This will be held at St Richards, Ashburnham Avenue, Ham at 7:30pm on Monday 30th September. See below for agenda.
“What does Southwark Vision Mean for my Church”. Deputy Diocesan Secretary, Jackie Pontin, will talk about Southwark Diocese’s ten year “Christ-Centred, Outward Focussed” plan to sustain and grow the Church throughout the Diocese and how that fits in with your church’s mission action plan.
Come along to St Luke’s, Kew, to hear from a stellar line-up of speakers, who will offer practical advice on the small things we can all do to fight climate change and take care of the environment.
The panel will include:
Tickets are £5 per person, and include drinks and nibbles after the talk, where there will be a chance to network and engage further with the panelists. Click here to book tickets. Contact Charlotte or Suzie for more details – kewecofair@gmail.com
The Climate Chat series is part of St Luke’s EcoChurch project.
St Richard’s, Ham are hosting a series of sessions celebrating some of our most-loved hymns. At each meeting there will be an opportunity to listen to or join in singing the hymn, before a short talk that explores the story behind its author and the meaning behind the words. There will be tea and home-made cake as people arrive and lots of time for chat and getting to know each other.
Meetings will take place in St Richard’s Church, 2.30 to 4.00 pm. For more information and to RSVP please contact Deb Baker 07905 149089.
20th September – Dear Lord and Father of Mankind
Autumn will soon be upon us. As the nights start to draw in, we will begin to feel a chill in the air, the leaves on the trees will drop and jumpers and jackets will soon be needed again!
I must confess that as much as I love the summer sun, the beauty and colour of summer flowers, BBQs, alfresco dining and a glass or two of Pimm’s, autumn is actually my favourite season.
In so many ways Autumn is about “endings”. It is a season, as Keats so evocatively expressed, of mists and mellow fruitfulness. If you are a gardener(I am not!) then autumn, marks the time when you begin ‘to put the garden to bed’. Fruit and vegetables are harvested. Flower bushes are dead headed or cut back. Autumn reminds us year after year what we all know but often forget which is that endings mark new beginnings. As we wrap up the old, we prepare for the new. The way in which we end, shapes the way in which we will begin again.
For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted; a time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up; a time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance…
– Ecclesiastes 3:1-3
This reading from Ecclesiastes reminds us that God guides the events of our lives, and that there is a gift from God in every season, or time, that we live in. The very temporariness of the time we live and the transitions we undergo are a reminder of the timelessness of God and the longing for the eternal that God has put in our hearts. The seasons of nature can be reflected in our spiritual life. Sometimes, when a great deal is going on in our lives, an “easy in” to reflecting on what is happening interiorly is to look at our spiritual life in this light of what season we are living. Perhaps as you read this—or another time—you can take a few moments to reflect on what spiritual “season” or “moment” from Ecclesiastes 3 you most identify with at this time in your life.
Recently, I was reminded of how helpful that can be by the last few pages of Parker Palmer’s lovely book on vocation, Let Your Life Speak. Palmer talks about failure as an important part of discernment: how failure can be a clear indication from God that we are meant to turn in another direction–or to see what has been in front of us all along. Quoting Thomas Merton about “the hidden wholeness” in all visible things, Palmer speaks of autumn’s metaphor for our spiritual lives:
In the visible world of nature, a great truth is concealed in plain sight: diminishment and beauty, darkness and light, death and life are not opposites. They are held together in the paradox of “hidden wholeness.”
…Autumn constantly reminds me that my daily dyings are necessary precursors to new life.
– Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak
Autumn – that season of mists and mellow fruitfulness – is the perfect time to take stock and to ask ourselves what the fruits of our existence are. Mary Oliver in her poem The Summer Day asks poignantly and powerfully ‘Tell me, what is it you plan to do with your one wild and precious life?’ Autumn is surely a great time to ask ourselves whether the plans of summer for our wild and precious lives have indeed turned into the fruits of autumn. Whatever answer we give can rest with us through the hibernation of winter and as it rests we can find strength and hope ready to begin the growing process once more.
Rev Joe Moore, St John the Divine, Richmond
All three churches in Richmond Team Ministry have now received Bronze Eco Award and are working towards silver. They have also produce a quarterly GreenTips newsletter. Click on picture below for the latest issue:
Each summer the Parish of Mortlake with East Sheen team ministry hold a Holiday at Home week. Local residents of Barnes, Mortlake and East Sheen who are unable to get away for a holiday or would like more company during the summer are invited to join in either for a day or two or for the whole week.
