The Parish magazine of November 2023 Volume LIV No9 stsaviourseastbourne.org.uk £1
2 Church Services All of our services are livestreamed on Facebook Sundays 8.30am Morning Prayer 9.00am Said Mass 10.30am Solemn Mass and Sermon Weekdays 10.30am Monday, Wednesday, Thursday 11.00am Tuesday Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament followed by Mass at 12noon (not during November) 12noon Friday 10.00am Saturday Major Weekday Festivals Sung Mass as above, unless otherwise indicated on notice boards. The Clergy are happy to bring the Sacrament to the housebound or sick at any hour of the day or night. The Holy Oil is available for those who wish to be anointed and there is a regular opportunity for the Ministry of Healing every third Sunday at the 10.30am Mass. The Sacrament of Reconciliation Confessions by appointment. Hospital visits The Clergy will visit and give communion to those in hospital. Other Services provided by the church For Baptisms, Banns of Marriage, Weddings and Funerals please contact the Vicar. Facebook facebook.com/stsaviourseastbourne Website stsaviourseastbourne.org.uk The church is open from 8.30am each day, but The Book/ Souvenir Shop is currently closed. St Saviour's Church South Street Eastbourne East Sussex BN21 4UT Telephone: 01323 729702 Contents Page From the Vicar 3 Advent Course 5 Curate’s Egg 6 The Art of St Saviour’s 8 Harvest Festival 10 Walsingham 2023 12 Posh New Seat Pads in the Pews 14 Every November We Remember the Fallen… 15 A Village called Amberley 17 A Blast from the Console 19 Sussex Opera Presents 20 Soul Cakes 21 Kitty 22 Dates for your Diary 23 Directory 24 The Parish Magazine is published on the first Sunday of the month. Production: Paul Fella Matter for publication should be submitted to [email protected] Copy deadline is 20th of the month and articles should be no longer than 750 words. News items or reports should be factual and no longer than 500 words. Articles are copyright to the author and may not be reproduced in any form without the written permission of the author or Editor. The Editor's decision is final regarding content. Disclaimers: The Editor does not necessarily agree with all of the views expressed in this magazine. St Saviour’s Eastbourne, is the parish church of St Saviour and St Peter. The parish and its representatives do not endorse or recommend any of the products or services advertised in this Magazine. Caveat emptor! Cover image: Unattributed
3 My dear friends, The Church remembers the faithful departed not just on All Souls’ Day but throughout this entire month of November in a special way. We begin the month on All Saints’ Day, by celebrating the saints — those who are definitively in heaven, the canonised and un-canonised saints — and by invoking their intercession as we continue on our pilgrimage of faith in this world. But then we immediately turn to all those who have died who long to share in the communion of the saints but who are not yet experiencing their joy. November is the month for remembering, and we remember all those significant people in our lives who have come to the end of their earthly pilgrimage. Of course, not all our memories are happy ones, and indeed some memories can be painful. Looking back is not always easy. Yet we all have happy memories, good memories, of people (dear people), now dead who enriched our lives. November is a month to remember with affection all those past friendships and relationships that have graced and blessed us. In remembering these dear people who meant (and mean) so much to us, and in calling them to mind, we allow them to continue to influence us and engage with us. As Christians, we believe that although they have died, their life has changed, not ended. And so they continue to be present to us in a different way. In remembering them, we open ourselves up to their presence. Because the memory of those who have died is not so much a journey back into the past where they once were: it is more a becoming aware of those who remain present to us now, even if not in a physical or a visible way. We believe in the communion of saints, in that deep bond between those of us who are still on our pilgrim way and those who have come to the end of their earthly journey. Whenever we remember those who have died, we allow ourselves to become conscious of that deep bond between them and us, and we consciously relate to those who never stop relating to us. Memory in that sense is like a gate that opens us up to those who continue to be with us in Christ. As against that, humanists and others who do not share our faith understand memory only as a going back into the past to someone who is gone, and not as a doorway to someone who remains present. Put simply, they believe that for those who have died, life is ended not changed. Some of you will recall the Sadducees trying to catch out Jesus in their question about whose wife the widow would be in the afterlife when she had had no less than seven husbands (Lk 20:27-38). The Sadducees did not believe in the resurrection (as S. Luke reminds us) and so they attempted to show the seemingly absurdity of life after death by presenting Jesus with a scenario that they consider made nonsense of life after death. In his reply to them, Jesus made clear that life beyond death will be qualitatively different to life before death, and that the scenario they presented simply would not apply in this very different resurrection life. In other ‘No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor 2:9)
4 words, Jesus was saying to them (and, of course, to us) that for those who have died, life has changed. Yes, it has not ended but neither does it remain the same. The Sadducees’ question was predicated on the assumption that life after death will simply be an extension of life in the present time, with the same conditions applying. By way of example, in this model heaven would be the same as this life only without conflict, war, taxes, illness, worries, irritations and all the other blights with which we must deal in this vale of tears. It would also mean living in the same sort of accommodation as we do here – only it would never need maintaining and we would never have to service mortgages, or pay rent, or service charges, or pay to heat and light it – in fact, the temperature and light would always be perfect. As would be our environment. For those of us who live in Eastbourne, perhaps such a heaven would be roads without potholes. Or always being able to get a parking space in St. Saviour’s car park. Or not having to queue at the bank or the Post Office. So life as it is in the here and now, only perfect – however that perfect may manifest itself for each of us. But this is not the case. Jesus makes clear that in the case of life after death, we are dealing with a different experience, and quality, of life to life in the present time. Of course there will be continuity; as unique individuals we endure. There will also be an element of friends and family reunited – it is not an accident that most of the images Jesus used to describe heaven are of a communal activity (my favourite is the wedding banquet – and it would be a very strange banquet indeed if everyone was isolated in their own individual booths). However, there will also be transformation; life after death will be infinitely richer and fuller. Why? Because we are promised no less than a share in the divine life; the life of God himself. For emphasis, it is worth repeating that: we are promised a share in the divine life; the life of God himself. Take a few moments to reflect on that… But we are not God now and we do not experience that life now; we can only experience human life now. In the same way, the risen Jesus was in continuity with the Jesus who lived and died; he was one and the same Jesus. This is why again it is no accident that after his resurrection he is able to show the wounds of his passion and crucifixion to S. Thomas – they haven’t been magically healed but remain, transformed. This is why depictions of him after the