THE DREAM OF THE ROOD
One of the earliest English poems is inscribed in runes on the Anglo Saxon Ruthwell Cross in Northumbria. A longer version appears in the early medieval Vercelli Manuscript in Italy. ‘The Dream of the Rood’ is a contemplation on the Life and Passion of Christ on that first Good Friday...
HEAR, while I tell of the best of dreams + which came to me at midnight when humankind kept their beds It seemed that I saw the Tree itself + borne on the air, light wound round it, brightest of beams + all that beacon was covered with gold, gems stood fair at its foot, and five rubies set in a crux flashed from the crosstree Around angels of God gazed upon it From my own stock I was struck away dragged off by strong enemies wrought into a roadside scaffold + They made me a hoist from wrongdoers The soldiers on their shoulders bore me + until on a hill-top they raised me many enemies made me fast there + Then I saw, marching toward me, Mankind’s brave King + I dared not break nor bend aside against God’s will, though the ground itself shook at my feet Then the young warrior, Almighty God, mounted the Cross, in the sight of many He would set free mankind
I shook when his arms embraced me, but I durst not bow to ground, stoop to Earth’s surface + Stand fast I must.
I was reared up, a rood q+ I held the King, Heaven’s lord, I dared not bow They drove me through with dark nails: on me are the wounds Wide-mouthed hate dents + They mocked us together + I was all wet with blood sprung from the Man’s side + after he sent forth his soul
Darkness shrouded the King’s corpse + A shade went wan under cloud pall All creation wept, keened the King’s death Christ was on the Cross But there quickly came from afar + many to the Prince They lifted Him down from the leaden pain + left me, the commanders Standing in blood sweat + I was sorely smitten with sorrow wounded with shafts + Limb-weary they laid him down They stood at his head + They looked on him there . They set to contrive Him a tomb + within sight of his bane carved it of bright stone + laid in it the Bringer of Victory They began to speak the grief song + sad in the sinking light then thought to set out homeward their most high Prince
Yet we three, weeping, a good while + Cold grew the corpse, fair soul house
Adapted, from a translation by Michael Alexander
SELECTED CONTENTS
3 Parish & Benefice Services 6 The Rector’s Letter
9 Rogation? What’s that? 10 The Archbishop tells the truth
16 Cooking up a storm in Holwell 34 Buscot Park changes
39 Plants for a warming garden 41 An Australian soldier writes home
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PARISH & BENEFICE SERVICES
1st April - Palm Sunday
10.00am Wild life Park Assemble at cross-roads for procession to ...
10.30am Holwell Benefice Eucharist Service HM, EJ
6.00pm Alvescot Evensong EJ
nda April
9.00pm L Faringdon Compline NUW
3rd April
9.00pm Filkins Compline HM
4th April
9.00pm Broadwell Compline NUW
5th April - Maundy Thursday
7.30pm Langford Benefice Eucharist DM
6th April - Good Friday
2.00pm Westwell Benefice Service (2.00 - 3.00pm) MP
8‘th April - Easter Sunday
9.00am. B Bourton Parish Communion DM
9.00am Langford Parish Communion EJ
9.00am Shilton Parish Communion HM
9.00am Westwell Parish Communion IP
9.30am Kencot Parish Communion NUW
10.30am Alvescot Family Communion EJ
10.30am Filkins Family Communion HM
10.30am Holwell Parish Communion IP
10.30am Kelmscott Family Communion DM
11.00am Broadwell Parish Communion NUW
11.00am L Faringdon Parish Communion CR
15th April - Easter II
9.00am Holwell Holy Communion NUW
10.30am Broadwell/Kencot Combined Matins EJ
10.30am Langford Parish Communion NUW
11.00am B Bourton Family Service & Baptism RL
6.00pm B Poggs Evensong NUW
6.00pm Westwell Evensong EJ
22nd April - Easter III
9.00am Kencot Holy Communion no sermon HM 9.00am Shilton Holy Communion NUW 10.30am Filkins Family Communion HM 11.00am L Faringdon Matins NUW 6.00pm Alvescot Evensong NUW 6.00pm Langford Evensong HM
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29th April - Easter IV
9.00am Langford Holy Communion EJ
10.30am Kencot Parish Communion EJ
10.30am Shilton Parish Communion HM
6.00pm Holwell Benefice Choral Evensong HM, EJ
5th May
11.30am Westwell Family Service & Baptism NUW
6‘n May - Rogation Sunday
12noon Broadwell Benefice Rogation Family Service & Picnic NLJW, HM
6.00pm Kelmscott Benefice Holy Communion HM
Combined services are in the first-named church
There is also a Communion Service at Black Bourton every Wednesday at 10.00am
CELEBRANTS
CR Cedric Reavley DM David MacInnes
EJ Liz Johnson HM Harry MacInnes
IT Ian Phelps MP Martin Peirce
NUW Neville Usher-Wilson PJ Penny Joyce
BENEFICE SERVICES
Benefice services for the remainder of 2007:
Date Benefice service at 10.30am Evensong at 6.00pm
3rd June Alvescot Holwell
1st July Shilton Filkins
(Special 150 th anniversary celebration) 5”’ August Westwell Broadwell
2nd a September Filkins B Bourton
October Harvest Festivals
4th November Kelmscott Westwell
2nd December Langford Kencot
(Advent carols)
ST PETER’S, FILKINS
Filkins Church was consecrated to St Peter on Easter Tuesday 1857 by F Bishop Samuel Wilberforce (the son of the anti-slaver William Wilberforce, and so persuasive an orator that he was generally known as ‘Soapy Sam’.) Thirty clergy were present including the Bishop of Jamaica.
