Arlington, Berwick, Selmeston with Alciston and Wilmington Churches
Details of Forthcoming Events
Lent Prayers
Tuesdays: 28th February, 6th, 13th, 20th and 27th March between 5.00 and 5.30 pm
at Selmeston Church
On the five Tuesdays between Ash Wednesday and Holy Week please
join us at Selmeston Church for an interlude of peaceful prayer and meditation.
Benefice Lent Talks
Wednesdays: 29th February, 7th, 14th and 21st March at Alciston with Selmeston Village
Hall
This year Andrew Stamp and Peter Blee will be giving our Lent Talks.
Andrew will
be speaking for two evenings on Celtic spirituality and Peter will speak on Greek
Orthodoxy and his sabbatical period in Greece on the other two evenings of the series.
As
usual the evenings will start with a meal together at 7.00 pm. If you wish to come
to the meal please book a place with Linda Hallums (Tel. 01323 896008) or Michele
Boys (Tel. 01323 870623).
If you do not wish to come to the meal, please just arrive
in time for the talk at 7.45 pm.
Scratch Choir
7.15 pm Tuesdays 13th, 20th, 27th March, and 3rd April at Selmeston Church
Open both
to those with experience and to newcomers who have never sung in a choir before.
Under the expert and enthusiastic direction of Stephen Rooke the choir will be preparing
items for the 3.00 pm Good Friday service at Selmeston Church on 6th April. Please
telephone Stephen (01323 811522) to let him know if you will be attending so that
he can prepare the music. A recording of individual parts is made available to help
people in their practice between rehearsals.
The Aanna Colls Singers
7.00 pm Sunday 4th March at Wilmington Church
The Aanna Colls Singers are a small
group of singers who perform regularly together. Their repertoire is wide ranging
from early music up to the present day, both a cappella and with varying musical
accompaniments.
Some of the singers are soloists in their own right but manage to
bring to the whole an exciting blend of vocal colour.
Tickets cost £10.00 and are
available by phone Tel. 01323 833706, or from their website: www.aannacollssingers.co.uk
Downland Village Lunch
12.45 pm Thursday 8th March
at Alciston with Selmeston Village Hall
A delicious meal
of fresh local produce in a friendly atmosphere at £4.00 per head for all village
members. Free transport is available; please book on 870512 or 811285 by the end
of the week before. If you have already booked but then find you cannot make it,
please let us know before the end of the week beforehand.
Deanery Ladies’ Breakfast
8.30 am Saturday 28th April 2012 at Ripe Village Hall
Speaker: Mrs Lindsay Benn
We
expect an interesting talk as well as good company, and an enjoyable repast! Do phone
Jane Anderson if you would like to come, so that we can get the numbers right for
catering: her number is below. The cost is £4 per head payable on the day. Breakfast
starts at 8.30 am and finishes by 10 o’clock.
More details from Jane Anderson (01323
870075), Eileen Vine (01323 483368) or Ruth Butlin (01323 871081).
Faronel Jubilee Concert
7.30 pm June 9th at Wilmington Church
“Welcome return of gifted local group of instrumentalists
playing a special selection of music from well-
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In a California Church Their Necks are Faithful
By Margaret Wilmot
[Added 19 January 2012]
Soft as pollen, light touches his white hair,
her silky shawl; shoulders tilting with
perky fortitude beneath
the small head's frizzy wedge, still fair.
Through the lattice-
stipples the rim of space around them in the pew,
glows;
turns their necks green -
frames Man and Wife.
They grow, reach up, stalks holding calices where words
in an
own chemistry commute to life.
© Margaret Wilmot 2012
Candlelight Christingle at Wilmington
[Added 27 December 2011]
The following pictures were taken by Colin Berrett at Wilmington’s candlelight Christingle service on Christmas Eve.
Bishop John’s Visit on 11 December
[Added 27 December 2011]
Bishop John and Mrs Hind travelled to be with us for a joint Benefice service at Berwick church followed by a lunch together at Selmeston with Alciston Village Hall.
Proceeds from the lunch, which amounted to £294 were donated to the Bishop John’s favourite Charity ‘Family Support Work’.
