quickly learn to call her. She has two grandchildren staying with her for their education during term time. Tsholofelo and Aobakwe. Many of the names here are wonderful in their translation 'faith' and 'joyful gift' being amongst them!! Aobakwe is very keen to play pick up sticks with us and we have a great time. Jeannie was a Guider and had visited the UK she is another retired teacher! Like many other people we have (or will) meet she talks to us about Miss Falcon. Miss Sybil Falcon was here with the Fathers’ at the time of the founding of St James. Her formal role, as far as I can make out, was in the Girls’ hostel but she had an enormous influence beginning Guides and Brownies and simply being God’ presence in Galeshewe. Jeannie visited the UK as a Guider and met Mrs Edwards (as she now is) some years ago. I am determined to track her down on my return and tell her not only that she is still remembered but also what a profound effect she has had on people’s lives in Galeshewe. She is a wonderful example of my thirty year rule. (We never know what effect we are really going to have on a person's life until thirty years on - so, mostly, we will never know - full stop!)

Sadly there are no Guides at St James any longer (though Richard has visited Scouts in Galeshewe!!) but there is a youth group of thirty or so over 16’s and a Sunday school which is huge. I had a brilliant time with the youth group spending two afternoons with them (they meet on Saturdays!). I learned a dance and a new game and spent some time talking with them. It happened that the first week I asked what was good and what bad about being a young person in South Africa at the moment. Whilst adult answers to this would have been very political theirs were about the new sense of potential they had. However there were concerns - one of which is that large numbers of young people in South Africa commit suicide and, somewhat to my amazement, they asked if I would come back next week to talk about this. What a privilege - we talked and bible studied and prayed together - as well as more dancing and more games and I have to say this was a highlight of my visit!! The visit to Sunday school was great too - though perhaps not for the teachers as I suspect I managed to wind them up something dreadful!! (Not much new there!!)

This seems like a good place to draw this group of reflections to an end - to keep you on the edge of your seats I have discovered a wonderful addition to the Miss Falcon story - more next time!!!!

(Blogged by Rev Sue Booys during her South African sabbatical)

A morning with Father Reggie touring Kimberley Churches!

2011-02-08T03:45:00.000-08:00

This morning I went on the promised tour of Kimberley churches with Father Reggie! We met first at the Tuesday morning Eucharist in St Cyprians Cathedral at which Bishop Ossie regularly presides and preaches encouraging the clergy to come and join him. The attendance is good and this morning Bishop Ossie preaches about the important things of ministry - and the importance of supporting one another in ministry. He encourages us to share problems, joys and opportunities whilst warning of the danger of living ‘in one another’s pockets’.

From the Cathedral we make the usual trek to the hospitals which are conveniently located within a few hundred yards of one another and the Cathedral. As usual we wait for the list - meet lots of people that Father Reggie knows and eventually go off in search of our patient - a Lay Minister who has kidney disease. We go from pillar to post - no one knows quite where the lady in question is and we hear a rumour of someone who has been moved from the renal unit to the medical recovery ward and then discharged herself. When we have visited everywhere Fr Reggie decides that the dischargee must be our ‘quarry’ and he will go and find her at home. On our travels we have met the uncle (a parishioner) of a young man who has been bitten by a spider and has been waiting in casualty for ‘ages’. We go to find him and to be honest he doesn’t look at all bad though his arm is painful it’s fairly easy to see why he’s been waiting! Fr Reggie prays a splendid prayer and we head for the car - whilst he says what I’ve been thinking!! I love this priest!

We head first for St Barnabus Church - this is a possible link parish for the Dorchester Team although this visit is an opportunity for me just to visit and not discuss. I don’t know whether Bishop Ossie has mentioned this to Fr Gilbert, whom I have met briefly at the Tuesday morning mass and heard speaking at Diocesan Council last Saturday, but I think not. The original St. Barnabus was built shortly after the Group Areas Act specifically for the new coloured residents who were moved into the area from a number of places including the Malay camp. Fr Gilbert was a child in this Church, as was Bishop Ossie whose father (a greatly respected priest in Kimberley) was the parish priest at one stage. A new church was built by the congregation in the 1960’s when one of the Wardens Joseph Mcanda was a builder - he masterminded the rebuilding and led the labour force evenings, weekends and holidays. The resulting wide space is slightly reminiscent of St Andrew’s Hatters Lane and the old church forms a hall across the back of the church space with the old sanctuary neatly screened off to form cupboards. In the new building there is one Vestry for the clergy and another for the servers and Lay Ministers and a Lady Chapel, which now houses the altar originally placed in the new Church. The existing altar is made of kitchen or bathroom tiles but it is the right size for the space and looks surprisingly good in situ!

On one of the walls is the reminder to ‘Pray Regularly And You Everyday Receive’ and next to a beautifully carved statue of Our Lady is a rough cross with a bag hanging from it with an invitation to place your burdens and prayer requests with God. They are not opened, read or used in any way because God knows what is on our heart - Fr Gilbert says that he periodically takes out the numerous pieces of paper and burns them.

Fr Gilbert had refused to come back here for some time (a prophet being without honour in his own country!) - now he has been here for 6 years and jokes that he is coming towards retirement. When he came to the church as it’s minister he did so in order to ‘swap’ with a younger priest who was having difficulty with transport getting his child to school in the city centre. We also meet the assistant priest Fr Jock. I warm to Fr Gilbert later when Fr Reggie tells me why Fr Jock is ministering with him - he is a very light skinned coloured person who was sufficiently well off to pay to register as white and marry a white woman. The legacy of apartheid is such that another church refused his ministry and Fr Gilbert offered him a place alongside him at St Barnabus.

Our next stop is St Matthew’s - I’ve heard such a lot about his Church that I almost feel that I know it already. Another reason for feeling this would be its layout - although some of the Churches we have visited have obviously English Anglican features St Matthew’s is a bit like stepping into one of our village churches!! It was built in 1899 but not consecrated until a year later because the Bishop had such a large area to cover that was as soon as he could get there. In 1945 it was expanded when a Chapel was built (St Michael’s Chapel) for sisters who were living and working in the parish. A Lady Chapel was built at the same time. This is another parish in which Bishop Ossie’s father ministered!

St Matthew’s and St James have a strong connection, as St James was founded by a ‘missionary’ congregation from St Matthew’s in the time of Father Wade. Father Reggie was posted there before he came to Minister at St James and churchwarden Joy‘s father, who was a priest, was one of the clergy involved in the founding of the new church. Many of the older members of the congregation at St James remember this time - some were even part of the ‘plant’. Both St Matthew’s and St James enjoy great loyalty - perhaps particularly the former - with many people being willing to travel significant distances still to worship there.

There is a pre-school using the buildings at St Matthew’s - the buildings are let to the education authorities for this purpose - and the church is not really involved in this at all. St Matthew’s is now in a fairly poor part of Galeshewe but many of the people who attend the church are mostly those who have moved away so that this Church which was once community based is not so close to its’ community any longer. There was a project to help local children who needed to attend school based here, which was helped by Finchampstead parish, but that is no longer running. However the Mothers’ Union here apparently have a small house that can be used as a refuge.

In St Matthew's as in St James one of the startling things are the Stations of the Cross and other 50’s style pictures of a very white Jesus and these are clearly the legacy of Fr Wade and his colleagues. They have surprised me, particularly in St James where we are the only white people in the congregation and the language used for worship is Setswana - with the sermon translated into English regularly for the benefit of those who can do the service but not the sermon (they are mostly Xhosa and some Afrikaans speakers). Seeing these pictures here enables me to have the conversation with Fr Reggie that I’ve wanted to have almost since walking into the Church - why the pictures?? Get rid of them!!! He tells me that he has had the conversation with the Council but these things are very dear to them and that we (I) do not understand the level to which the white Jesus is inculcated in the culture of these communities, who still have such great respect for the white people who helped them build their churches. I realise that I do have a glimpse of this after the numerous conversations about Miss Falcon but I wonder what the young people who attend church feel about them?

From here we go to St Francis Church - there is also a pre school here and once again it is not connected with the Church. St Francis is also the centre for the HIV project and I am able to meet Mother Carol (whom I’ve kept not getting round to meeting since I’ve been here). Bishop Ossie has just appointed Mother Carol to a wider Diocesan role as HIV advisor across the Diocese and ‘Gender Desk’ (I love this expression which I have also met in Cape Town where women clergy seem to take turns!) Mother Carol’s assistant will take on greater responsibility at the project. They are just expecting children to arrive for lunch and I look at photographs, visit the vegetable plots and arrange to visit next Tuesday.

After this detour I visit the church itself with Fr Valentine and Fr Reggie. There is a wonderful ‘composite’ picture of previous priests (made for the 50th anniversary last year!) and I am fascinated by the way that priests remain local in Kimberley. Fr Dan’s (Fr Dan is a regular at the Tuesday morning communion and a Diocesan Trustee) father was an early priest here. - a contemporary of the Bishop’s father in fact!! Fr Valentine talks (like all the clergy) about the difficulty in getting people to give (there is a chart on the wall of the church with smiley faces printed for every week that a pledge has been paid!) and the difficulty which all the parishes face not only in getting individuals to give but in getting Councils to pay their parish assessment. I have noticed that a parish that has been generous in their hospitality to us (indeed have tried to be over generous!) are very reluctant to pay parish assessment and engage their parish priest in all kinds of quibbles about expenses. This makes me all the more grateful for the parishes of the Dorchester Team and the Aston and Cuddesdon Deanery.

Fr Thomas at Roodepan is one of Reggie’s good friends. He has said it’s not a good day for a visit because everything is in turmoil - a familiar sight greets me as we walk into the Church which has a scaffolding tower in the middle of it!! The church is having new fans installed. A further interesting conversation about money ensues - the fans and installation are being given by a member of the church who chooses to support this way rather than by giving regularly! We all sigh!! Fr Thomas explains that the church does not have pews because they have no hall and I am shown a wonderful plan of a new building. If the money can be raised this will be built and the use of the two buildings probably changed (as at St Barnabus). I am enthusiastic about the space with chairs and try to explain that many churches in England are looking towards being open all week and used by the community from Monday to Saturday. I am quite unable to make my point - yet not one of the churches we have visited has been open and later when we visit St Augustine’s we are not able to get in because the parish priest isn’t there!!

Fr Thomas invites us for coffee - it’s after 12 and he hasn’t done the parish visits he intended because he got tied up with the work in the church - anything he hasn’t done by 12 has to wait for another day. His day seems to be the reverse of the country parson who worked in his study in the morning and in the parish in the afternoon. This is a welcome break for us and we repair to his home. The conversation doesn’t stop. I had been told that Fr Thomas was a refugee from Zimbabwe but not that he had been a principal of a Theological College. He is deeply concerned about the lack of training of many who are ordained priests in Africa (reinforcing a concern that I’ve heard more than once before) and the low standard of demands made of those seeking training. He is doing research about this and is looking for comparative figures from our diocese and the wider Church of England.

I am interested in a conversation with Fr Reggie on the way back - Mugabe is a bitter disappointment but particularly so because he had so much promise and did good things before the power went to his head and his pocket. He is not wholly responsible for problems in church where hunger for power is as much a problem as it is in government. I wonder whether some of the concerns about the desire for money and power amongst government officials and politicians here is affected by what has happened in Zimbabwe and sense some anxiety from sensible people that South Africa needs to be cautious about the same problems.

Our final visit of the morning is to the Cash and Carry - not because we are stocking up but because it is here that Fr Mandla from St Paul’s (the third church in Galeshewe) works - he is a self supporting minister in charge of this large charismatic church that is just celebrating it’s 50th anniversary as well as being manager of the cash and carry. We have a brief and good hearted conversation and I agree to try to go to St Paul’s briefly on Sunday - they will start at 8am and go on until gone 11am whereas in St James we are generally about an hour and a half - very short by many South African standards!!

It’s long gone lunch time by the time we get home, but this morning has been great because of what I’ve seen and learned about the differences and similarities in the life and work of a priest here and at home and in the life of the Churches. But most of all it is because of the different conversations - a flavour of which I hope has filtered into the description of the churches as it did into my conversations!