resurrection still display these wounds – just think of Piero della Francesca’s painting of the risen Jesus (the one where he is holding the flag which was in the Emperor Constantine’s vision, and where there are four soldiers sleeping in front of the tomb) where his wounds are visible. Or indeed any Christ the King crucifix you may have seen where, despite the regalia of kingship, his wounds are also still visible. Jesus died and was transformed, and the same is promised to us. So what will that transformation consist of for all of us? S. Paul in his letter to the Romans speaks of it as being conformed to the image of God’s Son. In other words, the transformation that awaits us is one that involves our becoming more like Christ. As he says in his letter to the Philippians, our sinful, perishable, mortal bodies will be conformed to the image of Christ’s glorious body. Although our ultimate destiny will always remain something of a mystery to us now, nonetheless, in essence it will involve a transformation, and, more specifically, a transformation into Christ. In that sense, our ultimate destiny is completely in harmony with our present calling as Christians. Because here and now our calling is to grow into the person of Christ or, to put it in another way, to allow Christ to grow in us. As his followers, we spend our earthly lives on a journey, the journey of growing into the person of Christ. Our human language and experience can only hint at this transformed life. S. Paul also tells us that ‘no eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him’ (1 Cor 2:9). In other words, the life of heaven is so completely new and different that no earthly experience can compare to it. All we can say is that it is a life that will fulfil our deepest longings, and our most fundamental hungers and thirsts: and that it will be – as Jesus himself promises us - life in all its fullness (Jn 10:10). In All Souls’ tide we pray that those we love and see no longer, and we too (when it is our time) will experience it. With my love and prayers, Fr Mark
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6 As Advent draws nearer, so does our forthcoming Advent Course: The Four Last Things. This talk/discussion series will run from 2-4pm every Wednesday in Advent, beginning on Wednesday 29th November in the Church Hall. All are most welcome to attend! Fr Mark gave me quite the assignment when he asked me to put this course together, which takes as its central theme the topics of Death, Judgement, Heaven and Hell (the eponymous ‘Last Things’). You’d be forgiven for expecting this course to be rather scary; with the possible exception of Heaven, we often try our best not to think about these Things if we can help it. Death is naturally a painful subject for most of us, and ‘Judgement’ is a dirty word these days. To be labelled ‘judgemental’ is typically an insult, especially as many in the Church today equate the all-loving God with an all-accepting God. And generally the less said about Hell the better. Understandably, that’s the attitude many of us have. But if there’s one thing I want to emphasise it’s that the Four Last Things are fundamentally about hope. Despair is alien to the Good News of Jesus Christ, and so this course has two aims: to help us realise the extent of Christ’s wonderful saving work, and to help prepare us to be with Him in glory. And if we think about it, there’s really no getting away from the Four Last Things when you’re a practicing Christian, not least at St Saviour’s. The briefest glance around the church building reveals a space dedicated to preparation for death and the life beyond. One of the first things that strikes me when I enter is the great image of Christ in glory surrounded by angels high above the altar. This is the risen Christ, still bearing the scars of His Crucifixion, whom we’re invited to join in paradise. But it also serves as a reminder of the reality of the divine judgement, hence my use of it to advertise this course. As I described in last month’s Logos, the whole church is designed as an ark, intended for the motion of the faithful forward towards the Last Things. Much the same is true of our regular worship: in every Mass we recite the Creed, saying Jesus ‘will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end… We look for the resurrection of the dead, and the life of the world to come.’ Our faith has a direction, it is moving towards a Finding Hope in the Four Last Things
7 definite goal, that being life beyond death and union with God. The Four Last Things are vital aspects of the Christian life, there is no getting away from them. I think part of the reason why many are reluctant to give them much thought is the Church’s historic failure to teach them properly. When it comes to hell, for instance, most of us still picture a place of fire and lava where God sends bad people who displease him. However, we would be more accurate and more in keeping with Catholic tradition to describe it as a state of being rather than a place. Hell is the self-imposed reality of dwelling in the absence of God. It is the result of freely rejecting all that is positive and good and uplifting. As Pope Benedict XVI put it: If we ask ourselves what being damned really means, it is this: taking no pleasure in anything anymore… Being robbed of any capacity for loving and excluded from the sphere in which loving is possible—that is absolute emptiness, in which a person exists in contradiction to his own nature… If, then, the essential characteristic of man is his likeness to God, his capacity for love, then humanity as a whole and each of us individually can only survive where there is love and where we are taught the way to this love. Hell is the state of being that comes from voluntarily abandoning our fundamental nature, which is to love and be loved. It is an absence, or emptiness, rather than a place. Conversely heaven is our goal: it is the purpose for which we were made, in which our nature is fully realised and fulfilled in direct union with God. To go to heaven is to reach the fruition of human life as it was intended to be. So how are we to face the realities of death and judgement? There is plenty of despondency in the Old Testament, not least in the Psalms. Psalm 90, for instance, laments the inevitability of decline and death. But this is not the way of the New Testament. The Gospel, literally the ‘Good News’ (εύαγγέλιον in Greek), is the hope we have in Jesus Christ. He is ‘the way, the truth, and the life’ which sets us free from the old way of seeing things. He brings a great reversal, so that death is not the end but the beginning of our being with God ‘face to face’. The message of the New Testament is not to be despondent or downcast or full of despair. As Saint Paul puts it, ‘“O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?” The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.’ Judgement, too, must now be seen through the lens of Christ. He is our advocate and the one who took our sins upon Himself when he died on the Cross. When the Book of Life is opened on the Day of Judgement, we won’t look to our own merits to justify ourselves but to His sacrifice on our behalf. The great Anglican priest-poet George Herbert put it beautifully: Almighty Judge, how shall poor wretches brook Thy dreadful look, Able a heart of iron to appall When thou shalt call For ev’ry man’s peculiar book? What others mean to do, I know not well; Yet I hear tell, That some will turn thee to some leaves therein So void of sin, That they in merit shall excel. But I resolve, when thou shalt call for mine, That to decline, And thrust a Testament into thy hand: Let that be scann’d. There thou shalt find my faults are thine. So let’s not be discouraged by the Four Last Things: exploring them as we will in this Advent course shows us the true extent of Christ’s saving work and God’s love for us. If you are able and would like to come, you are most welcome. Please email me at [email protected] if you are interested, I look forward to hearing from you!