At the centenary celebrations in 1957, John Betjeman was moved to commend the church as ‘simple and subtle in local stone’.
This year we celebrate the church’s 150‘” anniversary. See page 19 for details. 4
THE LECTIONARY
lst‘ April - Palm Sunday ®
Luke 19.2840 Psalm 118.1-2, 19-end
5th April - Maundy Thursday (W)
Exodus 12.1-4, 11-14 Psalm 116.10-end
1 Corinthians 11.23-26 John13.1-17, 31b-35
6th April - Good Friday ®
Isaiah 52.13-end of 53 Psalm 22
HebrewslO.16-25 John18.1-end
7th April - Easter Eve
Job 14.1-14 Psalm 31 1-4, 15-16
1Peter 4. 1-8 , Matthew 27.57-end
8th April - Easter Sunday (G or W)
Acts 10.34-43 Psalm 118. 14-24
1 Corinthians 15. 19-26 John20.1-18
15th April - Easter II (W)
Acta5.27-32 Psalm 118. 14-end
Revelation 1.4-8 John 20. 19-31
23rd April - Easter III (W)
Acts 9.1-6 Psalm 30
Revelation 5. 11-end John 21.1-19
23rd April - St George’s Day ®
1 Maccabees 2.59-64 Psalm 126
2 Timothy 2.3-13 John 15. 18-21
29th April - Easter IV (W)
Acts 9.36-end Psalm 23
Revelation 7.9-end John 10.22-30
TAKE IT OR LEAVE IT?
J Fletcher Moss, a local historian from Didsbury, writing in 1898 in the Manchester City News about his childhood in the 1850s...
In those days it was the custom to have a distribution not a collection,
after the Sunday service. We gave out loaves of bread to the poor. I have seen as many as fifteen given at once. Old men and women came, with snuffy-coloured cotton handkerchiefs and bobbed their thanks as they took their dole.
Or children came and said ‘Please, Granddad’s back is bad’, or ‘Granddam’s cough is plaguey, and could she have her dole?’ The old-fashioned distribution seems more apostolic than the modern collection. The bread, at least, was visible, tangible, and picturesque, and some there are who regret its
disappearance.
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THE RECTOR’S LETTER
Dear Friends
J read recently somewhere that some European doctors and psychiatrists had come up with a piece of research to show that the
‘Monday morning feeling’ is not a myth. Not that I ever thought that it was a myth, but it is sometimes nice to know that ‘scientific research’ agrees with you! Their conclusions were that stress related illnesses increase, blood pressure is elevated, stomach acidity is higher, there is a greater risk of contracting ulcers or having a stroke. More people commit suicide on Monday than on any other day.
So, in other words, be careful about Monday mornings. But they went a little bit further to give what they thought was the probable reason. The quite natural stress of starting back at work again after relaxing over the weekend combines with something which lies much deeper and is subliminal. Just below the level of our consciousness, they suggested, there is a sense of emptiness about life. We don’t face it head on, because it is too uncomfortable to do so. However, the vague feeling expressed by one person in the words..
Life has no meaning,
A struggling through the gloom And the senseless end of it Is the insult of the tomb.
... lurks underneath the other pressures and tips us over the edge. The constant stream of depressing news that pours out of our television screens and newspapers has more of an effect than we realise. It produces that feeling which made Woody Allen quip ‘The future isn’t what it used to be.’
Fascinatingly, we are told in the New Testament that it was ‘on the first day of the week’ ie the equivalent of Monday, that Mary Magdalene went to the tomb in which the body of Jesus had been buried. There can be no question that she and the other followers of Jesus were suffering from ‘Monday
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morning feelings’. But that particular Monday morning they began a journey of discovery which was to have an explosive effect on the history of the world. They found they were witnessing something which they could scarcely get their minds around. It gave them a totally new perspective on the world, on life, on everything.
As they put it to their contemporaries ‘this Jesus whom you crucified, God has raised.’ The event opened up an entire dimension of which they had been completely unaware. Monday mornings would never be the same again. The sense of emptiness had been replaced by a discovery that there is a future which they found themselves lost for words to describe. ‘Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor has it even entered into our imagination, what good things God has prepared for those that love him.’
