St. Nicholas Parish

Magazine

May-June2012

Price: 50p (where sold)

CONTENTS PAGE 2: Curates Fun

PAGE 5: What children

teach us about fun

PAGE 7: Parish News

PAGES 8 and 9: The

Queen’s Diamond Jubilee

Celebrations

PAGE 10: Prayer Space

PAGE 15: Kids’ Light

BACK PAGE: Contact Light

2 ‘Fun’ by Curate Keith ‘So let’s have fun fun fun fun fun fun fun fun

fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!!!’ That was a little ditty from the Kenny Everett show from the

early 1980’s. The dictionary definition of the word is, ‘something that provides mirth or amusement’ or ‘enjoyment or playfulness’. But when did you last have fun for funs sake? The Christian church does not always have a very good track record when it comes to fun. Its darkest hour in this country was probably when the puritan Oliver Cromwell was head of the republic, where fun was outlawed and festivals like Christmas were banned. A church I used to attend (not in North Walsham) promoted a family day over Easter some years back with the phrase, ‘Christians really do have fun!’ I cringed at such a statement, the very need to print such words suggested to readers the opposite, that so boring were Christians that we needed to promote and advertise when we were going to have fun in case the world at large didn’t notice it! There’s something sad in our culture that seems to suggest that once we pass a certain age, and that age is getting younger all the time, that we can no longer play. My observations would speculate that this is a problem that affects women more than men. All you need to do is look at the boys toys in the Argos catalogue to prove that! Girls quickly get into make-up and dressing up whilst boys continue to play. How many girls have model railways?

Fairly early on in my time as a curate here our ‘Reflection Group’ coordinator suggested to us that in the midst of our busy lives we must make sure that we make time for fun. Myself and two other curates took her at her word and since then we have met up a two-three times a year and done just that. We have played golf, bowls, pool, walked the dogs along the beach, shared family BBQ’s and generally made time to enjoy ourselves just for the sake of it. Though I should point out as the one who always comes third at every sporting activity we have undertaken that my own fun has been curtailed just a little. Shortly our curacies will come to an end

and we may well end up at different ends of the country. Before then we plan one last ‘blow out’ intending to hire jet skis whilst we are in a part of the country where we can. I bet they’ll both be better than me at that as well. Oh well, so long as it’s fun that all that matters. There is not much in the way of fun out there at the moment, with talk of a return to recession, redundancies, strikes and general government incompetence life can seem to somewhat lacking in the fun factory at present. The church often seems to worry more about human sexuality and women bishops sometimes too. Perhaps we all feel that having fun is in some way contrary to Christianity, but that’s not what Jesus said, he said that , ‘ I came that they, that’s us by the way, may have life, and have it abundantly.’ That sounds like fun to me.

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5 What children teach us about fun

The Importance of Fun When it comes to having fun, kids have the advantage over adults. While most adults would like to have a good time, the desire is often tempered by a competing need to get ahead in life or to get things done. How many times have you skipped a social outing in order to whittle away at your workload? If you've spent time around a kid hooked into a video game with a "to do" list of parent-provided chores collecting dust nearby, you'll realize ambivalence about the importance of fun is largely an adult dilemma. The daily lives of adults and children are quite

different. While an adult's day is largely filled

with tasks, responsibilities and the acquisition of resources, a kid's life in a privileged country is generally structured

around having fun, or being educated in fun or interesting ways. While play is viewed as a necessary component of

childhood, it's perceived as a luxury for adults. And as hard as we try to make sure our kids are having fun, they may be

even happier when provided less structure or forced stimulation. Fun can be simply achieved. Kids love takes recycling

material and creating junk models and when we join in we can have fun too. There are loads of fun things that can help

us relax and chill out. Be creative is one of them. Lots of people love crafting with many activities. Here’s some ideas:

Personalized Scrapbook Scrapbooks are able to artfully capture important memories and enjoyable times. Spend time gathering photographs and then put them together a scrapbook that tells the story of an important time. . Quilts You might consider quilting by hand, but many people find that sewing machines significantly speed up the quilting process. Purchase pre-cut quilting squares and batting from your local fabric store. Sew the squares and batting together and then back with a larger piece of fabric to finish the quilt. Jewelry Purchase jewelry wire, along with clasps or other closures to complete the project. Experiment with beads of varying

sizes, shapes and textures in order to find a look that is pleasing to the eye.

If crafting is not your thing then there are loads of sports and even some extreme ones if you’re brave. The origin of the divergence of the term "extreme sports" from "sports" may date to the 1950s in the appearance of a phrase usually, but wrongly, attributed to Ernest Hemingway. The phrase is

"There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games."