(Blogged by Rev Sue Booys whilst on her South African sabbatical)

A Visit to Lesotho

2011-01-26T14:30:00.000-08:00

As many people in Dorchester (and perhaps some from further afield in the Team who were part of the Team Flower Festival in the Abbey some years ago) there is a school in Lesotho called Leseli (the light) begun by Kieke (or Greet, as they call her here) Van der Zwaal. Leseli School started in Kieke’s garage as a place of education for able bodied and disabled children alike and arose out of the needs that she saw around her in the community near Maseru the capital of Lesotho. The school now has some 300 students of all ages from kindergarten age upwards. Children from wealthier families pay to come to the school and this supports work with poorer families. The school facilities are excellent including a new computer suite and library, a unit for autistic youngsters, classrooms for each grade and a new kitchen and dining hall building in progress.

Some of the disabled children have become young people who are enabled to continue to work on the school site - some work at putting together electrical components whilst others have been trained to work in the kitchen and are supporting the work of the school. The skills these young women have grown will soon be used in the new school kitchen and dining room which it is also hoped may be opened to the public. I noticed the similarity of thinking with the Home Farm Trust - an organisation local to us - who also enable their service users to gain skills and use them on site which for some of them becomes a stepping stone to employment elsewhere. The Friends of Leseli continues to support this work that is now 30 years old and the head of the school is still the same lady who began the work with Kieke!!

Thirty years later a new project is in the throes of being born. Leselinyana - the little light - is in a different suburb of Maseru - Masionakeng. The Rev’d Merriam Foto (previously pastor there but now Chaplain to the University of Roma) has a dream of a slightly different project but with similar aims to Leseli. We met Merriam when she visited Dorchester a few years ago and as we have become very ‘South African’ about distance the 800 kilometre round trip seemed to fit quite well into a gap that had opened up from after Church on Sunday and during Monday. The only thing we needed to be careful about was to be back in the light on Monday since we had been warned by someone who drives the N8 regularly that it is not really safe after dark when the Buck of different types, including Kudu which are HUGE, regularly stray onto the road.

This part of the world has been badly affected by rain and it rained non stop from the moment we left Kimberley until the day after we returned. This made the journey to Lesotho and the journeys around the villages ‘interesting’ to say the least. The highlight of the outward journey was the giraffe just gazing across the fence as we travelled on the road between Kimberley and Bloemfontein! The ‘lowlight’ were the single lane road works that were about 7 kilometers long with a twenty minute or so wait for the traffic to arrive from the other direction!

We arrived at the Border in Lesotho - where we were met by Merriam and directed to the little house where the children are living! (I have written a full report with pictures about the different children, the house and their needs). There are three children and a ‘mother’ living in the little three roomed cottage and two other children come and live alongside them by day returning home to sleep. We feasted with the children on chicken, vegetables, salad, rice and maize and enjoyed getting to know them before travelling with Merriam and her husband to their house on the University campus where we stayed the night. The rest of the evening was spent with Merriam briefing me about the project and the children and we slept well, breakfasted on millet porridge and bread and set off on our travels for the morning.

Our first stop was the secondary school at Masinakeng where most of the children are receiving their education. The school is run by the Evangelical Church and has a new headmaster who seemed excellent. It is what is called an ‘English Medium’ school which means that all the teaching and all the conversation takes place in English. Rightly or wrongly English is seen as the passport to a good education and the best future prospects. (This is also true in South Africa) There is a smart uniform and there are books to be purchased and fees to be paid. Kieke has arranged to send Merriam the fees which are paid termly but with higher costs at the beginning of the school year (which is now as the children are just returning to school after their long summer holiday!).

Excluding Uniform the costs for the education of one of these young people for a year is M2,000 (about £200). It was a good time to visit as we were able to go shopping with Merriam later in the day to buy the usual round of beginning of term stationery (including Oxford Mathematical Instrument Sets in exactly the same tin that I, and I am sure many of you, will remember only too well!) The children - in other words the project - have to provide their exercise books as well and the usual paper to cover both exercise and text books. It’s now quite a long time since we did ‘beginning of the year’ shopping and it was a good opportunity for us.

The school had been reasonably easy to reach, if a little muddy, but the next stage of our journey was rather more hair raising. We set off to visit the project land. Mostly in this kind of area people either walk or have four by four vehicles. Mostly it doesn’t rain for more than a couple of hours the way that it had been for a whole week previously. Once you are off the main route from one major place to another the roads are red mud and our route was highly reminiscent of similar journeys that I had experienced when visiting Kenya with the Nasio Trust in 2010. Richard was awarded a ‘credit’ for his driving by Merriam and in my book he’s right up there with John Cornelius for driving along roads with ruts a foot deep, embedded with rocks and full of mud. We made it to the plot - and back again re-routing once and getting grounded (don’t tell the car hire company!) just once as well. Ford Figo’s are lovely little cars but probably not the right ones for this particular task!!

The land we had travelled to see comprised three plots which have been made available for the project Leselinyana and another patch of land that has been promised. The vision for this land is to build rondavels for living a kitchen and dining room / meeting hall and to make these the centre of a sustainable community which would provide care for the youngest children, education and a place to live for people who do not fit into society. One of the reasons it is called Leselinyana (little light) is that if the dream can be realised it will provide hope and shelter for some of the young adults who cannot leave Leseli and others like them but for whom provision in what is essentially a school will always be limited. Merriam’s dream is that the members of this mixed community would receive education and counselling according to their needs and learn a wide range of practical skills enabling them to become self supporting within an environmentally sustainable community. Merriam has written an outline project proposal which is available from Kieke.

Our next step was to go and collect Napo from the project house. Napo is 18, has been orphaned for many years and is dependent on crutches. Because of his disabilities Napo has not been successful in secondary school and we were going with Merriam and his aunt to see if we could find out whether there is any progress in getting him into a special boarding school for young people with disabilities. Just turning up at the school seems to help - although it is still closed for the holidays Napo has now been told to attend for an interview/assessment on 14th February.

Our final visit is to Leseli. It was a wonderful contrast to see a well established project alongside all the hopes for Leselinyana a project in its infancy. Leseli began in a garage and the project grew as the school grew and it has grown and grown!!

Leselinyana is a big dream but its beginnings in the effect it is having on the lives of individual children is a good one! Who knows where this dream will lead? Merriam has the support of a management group and willingness from the Chief’s family to support the project but to us it felt a bit ‘stuck’ just for the moment. The management group is about to meet and there is real hope in that one lady who works at the University and is about to retire is willing to give some time. At the present time the exact next steps and approximate costing of them are not decided. It will be really good to hear what the committee decides at its next meeting.

Merriam is a busy lady with many responsibilities and driving the main project forward alongside her work as a University Chaplain and as voluntary mother / supervisor making sure that the existing children in the project are properly cared for are three big tasks!!

We could help make those tasks easier by ensuring that money is given to meet the needs of the existing children (Merriam and her husband have taken the two original boys into their family and support them.) We know that it will cost about a two hundred and fifty pounds a year to support each of the four children - Mamochatsi, Hlaoli, Morero and Relebohile in Masioneng High School. The costs for Napo’s boarding and further education are unknown. It will cost £600 per year to pay Nkita for her work. Then there is money for food and electricity (which the house is still waiting for). There is only an oil stove for cooking until the electricity comes and we were able to leave some money for the purchase of a calor gas cooker which will be safer and more effective.

This visit made us especially grateful for the support that Dorchester PCC had given us as the additional costs of travel would have made us think twice about undertaking the journey and its additional costs. This leads me to more thinking. Merriam and her family are provided with a house on the University Campus which is in poor condition. She is not provided with computer, internet access or a meaningful stipend. The comparison between Merriam’s accommodation and the Roman Catholic Halls of Residence for students that are so expensive most of them are empty is appalling. These are the responsibility of her church and the comparison makes me realise not only how privileged I am but also how privileged some of the South African Anglican Clergy and Teachers whom we have met are by comparison. Perhaps privileged is not quite the word I am looking for because it is right that people are enabled to do their work properly.

If this project is worth supporting it may be that Merriam herself needs some support in the form of transport / internet expenditure. She has neither - depending on the taxi busses for transport and friends for internet where she can. She made the most of our visit by taking us to places she also needed to visit. Administrative costs for charitable work are always a bone of contention but I am interested to note that I have spent two days visiting the project in Lesotho and at least the same amount of time marshalling the information and photographs, reflecting on both visit and information and putting it into two communicable documents. I’m fortunate to have had the support of the Diocese, the Parish and two charities to get myself here, establish internet connection, arrange transport and have the luxury of time to help us all understand more about this project and the impact it will have on the lives of these children. There are sharp questions to be asked about administration costs - but perhaps even sharper ones to be asked if there is no support for those who lead and administer projects.

(Blogged by Sue Booys on sabbatical in South Africa)

Of Heights, Depths and Tortoises

2011-01-10T02:53:00.000-08:00

Having travelled the coast from Cape Town to the wilderness we headed inland. We had heard that there was a ‘fabulous pass’ inland from Knynsa (say nigh - sna) and so we decided to travel the Prince Alfred Pass. Fabulously perilous and very long winded but a tremendous experience it turned out to be! It is hard to describe the sheer size of Africa and the African countryside and looking at the photos I took at every twist and turn of the pass I can imagine people saying: Well, it’s just like the Dales/Lakes/Pennines - depending on which is their favourite! But it isn’t!! Or at least perhaps it is in the sense that C S Lewis uses at the end of the Last Battle that everything is just rather bigger than the thing we had known and understood in England - reminiscent, perhaps, but not really at all the same. It took much longer than we had expected to travel the kilometres and so we were later than expected at our next stop in the Klein Karoo.
I had heard that the Karoo was beautiful - but it was raining. We had booked accommodation in a refurbished self catering farm cottage that turned out to be a mile from the farm and reached by crossing a quite deep ford on a gravel track driven at speed by the farmer’s wife in her four by four. In our hired Ford Figo in the rain with me driving (Richard had done the Pass!!) this did not seem like a glorious arrival. Things didn’t look up when we found that one of the two doors to the cottage was locked shut and that was the one from the kitchen to the dry veranda (stoup)! A brief walk in the wet red sand alerted me to the fact that there were biting ants and I was well and truly bitten!!
Too late to look for anything else I said firmly that we might not want to stay 2 nights as booked - but I’m writing this 3 mornings later overlooking some of the most beautiful mountains I’ve ever seen to the sound of early morning birdsong. The Karoo is beautiful and so peaceful that yesterday we saw only each other and the wildlife! Initially we had two reasons for stopping here - we wanted to see the Cango Caves and it is a stopping place on the way to Kimberly - when we leave here there will be a long drive to De Aar (I’ve yet to say this for anyone South African to understand) to visit Tom and Emma Moffatt and then another not quite so long drive to Kimberly. Then we shall be still for a while and wait to see what the next stage of our adventure brings.
On our first morning we asked the farmer’s wife about the caves and she booked for us - at noon, showed us the way to travel and suggested we might like to stop at the junction where a photographer/artist/woodworker and his wife (a stage costume designer) had a studio and coffee shop. On the way we waited for a tortoise to cross the road before arriving at the most beautiful oasis type garden where a man was on a ladder doing something to his roof. What a lovely man - and he made fabulous coffee too. His photographs of the people here were amazing - he settled here by choice from Cape Town about 4 years ago and talked about he way that being settled they were being accepted into the community. They have begun to teach the locals to play rugby!!

Of course we had lingered too long and so we belted to the caves arriving just too late for the noon tour. Not for the first time I lamented that tourist Africa is not as laid back as the African people! However they do have more sympathy for latecomers (my kind of country!!) and we were met and rushed through to join our group. Some twenty minutes later the guide said this is where the tours separate if you are going on the ’adventurous’ tour please come over here. We weren’t but we wanted to and the wonderful man allowed us to join. There were moments in the hour or so that followed when I wondered what I’d let myself in for. The tunnel of Love (where you get lots of hugs and cuddles from the rock!) was fine - especially for those of reasonably short stature like myself.
The coffin sounded a bit scary but wasn’t, the ladder looked it but was much less difficult than the Abbey tower staircase and entirely safe compared to the ladders on Table Mountain! But the chimney and the letterbox were turning back moments - not for us but for others and how good did that make me feel!! In the chimney (unless you were Richard) you could only go in one way - right shoulder in first 90 degree turn and feel for the footholds. Feeling for footholds when you have little legs and they are an inch above the point your foot generally stretches to is a bit challenging but I was lucky that Richard had come into the bottom of the chimney behind me and kindly fixed my first foot in the first foothold - another and another and then I was faced with an enormous smooth boulder - how could I get up on this? What would I do - I couldn’t go back? Then slightly below and to my right a passageway - but nobody there - which way? I called out and a face appeared ahead - all I had to do was step down two inches and squeeze around a rock - ascending the 3 metre chimney had been (almost) a breeze and I was upright again.