A Feather
By Michele Boys
[Added 1 December 2011]
A feather floating in the air
Became an answer to a prayer
Worried words awash with tears
Troubled thoughts amidst the fears
Deepest senses filled
the soul
Incomplete no longer whole.
Silently it came to rest
A sign of peace from heaven blest
Trust the Lord it seemed
to say
And He will take the hurt away.
Remember words from times gone by
You are the apple of my eye
You are so precious in
my sight
Your darkness will be turned to light.
Within the silence all around
The feather floated to the ground
Gently raised with
steady hand
It's message God does understand.
A feather floating in the air
Became the answer to a prayer.
© Michele Boys 2011
In the Persistent Erasure
By Margaret Wilmot
[Added 7 November 2011]
In the persistent erasure
of small grammatical distinctions, the verbs
have turned
bully.
Access, finalise
knock down thought before
there is time to wonder:
should I give access? make it final?
And
now
the verbs are even turning on
each other; the in-
blurring
boundaries between real
and not, while are -
in the
small be: our open, unopinionated
subjunctive, which still
suggested human doubt and
hope, not to mention
the detail of free will.
In the persistent erasure
of small grammatical distinctions,
the verbs have recast
God
in their own image.
© Margaret Wilmot 2011
Abbey
By Margaret Wilmot
[Added 10 September 2011]
My gaze swings
up to the glint on wings which dip through stone
tracery and wheel out
the high void of nave
to pearly sky.
Light shines
unstained along grass corridors, the air
is bright; a smudged face smiles
off a column-
straight in my eyes.
When I
was young and radiantly unwise, I thought
one could conceive this world at will
-
an afternoon,
enrol
shadows to till and politick and pray.
I'd pace out chapter-
my yearning for
a whole.
What innocence. What arrogance. Play God
by ignoring God. The monks knew,
quite simply,
the full glory
of He
Who blessed sea-
to glow, was not theirs to
see; they were but threads
worked by His hand.
And yet
as from the vestibule beneath the tower we move
into a soaring dappled space
-
a whole.
A warp
of light flexes and bends, and a bird wreathed in a scroll
of plants takes flight.
Our faces lift, unfold
like flowers.
© Margaret Wilmot 2011
For more poetry from people in the Benefice, please click here.
Meet Me Jesus
[Added 26 August 2011]
Stella Myerson writes: I wrote this poem in January whilst on route from the Canary Islands to Barbados; we were about half way into our 2,800 mile Atlantic crossing, which took 18 days to complete. I spent a lot of time alone on the crossing as we are just the two of us sailing our boat and we work opposite watches, I preferred to take the ‘graveyard watch’ at night from 2.00 am until 7.00am, then I could watch a glorious sun rise above the horizon.
The nights were quite unnerving as ‘Ananda’ ploughed on into the darkness of the ocean. The Atlantic waves were huge building up behind us and crashing down around our stern. Each night I would take on watch a book on Contemplative Prayer and a William Barclay bible commentary on Luke.
Some people talk of such journeys as being in suspended animation but I preferred to consider it a retreat, I wanted to discover something very positive on our journey. Although it is quite unusual to spend so much time in such isolation from the world, we can still feel lonely or threatened at times even amongst a community, but God is with us and always listening to our prayers.
Meet me Jesus
Far from land amid the ocean
Our boat sails swiftly on.
My watch at night has just
began
Five hours to spend, just me alone.
Meet me Jesus on this night
I wait to greet You here!
The moon is up, the stars are
bright
I know you will appear!
A privilege I have in life
To sail the Ocean seas.
Not for pleasure, not for gain,
But
for God to please.
Meet me Jesus on this journey
Much time I have to pray.
I need to know You so much
better
In each and every way.
The night is dark and waves I hear
They’re playing around our boat.
The swell builds
up with whooshing sounds
Its crests foam white and float.
Meet me Jesus here, I ask
Stay with me all the way.
I can not manage on my own
To you
I turn and pray.
The wind it whistles up above
Our rigging hums its tune.
The air is warm and comforts
me
For fear, I leave no room.
Meet me Jesus once again
Just as You have before.
To this sinner once You came
My life
You did restore.
© Stella Myerson 2011
For more poetry from people in the Benefice, please click here.
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