8 The next stained glass window in the Blessed Sacrament Chapel, moving away from the altar, is that of St Bede. The first question I thought of was: ‘Why is St Bede called ‘The Venerable (Ven) Bede’ ”? I found the results of my research fascinating, and I hope that I can communicate some of that fascination to you in this short text. St Bede was born around 672 AD in present day Tyne and Wear, Northumbria. He died there on 25th May 735. He was first referred to as ‘Venerable’ during one or both of the two ecclesiastical councils held at Aachen in 816 and 836, and by the 11th and 12th centuries the practice of referring to him as The Venerable Bede had become common place. In 1899 the Vatican declared him a doctor of the Church, the only English man to have ever been so honoured. He was canonised in the same year. At the age of seven Bede was sent into the twin monastery at Monkwearmouth-Jarrow. He survived the plague of 686 and spent most of his life in the monastery. It is said that the furthest he ever travelled was to York to see the archbishop. He was ordained Deacon at the very early age of 19. His work and achievements are nothing short of magnificent, especially when considering the time in which he lived. He worked a great deal on a dating system, trying to find out the exact date of Easter, for example. Bede also popularised the use of the AD (Anno Domini) system of dating, the practice of dating forward from the birth of Christ. He was a skilled linguist and translator making the Latin and Greek writings of early Christian theologians accessible to the Anglo-Saxons, contributing greatly to English Christianity. The monastery where he worked had a very large library for the age, some 200 books which aided his research. In about 701 he wrote his first works, the De Arte Metrica and De Schematibus et Tropis, as text books to aid learning. In all he wrote about 60 books in his life time, most of which have survived. The work for which he is most well known is his Historia Ecclessiastica Gentis Angolorum or An Ecclesiastical History of The English People. This he completed in about 731. He was aided in this work by Abbot Albinus of St Augustine’s Abbey, Canterbury. It is a massive work that begins with some geographical description and the Roman invasion of England in 55 BC. The complete work consisted of 5 books and ended with the death of Bede himself. It traces the efforts of various saints in their quest to bring the Gospel to the different tribes and scattered kingdoms of England. The work outlines the growth of a united Church in the British Isles from its beginning up until 735. It was copied many times during the Middle-Ages and some 160 copies are thought to still exist. St Bede wrote many biblical commentaries and theological works covering both the Old and New Testaments. It was these writings that gained him the title Doctor Anglorum and the reason he was declared a saint. He also wrote many homilies including, among other subjects, on the The Art of St Saviour’s
9 Christian calendar. Bede’s writings even strayed into scientific subjects, such as De Temporum Ratione or On the Reckoning of Time. This work includes an explanation of how the spherical Earth influenced the changing length of daylight in the various seasons. He even showed that the twice daily timing of tides was due to the relative positions of the Earth and the Moon. I could easily go on and on mentioning various scholarly works that he wrote, including both Latin and Vernacular poetry, school text books and many other works. He died in 735 due to what appears to have been congestive cardiac failure (heart failure). I came to this conclusion because there is a record of the fact that he had painless breathlessness and swollen ankles shortly before he died. He was interred in Durham cathedral, but his tomb was looted in 1541 and his remains are now thought to have been re-interred in the Galilee chapel of the same cathedral. Aslan If you are interested in joining our Walsingham Cell please contact Mary Delves on 735410 A lamp burns for this church in the Shrine of Our Lady of Walsingham All of our services are open to the public and are also being livestreamed via Facebook.
10 Our Harvest Festival triumphs again! There were some lovely displays again this year on the window sills around the church. Although we were missing a few of our regulars here were some newcomers including the Community Wellbeing Café. There was a whole host of produce – in fact there was enough to fill over 20 shopping bags to take along to the Mathew 25 Mission, for them to use in producing the 200 meals plus every day for those in need.
11 In addition to the food donation, £142.50 was raised as a cash donation, by the auction of the perishable produce by Fr Richard Keeble after the service. Well done Father!