Suddenly the passage flattened out and I could see the trainers of the person in front - I flattened too and realised that the people in front of me were not only flat on their stomachs but departing head first through a slit in the rocks - the letter box - but I was the next post! Stupid to go down head first onto rock I think and manoeuvre myself so that I can descend feet first. From below the guide says gently but very firmly you must turn around I want you to come head first. Obediently I do as she asks and begin the descent my shoulders are about to get stuck and I’m proud to have moved to the right before she tells me to - also suddenly remember that if your shoulders will go through then the rest of you will follow. As I am wondering whether this is true of the fifty odd year old post Christmas me I hear the guide say… I want you to exhale for me … I know instantly that this will make me thinner … and then I am down perhaps not very elegantly head first into her lap!! Followed rapidly by Richard. We take photos and it is only when I look at the photo of me which has a later person emerging from the letterbox in the background that the similarities between this and childbirth strike home. I am born into a new and braver 55 year old than the 17 year old who never quite managed to pluck up the courage for potholing!

The farmer had told us about the Swartberg (or Prince Albert pass) saying that it was not to be missed. Full of new found adventuresomeness I offered to drive this one. It was in theory more well used than Alfred’s and would therefore be better maintained. It was equally beautiful and equal in all other respects too - the hairpins - the sheer drops just as you were passing people - the landslides and the bizarre signs that appeared very occasionally to say than the road was uneven - normally just before a rather more even patch than you’d covered in the last mile. Another hour and a quarter and in a day I had descended lower and driven higher than in my life before (and its only 3rd January). As passengers Richard and I both acknowledged the sense that ‘I’ll only know the fear of plunging over the side for a few seconds’. Is this a comforting thought or not?? Like the Magi we returned by another route - longer but less harrowing and taking a about the same time.

We had been told about cave paintings in the hill just behind the house so next morning we were up early (don’t go too late as there’s a bees nest there and they are more likely to react to human sweat she advised). It was the most fabulous walk, but we couldn’t find the caves. Then we thought we’d come upon them but perched high up and at the top of a sheer drop. In my new found adventurous spirit I was all for a route that looked possible but Richard was quite determined we wouldn’t try. I resisted the temptation to go it alone and, once again, we set off home by a different route - and found the proper caves on the way. At ground level they were clearly man made (but cattle inhabited from time to time these days) and an intense buzzing came from within a crack above them. (On reflection this has been a rather Winnie-ther-Pooh couple of days - tight places and bees - let the reader understand!) We examined both paintings and caves and departed.

Five minutes later Richard’s voice came from in front of me urgently STOP/LOOK. I stopped and looked having seen a shed snake-skin earlier I was looking for a snake. It took me some moments to spot the enormous tortoise - about 18-20 inches in diameter just to the left of the path. It was so well camouflaged that Richard had only noticed it when it hissed at him. We made friends - his reptilian head popped out in curiosity and he allowed himself to be photographed and we returned to our temporary home for breakfast and bird watching.

(Blogged by Rev Sue Booys on sabbatical in South Africa)

Day of Reconciliation Interfaith 'Walk of Witness'

2011-01-10T02:17:00.000-08:00

I was privileged to have attended one of the final meetings of the Committee for Justice and Reconciliation group of the Cathedral who had been instrumental in planning this event so it was particularly good to be a part of it. We gathered in the morning on the labyrinth in the courtyard of the Cathedral a varied crowd of Muslims, Christians and Jews. A group of young people from all these faiths joined us - they had been part of a week long camp called Face to Faith in which young people from some of the poorest communities spend a week together. This is organised by Reverend Natalie - she is also chaplain to the Anglican girls school St Cyprians - a hugely privileged place but one which is deeply involved in community outreach and is a ‘cross of nails’ school - as the Cathedral also has ‘cross of nails’ status. Their tee shirts said ‘If the sky’s the limit why are there footprints on the moon’.

The first speaker (after the Mayor has been polite) is a Muslim; Dr. Sa’diyya Shaik, Lecturer in Islamic studies and Feminist theory at UCT. She begins by translating three scriptures which she then chants for us. They are profound and beautiful but I hadn’t got my pen out and don’t sufficiently recall them! She speaks about mutual and self respect and for the second time in 24 hours I hear a person of faith lament the fact that Cape Town is a place where life is held so cheap that it is possible for a woman to be brought here to be murdered. Happening as it did immediately before our arrival here the ongoing revelations about the death of Anita Desawi has been a background concern and the subject of many conversations. Sa’diyya goes on to talk about Pilgrimage and its common meaning for us. She describes it as the core spiritual fascination I love that phrase) by journey to the sacred centre engendering a deeper level of faith that is not ordinarily available to us in everyday life. Pilgrimage enables us to cross a boundary beyond the everyday. So to set out on Pilgrimage is not to retreat but to throw down a challenge to everyday life by reminding ourselves that it is possible to cross boundaries and that there are many boundaries to be crossed in South Africa the biggest of which is the economic apartheid that bedevils community here. We are no longer nourished by a sacred centre even if the religious buildings are full.

We leave the Cathedral by a gate that I haven’t seen open. It opens onto the corridor of power running alongside the Company Gardens that it Parliament Street. As we leave, passing a door into the Cathedral buildings I remember the association of this place with power that Fr Terry spoke about. We walk the length of the company gardens to the Synagogue. Company Gardens runs in a diagonal block SE to NW. St George’s cathedral is at the northern corner of this block and the Synagogue at the southern end. At the synagogue we are offered a welcome and introduction to the building apparently the second most beautiful in the world. The sound isn’t brilliant and I miss a lot of the history.

The second speaker is Professor Jonathan Jansen - who has a string of academic roles and is the President of the South Africa Institute of Race Relations. He speaks of the scandal of grace - encourages us to tell our stories about the past in a way that inspire reconciliation and reminds us that reconciliation is a high risk occupation! Later we are told that a white woman sitting next to a black one heard of her misery at the cruelty of employers. “It happened years before I was born but I had to apologise.”

Then we leave the corridors of power and enter Long Street (possibly the corridors of debauchery) amongst the backpacker hostels, night clubs and trinket shops we find the Palm Tree Mosque. We remove our shoes and walk upstairs to a long hall shaped upper room. There is a lectern for today’s talk, some banners on the wall and a preaching/presiding carved wooden seat. But this is not a grand place. It is the oldest mosque here and was the gift of an Englishwoman. It retains the layout it had in its early days that allowed warning to be given if people were at worship and the authorities came to check up - all could be quite normal by the time they reached this upper room. Amongst this powerful introduction were dotted wonderful jokes about the possibility of sinning endlessly on Long Street but there was still somewhere to come for forgiveness.

Just as powerful as the introduction was the last of the three talks given by Judge Dennis Davis - a controversial figure (who apparently holds strong and not necessarily acceptable views about the Middle East). He begins by expressing his honour at being invited to speak in this place and talks a little of those whom he has admired. He tells an Archbishop Tutu joke! Three men die and approach St Peter- the first a Jew of good life and clean living - all is in order says Peter just one final test - please spell the word dog, D O G is the answer and he enters heaven. A Muslim of similar impeccable character approaches and the conversation is the same with one difference - he is to spell cat, C A T - he does so and all is well. Finally the Anglican arrives and the conversation is much the same until the spelling request - please spell chrysanthemum…!

He draws on our common knowledge of the story of Joseph and his brothers reminding us that at the point of reconciliation Judah has changed - he is now ready to face imprisonment himself to save his father’s favourite Benjamin but Joseph has also changed - he is able to acknowledge that God himself has done this - there is purpose to what has happened to him - not bitterness. Reconciliation demands serious change on all sides and change that means genuine equality.

The Pilgrimage is over but we are invited to make our way back to the Cathedral - to walk the Labyrinth - and to take part in a very special blessing.

A young man, Johannes Loubser, has decided to walk barefoot from Cape Town to Johannesburg. Johannes is a Capetonian - a young lawyer who turned his back on this country and went to Russia. On the steps of the Cathedral he told how God had spoken to him with great certainty (not a real voice just a certainty that was deep within) about this walk to draw attention to the need for peace and reconciliation in his country and within himself. You can read more about the purpose of the walk (which is also a fundraising exercise) and Johannes on www.peacewalk.co.za. Johannes was blessed and prayed for by friends and fellow pilgrims on the steps of the Cathedral before setting off on the walk.
The young people from the Face to Faith camp sang - I cried!

During the afternoon I read Archbishop Tutu’s short and hugely profound book 'God has a Dream' - I am profoundly struck by the influence I realise he has had on everything that I have been involved in and heard this morning. One, perhaps tangential, comment catches my attention - the gift that ordained women can be to the church and (in that context) the bumper sticker that Leah, his wife, loves: 'A woman who wants to be equal to a man has no ambition'! He writes of his longing that women who naturally do things differently should not settle for business as usual but seek to transform the world in ‘extraordinary and unimagined ways’. Now that is ambition! So many of the people I have met here men and women alike are ambitious for Africa, ambitious for the poor who suffer under the new apartheid of wealth and poverty that stretches far beyond the boundaries of this nation or this continent. It is an ambition we all need to own for our own nation and continent and we have a thing or two to learn.

(Blogged by Rev Sue Booys whilst on sabbatical in South Africa)

A letter from Cape Town

2010-12-16T11:14:00.000-08:00

Happy Christmas to you all
I thought this would be a good time to pen a brief update and circulate it via the Abbey Blog to let you know what we have been doing. Our family arrives in two waves to spend Christmas with us on Sunday and so this seems a good time to try and capture the first three weeks.
Settling in and settling down was both easy and took longer than expected! Richard and I have loved our apartment above offices in Adderley Street which is the Oxford Street of Cape Town and comes complete with Christmas lights - athletes in one display and a nativity in the next!! We are also just 5 minutes walk from the Cathedral - which has a labyrinth!!
Today is a public holiday so the 7.15 daily Eucharist is delayed until 8am and an interfaith walk around the main worship places of the city begins at the Labyrinth at 9am. This is organised by the Cathedral committee for reconciliation and justice with whom I was privileged to meet. Many of the folk here played significant parts in the fight against apartheid and the Cathedral had a significant role in that so there is a real passion to interpret the themes of justice and reconciliation for our own days and to be active in these areas. The interfaith walk is in its fourth or fifth year and the Mayor joins in!
Last Sunday we went to St Cyprians in Langa to the kind of African service people talk about: 3 and a quarter hours long and in Xhosa - although Fr Antoni kindly slipped in the odd English words every 15 minutes or so to help us keep track. What struck Richard and I even as we walked in was how like Church of the Holy Spirit - the ‘mission’ Church of St Mary’s Kenton it was. This was where Richard did his early scouting and we both attended Holiday Clubs. (I believe that a Greek Orthodox community now worships there). We stayed to lunch - kind of the equivalent of the lunch club Christmas dinner but VERY different. During the service all the ‘indoor members’ of the Church who are not usually able to attend were called forward - bags of groceries for their Christmas were blessed (by me!!) and distributed and after the service they were given lunch in the church hall. The catering was vat sized (I have the pictures to prove it!) Like many churches St Cyprians has an outreach programme and they feed those who can’t feed themselves at lunchtimes during the week. They are supported in doing this by their link parish in the Diocese of York.