This may not be extreme sport but this art work brings out the child in all of us. It is fun and art at the same time it is a large-scale interactive work by the Turner prize winner Jeremy Deller titled Sacrilege, and around him, children and adults are discarding their shoes and climbing tentatively on to the grandest of bouncy castles.

Having fun is not just for the

kids.

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RUFUS FROUDE Organ Recital is on Friday 11th May in St Nicholas Church at 7.30pm Tickets priced £7 are available from Broadland Travel , Market Place, North Walsham or the Church Office on 01692 408971 There will be tea & coffee available in the interval. Rufus is a talented organist who will provide an entertaining evening. He is the Organist at The Chapel Royal, Hampton Court Palace. He has played for the Queen & has accompanied stars such as Kiri te Ka-nawa & Jose Carreras. Proceeds from the evening are being shared between the Church ( for renovations to the East window) & North Walsham Rotary Club for Rotary Survival boxes. Photo by Glyn Davies

THE CHILDRENS SOCIETY Carole Blackwell will be speaking about the SOCIETY'S work in the 21st century.

On Tuesday June 12th at an open Mothers Union meeting. This is held in ST Nicholas room at 2.30pm. ALL ARE WELCOME. Margaret Bane Hon sec. 01692403758

Parish news

BRASS IN CONCERT. JUNE 16th at 7.30pm sees another opportunity to enjoy a Brass Band after listening to the Wherry Brass Band for our Jubilee Concert on Saturday June 3rd ( see centre spread). "Brass in Concert" will be presented by the Independent Order of Oddfellows in memory of Dal Dewgarde. Admission £7.50 (includes refreshments) by ticket only available from Express Printing or John Carr ( 01692/404126).

WORK TO TOWER. Parishioners will have noticed that the area around our tower has been fenced off for some time

now for safety reasons as the occasional flint has dropped. Work should start early in May to repair pointing and carry out essential maintenance work. This should enable the fencing to be removed. However a full survey is to be undertaken at the same time and there will be significant further long term work needed. This will require grant applications and fundraising. Other areas of the Church that need attention are the gutters and downpipes and the windows, particularly the very large East window. We hope that over the Jubilee weekend people will give generously to this ( see centre spread).

40TH ANNIVERSARY AS ORGANIST & CHOIRMASTER. On April 29th we celebrated Roger Buck’s 40 years as

our Organist & Choirmaster, giving thanks for all his hard work and devotion to our Church music. He reminded us that he only took the job on temporarily for a couple of weeks 40 years ago! A presentation was given to Roger at the end of the morning service with the choir gathered round and after the service a specially made “pictorial” cake was enjoyed and a toast given, appropriately for Roger, in sherry. Festivities continued in the evening. At Choral Evensong Roger was given another surprise when he was awarded a Fellowship of the Metropolitan College of Music in London and given a new hood to mark this, as well as various other gifts from the choir . Celebrations concluded with a choir meal in his honour at the Scarborough Hill hotel.

THANK YOU TO HELEN. Helen Rengert has been our Magazine Editor (helped by the Magazine Team) since the

Magazine changed its format some two years ago and now wishes to hand over to a new Editor. We thank her most sincerely for all her hard work and skill and particularly for the attractive design and layout that she has enabled. We hope that a new Editor may be appointed before the next issue but in the meantime all contributions for the July & August edition should be sent to the Vicar at vicar@stnicholasnw.plus.com

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Two funny stories: A Sunday school teacher asked her little children, as they were on the way to church service, "And why is it necessary to be quiet in church?" One bright little girl replied, "Because people are sleeping."

A little boy opened the big and old family Bible with fascination, looking at the old pages as he turned them. Then something fell out of the Bible and he picked it up and looked at it closely. It was an old leaf from a tree that has been pressed in between the pages. "Momma, look what I found," the boy called out. "What have you got there, dear?" his mother asked. With astonishment in the young boy's voice he answered, "It's Adam's suit!!"

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Vicar Derek Earis writes … The sixty years of Our Queen’s reign have covered nearly all of my life. I have vague memories of being in a crowded house of a family friend for the Coronation in 1952. They were one of the few people with a new invention called the television whose Bakelite bulges filled a great corner of the room. I remember seeing little but a forest of legs and hearing a great deal of noise and excitement. Despite the austerity, the 50’s in which I grew up, seemed a time of newness and excitement after the dangers of the 40’s a decade understood mainly by me through Biggles and War Comics which I devoured eagerly. Prince Charles and Princess Anne were a similar age to me and there was an increasing national interest in seeing them grow up as “the model family”. Of course later decades brought all sorts of challenges to this idyll culminating perhaps in 1992, the year Her Majesty called her “annus horibilis” Yet whatever difficulties in the life of her family and indeed the nation ( and don’t forget she has summoned 13 Prime Ministers to office or 156 if you count all the Commonwealth) she has remained dignified, steadfast and loyal to her Coronation Oath. She has never made a secret of the foundation for this and reiterated it again during her last Christmas Queen's Speech. The foundation has been her Christian faith and her sense of calling and vocation under God to guide our nation as its Head of State and indeed Head of the Church of England. For this we owe her a huge debt of