In honour of the Olympics, this year’s theme was “a week in Paris”. With creative writing, flower arranging, jigsaw puzzle work, sharing poems, a play reading, singing, ukulele music, wonderful French themed food and a trip to Chiswick House, there was plenty to keep everyone busy and in need of a rest at the end of the week!
A monthly musical community café, 7-8pm at St Andrew’s Church, Ham.
Sacred Space is an informal hour of live music, craft, drinks and cakes, conversation and poetry, based on a universal theme. Drop in, relax, meet others, find rest and inspiration. It is a perfect occasion to bring your friends. Everyone welcome, all ages, all faiths and none.
Contact St Peter’s, Petersham (st.peters.petersham@googlemail.com) for information about the next café.
Katharine von Schubert from St Peter’s, Petersham, is a Commissioned Southwark Diocese Lay Pioneer working across parishes locally and in helping more widely with Diocesan Mission Action Planning.
In September, 2021, Katherine started “Sacred Space” at St Andrew’s Ham. It runs every month on a Sunday evening (see below for dates) and is an informal hour of live music, text and art around a theme, with coffee and cake served. You can stay for the whole hour or come and go as you wish
In February, 2022, Katherine wrote:
It was at a junction in my life a few years ago that an old friend told me her hunch that my future direction might involve music. At the time I was dismissive. However, being a lay pioneer is about being who I am, and I had to admit a consistent love of music.
God had always spoken to me through music – it could unlock my emotions, thaw out anger or disbelief, take me to sublime places, and help me make sense of the colours of mood I experience. Moreover, every time I had played my flute or sung in churches or concerts over decades, there never failed to be someone who came to me afterwards to say how much it had moved them.
Based on these two things, I began to imagine a gathering of people experiencing the power of music together. I was imagining a deep immersive experience, one so beautiful that people could not fail to be touched, a place where people could find themselves and connect with others, and therefore find God their Creator nourishing them in some way. It was a vision of togetherness and hospitality.
I needed a space which was big and roomy enough to match this vision- of welcoming and gathering people, encouraging them to participate and feel at home. I imagined an enlarged living room, a comfortable space where friends hang out, and take it in turns to play their instruments or sing or say something. What after all is a ‘sacred space’ if not a place where we feel special, loved and at home?
The fixed Georgian box pews and tiny space in my own ancient church did not allow for this vision. So I shared it with Alice Pettit, vicar of St Andrews- a church hidden amongst trees in the woods near Richmond Park, with a big beautiful inner space. Alice and Jenny a longtime parishioner graciously greeted the idea with enthusiasm, adding in their ideas of running a café with tables, candles and craft alongside the music on a Sunday evening.
We started in September and grown each month. In February we had over 100 attend, including 15 primary school children and 20 adults from different parts of the community singing in Norwegian composer Ola Gjeilu’s The Rose. We sometimes have a string quartet. I choose beautiful non-churchy music that has inspired me, and hope that we can manage it with minimal rehearsal the day before. It is always experimental and responsive to who is around including partnership with local schools. Once we invited Maryam, a young Iranian women who had just been granted asylum to speak about ‘belonging’ and treat us to Iranian sweets.
The format is carefully crafted to avoid a ‘concert’ atmosphere: people arrive around 7pm and directed to the café and craft table; a sheet with a poem and bible verse explains that everything happens in parallel. At 7.10pm, we perform the main segment of live music during which people can choose to socialise, eat, walk around or sit. There might be a discussion corner on the theme in a musical break and the music is performed again at 745-8pm.
Sacred Space is intentionally informal. It is ‘neither a service nor concert’, a phrase that seems to alleviate the fears of some whom I invite; nothing is expected of them, and they don’t have to ‘do’ anything, or even stay! Many of those who come including musicians do not go to church, and they bring their families and friends. There is a buzz of conversation and lots of positive comments and experiences shared afterwards. People from all three churches in the area visit, and many connections are being made.
This is an experiment and is not without challenges. One is for the whole church community to value this alternative use of church space: a large team of volunteers is needed to help sustain the hospitality each month. Secondly the work of daily inviting the people we know must be taken seriously. Only then will it begin to represent the community. There is room for aromatherapists, environmentalists, yoga practitioners, poets and artists to practice their craft alongside the music.
This leads to a more fundamental point: Sacred Space will only be sustainable long term if it becomes a space shaped, owned and valued by those who participate in it. My hope is that long term this is what happens and that we learn to be an active partner of the community. Imagine the community setting the agenda, whilst the church continues to host. The theology is simple: God in us meeting and greeting people and letting them be who they are.
Katherine aslo wrote the following article for the June 2024 edition of Lay Ministry Matters