We have made the most of our time off here as well - highlights were a half day at Cape Point and another half day in the V and A Waterfront. We did a trip down the coast to Hermanus and have done two glorious sunset drives along different coast roads. Last Saturday evening we did a special Jazz tour which involved going to musicians houses eating with them and listening to them talk about their music and their history -t his was organised by a company called Coffeebeansroutes who do good - slightly different tours. Absolutely fascinating and we came home turned on the telly and there was our host of a couple of hours ago narrating a programme about Jazz!! Then on Sunday we went to a concert in the Kirstenbosch Gardens - fab venue for concerts with Table Mountain as a backdrop to the stage. I hadn’t really taken much notice of Freshly Ground (World Cup song Waca Waca artists) but they are great - we have the CD but decided not to join the mile long queue to get it signed just joined the mile long queue to get out of the car park instead!!!
As you can tell we’re getting a lot of opportunities to do things we might not normally do! We’re also enjoying working together - as I write we are sitting opposite sides of the kitchen table working together having just stopped for lunch. This is a real blessing!
So what next! As I said our family joins us for Christmas and after that we set off for Kimberley. We had hoped to travel by train but can’t, so instead we shall drive - taking in a little of the Garden Route on the way. In between starting and finishing this letter I have been on the interfaith pilgrimage - too much to mention here so look out for another instalment!
With our love and prayers for a blessed and joyful Christmas
Sue and Richard

Traditional Skills: Crafts that Built the Abbey August 2010

2010-09-06T14:01:00.000-07:00

Even the weather did its very best for us over the August Bank Holiday weekend, just testing us with only one sharp shower on Sunday afternoon, which did nothing to dampen the enthusiasm that characterised the three days of the Traditional Skills event.

Not only did we have skills aplenty on display, in the guise of the supremely talented craftsmen and women, but also the passion that goes with a love of the crafts and skills they continue and the materials they work with. Watching these people in action and listening to them talk about their work was a true privilege, and gave the visitors an illustration of their enthusiasm for what they do.

There was enthusiasm unbounded for the hands-on opportunities, displayed by both the young and not so young. Hundreds of commemorative bookmarks were produced under the guidance of the Bookbinders; hundreds of holes drilled in pieces of wood with hand tools, and medieval joints demonstrated by courtesy of the Woodworkers; machine- embroidered motifs were proudly taken home, and perhaps have even given two teenage boys thoughts for GCSE choices! Stone was chipped and stained glass arranged; iron was shaped at the Blacksmith’s forge and letters were shaped with the Calligrapher’s quills.

The Wallingford Scouts, providing refreshments and supervising the car park as a means of fund-raising, showed modern youth in a very positive light and were on hand to help, cheerfully and enthusiastically, whenever a job needed doing.

There was so much to watch, talk about and do that many visitors had to return more than once. Everyone involved loved the event – the craftspeople spoke highly of the genuine interest shown by the visitors and of the happy atmosphere. The visitors loved what the craftspeople provided for them. Those of us involved in the organisation just loved to see it happening as we had envisaged it.

The reactions and comments from the craftspeople and the visitors leave us in no doubt that Traditional Skills is a very special event. By its nature its outcome is immeasurable. We can only wonder whether one day someone will announce that what they saw and did at Traditional Skills took their life in a certain direction.

Perhaps anyone who may have thought that we had simply organised a repeat of the 2008 event will realise they missed a real gem in 2010. Those of us who were there know we were part of something very special which will live long in the memory.

(Blogged by Sue Dixon, principal organiser behind the Traditional Skills 2010 event)

Reflections on the First 6 weeks of Priestly Ministry

2010-08-15T14:10:00.000-07:00

After spending a year serving as a Deacon in the Dorchester Team Ministry at the end of June came the time for me to be ordained as a priest. For the four days prior to the ordination itself I went on a retreat, along with 34 others to be ordained priests in the diocese, to Cuddesdon. This time allowed for some reflection and prayer before the momentous day itself and was a welcome time to step back from the business of ministry, enabling me to reflect on the year past and the years to come.

The ordination itself took place on a splendidly sunny Sunday on the 27th June 2010. I was fortunate that the ordination to the priesthood took place in Dorchester Abbey where I have a spent a lot of time over the previous year alongside five other candidates for the priesthood (including my wife Hannah). The service itself was lovely and ably conducted by Bishop Colin Fletcher, who is my area Bishop (Bishop of Dorchester). The archdeacon of Oxford Julian Hubbard preached a good sermon, reflecting on the similarities and differences between a wedding service and an ordination which gave us food for thought.

After the service a different sort of food was provided in a hog roast in the cloister garden which many people from the team attended on a sweltering afternoon. Most managed to find some shade from the trees to sit down and eat together. As usual the hospitality and cooking skills of the team were on display, with a good array of salads and desserts provided alongside the roasted pork.

From that day on there have been a series of firsts for me. My first celebration of communion came the following Sunday when I took the eight o’clock BCP service at the Abbey. This quiet and prayerful service seemed to me to be a low pressure way of celebrating for the first time and it was a great privilege to do so. After this service we had breakfast together with pastries hastily fetched from the local Co-Op and freshly made coffee, which all went down well.

The following Saturday saw the first wedding service I conducted, which was a nerve racking experience. So may things that I had to remember! Fortunately I was assisted by a good team of churchwardens who looked after lots of the practical issues. All I had to do was get the words right and avoid the ‘Holy Goats and Holy Spigits’ from Four Weddings and a Funeral. All passed off very well and a good time was had by all.

Looking back over my first six weeks there, in some ways, has been very little change in going about my daily business of ministry, but in some ways things have changed enormously especially on Sunday mornings. No longer am I assisting with communion services I am now taking them myself and sometimes even doing them solo. I look forward to many more years of offering my priestly ministry to the Church and hope to continue to grow in the knowledge and love of God and help others to do the same.

(Blogged by David Cleugh, newly ordained priest of the Dorchester Team Ministry)

Come Experience the Traditional Skills Weekend 28-30 August 2010

2010-08-06T15:23:00.000-07:00

With three weeks to go before “Traditional Skills in Action – Crafts that Built the Abbey” we are down to the last details. We started planning this event immediately after the conclusion of our first “Traditional Skills” in 2008 (all these photos are from 2008 event), which attracted 3000 visitors over the weekend and resulted in many requests from both participants and visitors to “please do another one”. Several of this year’s craftsmen were with us in 2008 but we also have people joining us for the first time and new crafts and skills on display.

How do the skills of today’s craftsmen compare with those of the medieval craftsmen who built Dorchester Abbey? Have the tools, the techniques, the materials changed much in the intervening 900 years? Come and meet the contemporary craftspeople and ask them.

As well as having the opportunity to be close-up to highly-skilled, modern-day master craftsmen and women, try your hand at many of the skills for yourself – possibly the best way of discovering that the experts make it look much easier than it really is, or perhaps of realising a talent you didn’t know you had!

Entry to “Traditional Skills” is FREE and the event is open from 12 noon to 6pm on 28 and 29 August and from 10am to 4pm on Bank Holiday Monday 30 August – whatever the weather.

The sculptors, the blacksmith, the builder and the man who does wattle and daub will certainly be hoping that there will be no rain in Dorchester-on-Thames over the August Bank Holiday weekend.They will be demonstrating their skills under the cover of a marquee in the Cloister garden whilst the woodworkers, the calligraphers, the bookbinder, the stained-glass artist and the embroiderer will be demonstrating their crafts inside the Abbey. We don’t have room for the butcher and the baker this year - and the candlestick-maker (i.e. the silversmith!) finds himself working in Scotland – maybe we'll see him next time!

(Blogged by Sue Dixon, organiser behind the Traditional Skills Weekend 2008 and 2010)

Wycliffe Student Summer Placement 2010

2010-07-29T17:43:00.000-07:00

I am Judith Griffin (below), a first year theology student from Wycliffe Hall, Oxford (left) and hope to be ordained into the Church of England next summer. At the end of the first year we need to have 5 weeks on a work placement where we will gain experience of a church environment which is different from that of our own. I have come from an inner city church so I was keen to know more about country parish life and ministry.

I was completely overwhelmed by the kindness and the warm welcome which I received from everyone whom I met in Dorchester. I was particularly struck at how much time many people give up volunteering for so many roles within and associated to the Abbey. The hard work and team spirit enables this historical place of prayer to be open and accessible to everyone. I was amazed at the variety of events and services that are available that reach out to all different sorts of tastes, needs and age groups.

Under the excellent leadership of Sue and the willingness of the volunteers to coach me, I feel that I have been privileged with the best experience that I could have ever imagined. I have learnt so much practically, but what stands out as a continual thread is the community and the way in which people relate to one another in love and understanding. Through Sue’s example the practical aspect of being a priest and being part of such a community is something that I can see is lived and enjoyed and is not contrived or something confined to a 9 to 5.30 perspective.

I will take away many valuable nuggets of experience and remember my time at Dorchester with warmth. This positive time has added to my excitement about the prospect of becoming ordained and I can’t wait to get out there and use what I have learnt this summer.

Thank you Sue, to you, your family, the team and everyone who I met; it was like being part of a large family .......and I shall also miss the cake!

(Blogged by Judith Griffin, Wycliffe Hall Ordinand on a 5 week placement at Dorchester Abbey during June/July 2010)

Discovering Dorchester Archaeological Schools Visits and Public Open Day 2010

2010-07-26T07:25:00.000-07:00

Saturday 24th was a very busy Excavation Open Day on the allotment site for the Discovering Dorchester Community Archaeology Project, with well over 250 people visiting the site. This was the culmination of the July excavations by Oxford Archaeology and University of Oxford students; as Education Officer for the Project, I was pleased with the very enthusiastic response of children and adults.

My name is Jo Richards (seen in background of picture below right). I have worked in professional archaeology throughout my career; for many years as an archaeological illustrator and reconstruction artist, and more recently in the field of archaeology education, heritage interpretation and exhibition design. As a freelance adviser I also demonstrate late medieval plant use and 14th century needlework. I believe the current term for this is ‘portfolio working’!

This is my second summer in Dorchester-on-Thames, since I was recruited through Oxford Archaeology South. I work closely with Oxford Archaeology and the University of Oxford, who are directly responsible for the archaeological excavation programme, thereby providing a broadly historical and site-specific educational programme. In conjunction with the educational work at the dig I collaborate with Margaret Craig at Dorchester Abbey and John Metcalfe of Dorchester Museum, and we have had a very successful season, with over 70 pupils from two local schools visiting the excavation on the allotments site.

On these visit days, we ‘rotate’ groups between the abbey, museum and excavation, where children and their teachers and helpers have a site tour to see archaeology in action. There is a dedicated education marquee, and children can experience a number of activities including finds-washing, using micro-digs, examining tiny snail samples under the microscope and design their own roman coin/roman road/roman pot. After a site tour, I give a brief introduction to timelines, local history and what archaeologists do, including a chance to try on a hard hat, high-visibility jacket and a pair of enormous steel-capped boots!

It doesn’t stop there! There are Roman and Saxon Loans Boxes available for Oxfordshire schools to borrow free of charge throughout the year. I am available for pre-visits to schools before the excavation season starts, and in 2011 we are looking to expand this opportunity further. A number of teachers and parents have been very enthusiastic about the opportunities for hands-on experience of archaeology – there is no better way to enthuse the local community about the impressive and unique historic landscape on their doorstep.
(Blogged by Jo Richards, Discovering Dorchester Archaeological Educational Officer)

Mayors and Chairs Welcome Dinner

2010-07-22T09:33:00.000-07:00

On a sultry (but dry!) Monday evening on Monday 19th July 2010, a large group of almost 80 people gathered for drinks on the lawn outside the Abbey. Principle guests were the Mayors and Chairs of the County, district and town councils from across Oxfordshire together with their partners.
The hosts were the Bishop of Dorchester, Colin Fletcher (photo right), and Oxfordshire’s Lieutenancy. Some 20 of the County’s 35 Deputy Lieutenants and their partners were there to welcome the guests. The Bishop of Oxford, John Pritchard (photo left), and his wife were also present. The Rev Canon Sue Booys, generously lending the gloriously spacious Abbey for the evening, enabled it all to happen.

The main purpose of the evening was to wish the Mayors and Chairs well at the start of their Civic year; to give them an opportunity to meet and mingle with each other, and for the group of Deputy Lieutenants, increasingly engaged in activity across the County, to get to know their opposite numbers in the Civic Community.

Being a Mayor or Chair is an onerous task: the list of events which they are asked to attend and be involved with is very substantial, and continues unabated through the whole of the Civic year. The impact that they can have, particularly in encouraging volunteering activity and thanking people all over the county for the tireless contribution that so many make to the well being of their local communities, is of great importance. This is true especially at a time of real economic austerity in public services, when the demands on our Civic authorities and the volunteering sector is greater than it has been for many years. So the evening was a big opportunity to thank and support and encourage our Mayors and Chairs, and to forge links with the Lieutenancy which should help both sides to do their jobs more effectively than would otherwise be the case. But if this makes it all sound too serious, it wasn’t. Drinks were followed by dinner in the Abbey – delicious food prepared and served by Sean and his team from the White Hart. A seating plan for the first course was matched by a free for all seating for the pudding giving maximum opportunity for guests to mingle and talk and gossip and moan and discuss current issues and problems. Some (short!) speeches were part of the mix.