12 Father Mark McAulay, our Vicar at the time at St. Paul’s New Southgate, arranged our first Walsingham Pilgrimage about twelve years ago. We have been going ever since. Unfortunately for our parish, Father Mark left in 2018 to be your Vicar at St Saviour’s. Some of us also moved away and are now at new churches which do not have a Walsingham Cell. Father Mark kindly said we could go with St Saviour’s. A big thank you to Fr Richard Harper for organising in recent years, and the pilgrims from S. Saviour’s and S. Andrew’s who make us very welcome. This year once again we were blessed with safe journeys and arrived in good time. On the first evening we were treated to a stimulating talk on pilgrimage by Fr Richard Keeble, followed by our first visit to the Holy House. Next morning the three clergy led a discussion on Vocation and how it can be fostered. There was plenty of debate and useful ideas. It wasn’t only about vocations to the Walsingham 2023 through the eyes of some parishioners from Fr Mark’s previous parish
13 priesthood and the religious life, but also about our vocation as lay people to live the gospel and work for the Church, playing our part to the full in the Body of Christ. The Shrine clergy led three services in the Shrine itself: Sprinkling with Walsingham water, the Laying on of Hands and Anointing and Reconciliation on the Tuesday night; a mass for all the pilgrims together on Wednesday morning and a torchlight procession of Our Lady followed by Benediction on Wednesday evening. There were very good homilies at each. We also offered the intercessions we had brought with us in the Holy House and prayed the beautiful outdoor Stations of the Cross in the Gardens. The afternoons were free to change gear and relax, sit in the gardens, walk to the Slipper Chapel, chat or to soak in the atmosphere. The food, an important part of pilgrimage, was up to standard with plenty of local produce and choice at lunch and dinner. Some of us had full board, others half board. The Shrine staff looked after us well – even when some pilgrims had very little hot water on their first morning! We enjoyed a cheese and wine get together on the last evening, a good chance to share our highlights of the week. On the final morning all 23 of us packed into the Holy House for the final mass and farewell – always a poignant moment. Then it was into our vehicles for the journey home. Thank you to our drivers. We look forward to our pilgrimage to Walsingham every year. It is a very spiritual and healing place for us Christians and mass in the Holy House with the candles burning and image of Our Lady is indeed a little bit of heaven. Why not come with us in 2024 ? (dates: Monday 30 September to Friday 5 October, more information from Fr Richard Harper). Remember each of us was a ‘first time’ pilgrim once and we’ve never looked back. from fellow pilgrims: Brenda, Chris, Joan, Sue and Sylvia
14 Posh new seat pads in the pews We now have new seating in the pews thanks to a very generous legacy from Alan Langridge’s estate. These new deep red cushions have been madeto-measure for us by a specialist manufacturer. Fitting snugly into the wooden pews, they make a real difference both to the comfort of the congregation and the visual impact of the church interior. The old blue ones (that we had inherited from St John’s, Meads some years ago), have found yet another new home and now grace the pews of St Andrew’s Norway (see below). Our old pew cushions in St Andrew’s,Norway
15 Although it is difficult to estimate the number of civilians killed due to war what is not difficult to realise is that they are usually forgotten when we ‘remember’ the fallen. We remember those sacrificed on the battlefield, but ignore the civilians bombed, shot, gassed, interned, abused and starved in equal or greater number. Lamia Aji Bashar On August 15, 2014, forces from so-called Islamic State (ISIS) entered Kocho, a Yazidi village in Iraqi Kurdistan. They took everybody to the local school and separated them into groups: men, pregnant women, older women and unmarried adolescents. Among the latter was Lamia Aji Bashar, then aged 16, with her three sisters. For the next 20 months Lamia was held captive and repeatedly raped by ISIS soldiers. “The older men and women were killed and buried in a mass grave. We were transferred by bus to Mosul and then to the area around Aleppo under the control of ISIS. In Aleppo, there were many men from different countries,” she explained. Soon after her arrival, the head of the group, a Saudi, told her and her sisters they must convert to Islam. “I said no. He grabbed me by the neck and lifted me off the ground. My sister begged him to release me and kissed his feet until he did it. Then he shouted, ‘So you do not want to convert!’ and he raped us both.” In December 2016, the European Parliament awarded her, along with Nadia Murad – who was also held captive and raped by ISIS – the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought. Jan Ruff O’Herne This is a studio portrait of Jan Ruff O’Herne, taken shortly before she, her mother and sisters, and thousands of other Dutch women and children were interned by the Imperial Japanese Army in Ambarawa. Over the following months, O’Herne and six other Dutch women were taken as ‘Comfort Women’ and repeatedly raped and beaten, day and night, by Japanese personnel. Comfort women or comfort girls were women and girls forced into sexual slavery by the Imperial Japanese Army in occupied countries and territories before and during World War II. The term ‘comfort women’ is a translation of the Japanese ianfu which literally means ‘comforting, consoling woman.’ Somewhere in the range of 50,000–200,000 women were involved, but the exact numbers are still being researched and debated. Despite the efforts at assigning responsibility and victims compensation, in the years after World War II, many former comfort women were afraid to reveal their past, because they are afraid of being disowned or ostracised further. Others committed suicide. Bernard Taylor Bernard was pacifist during WW1 and refused to fight. Granted exemption because his son was fighting at the front, he worked instead as a noncombatant in France with the Quaker’s War Victims Relief Association. Others were not so lucky. Those who objected to helping in the war effort in any way were imprisoned. Over 6,000 ‘absolutists’ were incarcerated and brutaly treated. Marcellino ‘Frank’ Marcellino (Frank to his English friends) came to the UK as a refugee child after WWI as his father had been killed fighting for the allies in the Italio-Austrian campaign. Luckily he had family living in Scotland. He became a very successful businessman and entrepeneur during the1930’s and felt very much a ‘British Citizen’. Sadly he had not taken up citizenship, so on 10 June 1940 he, like all other Italians, Germans and Austrians living in the UK, were imprisoned and their possessions and businesses confiscated when Churchill allegedly announced that the authorities should “collar the lot”. Subsequently, he and thousands of others were herded into racecourses like Kempton Park and Ascot as a temporary measure and then later moved to either internment camps or sent by ship to Canada or Australia for the duration of the war. ‘Frank’ was sent to a camp on the Isle of Man, while his family were billeted (along with at least