gratitude. It is right that we celebrate her achievements and her many personal qualities but our faith should also be strengthened that as she herself sees her reign as under the authority of God. We perhaps do not pray for her as much these days of Common Worship as under the Book of Common Prayer. This special weekend perhaps we can redress the balance a bit. But, as the theme of this issue is appropriately fun and celebration, let us also rejoice and party and have a good time as we give thanks for the blessings of her reign. We hope that you will value and support the ways in which we try to do this at St Nicholas, full details of which can be seen on this double spread feature.

Celebrating the Queen’s

“Say it with Flowers.” June 2,3,4,5 We wanted somehow to celebrate our Community and all that it means with something in Church, something that any group, organisation, business or factory, could use to highlight both their character and their aims. We hit on the idea of inviting any group that wished to create a small floral display to express themselves with. These could be as unconventional as they liked and could contain objects characteristic to them. Each display would have an identical size card with details of the group and a brief description of their purposes and aims. In this way we thought we could help visitors to our church to give thanks for the broad expression of Community involvement or service and to the very fabric of what makes our Community tick. We want this to be an inspiration and will be delighted if the displays attract more people to whatever group has made them. The display will be open and stewarded on Saturday 2nd from 12.30 until 5pm, on Sunday 3rd from 11.30am to 2.30pm and 4pm to 6pm ( see details of intervening services opposite), on Monday 4th from 10am to 5pm and Tuesday 5th from 10am to 4pm. Refreshments are available. Please note that there is NO CHARGE to view the flower displays but there will be an invitation to contribute to help maintain and repair the Church building.

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Jubilee Songs of Praise & Civic Service— Sun June 3rd at 3pm

We are looking forward to a joyful service of praise which will act both as a tribute to the Queen’s reign and also enable us to celebrate the civic life of our town and to welcome our new Mayor. Last year the format of a “Songs of Praise” proved very popular and this year’s hymns will not only be ones about our nation but also hymns which celebrate the gifts and talents which God calls us to and which have been exemplified in Our Queen. We hope that these will be introduced and also that Christians from all the local churches and men and women and children from many different parts of our community will come together for an act of worship, helped by our St Benet’s choir and perhaps some guest soloists.. Refreshments will follow this service and there will also be an opportunity to admire the “Say it with Flowers” display.

The Wherry Brass Band—Concert June 2nd 7.30pm We are fortunate in obtaining the well know prize wining Wherry Brass band for our Grand Concert on the Saturday evening (June 2nd). The splendid acoustics of our Church reverberate to the sounds of brass which is a perfect medium for the triumphant celebration of the Queen’s Reign. They will be playing much popular music including some “Last night of the Proms” type pieces. We wanted this Concert to be accessible for all and so we have priced the tickets very modestly at £5. Because we wanted to encourage families to come all accompanied Primary School children will be free. Refreshments will be available at the Concert. We anticipate the tickets will sell very well and you are strongly advised to buy them in advance. They can be bought at Church, or at Express Printing in the Market Place.

Jubilee —June 2nd to 5th

Other Services & Events IN CHURCH There will be a royal flavour to our regular services at 8am ( Said Holy Communion BCP) 10am (Parish Communion) and 6.30pm Solemn Evensong. Special prayers will be said and anthems sung on Sunday 3rd which is also TRINITY SUNDAY, one of the major festivals of the Church. The “Big Jubilee Thank You” letter will be available in Church for you to add your own personal well wishes to Her Majesty ( full details in Church with the letter) IN THE TOWN Our Town Council have also organised a series of events culminating in a giant Street Party in the Market Place on Monday June 4th. Further details can be found at their website www.northwalshamjubilee.co.uk

The Jubilee Prayer

God of time and eternity, whose Son reigns as servant, not master; we give you thanks and praise that you have blessed this Nation, the Realms and Territories with Elizabeth our beloved and glorious Queen. In this year of Jubilee, grant her your gifts of love and joy and peace as she continues in faithful obedience to you, her Lord and God and in devoted service to her lands and peoples, and those of the Commonwealth, now and all the days of her life; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

10 Prayer Space- Fun ways to pray

Journaling Take a blank book and write your thoughts about the day you have had. Notice how the words make you feel. What words do you want to keep what words do you want to rub out. You can write poetry like a psalm You could draw something that struck you that day Add a photo Make a collage Have fun

Pray walks This can be as energetic as you like. Just walk somewhere and notice what holds your attention . Pray for that thing, house, place or person you bump into. You can do this

privately or if you are feeling bold just have a conversa-tion as if Jesus is walking beside you. (check out how se-cluded the walk is first)

Praying with your diary Open your diary, calendar or app look at future events or people you will spend time with or important meetings or exams and pray about them. Light a candle but not too close to your books.