At the end of dinner, all guests were invited to move down into the Chancel where Bishop Colin said Compline, a service which has been used in the Abbey, at the end of the day, for hundreds of years stretching right back to the Abbey’s 12th C monastic traditions. It is a service which encourages quiet contemplation and thought at the close of what had no doubt for all been a busy Monday, but more importantly an opportunity to think quietly about the challenges ahead. An appropriate end to a very special evening.

(Blogged by the Lord-Lieutenant of Oxford, Tim Steventon)

On Women Bishops ….shark infested waters, expectations and the media!

2010-07-22T07:19:00.000-07:00

I was going to blog from General Synod but I’m much better at ‘emotion recollected in tranquillity’ (Wordsworth) – or at least the relative tranquillity of home compared to Synod. There are some great synod bloggers whose blogs you can find at http://gensyn.blogspot.com if you want a flavour of Synod as it went. If you read them – especially Justin Brett’s (a good friend) you might understand why it’s taken me a week to write!! http://dodgyliberal.blogspot.com

For the second or third time now I’ve been at a meeting of General Synod about which it has been possible for the press to report that the Church of England has agreed to have women Bishops. The reality is that it’s a long way off yet - rather like the Kingdom in R S Thomas wonderful poem of that name!* Therein, as they say, lies the problem. Most places I go people have read the papers and offer their congratulations – but do I feel like cheering? Frankly – No!

Of course I would be delighted if the Synod had made this decision and I AM pleased that we have taken another step along that path. BUT I am also really dismayed for a number of reasons.
First the ‘shark infested waters’ – if you have read the Bishop of Oxford’s Pastoral letter published immediately after Synod (www.oxford.anglican.org/documents/PASTORALLETTERJULY10.pdflink) you’ll know that I have said this! Over the last several years two groups of people with strongly held views have, for the most part, gradually come closer together and really do not now stand so very far apart. Asked by their leaders for generosity and compromise they have done their best - one side is no longer asking for a ‘single clause measure’ (women can be Bishop’s full stop) nor the other for a ‘third province’ (Church within a Church) so we have moved. The water between us that Synod – and the Archbishops – failed to bridge is that of ‘transfer’ versus ‘delegation’. Would a woman Bishop be really a Bishop if she had to transfer her authority to someone else and could someone who genuinely believed she wasn’t a Bishop accept that she could delegate her authority?
The most dangerous ‘sharks’ are lack of trust, fear and the taking of public positions. I’m not yet certain whether the waters are murky and the sharks just magnified by my own worst fears – or whether they are deep and much too dangerous to attempt a crossing. I could never do those ‘reasoning’ puzzles about single boats, foxes and hens crossing to the other side of such rivers when I was at school but there were people who could and I wish they would!! However, in our present situation that’s tantamount to asking someone to wave a magic wand to do work that I need to do by the sweat of my own brow!
Another reason for my dismay is that even people of good will don’t really grasp how it feels to be a woman in this debate. At Synod I sat in a meeting of friends and colleagues (albeit of differing opinions) when three men talked about whether I might want to be asked to offer my opinion. This was so much like what it sometimes feels to be a woman in the midst of these discussions that I was reduced to tears (VERY embarrassing). I’m not convinced that anyone much understood why!

Finally I am dismayed by some of the press reporting – interviewed by Phil Mercer and Malcolm Boyden on Radio Oxford I recognised myself, even if I knew I’d been typically long winded, at once the great advantage and worst disadvantage of a live interview!! In print half a reply can be reported as the whole and it can sound rather different from your original comment! Having read the interview with the Bishop of Fulham in yesterday’s Sunday Times (Women priests made me take up smoking again is one of the tamer comments!) I can only hope that he feels the same! Reporters are looking for adversarial positions and we often seem only too willing to offer them – or too careless not to. Maybe we should ALL refuse all interviews – and NOT do blogging and maybe then we would find it easier to talk and trust!

And for the record … lest you want to ask … there are many women in the Church of England who will, I believe make wonderful Bishops – and I long for the day when that is possible. But it is for God and the Church to call them not me – or any journalist – to name them!!

*Here’s the poem – what it says is worth more than all the reams of paper expended on Women Bishops!!

The Kingdom by R S Thomas

It’s a long way off but inside it
There are quite different things going on:
Festivals at which the poor man
Is king and the consumptive is
Healed; mirrors in which the blind look
At themselves and love looks at them
Back; and industry is for mending
The bent bones and the minds fractured
By life. It’s a long way off, but to get
There takes no time and admission
Is free, if you purge yourself
Of desire, and present yourself with
Your need only and the simple offering
Of your faith, green as a leaf.

(Blogged by Rev. Canon Sue Booys, Rector of Dorchester Abbey)

Life on Placement

2010-07-13T11:32:00.000-07:00

As an ordinand in training at Cuddesdon (photo left), I had a conversation a few months ago with the tutor responsible for placements about where to spend 4 weeks in the summer. Having spent 9 years as a Church Army Officer, I have a fair amount of experience in the Church of England, but always in places with one church, one vicar. I asked, therefore, to have a different experience: to go to a church that was part of a bigger team.

I can’t imagine anywhere that would have given me the breadth of experience in such a short space of time as I have found at Dorchester Abbey. Granted, it has been a particularly busy month (meeting Bishop Colin 6 times in a little over 2 weeks is indicative of the number of special events that have happened), but I have learnt much from the day-to-day life of the Abbey and Dorchester Team as well.

There is no doubt in my mind that the Team is blessed with an array of highly capable leaders – both lay and ordained – and it has been a privilege to meet and chat with many of them. The breadth of gifting obviously extends into parish life with so many people serving their parish church in numerous different ways. I was especially impressed with the way that many people from across the Team came together to provide hospitality so effectively for the Ordination Service a couple of weeks ago.

There are lots of things I could talk about regarding this time on placement, but I will limit myself to two more things which I will take from my experience in Dorchester. The first is the team of Churchwardens and Assistant Churchwardens, with particular people having particular responsibilities within the Abbey – it is something which I have not experienced before, yet makes perfect sense, and seems to be working well – an idea which I may well pinch for the future! I am not surprised that a parish which is part of a wider team should have effective teams within itself as well (and there are many more teams besides the churchwardens).

Finally, it has been a real privilege spending these few short weeks witnessing the way that Sue works, as Team Rector. It is a hugely demanding task, being both named incumbent for this particular cluster, and also leading the whole team (and that is without taking into account the additional responsibilities that come with being Area Dean). I have been impressed with the way she models leadership, and have appreciated her insights about taking time off. We had a very interesting discussion about Sabbath the other week, which has given me much food for thought for the future.

May I end by saying thank you to all those I have met in this short time in the Dorchester Team, especially those who have very kindly given up time to talk about life in the Abbey and/or team. It is hard to believe that this Sunday is the end of the placement, but I intend to go out with a bang (perhaps literally – I will be speaking at the Family Service, and balloons will be involved!!) I hope to see many of you there, but whether you can make it or not, I wish Dorchester and the Team every blessing for the future.

(Blogged by Chris Routledge, Cuddesdon Ordinand on a 4 week placement at Dorchester Abbey)

The Dorchester Lecture, 24th June 2010

2010-07-02T01:47:00.000-07:00

One of the highlights of the year for the Friends of Dorchester Abbey is the Dorchester Lecture. For the past five years eminent speakers have spoken to us about aspects of morality connected with the area of their own expertise. So far we have kept the speakers in house –the House of Lords that is – and to date Lord Hurd, Baroness Neuberger, the Bishop of London and Lord Winston have inspired us and brought to the Abbey an audience of fascinating and fascinated people.

Last week we welcomed Lord Carlile QC. An eminent lawyer, for fifteen years a Liberal then Liberal Democrat MP and in 1999 created a Life Peer, he is now the Government’s Independent Reviewer of Terrorism Legislation. This is probably a subject on which not many of us have reflected overmuch but in the current climate it bears examination from all of us.

Lord Carlile asked the question ‘Terrorism: have we got the law right?’ He spoke about the balancing act required between protecting
national security and the rights of the individual. Anecdotal illustrations
of stop and search techniques by police of a top Asian
lawyer and an elderly white couple helped demonstrate the conundrum facing law-makers and enforcers in achieving that balance.
Lord Carlile welcomed the Home Secretary’s announcement that very day of the retention of the 28 day detention without charge rule for the next six months whilst a thorough review of anti terrorism legislation is undertaken. No woolly liberal he.

So timely was our lecture that both the Daily Telegraph and the Guardian used it as a focus for interviewing our speaker and running articles. After the Lecture and a hastily swallowed supper Lord Carlile was whisked off to London to appear on Newsnight with the inimitable Kirsty Wark who managed to pronounce Dorchester quite intelligibly in her introduction!

At the next meeting of the Trustees of the Friends we will be considering whom to ask to speak to us next year. Should we stay with the House of Lords or should we jump ship? All suggestions very welcome.

(Blogged by Anne Kelaart, on behalf of the Trustees of the Friends of Dorchester Abbey)

Educationally Unique

2010-06-30T17:16:00.000-07:00

I have always felt that Dorchester Abbey can offer everyone, from the young student to our more mature visitors, a fabulously unique educational experience. This has been brought home to me this week more than ever as the Abbey hosts NAPE’s annual Festival of Voices. This event brings primary schools from all over Oxfordshire together to sing in unison within the beautiful Abbey setting, conducted by Kevin Stannard and Peter Hunt. It was enjoyed by an enthusiastic audience of parents and siblings and some dignitaries, including the Mayor of Wallingford and his wife.

As I sat listening to the Tuesday night performance it struck me how it recalled the earlier medieval traditions of the Abbey when the monks would have sang in plainchant in the choir, the area where the 300 children were staged en masse, their high voices resonating in the vast Abbey space. The varied musical programme offered a range of songs from around the world, such as the traditional Congolese ‘Banaha’, the swirling melody of the Ghanaian ‘Senwa Dedende’ or the Jamaican 'By the Rivers of Babylon' where we were all encouraged to join in, to more popular tunes such as Abba’s ‘Money, Money, Money’ and Elvis’s ‘Jailhouse Rock'.

The children clearly enjoyed themselves with plenty of smiles and jiggling gestures when required! The final song of ‘World in Union’ evoked a sense of social harmony and accord world leaders can only aspire towards. As a collection was taken for ‘Save the Children’ the children provided an encore reprise of a few of the melodies, to the great enjoyment of the audience. Their performance highlights how much so many owe to so few, as these massed children and parents do to the teachers, conductors, musicians and all who assist with the staging of this tremendous week long event.

As this event demonstrates every school visit to Dorchester Abbey is unique, just as every individual child is unique. In the week prior to this one I hosted an educational visit to the Abbey for over 60 children. Because each school is as unique as each child I aim to create an equally unique visit. Thus I enjoy being able to meet with schools before their visits to the Abbey, thereby discussing particular syllabus requirements, individual ideas and to explore aspects of mutual interest for their students.

Although the school had enjoyed previously visits to the Abbey they were excited by the opportunity of exploring new educational trails and innovative activities, resulting in a programme that included a religious and cultural ‘scavenger hunt’, an investigation of our knights and the heraldic window enabling them to design their own coats of arms, as well as the perennially popular activities of sketching and brass rubbing. They also enjoyed combining these activities with their own personal written responses to the Abbey which culminated at the end of the day in a selection of the best ones being read out by the students from our Victorian pulpit. The variety of responses ranged from personal prayers to astute descriptions of the space, but each pupil read their contribution out with the lilt of excitement in their voices and an extreme sense of achievement.

In addition to these events I have also been going out to meet teachers and introduce them to what the Abbey and Dorchester has to offer them and their classes through INSET presentations. The current educational watchword is ‘cross-curricular’, which is something Dorchester excels at! As well as the obvious RE (Religious Education) links, we have history, geography, art and architectural heritage, and music in spades! Not to mention the many other links we could make. The wealth of history not only the Abbey, but Dorchester and its geographical surroundings, has to offer is certainly unique. I explain how Dorchester declares the significance of its past geographically to the children from afar before they even arrive, as they see the two domineering mounds of Wittenham Clumps and then the Abbey tower becomes just visible through the trees as they approach the village.