three others) in a house in Cambridge. At the internment camp food was scarce and sometimes non-existent and often he and his fellow inmates were reduced to eating grass and dandelion roots to stop themselves from starving. While he was a prisoner he pleaded for his release, but unfortunately he fell foul of the strictly enforced 20 year automatic citizenship rule and did not qualify. However, in late 1943, when Italy was no longer considered a threat, he went before a Tribunal and after a number of hearings he was released. Sadly, by this time he had contracted a chronic intestinal illness, (probably Chrohn’s disease) and was a very sick man. After his release he returned to his family in mainland Britain. He once again entered the business world, but was hampered by his illness. None-theless he and his family ran a number of catering enterprises up until the mid 1950’s. He died in 1957 during one of the countless operations undertaken to try and cure the illness he had contracted in the internment camp. My Lai, Vietnam On March 16, 1968, men from the U.S. Army’s Twenty-Third Infantry Division committed one of the most notorious atrocities of the war. About one hundred soldiers were sent to destroy the village of My Lai, which was suspected of hiding Viet Cong fighters. Although there was later disagreement regarding the captain’s exact words, the platoon leaders believed the order to destroy the enemy included killing women and children. Having suffered twenty-eight casualties in the past three months, the men of Charlie Company were under severe stress and extremely apprehensive as they approached the village. Two platoons entered it, shooting randomly. A group of seventy to eighty unarmed people, including children and infants, were forced into an irrigation ditch by members of the First Platoon. Houses were set on fire, and as the inhabitants tried to flee, they were killed with rifles, machine guns, and grenades. The U.S. troops were never fired upon, and one soldier later testified that he did not see any man who looked like a Viet Cong fighter. Vietnamese civilians in My Lai await their fate. They were shot a few minutes after this 1968 photograph was taken. The Syrian refugee crisis After over a decade of conflict, Syria remains the world’s largest refugee crisis. Since 2011, more than 14 million Syrians have been forced to flee their homes in search of safety. More than 6.8 million Syrians remain internally displaced in their own country where 70% of the population is in need of humanitarian assistance and 90% of the population live below the poverty line. Approximately 5.5 million Syrian refugees live in the five countries neighbouring Syria – Turkey, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and Egypt. Germany is the largest nonneighbouring host country with more than 850,000 Syrian refugees. The execution of innocent Serbian men, women and children by Austrian soldiers in WWI This photograph was taken in a Serbian village just days after it was invaded by the massed forces of the Austro-Hungarian army in the late summer of 1914, and it is of a number of peasant men and women in colourful peasant costumes. All were executed by members of the Austro-Hungarian army. Many Serbian peasants were quickly executed by Austro-Hungarian army soldiers. Such stories allow only fleeting glimpses of the horror experienced by civilians almost immediately after the invasion of Serbia began on 12 August 1914. The military justification for the massacre of civilians was that many were ‘partisans’ engaged in a guerrilla war against the invading forces. As early as 17 August, the Austro-Hungarian general, Lothar von Hortstein, complained that it was impossible to send reconnaissance patrols into Serb territory because “all were killed by the rural people”. However, it is fairly certain that popular anti-Serb sentiment gave the military the impression it had been given carte blanche to commit atrocities. A popular song in Vienna in August of that year was entitled “Alle Serben müssen sterben” (“All Serbs must die”). SS Arandora Star The SS Andora Star was a cruise ship that operated in the 20s and 30s. After being reassigned as a troop transporter, she set sail on 1st July 1940 with 1500 men on board made up of Italian and German internees and POWs, as well as British seamen and crew. The ship was originally designed to carry 400 passangers. The Andora Star set sail without escort or any Red Cross or other insignia to indicate that she was carrying POWs. The following morning at 6.58am, 125 miles off the north coast of Ireland the SS Arandora Star, was torpedoed by U47 and sunk whilst en route to Canada. On board were 734 Italians, 438 Germans, and 374 British seamen and soldiers. Over half lost their lives. There was a deafening expolsion as the torpedo struck and lots of the prisoners in the lower decks were trampled underfoot in the scramble to get out. Many of those reaching the upper decks also were injured by the barbed wire fences strung around the boat. Others flung themselves into the sea and sustained fatal injuries from the floating debris or froze in the icy Atlantic waters. Top right: The SS Andora Star Right: U47 Above: A report schedule of survivor numbers The Holocaust The Holocaust was the genocide of European Jews during World War II. Between 1941 and 1945, Nazi Germany and its collaborators systematically murdered some six million Jews across German-occupied Europe, around twothirds of Europe’s Jewish population. The murders were carried out primarily through mass shootings and poison gas in extermination camps, chiefly AuschwitzBirkenau, Treblinka, Belzec, Sobibor, and Chełmno in occupied Poland. The Nazis developed their ideology based on racism and pursuit of ‘living space’ and seized power in early 1933. In an attempt to force all German Jews to emigrate, the regime passed anti-Jewish laws and orchestrated a nationwide pogrom in November 1938. After Germany invaded Poland in September 1939, occupation authorities began to establish ghettos to segregate Jews. Following the invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941, around 1.5 to 2 million Jews were shot by German forces and local collaborators. Although many Jews tried to escape, surviving in hiding was very difficult due to factors such as the lack of money to pay helpers and the risk of denunciation. The property, homes, and jobs belonging to murdered Jews were redistributed to the German occupiers and other non-Jews. Although the majority of Holocaust victims died in 1942, the killing continued at a lower rate until the end of the war in May 1945. Not all victims were Jews however, with millions killed for ethnic and ideological associations. ‘Selection’ of Hungarian Jews on the ramp at Auschwitz II-Birkenau in German-occupied Poland, around May 1944. Jews were sent either to work or to the gas chamber. The photograph is part of the collection known as the Auschwitz Album. Every November we remember the ‘fallen’… and this year we also remember the ‘innocent’. In armed conflict of any kind, people suffer. Over the past century, fighting has increasingly moved from remote battlefields to densely populated cities, exposing civilians to greater risk. During World War II, the combatants waged ‘total war’, bombing population centres, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands of civilians. After the war, colonial powers fought opposition groups and independence movements. In those instances, colonial powers conducted urban warfare to target guerrilla fighters. More recently, wars in Iraq and Syria have levelled entire cities, killing hundreds of thousands of civilians and the displacement of millions more. Wars of all kinds have civilian costs. Assaults on civilians as a tool of war can be seen in everything from the bombing of hospitals, to hostage taking and beyond. In more than one hundred civil wars between 1989 and 2010, almost 50% of government forces and 60% of rebel groups deliberately attacked civilians. However, it is terrorists that carry out some of the most visible acts of violence against civilians – hoping to advance their political or ideological objectives. Families are separated by war. It upsets family dynamics and strips children of essential family values which can itself form a breeding ground for aggression. There is also a dramatic increases in sexual violence – higher rates of rape, assault, partner violence, and trafficking. Not all civilian casualties result from direct violence. Many deaths stem from indirect causes, including war-induced poverty, hunger, internment and medical shortages. There are no winners in war. Philosopher George Santayana once wrote, “Only the dead have seen the end of war.” For even after the bullets stop flying, civilians face enormous challenges trying to rebuild their neighbourhoods, economies, and lives.
16 We need MORE volunteer cleaners to help clean the church on tuesdays If you are able to BECOME INVOLVED, PLEASE See A CHURCH WARDEN, THANK YOU.
17 Amberley in West Sussex is a historic village, famous for its scenic views of the countryside near Littlehampton. It lies on a low ridge overlooking the Amberley Wild Brooks. In this village many cottages boast thatched roofs. Stream Cottage, which sits snugly in the village square, dates back to 1587, and the prominent box hedge in the garden is at least 300 to 400 years old - history indeed. The property is distinctive in more ways than one. One of the bedrooms has a ‘headknocking’ dwarf doorway and there’s also a brick-built inglenook fireplace that still boasts the original bread oven in a recess. Forge Cottage doesn’t stretch your imagination as to its orignal use. The village blacksmith toiled here and his predecessors before him, with a smithy in residence right up to 1955. The flavour of the past is preserved in its street life. Nearby, for instance, is Vine House, which was a beer house during the 18th century called the Golden Cross. There’s another home nearby called Brew House, which is doubtless where the Golden Cross used to draw its ale supplies. Then there’s the Bakehouse where two brothers, ‘Cosher’ and ‘Jimmer’ Allen, once kept Amberley supplied with bread. Amberley Stores was a bakery too, and it belonged to James Cooter, who emigrated to New Zealand and the occupier of Old Cottage, (one Mr Short) carried out the trade of shoe and harness maker. The church at Amberley is a priceless gem, for which we can thank the Norman Bishop Ralph de Luffa, who roughly lived between 1091 and 1123. Although the present building is a 19th century structure, on the chancel walls outside are indications of the original Norman apse, while the whole of the square front reflects the solid line of the period’s architecture. Inside are the remains of medieval wall paintings and the pulpit (from which no doubt many sermons have been preached through the generations) and an old iron hour glass stand that presumably once held the instrument of time to remind priests that even God’s flock has limited patience. But the times weren’t always peaceful! Next to the churchyard are the ruins of the a castle which, in its day, was a fortified Manor House and a summer residence for the bishops of Chichester. The picturesque 16th century castle built by Bishop Sherborne (the last to use the castle for a home) stands on a cliff facing the marshy stretches. The building was partly destroyed by the men of Oliver Cromwell’s army who partly dismantled its outer walls during the Puritan era. However, the one thing Cromwell couldn’t spoil was the beauty of the countryside in which the gem of Amberley is set. Amberley Castle is now a luxury hotel, privately owned by Andrew and Christina Brownsword. You can dine in the 12th century Queen’s Room with vaulted ceiling or the Great Room, with oak floors, tapestries and suits of armour. The bedrooms are furnished in an elegant style with antiques and fine fabrics (and biscuits will be waiting in your room on arrival). The grounds of the castle are completely enclosed by its old wall, retaining its portcullis, which gets lowered at night. During their stay residents can climb up the ramparts for stunning views, play tennis on site, and even play croquet on the lawn – what joy! Its stunning gardens are also home to an 18-hole putting course and two lakes. Annette Smyth A village called Amberley
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19 Remember, remember the fifth of November… how could I forget. If you know, you know! As I type this it occurs to me that we are hurtling towards Christmas at warp speed and I really have no idea where the year has gone; it seems to have flown by. But when I look back on our calendar I see that it has been a great year at St Saviour’s with some wonderful music making. We have had a super series of concerts from a variety of performers. The stand out for me has to be Thomas Trotter’s organ recital in June. Thomas has been wowing audiences all over the world for more than forty years. His virtuosity is just astonishing. His performance of his own arrangement of the overture to ‘The Thieving Magpie’ is something that will stay with me for a very long time. The Sunday and Monday concerts have now finished for this year but I am now looking to the programme for 2024. David Force rounded off the series with an excellent recital which featured some of the organ music of William Lloyd Webber (father of Julian and Andrew). Please look out for details in the New Year. There will doubtless be some familiar faces, but some new ones as well. As we approach the run up to Christmas, rehearsals get under way in November for the Gala Concert which will be on the 19th December at 7.30. Please put it in your diary, it’s a lot of fun and you WILL enjoy it! On a quieter note, the Renaissance Singers will present a concert of music for the season entitled ‘From Advent to Christmas’; this will be on Sunday 3rd December at 3.00pm. In other news, as a result of the ‘Songs of Praise’ fund raiser and some very generous donations, we have been able to purchase the brass candleholders for the choir music desks. You will be interested to know (or perhaps not) that Paul Fella and I spent a very happy couple of hours last week fixing the brackets for them. They are now ready for use at this year’s Carol Service, so I am really excited about that. Finally and perhaps the most important news is that we have three new choristers. Trine, Lesley and John have joined us in the last month. All of them have sung in choirs before and I am sure that they will be extremely useful members of the choir. They are very welcome. See you all in December with more news about Christmas; at the time of writing there are 58 sleeps to go! Ho, ho, ho!!!
