Dear Friends,
DO
NOT GROW WEARY! SEIZE EVERY OPPORTUNITY!
It was a great experience, in the late1950’s, to be
given a vacation job as a student during the post Christmas sales at Simpsons,
Piccadilly. The building is now the flagship
shop for Waterstone’s books. Simpsons
created the Daks trouser with its patented self-supporting waistband – this was
when braces were commonly used to hold trousers up. Shirts purchased in the store were repaired, for nothing, when
and if the collar wore out!
Royalty, MPs, country landowners, film stars, all came
to this renowned purveyor of quality clothing.
One Jeremy Lloyd worked the sales floor for a time and drew on his
experiences for the highly popular TV comedy ‘Are you being served?’ “I’m free” Mr Humphries, Mrs Slocombe and
Captain Peacock were certainly based on real people! Sales Assistants were expected to be efficient and terribly
polite. There was a clear staff pecking
order and assistants were classed first, second, third and fourth followed by a
junior (c’est moi!).
I suddenly revived memories of my time at Simpsons the
other Sunday morning when there was a reading from Galatians Chapter 6. For some reason I remembered a small room in
the store where a friendly overworked tailor made alterations for customers so
that purchases would be a perfect fit.
On his wall he had this extract from Paul’s’ letter:-
So let us not grow weary in doing what is right for we
will reap at harvest time if we do not give up. So then whenever we have an opportunity let us work for the good
of all, and especially for those of the family of faith. (Galatians 6 : 9-10)
Paul was reminding his friends that sometimes the duty
and the task of charity and generosity may be wearisome and irksome, but that
duty remains, and no person who ever cast their bread upon the waters found
that it did not return some day to them.
Each new day brings to us an opportunity to do ‘good’ somewhere or to
some person. A face to face encounter,
a phone call, a letter or Email may encourage or help the lives we touch. We may well be touched and helped ourselves
by those whose lives touch ours!
Following on from all of this some most encouraging
hot news has just arrived from Bishop Tilewa of The Gambia, West Africa. You may well remember his visit to Midhurst
followed by the 3 months Sarah Taylor spent here preparing for her ordination.
Bishop Tilewa writes: “A journey of a
thousand miles begins with the first step”, the good old adage goes. Yesterday, two contracts were signed; one
between the Parish of Christ Church and a Consultant/Coordinator and the other
between the Parish and a Contractor (Francia Orielly-Browne). The agreement is that Phase One of the
12-classroom School Project will be completed 'not later than THREE Months from
the date the Contract was signed', i.e. 6th July 2007.
Phase One comprises three classrooms and toilet facilities for the girls, boys, female and male teachers. Each of these groups will have separate and distinct toilets. The total cost of Phase One will be D910,000 (about 17,500 pounds sterling). Please pass the word to all, especially those Parishes that have given towards the 7,000 pounds sterling received so far.
We are
proceeding in faith that the outstanding funds will 'show up'!! Our
Consultant/Coordinator of the School Construction Project will be sending you
and other well wishers periodic updates with photos of the progress of the
construction.
Best regards.
+Tilewa
We give thanks for this encouraging news arising
from the God given opportunities presented to us in 2005 for the building of
the much needed Primary School.
Gifts for its completion are most welcome. Anything from £1 to £10,500 will help!!
Geoffrey Haines
What a difference a few enthusiastic willing people made to the
interior and exterior of All Hallows, as a result of the ‘working party’ last
month, on 14th July. Inside
the church building, difficult jobs that cannot be completed during the usual
fortnightly clean, were dealt with, including hanging chandeliers, other brass
and woodwork which were cleaned of wax and a thorough wash of all the
floors. Even the tower was inspected
for woodworm and the gutters inspected from above! Outside, much needed strimming was done and gutters unblocked, to
mention just a few of the jobs. The
churchwardens are especially grateful as we have a Quinquennial inspection
looming, on 1st August to be precise. Following this there could well be further action required so
please note our next ‘working party’ on Saturday 29th September,
9.30am – 12 noon, especially those who were unable to help last month.
Paucity of numbers has however not been the case with our recent
services and we are so happy to report an attendance of 27 at our last evensong
and between 20 to 25 people at recent communion services. Again many thanks to Midhurst choir and our
retired priests for splendid support noticeably appreciated.
|
Diary 5th August: 8am Holy
Communion 12th August: 6pm Evensong 19th August: 8am Holy
Communion 2nd September: 8am Holy Communion 16th September: 8am Holy Communion 27th September: 3pm Harvest Festival 29th September: 9.30am Working Party 30th September: 8am Holy Communion |
Astri Sharp