I have demonstrated our newly arrived Museum Loans Boxes, which contain original artefacts and replica items from the Anglo-Saxon and Roman periods, complete with lesson materials and supporting books, all of which are free for schools to borrow. This initiative has already proved to be very successful for the schools who have borrowed them so far. We are also going to stage a Key Stage 2 ‘Pilgrimage and Worship’ study day for schools in June 2011, which is currently in the initial planning stage and which we might develop further Loans Boxes.

July sees the return of our Musuem-Abbey-Archaeological site visits, where schoolchildren have the opportunity to see archaeology in action and try their hand at some dig-related activities. Just the type of method that brings history to life for students and teachers alike! (Go to http://discoveringdorchester.blogspot.com/ for further information on the Dorchester Dig!)

Here ends another educationally unique month, I look forward to many more!!

(Blogged by the Abbey's Education Officer)

(Not only but...) Tuesday Coffee Mornings in the Abbey

2010-06-22T04:07:00.000-07:00

We have established regular ‘Coffee in the Abbey’ mornings (every Tuesday 10-11.30am) since April and this has proved to be an enjoyable, varied and fun event for all involved! No two weeks are the same, even though we do have our regulars who return from week to week. All are made welcome and so too would you, if you feel like popping in for a coffee, a chat and a biscuit! But we thought we would give you a little insight into what you might expect if you did decide to join us!

First, you will find a friendly welcome from the volunteers who vie with one another to provide you with a wonderful cup of fresh filtered Fair Trade coffee and a biscuit too. The atmosphere is always friendly, relaxed, and never subdued! You will find that the coffee mornings are a nice place to meet with friends old and new. We always welcome any visitors to join us. Some visitors, who might have just come in for a brief look around the Abbey, linger long over the coffee and company they find. Furthermore it is amazing what you can find happening during one of our coffee mornings and what you might accomplish: from the filling in of a tennis form, to discussing the finer points of village life, through to arranging social events!
Moreover babies are made very welcome indeed! Charlie and Alastair, our youngest coffee morning converts (though milk only for them, of course!), frequently find willing arms to cuddle them, knees to be bounced upon and melodic voices to coo over them.

Don’t be scared but sometimes there is a dog collar present (yes, of both varieties!). Thus we welcome well-behaved owners (and their accompanying dogs!) who pop in for a cool down after their morning constitutionals.

Sue (the vicar) often makes an appearance, having to endure a barrage of heckling from the volunteers to boot! David (the curate), who is not a coffee man, is given special treatment with his very own mug of tea. We find these mornings prove invaluable as a good way of meeting with the clergy on a very informal and relaxed basis.

If you feel the need for quiet reflection instead, then you need only walk into the ‘body of the kirk’ where you’ll find the St. Birinus Chapel set aside for peaceful contemplation. Even when we have a school group in, you’ll find the children well behaved and quietly enjoying their Abbey experience.

Come and join us any Tuesday morning between 10-11.30am and you’ll find we will welcome you with our friendship, laughter, childish giggling (not only from the babies!), relaxed chatter and even a bit of gossip (sssh!). Hope to see you there next Tuesday!

PS Don't forget the Friends of Dorchester Abbey present Lord Carlile speaking on 'Morality and the Law' for the annual Dorchester Lecture on Thursday 24th June 2010 at 7.30pm. Tickets on the door. You can read about the Lecture in next week's blog.

(Blogged on behalf of Catherine, Carol-Ann, Claire, Sue and all the Coffee Morning Volunteers)

“Only a link in a long chain” On being a Dorchester Abbey Museum helper

2010-06-15T06:00:00.000-07:00

I am ‘old’ Dorchester – nowadays in more ways than one! I feel like a museum piece myself sometimes because people come over all shiny-eyed and peculiar when you tell them you are Dorchester born and bred, and they want to know what it was like ‘in the old days’. So there am I, an exhibit amongst other, even more fascinating, items explaining my links with the place, this building, and life in Dorchester on Thames in 2010.

I volunteered to help at the museum when we returned to the village in 2001. Mine had been a long absence – since 1966 – and I returned to rather a different Dorchester from the one I had left all those years ago. But the museum was still there and I thought it would be an interesting place to spend a few hours usefully, and a good way to meet interesting people. I knew Edith Stedman, the formidable and very amusing American who started the museum way back in the 1960’s. In her book A Yankee in an English Village (1971, Dorchester Abbey Museum) she describes a late Dorchester afternoon in June rather like the one I enjoyed last week:

“There’s that lovely purple-gray light on the stones … its absolute peace gives a sense of remoteness, of timelessness of being only a link in along chain.“

Why don’t people wearing rucksacks take them off when they come to the museum? We had five visitors wearing back packs this week and they all sidled around the exhibits like packhorses on a cliff path. People ‘just nip in’, sometimes while they are waiting for the famous tea room to open, and often, at least half an hour later, they are still quietly “oohing and aahing” over the wonderful treasures we have.

Children are indulgent with the adults who accompany them. They listen patiently to cries of “Oh, I had a desk just like this when I was at school” and “See this cane? You got whacked with it if you were naughty.” Once the adults have moved on to examine other exhibits, or to browse in the shop, the children then get on with the serious business of taking turns to be teacher at the high desk, wearing the mortar board and gown, calling the register. Many of them also value the special table with items that may be picked up and examined – the fossilised sea-urchin, the bird’s nest with eggs intact (this is a real favourite) and the pieces of pottery dug up by archaeologists at the allotments.

It is great that although some exhibits are permanent we also have new exhibits. The lovely new display cases which show the archaeology are proving very popular. My favourite really old thing (I am not too good on dates and historical periods) is a ‘thread picker’. I am not sure if it is bone, or wood but, although it’s only about three inches long, its silky polish and smooth surface conjure up an image of some unknown old “Doddestr’un” bent weaving at a primitive loom, somewhere near our broad bean patch, a very long time ago.

And now to my favourite not-so-ancient exhibit. Way back my Granny’s neighbour was Mr Dick Jerome. He lived on the corner of Crown Lane and Queen Street and was a master woodsman. I remember going up to Wittenham Clumps on my bike and standing at a respectful distance watching him make hurdles. He was a man of few words, (“Awright?” “Yes, thank you, Mr Jerome.” “Awright then”) but as long as you kept quiet he went on working as if you were not there. Deft, quick, confident, orderly – stacking the hurdles against a tree as they were finished. It is wonderful to see such an interesting display dedicated to his story – you can see a miniature hurdle that he made for an exhibition and his working tools, kindly loaned by his family.

There are bonuses to be had when volunteering at the museum. You get a cuppa and a piece of cake from the kind tearoom ladies. People pop in for a chat. You meet folk from all over the world. I once met a woman from Birkenhead who knew my husband’s family back in the 1940’s. I met my great auntie’s nephew and his mother (for the first time) and learned a lot about the history of Dorchester’s gravel pits. Mairi Metcalfe came in last week and we spent a happy time while I tried to remember the names of people, long dead, bless them, in lovely old black and white photographs donated for safe keeping.

I could go on – I haven’t told you anything about my Grampy who went to school in the Guest House in the late 1800’s, the award-winning Cloister Gallery, the gift-shop, the village history display boards, the Community Archaeology Project, the brilliant walks around Dorchester leaflets (people can never get over the fact that they are free!). If you want to get to know more about the village and meet some lovely people, consider volunteering for the helpers’ rota. If you are from Dorchester and love the place, or new to the village and care about its history, and if you have not been into the Museum for a while or ever, do pop in. Be a link in that long chain that Edith Stedman wrote about – be part of the place, even if only for the afternoon (but please take your rucksack off – we can keep an eye on it for you, and please don’t shout across the museum because it spoils the children’s concentration). Thank you.

Next time you can read about the new 'Tuesday Coffee in the Abbey' sessions which have become a regular fixture for many locals, as well as the occasional visitor.

For more information about the museum see www.dorchester-abbey.org.uk/museum.htm
(Blogged by Denise Line, volunteer Dorchester Abbey Museum helper)

Fourth English Music Festival 2010 at Dorchester Abbey

2010-06-07T07:05:00.000-07:00

I, Em Marshall, am the Founder-Director of the English Music Festival, which celebrates the music of British composers throughout the centuries, with a strong focus on the Golden Renaissance of English music – the early twentieth century. Concerts and talks are staged in Dorchester Abbey and in the Abbey Guest House, as well as at the Silk Hall at Radley College and the Church of All Saints at Sutton Courtenay.
Friday 28 May
I returned to Oxfordshire yesterday evening from an interview for ‘In Tune’ on BBC Radio 3, travelling directly to Radley for the Festival’s opening (free) concert – a piano recital of music by Rawsthorne, Lennox Berkeley and Ferguson, given by Anthony Williams. This morning was spent co-ordinating final preparations for tonight’s concert: setting up the CD stall and the Box Office in the Abbey; ensuring that refreshments were available for the orchestra; and then partaking of lunch at The White Hart Hotel with fellow Trustees, EMF Vice-President, conductor and broadcaster Brian Kay, and a Friend of the Festival who had come from France to attend.
Following the afternoon rehearsal in the Abbey, the Garden Party for EMF Friends, Artists and Vice-Presidents was most generously hosted by an eminent Dorchester resident. Back in the Abbey, the main evening concert (our flagship event) featured the BBC Concert Orchestra, conducted by Gavin Sutherland – after a warm introduction by Revd Sue Booys, I welcomed the audience, some of whom had travelled from the other side of the world. The programme commenced with Parry’s ‘Jerusalem’, as is the Festival’s custom; and also included the first performance for over a century of Quilter’s ‘Serenade’, Moeran’s evocative ‘Lonely Waters’, and Montague Phillips’s First Piano Concerto, played by David Owen Norris. The highlight of the concert was the world première of York Bowen’s First Symphony, written whilst the composer was still a student at the Royal Academy of Music. The audience response to this unaccountably overlooked work was overwhelming.
At the end of each day, the Festival Trustees meet for a debriefing session in The White Hart, followed by a (very!) late meal.
Saturday 29 May
This morning’s recital, given by the violinist Rupert Luck and the pianist Matthew Rickard, was especially exciting, including, as it did, the world premières of the Violin Sonatas by Arthur Bliss and Henry Walford Davies, both of which have languished in manuscript form for almost one hundred years. This was followed by lunch, again at The White Hart, with the morning’s artists and the composer Lionel Sainsbury. Then on to Radley for a concert given by the Orchestra of St Paul’s, conducted by Ben Palmer, the programme for which contained the world première of Paul Carr’s ‘A Gentle Music’, which I was extremely flattered to have dedicated to me.
The late afternoon slots are dedicated to talks from eminent visiting speakers which take place in the Abbey Guest House. Today’s was, regrettably, the only talk which I was able to attend; and I hugely enjoyed Barry Marsh’s fascinating presentation on E. J. Moeran.