20 www.newsussexopera.org Sir John Tomlinson and friends Solos, duets, ensembles and choruses, some familiar, some lesser known, with a reprise of past favourites and a taster of the future. Gounod - Mussorgsky - Verdi - Sullivan - Wagner - R Strauss - Bizet - Saint-Saëns St Saviour’s Church,Eastbourne 4 pm Sunday November 19 (Also at St Paul’s Church, Chichester on Friday November 10 at 7.30 pm) Booking: www. cketsource.co.uk/nso - 0333 666 3366 (for advance booking discount) New Sussex Opera presents
21 A Soul Cake, also known as a Soulmass-Cake, was made during Allhallowtide (Halloween, All Saints and All Souls) to commemorate the dead. The cakes were given out to ‘soulers’ who went from door to door singing and saying prayers “for the souls of the givers and their friends” to redeem souls from the pains of purgatory. The practice in England dates to the medieval period and continued here until the 1930s (although in Sheffield and Cheshire it continued into modern times). The practice of giving and eating soul cakes continues in some countries today, such as Portugal and the Philippines. And in the United States it is seen as the origin of the practice of trick-or-treating. In the USA still, among Catholics and Lutherans, some parishes have their soul cakes blessed by a priest before being distributed and in exchange the children promise to pray for the souls of the deceased relatives of the givers during the month of November. There appears to be no direct evidence of what a soul cake tasted like, although they are thought to be more of a biscuit than a cake and were usually made with oats and filled with nutmeg, cinnamon or other sweet spices, raisins or currants, and before baking were topped with the mark of a cross (see the recipe right, from English Heritage, which is reviving the tradition from 28th to 31st October across England). The other aspect of souling were the soul cake songs that the children sang when visiting homes to be rewarded with a cake. “A soule cake, a soule cake, have mercy on all Christian soules for a soule cake”. The songs vary from place to place and modern versions have been recorded by the likes of Peter, Paul and Mary and Sting. “A soul cake, a soul cake Please, good missus, a soul cake An apple, a pear, a plum or a cherry Any good thing to make us all merry One for Peter, two for Paul And three for Him that made us all. Pauline Fella To make 30 ‘Heavenly medieval bites’ Ingredients 300g plain flour 2tsp ground mixed spice A pinch of nutmeg 150g butter, diced 150g caster sugar 75g currants 2 egg yolks (or 1 whole egg, beaten) 2 tbsp milk 1 tbsp oats 1/2 tbsp cider vinegar Method Preheat the oven to 180°C, fan 160°C, gas 4 Sift the flour, spices and a pinch of salt into a mixing bowl, then add the butter and rub in with your fingers. Stir in the oats, currants and sugar. Whisk the egg, milk and cider vinegar together until just combined then stir into the dry ingredients. Bring together into a soft dough and add more milk if the dough is too dry. On a floured surface roll out to about 5mm thick. Stamp out the soul cakes with a 6-7mm round cutter, and score a cross lightly on the top. Transfer to 2 well-greased baking trays. Bake for 15-25 minutes until pale golden brown. Cool on a wire rack and enjoy! Soul Cakes
22 Hello Darlings Last night I went accompanied by Pauline and Paul Fella and Fr Richard Keeble and his wife Clara to the Fisherman’s Club for a charity quiz night. We came third but unfortunately so did two other teams so we had a tie breaker question. How many acres does the Ashdown Forest cover? I’d never heard of the place. Pauline excitedly pronounced it was the wood in Winnie the Pooh so it was the 100 acre wood. The correct answer was.... 6,100 acres. Slightly out – still it was a fun night. Earlier in the day I was present at the funeral service for Peter Benzing, a lovely man who I counted as one of my friends. A very large turnout showed just how much he was loved. Rest in peace Peter. The nights really are drawing in, and in a week’s time as I type the clocks will go back an hour. A lot of talk and no action on abandoning this chore. Amazingly, so far I have put the central heating on only three times, just to take the chill off. It’s been so mild and accordingly the plants in the garden don’t know whether they are coming or going. Shame I can’t say the same about the leaves. I’ve cleared what feels like several million from the side of the house and the lawn. All Saints day begins our month and our Patronal Festival ends it on 26th. As I understand it I don’t think the usual Parish Lunch will be taking place, as not