Harry MacInnes
THE BENEFICE PASTORAL TEAM
The Pastoral Team has been working quietly behind the scenes for nearly three years now, complementing the work of the clergy in the benefice. We feel that the time has come to make members of the team better known, so that they can be more easily contacted.
The team members, listed below, are available to people living in their village for a visit or a phone call. If you would prefer to talk to somebody you don’t know, please contact one of the team marked with an asterisk, who are happy to visit parishioners in any of our villages.
Sue Cave* Alvescot 01993 846696 Pam Barling Alvescot 01993 841507 Christine Pope Black Bourton 01993 845998 Doreen Hart Black Bourton 01993 844124 Mary Cover Filkins 01367 860302 Helen Squire Kencot 01367 860337 Jean Austin” Langford 01367 810307 Chrissy Tinson Langford 01367 860514 Maxine Ponsonby Little Faringdon 01367 252233 Debs Price* Shilton 01993 847039
During the Benefice Communion Service on Sunday 3rd June at St. Peter’s, Alvescot, the Pastoral Team will be commissioned, giving the church’s blessing on what they do. Please come and show your support for them as they seek to give help and support to others.
Liz Johnson
EASTER IN ROME
‘Do not abandon yourselves to despair. We are the Easter people and hallelujah is our song.’ Pope John Paul II
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CONFIRMATION
O n Sunday 8‘n July, the Bishop of Dorchester will be coming to take a confirmation service in this Benefice. This will be held at St Margaret’s church, Little Faringdon. If you are interested in getting confirmed, please let me know.
Harry MacInnes
CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP
0 ur next meeting will be on Wednesday 4”’ April at 2.45pm in Filkins Methodist Chapel Schoolroom. The speaker will be Miss Janet Glanville of Aston, who has spoken to us on previous occasions. All are welcome.
Marjorie Barstow
SHILTON BAPTIST CHAPEL
Here we are again, well into another year - one third to be exact. And what have been the most important things to us so far? What we managed to buy at bargain prices in the New Year or winter sales? Or steering clear of too much credit card debt?
But of course to the sincere Christian
Christmastime was very special, not just for the extra good meals, and the get-togethers with family and friends (much as the latter is
so important), but for the chance once again to reinforce the precious truths of the nativity - so fundamental to our lives. And we also can look forward to the Second Advent and the Lord Jesus’ promise to come again and receive us unto himself (as described in 1 Thessalonians ch.4, verses 14 - 18). ‘Be ye ready’ as the scripture tells us. It might be this year in 2007.
Meanwhile we can enjoy God’s goodness in the spring bulbs and flowers showing cheerfully in our gardens after the winter rain and cold days.
Ray Honeyford
Preachers for April:
1st April Informal
8th April (Easter) David Earl. Tea and cakes in the Old School afterwards
15‘th April Ray and Dorothy Honeyford
22nd April Grev Parmenter
29th April Sue Barnes
All the services are at 6.00pm and everyone would be most welcome.
Elizabetb Harfield
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SAPIENTIA ET DOCTRINA
Wisdom and learning’from Neville Usher Wilson about the Latin origin of ‘Rogation’ and its continuing relevance today...
It is already April and approaching that time of year we call ‘Rogation’, which we celebrate in May. According to my diary we will be celebrating a week early on May 6‘h but it fits best with our Benefice Service Schedule.
The word comes from the Latin ‘rogare’, meaning’to ask’ and in our country areas it has a particular resonance, for it was/is a time of asking God for His blessing on the crops and so ties in with festivals at the completion of harvest. In the past also it was an occasion when the people of each parish used to walk around its boundaries and the children used to ‘beat the bounds, often marked with stones, so as to imprint on their consciousness where their ‘territory’ ended, which suggests its origins must have gone back far further to primitive man.
As a boy, however, our parish in Sussex, where my guardian Ken Mathews was vicar (some of you may remember him when he lived at Westwell), did things a little differently. Carrying the processional cross from the church, to begin with a fairly small party of walkers set out and, through the day, visited each farm in turn, being met by the farmer, his family and, sometimes, his workers too, conducted to the farmstead for a short prayer of blessing. Then, swelled by that farmer and others on each occasion, we proceeded to the next and the next, finishing up for a great tea at the ‘home farm’, before joining together for a final service of thanksgiving and prayer in the church, asking for a blessing on the land for that season.
Today our farms are much larger and fewer and to walk all round the benefice would not be possible, but, as you know, we have for several years now, had a service in Broadwell, it being about the most central, at 12noon. People from all the parishes have assembled, some have walked, some have ridden bikes or horses (they can be tethered or let loose in a paddock during the service) and some have driven or been driven, and then, after the service, many of us have picniced outside, near the Goodenough’s house. We’ll be doing it again and a barbecue will be ready and lit so folk can grill sausages or whatever. Dogs and other animals, are very welcome, both during the walk and at the service.