The evening concert, back in the Abbey, was given by the City of London Choir, conducted by Hilary Davan Wetton, and this staged a work which it has been a long-held ambition of mine to present: ‘The Coming of Christ’ by Gustav Holst. This was followed by the first of our late-evening concerts, which are always highly atmospheric: there is something very special about the sense of warm enclosure that results from the contrast of the darkness outside and the gently-lit interior of the Abbey. Tonight, Oxford Liedertafel presented a wonderfully varied programme of a cappella music, with composers ranging from Byrd to Vaughan Williams.
Sunday 30 May
The day started at Radley College, with a recital by the Tippett Quartet to launch their new CD, during which I manned the Box Office, before a journey to Sutton Courtney for a swift lunch and the afternoon concert, given by the Elysian Singers. Their programme included the movingly beautiful ‘Requiem’ by Herbert Howells, a non-ecclesiastical setting which, nevertheless, combines a devotional directness of expression with an emotional punch.
The evening concert was of Delius’s ‘Hassan’, with a précis specially written and read by Radio 3 presenter Paul Guinery. The second half was of a work that has intense significance for me: Holst’s opera ‘Sāvitri’: this, again, is a piece that I have long had an ambition to stage; and the performers - Janice Watson, David Wilson-Johnson and Mark Chaundy - gave full justice to what is one of the greatest operas of the twentieth century.
A very different concert ensued, with the mediaeval band ‘Joglaresa’ presenting traditional and early songs of the supernatural.
Monday 31 May
The last day of Festival was packed with interspersed rehearsals and concerts. It opened with a concert in the Abbey given by the Syred Consort, directed by Ben Palmer. The group was in excellent voice and their recital included such gems as Finzi’s ‘Magnificat’. I then returned to Abingdon to begin the packing-up process – and to move my temporary residence! Lunch at a local hostelry was followed by a return to the Abbey and a concert by the Jaguar (Coventry) Band. This was a revelation to many, as it highlighted the expressive power of a medium with which not all of our audience members are familiar. Also evident was the skill of composers such as Holst, Vaughan Williams and Bantock in writing for these forces. The Band was extremely gratified to perform in what they described as such a “magnificent venue”.
The final concert was the ‘Come and Sing’ event. Brian Kay conducted a choir comprising enthusiastic Festival-goers and elicited a warm response. The programme opened with Vaughan Williams’s ‘Five Mystical Songs’, with soloist David Wilson-Johnson, who then went on to perform Somervell's powerful song-cycle ‘Maud’, with pianist David Owen Norris. The second half was Elgar’s memorably tuneful ‘Scenes from the Bavarian Highlands’.
A party for Friends and helpers in the Abbey Guest House rounded off the highly successful Fourth English Music Festival.

For more details of the English Music Festival, visit the Festival’s website: www.englishmusicfestival.org.uk. If you would like to join the mailing list, or would like details of the Friends scheme, please email the Founder-Director, Em Marshall, at em.marshall@btinternet.com.

(Blogged by Em Marshall, Founder-Director of the English Music Festival)

A Week in the Life of Abbey Admin!

2010-05-24T06:13:00.001-07:00

Hello – I am Hilarie Rogers the Parish Administrator and the PA to Sue Booys, the Rector. I also do admin work for the Bridge Group of Parishes, the Dorchester Team and the Aston and Cuddesdon Deanery! I work in the Rectory each morning and see a lot of the life of the Abbey.

This blog will give snapshots of some of the things that come through this office!

Monday 17th May
Arrive at 8.30am. More than the usual amount of emails as it’s Monday, but look at all of them and answer or log most of them by 9am. No phone calls yet and only one phone message to listen to. From 9am the calls to book tickets for the English Music Festival (to be held in the Abbey at the end of May) are routed through the office, so make sure all the booking forms are to hand. Usual 9am meeting with the Rector to ask about things that have cropped up, and receive tasks. Items discussed include: arrangements for Episcopal Visitation this evening; interviews for church architect; headstone in one of the Team Churches; managers for forthcoming concerts. Have a few phone calls about clearing up after last night’s concert. We also go through the phone messages and agree who will follow up which and similarly with emails. That takes us up to about 10am!

Follow up some of the tasks associated with the items discussed. Make more copies of the order of service for tonight and fold them. Open the post from the weekend – circulars; payment of an invoice for a booking; papers for the Rector about forthcoming meetings. Another hour gone!

Answer more emails – a group visit to the Abbey; a dead branch in the churchyard; what sort of confetti; a potential source of funding for projects; website links; marriage regulations; use of Abbey’s projector; invitation to a conference. Also print off minutes of some recent meetings for the Rector. Receive emails – 23 – and log and answer as appropriate……

12 noon – receive a few more emails; take a phone call about parking at the Abbey for a concert. Make more arrangements for forthcoming concerts, including arranging managers for some events and confirming the details of arrangements for this weekend’s concert. Process payment cheques for a couple of recent events. Do invoices for last weekend’s events.

And in case you wondered – I had 3 small cups of coffee and an orange during the course of the morning!

Tuesday 18th May
The Rector is at a meeting this morning, so we have a brief exchange before she goes. Spend the first half of the morning reading, logging and answering emails that came in between yesterday lunchtime and this morning. Lots of phone calls today, which makes things take longer!

Do some paperwork for the forthcoming PCC meeting; write confirmatory letter about a wedding next year; make arrangements for a visitation to another group of parishes in the Deanery. Do some following up from the Episcopal Visitation last night; open and sort the post.

Much of today has been “firefighting” as I think of it – responding to questions as they come in, by phone or email – rather than tackling specific pieces of work. Hopefully tomorrow I will do some longer chunks of work!

Wednesday 19th May
Again, brief exchange with the Rector who is spending the day at General Synod Business Committee. Usual email checking and phone calls for the first half of the morning covering a variety of tasks. Prepare and send some letters for the Rector, and handle some cheques in payment for use of the Abbey.

Go to the Abbey to make duplicate copy of a marriage certificate for an enquirer, and also check and make a retrospective certificate of baptism. Make some detailed arrangements for the visit of the BBC to record one of the concerts at the English Music Festival next week, and have two fairly lengthy phone conversations with potential hirers for concerts in 2011 and 2012!

Open the post and deal with a few more emails. Spend the last part of the morning making a start on the weekly notice sheet.

Thursday 20th May

Check, log and answer emails and phone messages before the Rector returns from Morning Prayer at 9am. Have a session with the Rector about things that have cropped up and agree tasks.

Spend the next hour sorting papers for this evening’s Deanery Synod meeting; preparing information sheets for the Wardens about the Rector’s diary for next week and arrangements for Sunday’s service; tracking arrangements for the Architect interviews next week. Also receiving and dealing with more emails, and taking a long telephone call from BT about our entry in Yellow Pages (including explaining what a Rector is and why the house is called a Rectory….).

Check stock levels of ink cartridges for the office printer, and order more. Deal with an enquiry about how to use the Abbey’s digital projector, and a phone enquiry from a visiting choir who are coming in July. Several other phone calls and emails – another hour gone, and second cup of coffee!

Finish work on the weekly notice sheet; open the post; sort and prepare for posting the Gift Aid envelopes and collection from the Episcopal Visitation earlier in the week. More emails and phone calls and the morning has flown by once more…….

Friday 21st May

Glorious day outside – the view from my desk of the Abbey through the trees must be one of the best! Usual routine – emails and phone calls for the first hour, including some urgent jobs for the Rector. Finish off the notice sheets and make copies for the parishes in the Team. Also make a poster for the forthcoming Team Service and copy or circulate. Prepare cards for a Baptism on Sunday.

Weekly visit from one of the Dorchester Wardens. This is to update them and me on anything – they also very kindly deliver items to people in the parish, which normally includes a bumper bundle for the parish treasurer.

Take items to the Abbey and replace some posters. Spend the last part of my week working on orders of service for the Ordination at the end of June, and Evensong for the Fellowship of St Birinus earlier in June. Send final letters and invoices to four couples getting married in July.

I can thoroughly recommend the job for variety and interest, and if you have got this far then well done!! Come back next week and read Em Marshall's report on the 2010 4th English Music Festival performances and experience at Dorchester Abbey over this Bank Holiday Weekend 28-31 May!

(Blogged by Hilarie Rogers, Parish Administrator and Rector's PA!)

The Rector in Kenya

2010-05-21T23:33:00.000-07:00

Less than a week ago I was in Kenya with a group of people visitng the Nasio Trust a charity that supports orphans in two towns in Mumias and Musanda. In Dorchester our local relationship with Nasio began when John Cornelius took young people from Berinsfield to help build the "Noah's Ark" day care centres and began a relationship that has changed lives in both Kenya and Oxfordshire. The Charity has been supported in Dorchester especially by the May Morning event led by the local singing group Two A Part and it was with most of this group and one or two others that I travelled to Kenya for a visit to see the work on the ground and to share in it.Some of what follows is a ‘reflective diary’ to which everyone contributed in different lengths and tenses. Some of our group had visited a number of times, some sponsored children that they had met and others were to meet the children they sponsored for the first time.
For me the week began with a nerve wracking bang as I ahd been invited to preach at the Cathedral in Mumias less tahn twenty four hours avter arriving in Kenya!The whole experience was quite a culture shock - not least being prayed for for almost ten minutes before preaching. Not an experience I would necessarily have expected to relish but one which certainly left me feeling that everyone was better prepared (preacher and listeners alike) to hear what God was saying.
The collection in Mumias Cathedral the collection is taken by asking everyone to leave their seats - some of the older children from Noah’s Ark were given some small change to put into the collection box. The look of pride on their faces as they queued up to put the money in the box was moving. Though people had little to give they gave more when a second collection was taken!

Our first visit was to Noah’s Ark and was a reunion for some and whole new experience for others but we all appreciated their songs of welcome from the Noah’s Ark children. Those returning were delighted to see their sponsor children again and there was a huge welcome from the 'original six' tiny orphans now strapping 13 year old lads!!
It was good to meet the really dedicated teachers Lucy and Elizabeth. The Noah’s Ark children’s faces and their fascination with us and eagerness to be close to me. Finding that clapping games bridge the language barrier with the smallest girls!

By Tuesday we’d already had some encounters with the torrential rain that brings Kenyan life to a standstill (and involved us in a terrifying drive when caught out by early rain on Sunday afternoon). However its affect on the roads was made all too clear when we attempted to make the journey to Musanda for our first visit to the St Irene’s Day Care centre and Millimandi Primary school.
Thinking the end was nigh as we slithered slowly through the ploughed field that was the road and ended up at a forty five degree angle almost in an eight foot ditch. Hearing Penny say ‘we’ll go over very slowly if we go’, someone else calling ‘hope you’re praying in the back there Sue’ and then Tessa’s voice announcing the new cabinet to ‘take our minds off our predicament’. For newbies if we had wondered whether the journey was sensible the end was more than worth it – ‘a birthday I will remember forever: dancing with schoolchildren surrounded by beautiful Kenyan countryside and love.’
Both St Irene’s with its head teacher Boniface and the huge Milamandi Primary School are wonderful places with committed staff and ‘our’ children looked after in big school then walking back to the Day Care centre for a good lunch – for some their only meal. The next day it took even longer to travel (by a different route) and we helped to lead a day of activities at Millimandi – teaching an English lesson on tenses that began with a telling of little red riding hood in which children had to make different responses for each character. Little RR is ‘nice, nice, nice, nice, nice…’ with a wiggle of the bottom – their faces were a study!! Making cards didn’t go as planned but the excitement and enjoyment in the room with even the Deputy Head joining in … Carol and I teaching what seemed like a hundred children to knit. They were so enthusiastic it was a priviledge.
Our farewell to the children here was a performance by Two A Part singing On top of teh World and Ol Man River to a rapt audience of hundreds of children was extraordinary! There was just a moment when all of us English realised without words that we were singing a song written in America by someone who might have been taken from this place as a slave.....the whole song took on a new depth that was tangible.

Our last day could not have been our first – an emotional rollercoaster that included both a visit to hospital and a family home in the Township. “On a wall of the ward in St Mary’s hospital the crucified figure of Christ has been stuck to the cross with cellotape. If only the wounds afflicting humanity could be fixed with a bit of cellotape. In the nearby maternity ward young women recover from childbirth. Some have had to have surgery. There is no money for painkillers or anaesthetics. We hand out little woollen hats for their new babies and take photos. Nobody takes pictures of the young blind mother lying prone alongside the baby she cannot see. Let us pray.”

“When I prayed with the lady who had lost her baby and how that simple gesture was so powerful and precious to both of us.” …
“I felt so helpless that all I could offer was to make the priestly gesture of blessing on a child’s head in the children’s Malaria ward – and finding myself called to pray for all the children.”
“Holding a thirty two hour old baby in my hands straight from the home made incubator of blankets and a lamp. Realisation of how precious and delicate life is.”

Mumias is a centre of industry and we stayed at the guest accommodation there. Francis who looked after us loved to ‘challenge’ us with the food …but it was much more than the food that challenged! The Sugar Factory itself a massive contrast with the small producer we visited on the first day. The cost and wealth tied up in that industry compared with the poverty around it. The juxtaposition of a simple mud hut and Kenyan industrialisation at the Sugar Factory. Noting on our tour that much of the machinery was supplied by Indian Japanese and Chinese companies probably in the 1950’s. Much of the factory was a graveyard for broken machinery and the machines which were working seeped bits of dust and sugary goo. Don’t even think about asbestos!
A different industrial moment was Colin’s visit to the hospital and the enthusiasm for trying to mend the broken x ray machine manufactured in 1959.