Praying with newspapers Use magazines and newspapers to create a collage or Picture or theme words or news stories to help you pray.

Praying using physical activity Similar to walking put on your favourite music or cycle or run and notice what holds your attention and pray with it.

prayer journal ideas • write down your prayer requests for your loved ones, friends and neighbours • write down any requests for yourself - these might be to do with your health, key appointments coming up, things that concern you or are causing you to be anxious, or anything else that springs to mind! • re-read these requests after a week, thanking God for answers to prayer and remembering to commit again to pray for any on-going needs and situations • capture your dreams, desires and aspirations in your journal. Dreams can be about anything - it could be that you have a dream to live overseas somewhere, or become a great politician or even get married! These could be written down - or consider getting creative. Why not draw a picture of your dream? What does it look like? Perhaps you might also be able to use colours to depict it in your journal. • if you receive a word of encouragement, a vision or prophecy from somebody else, keep a record of this in your journal. Remember to read these through occasionally to remind yourself of what God has said to you through the words of others. • write down any bible verses that you feel are important to you. With some of these scriptures you might also want to commit to memorizing them. You could also make a short note by each verse and record why it is significant for you. Try taking your prayer journal to church or bible study groups so that it is at hand for you to quickly jot down a reference or quote.

Prayer walking is the practice of praying on location, a type of in-tercessory prayer that involves walking to or near a particular place while praying. Some people believe that being close to a location allows them to “pray nearer to pray clearer.” Prayer walks are taken by individuals, groups, and even whole churches. They can be as short as a block or as long as many miles. The idea is to use the five senses—sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch—to increase the interces-so r ’ s u nd ers t an di ng of p ra yer ne eds .

For example, if you walk through your area and look for things to pray about, it could be the health, both physical and spiritual of the people living it that area. Some groups prayer walk around schools boundaries, prompting prayer for the teachers and students inside, for their safety and peace. Some people feel they can concentrate and direct their prayers more effectively by walking near the people and places they are praying for.

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Fun with a capital F VeggieTales was created by computer animators Phil and Mike;

their aim was to produce fun and lively children's videos which had Christian moral themes and taught Biblical values and lessons. The stories are told by a group of crazy vegetable characters who lived on a kitchen countertop. Bob the Tomato is usually the "straight man" in his partnership with Larry the Cucumber (the "Costello" of the pair), as they introduce many of the stories at the beginning and wrap-up the Biblical les-son at the end of most of the shows. Have a go at colouring them in

Church office 01692 408971

Church Office: use this phone number to contact St. Nicholas Church about any of the events or groups. Leave your name, a short message and a contact num-ber and we will make sure your enquiry gets to the right person so that they can call you back.

Sunday Holy Communion - 8:00am Parish Eucharist - 10:00am Sunday Kids in term time Choral Evensong - 6:30pm

Wednesday Holy Communion - 9:00am

Thursday Holy Communion - 10.30am

Every Weekday Morning Prayer - 9:00am (except Wednesday) Evening Prayer - 6:00pm

Feast Days and Special Saint's Days Sung Eucharist - usually 7:30pm see weekly sheet.

Contact the Vicar, Derek Earis: vicar@stnicholasnw.plus.com

01692 406380 for information about Baptisms, Weddings or Funerals

www.saint-nicholas.org.uk

CONTACT St. Nicholas’ Church

Printed on paper sourced from ethically and ecologically managed woodlands.

Many thanks to all contributors from the editorial team: Helen Rengert

Submissions for next edition by 5th June via email to

vicar@stnicholasnw.plus.com or by hand via Vicar’s Red

Postbox at the back of St. Nicholas’ Church

The Church is open every day from 8.30am to Dusk

Feel free to come in, look around or just sit in stillness. SERVICE TIMES

If you would like to hire any of our three church halls, please call:

Ann Herd, Hall Bookings Manager, 01692 402705

A LOOK AHEAD at

Festival Events at St Nicholas

MAY 17th Ascension Day. 7.30pm Sung Eucharist

– One of the Festivals of the Church when we

celebrate Christ in majesty

MAY 27th Pentecost. 8am Said Holy Communion

(BCP). 10am Parish Communion with Procession

6.30pm Solemn Evensong

A major Festival proclaiming the Holy Spirit in the

life of the Church and in our own lives.

JUNE 2nd—5th JUBILEE CELEBRATIONS

( see centre spread)