Pew Sheet – 13th September 2020
The Rector writes ‘This coming Wednesday 16th at 8pm I will begin a Zoom Bible Study on the Book of Job. I thought that this might give us an opportunity to think about all the ’stuff’ that is happening in our world at the moment. Job has a tough time of it and puts God on trial for all the suffering in the world. It all sounds familiar doesn’t it? When things go wrong for us, we tend to wonder where God is and what God is up to. As I said on the email I sent a couple of weeks ago, the famous English Author Virginia Woolf wrote “I read the book of Job last night. I don’t think God comes out of it well.” A lot of readers of the Book of Job might well agree with her on this. It is a fascinating book and well worth our while looking at. Thought to be the oldest book in the Bible it looks at the problem of ‘theodicy’, meaning the vindication of the justice of God in the light of humanity’s suffering. Alfred Lord Tennyson called it “the greatest poem of ancient and modern times’. In this time of Pandemic and world disorder, and as each one of us face the tests of life, I feel that a closer look at Job might help us understand more about who God is and how God is in our troubled world. …. So each Wednesday night from next week to the end of October. The Zoom link is in this week’s email or contact me for details.’
A new initiative began over in St Mary’s Church last week. The plan is to use the lovely ‘Fuzzy Felt’ cut-out figures and display boards which were gifted to us by the Revd Stella Jones who was rector in Kinneigh until quite recently (and our sincere condolences to Revd Stella on the death of her husband Bob Beare just this week. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.)
It is really difficult at the minute to try and engage our children during the Services and of course no Sunday Club activity is currently possible. So as well printing the usual scripture based activities for the children (word quiz, colouring sheet, crossword etc.) the Rector is going to try and tell the story of one of our readings through the media of this ’Fuzzy Felt’. We shall see how it goes! Obviously the adults are allowed check it out too!
Tracey Pierce and Rachel Warren-Perry will be meeting by Zoom with the Rector on 17th to discuss ways forward for Sunday Club. There are two new Sunday Club leaders waiting in the wings (Elvina Horgan & Nora Njoku) so we really hope and pray that we can resume some sort of group activity perhaps after Christmas.
Music Notes –13th September
Hymns for today at St. Mary’s, Carrigaline are:
652 Lead us Heavenly Father
550 Forgive our sins
80 Great is thy faithfulness
349 Fill thou my life
The hymn of the Gradual today is ‘Forgive our sins’ written by Rosamond E. Herklots (1905-1987). Born in India in 1905 to English missionary parents, she was educated in Leeds and graduated with a BA in French from the University of Leeds. She briefly tried teaching as a career in Palestine but returned to England to train as a secretary. Rosamund lived in London for the rest of her life, working as secretary to a specialist in Spina Bifida, and later at the head office of the Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus. She was a keen choral singer and began writing hymns during the war years. ‘Forgive our sins’ has been one of her most popular texts.
Hymn 550 is paired with an American folk hymn melody – our second encounter with folk hymnody this month, having heard ‘Amazing Grace’ last week.
It is with great sadness that I heard this week of the passing of Robert Beare, a former colleague of mine at the Cork School of Music. Bob was from Bandon and was a very active member of the Church of Ireland Bandon Union of parishes. He was a talented tenor who performed in many oratorios with his brother William, an excellent bass.
Bob was a wonderful teacher – always on the lookout for new singing talent to nurture and maintaining a lifelong interest in his former pupils.
May he rest in peace.
Bébhinn
087 228 5965
Random Notes CCCLVII
Several Gentlemen’s clubs sprang up in London during the 18th & 19th centuries, among them were the Wolf Club whose only qualification for membership was that a man had to have been forbidden to sing in the bath by his wife, the Lunar Club, whose scientifically-minded members met when the moon was full, the Fly Fishers’ Club, whose members were addicted to pursuing trout by the most difficult means possible, the Garrick, where actors and those in the media boasted to each other about how wonderful they were, the Macaroni Club, whose members were, according to one critic, “upper-class, effeminate, spindle-shanked Gentry, who make the Grand Tour and return, if possible, greater coxcombs than before embarkation”, and the Beefsteak, originally known as the Sublime Society of Steaks. It began in 1735 and still exists. It’s founder members met to discuss the disgraceful tendencies of ‘levelling’, by which they meant the tendency for different classes to mix
(a fairly rare occurrence back then anyway). Beefsteak members believed that birth conferred a status that neither success nor failure in life could change. In 1926 the club was still meeting and some of Britain’s most powerful men were members.
Unfortunately , they met in an old rather seedy house on the edge of Soho and at a time when the police were cracking down on vice. One particular summer evening a Policeman saw four elderly and rather disreputable-looking men enter a house. The Policeman made a written note to the effect that “they looked highly suspicious and eager not to be observed”
He called for reinforcements, convinced that the men were up to something illegal. They forced their way into the house and arrested the four men, who happened to be the Prime Minister, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, the Governor of the Bank of England and last, but not least, the Archbishop of Canterbury !
When their identities were revealed the arresting policemen refused to believe them and threatened them with further prosecution for attempting to impersonate their betters ! (So much for class always being obvious !)
MMPC
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