At the end of the day it was relationships begun and continued that are important above all others.
An emotional first meeting with Roda the eleven year old girl I have sponsored for several years and with whom I have exchanged letters and gifts.

Fahidi telling me he wanted to be a pilot when he grew up so he could visit us in the UK

Thanks to Sue Russell and Phil, Carol Cornelius, Alison Brucker, Penny and Molly Budgen, Linda Oliver, Jim Levi, Janita Good, Mo and Colin Windsor and Tessa Bartley. Enduring respect to John Cornelius who has more children than I could ever imagine!

May Day in Dorchester Abbey

2010-05-16T16:04:00.000-07:00

For the 14th year TWO A PART welcomed May with their concert in the Abbey preceded by songs from the tower, this year in fine, if windy, conditions. Their songs from the tower included the traditional rendering of: 'Now is the Month of Maying', 'Calon Lan' (in Welsh) and 'Cwm Rhonda' (in English).

A packed audience enjoyed a continental breakfast in the Abbey whilst listening to an eclectic programme of music ranging from English Madrigals to arrangements of Gilbert and Sullivan and the Beatles. Breakfasts, a cake and card stall raised nearly £700 for the Nasio Trust supporting AIDs orphans in Kenya. By the time you read this TWO A PART and the Rector will have visited Kenya to work in the Nasio Trust’s day centres and sing a service in Mumias Cathedral. The Rector will be 'logging her blog' in the next few days, so come back soon and read her perspective on their visit!

Thanks to all those who gave of their time, talents and money and to Dorchester Post Office for once again looking after ticket sales.

(Blogged by Tim Cook)

An Education Officer's Outlook

2010-05-11T02:41:00.000-07:00

I am relatively new to the post of Education Officer at Dorchester Abbey, having taken over in January 2010 from the previous officer who had been in the post for 3 years. It has been a fantastic experience so far, just being able to walk into the Abbey as a working space is amazing, particularly when you think of the people, such as the monks, who have worked here before me over the centuries! It is a positive joy to get the opportunity to introduce people, particularly children to the beauty and history of the Abbey and see their little eyes light up as they look up with awe at the stained glass windows, to think about what the pilgrim’s shrine means and just how old the Abbey is! They give you an insight into the innocence of the believers of the past who must have traversed great distances to visit the Abbey and experience its space, spirituality and potential healing powers.

On Wednesday of last week we had a school visit of about 40 year three children from a local school, which was only the second school visit I have had the pleasure of organising and participating in. The children were brilliantly behaved and thrilled by the sheer scale of the Abbey space. They provided some stimulating responses to their first encounter with it as they sat for a few moments of quiet to ‘drink in’ the sensations of the Abbey. Many of them noted how small they felt in relation to the Abbey’s scale, but they also spoke about the nuances of sounds and impressions that greeted them in their moments of quietude, that ‘almost silence’. But children are always funny when you ask them to guess how old something is – any grandparent who has ever been asked if they were alive when the dinosaurs were around will certainly recognise a child’s tendency not to grasp vast time periods! Many of the children thought the Abbey could only be about 100-200 years old, but were visibly astounded when one girl piped up ‘about 900 years old’ and she was deemed correct! Murmurs of great surprise could barely be quieted!

During their visit the children undertook a series of organised activities including my tour of the highlights of the Abbey, brass rubbing, sketching, Abbey Quiz, Abbey search and plan identification. The Abbey was a hive of activity and the children overlapped slightly with a local art group who were here for inspiration, but the artists enjoyed observing the raptures of the children who were intent on their various endeavours during their visit. The children are always enthusiastic about every aspect of their visit, but one of the two things they love the most is our medieval ‘sleeping knight’, William de Valance and our facsimile St. Birinus Shrine. They love the shrine because they can sit and pretend to be a pilgrim of old, looking up at the unusual bosses and supposedly being close to the bones (ugh!) of St. Birinus.
Knights and their exciting endeavours always enthral the children, and they particularly love to work out that the ‘sleeping knight’ actually has his eyes open and appears to be ready to bound up and attack anyone who comes near, with the lion he visibly crushes at his feet a symbol of his strength, bravery and powerful faith. On a more frivolous note they also love to discover the fact that you can see his underwear!

At lunchtime the children were very lucky with the sunny weather, enabling them to enjoy their lunch in the Cloister Garden and the opportunity to burn off a little energy on the daisy sprinkled grass. After their Abbey activities they also undertook a brief walk in the village to note the various buildings of different ages and styles, including the ever-popular former coaching inn complete with its fascinating old coach in front. I love the follow up work which schools do with their pupils and it provides one with a feeling of great satisfaction when you can see how the Abbey can stimulate the imagination and creativity of young minds. Although I have yet to see follow up work from the most recent visit, the previous school sent through some fantastic stories that the children had written fuelled by their Abbey visit.

Children are not the only visitors who come to explore the Abbey and its artefacts. Earlier in the week I had a very earnest couple, ‘Midsommer Murders’ guidebook in hand looking for our Green Man. They had difficulty deciphering the description of the location of it from in their book, luckily I was able to point them in the right direction as they said they never would have found it otherwise!

In complete contrast to the school visit was another pleasurable part of my duties as Educational Officer and that is my involvement with the South East Cathedrals Educational Officers Association. We meet three times a year, once in each of the traditional old school terms: November, February and May. These meetings give us an opportunity to exchange educational ideas that have or have not worked for us, report on recent training we have undertaken or provided and to offer advice and stimulus to one another in our roles. As my position at Dorchester can sometimes be relatively secluded I particular relish the opportunity of meeting with my fellow education officers. In February I went to Chichester and was wonderfully fired up by their stained glass workshop for children and their large brass rubbing collection. The latter led me to try and investigate the possibility of building up a collection here as a potential enticement to schools as part of their visits.

This term’s meeting was hosted by Alex O’Connor of Southwark Cathedral, London. We had quite a full meeting (10 of us!) and an intensive morning where we discussed marketing issues, home educators, providing stimulating family activities, NIACE training, our role in relation to the 14-19 Diplomas, providing RE inset and new initiatives we have introduced. Following a delightful sandwich lunch those of us who didn’t suffer from vertigo were given the opportunity to climb the tower (once the organ recital had finished) and see the surrounding views it had to offer. This was entered into with some trepidation by a few of us, the spiral staircase to the top providing barely enough room for a skinny youth to climb, let alone an ensemble of education officers (n.b. What would be a good collective noun for education officers?)! Once part way up we were able to traverse the walkway over the roof of the nave, where we could see the peaked roofs of the vaulting beneath. This appears pretty much the same in any Gothic vaulted cathedral, for example Salisbury, and more of interest to those with an architectural bent (which I count myself amongst)! We also were able a quick peek at their impressive 12 bells, again of interest to those with bell-ringing inclinations (yes, me again!).

Finally emerging on the lead roofing we were greeted with a fabulous view of the Thames and a superb view of St. Paul’s – much appreciated by Laura (the former Education Officer there who is now establishing the education department at Westminster Abbey). You could spy Battersea Power Station in the distance, Big Ben, the London Eye, 30 St. Mary’s Axe (aka the Gherkin), Monument, and in the distance behind the hulking brown h shaped contemporary building you could just spy Tower Bridge and the ramparts of The Tower. But a dominant visual note was the ever increasing height of the new Shard building destined to be the tallest in the UK (310m or over 1,000ft in ‘old money’) when completed in 2012 (hmm, what will that be timed to coincide with I wonder….?!).(see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shard_London_Bridge) For those interested in architecture, it is designed by Renzo Piano who was responsible for the Kansai Osaka Japan international airport and more famously worked with Richard Rogers on the Pompidou Building in Paris.

Following our grateful return to earth (we didn't quite feel the need to kiss the floor of the nave, but I'm sure it crossed some of our minds!), Alex showed those stalwarts amongst us around the cathedral, most of which is a Victorian reworking by the dreaded George Gilbert Scott (are there any Gothic churches, abbeys and cathedrals out there that escaped his renovating talons?). It was interesting to note they have a wooden knight who is similar in appearance and date to our own 'sleeping knight'. I was very surprized to bump into someone I new in the retro-choir who was 'Walking the Cathedral Cities of England' (hello again Carolyn!)! The entire day was a huge success and we all went away feeling inspired by our visit and fired up to pursue various ideas on our returns to our respective patches!

If you’ve managed to make it this far – congratulations! I do hope you’ve found these glimpses into my role as an Education Officer of interest and if you enjoyed this I’ll be posting another blog next month, which will cover preparation for more school visits and the up-coming archaeological dig, amongst other things! But please look again at next week’s blog where Sue, our Rector, will report on her current visit to Kenya, and that, I can assure you, is certain to prove a more fascinating read!
(Blog posted by Margaret Craig, Education Officer)

Election Fever?

2010-04-28T23:00:00.001-07:00

Election Fever came to Dorchester yesterday evening when candidates for the Henley Constituency responded to an invitation to come to the Abbey, meet voters and answer questions. Not such a large attendance as we had enjoyed when we ran a similar event for the By Election a year or so ago but still , and despite the disappointment that the sitting MP John Howell had another engagement, a good evening. The event took the form of an 'Any Questions' evening with members of the public invted to submit their questions in advance and a wide range of questions were submitted about issues from local transport and the re-opening of local railway lines to the candidates views on Trident.

Chairing something like this is probably as nerve wracking for the chairman as speaking at it is for the Candidates but I guess the worries are different. They need to be on their toes and not let the party down - whilst I'm trying to be fair to both audience and all the speakers. Is it better to speak forst or last - how to 'ring the changes' in terms of order of speakers from question to question? Just when to interrupt someone who is exceeding their time? Allowing debate, supplementary and response or asking all the questions. By the time we were over I was pretty tired and the Candidates who had done an event at Gillots school earlier in the day and were booked for Thame Sports Centre this morning seemed quite content with their punishing timetable!

Will we ahve made a difference -I was left wondering. Many of the people who attended were those who have already made up their mind - but not all - and maybe some minds were changed or given food for thought. Someone sent me an interesting online test the other day - if you follow this link http://voteforpolicies.org.uk/you can do it too. It gives you the opportunity to read policies on certain subjects without knowing which party they come from. I'm sure it has a 'party' background' and I'm sure there are others. Before you 'take the test' it says that you might be surprised at your result - I wasn't I'm as equally balanced between the same two parties as I have been for a few years now and will probably do what I have at several elections and make my mind up in the Polling Booth. Now - I wonder whether last night's candidates would have liked to know that?

A week in Dorchester Abbey can be very varied - in the past week we've celebrated the Centenary of Girlguiding and St George's Day with the Scouts and also begun planning for a fascinating event in the autumn the JWOLE exhibition.

What's JWOLE? It's the Jewish Way of Life Exhibition - begun by Lord Winston's mother in the form of a 'box' of artefacts that she could use to explain her faith and it's customs it is now a substantial exhibition that travels to different venue's where visitors can come and learn and enjoy. Managed by the Board of Deputies It will be in Dorchester Abbey as a co-operative project between the Abbey, CCJ and the Oxford Jewish Community from 13th to 26th October. This will be a fascinating event and we'll keep you posted once there are more details available.

Coming up in the Abbey next week is the traditional May Morning Breakfast with our local friends Two A Part singing from the top of the Abbey tower and then in the Church over Breakfast - tickets are available at Dorchester Post Office. This event will be raising money for the Nasio Trust Noah's Ark Centre in Kenya - most of Two A Part are visiting there next week and I'm going with them - so you might just hear a little more about that sometime soon!

(This Blog posted by Canon Sue)

The Abbey DABbler - The New Dorchester Abbey Blog!

2010-04-22T02:07:00.000-07:00

Welcome to the Abbey DABbler! The DABbler is the new name for our regular Dorchester Abbey Blog.

We have decided to implement a new Dorchester Abbey Blog! Every week different members of the Abbey community will blog about what they are up to, what's going on in the Abbey and what's coming up. There'll be a chance to hear at first hand some of the inside stories associated with our events, read about our plans and get to know some of the people who make up the the community that works, worships and has fun around the Abbey. As well as hearing from Sue, our rector, we will also have blogs from our Education Officer, new curates, students, Abbey Friends and many others who use and experience the Abbey and its environs in many different ways.

'Tune in' every Tuesday to see the latest blogs to 'hear' what has been happening in relation to the Abbey in the previous week!