many places locally can accommodate our numbers. On Monday 6th the servers are having one of their splendid lunches in the hall prepared by chef Keith. I shall be there in best Pinnie waiting on tables – heaven help you. Work on the chapel is completed and we move on to another major project: the removal of the dustbin lights in the nave and their replacement with crowns. The prototype has been on view for almost a year. Work will take several weeks, during which time Exposition of the Blessed Sacrament will not take place on a Tuesday, to enable the work to progress smoothly. All is taking place under the watchful eye of Richard Crook. Whether we like it or not we seem unable to avoid the early advance of Christmas, and we at St Saviour’s have plenty to look forward to. The annual Paul Collins extravaganza known as the Gala Concert is on Tuesday 19th December and, having had a sneak preview of the running order, it looks to be as outrageous as ever. On Christmas Eve we have three services this year as it falls on a Sunday. 10.30 Solemn Mass. 4.30pm the Nine Lessons and Carols 11.30 Midnight Mass The depleted servers team will be kept busy, as of course will Fr Mark who has to keep the show on the road so to speak. I remember with great fondness the Midnight Masses at home as a young Gal and, being in the choir, allowed to stay up to such a late hour. I always rushed home afterwards, avoiding the barrage of kisses going around the vestry, in the hope of catching Father Christmas in the act... the mince pies and sherry always mysteriously disappeared. I was sure I could smell it on Dad’s breath... Oh dear here I am in the past again. Memories are made of this. Having admitted last month to being a lonely old soul I was touched when several people approached and offered meals and outings to raise the drooping spirit. Thank you all. Bless you. Maybe I won’t be alone on Christmas Day like Scrooge was. Mind you, I don’t know anyone called Cratchitt at St Saviour’s . Chin Chin Kitty xx
23 Wed 1 10.30am Sung Mass ALL SAINTS’ DAY Thur 2 10.30am Mass ALL SOULS’ DAY Fri 3 12 noon Mass Feria Sat 4 10.00am Mass S. Charles Borromeo Bp. Sun 5 09.00am Mass The 31st Sunday in Ordinary Time 10.30am Solemn Mass Mon 6 10.30am Mass Feria Tues 7 12 noon Mass Feria Wed 8 10.30am Mass Feria Thur 9 10.30am Mass Dedication of the Lateran Basilica Fri 10 12 noon Mass S. Leo the Great P. Dr. Sat 11 10.00am Mass S. Martin of Tours Bp. Sun 12 09.00am Mass The 32nd Sunday in Ordinary Time (REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY) 10.30am Solemn Mass Mon 13 10.30am Mass Feria Tues 14 12 noon Mass Feria Wed 15 10.30am Mass Feria 6.30pm Mass pro PCC Thur 16 10.30am Mass Feria 2pm Burial of Ashes (Alan Langridge RIP) Fri 17 12 noon Mass Feria Sat 18 10.00am Mass Saturday Memorial of the BVM Sun 19 09.00am Mass The 33rd Sunday in Ordinary Time 10.30am Solemn Mass and Ministry of Healing Mon 20 10.30am Mass Feria Tues 21 12 noon Mass The Presentation of the BVM Wed 22 10.30am Mass S. Cecilia V. M. Thur 23 10.30am Mass Feria Fri 24 12 noon Mass The Martyrs of Vietnam Sat 25 10.00am Mass Saturday Memorial of the BVM Sun 26 09.00am Mass The Solemnity of Christ the King 10.30am Solemn Mass, Procession and Benediction Mon 27 10.30am Mass Feria Tues 28 12 noon Mass Feria Wed 29 10.30am Mass Feria Thur 30 10.30am Mass S. Andrew Ap. Dates for your Diary – November
24 THE DIRECTORY Church Officers Telephone Vicar Fr Mark McAulay SSC (Fr Mark’s rest day is a Monday) 01323 722317 The Vicarage Spencer Road Eastbourne BN21 4PA Assistant Curate Fr Richard Keeble c/o Parish Office Hon Associate Clergy Fr Anthony Fiddian-Green MA, Cert Ed 381796 Canon Richard Harper SSC 733927 Canon Robert Fayers SSC 07706 067496 Canon Anthony Delves SSC 893695 Fr David Weaver SSC 07811 145656 Churchwardens Mrs Pauline Fella 656346 Mr Keith Metcalfe 645145 Secretary PCC Dr Simon Thorp 07711 986695 Treasurer and Chair of Finance Mrs Beverley Thorp 07845 713771 Other Officers Director of Music Mr Paul Collins 647969 Parish Hospital Contact Mr Robert Ascott 728892 Mrs Veronica Gottlieb 07801 069991 Car Park Manager / 100 Club Mr Steve Gilbert 469078 Acting Church Hall Manager Mrs Pauline Fella 656346 Safeguarding Officer Mrs Marilyn Benzing 07767 264801 Electoral Roll Officer Mrs Gill Goff Deanery Synod Vacancy Librarian Mrs Krystyne Breeze Open Church Mrs Tricia Sneath 725709 Flower Arranging Mrs Krystyne Breeze Church Grounds Mrs Lynette Newman, Mr Ross Piper Events Coordinator Mr Paul Fella 07379 679741 Church Cleaning Mrs Judy Grundy, Ms Francesca Fairs, Mrs Judith Coe, Mr Terry Brookes , Mr Richard Mayston Webmaster / Magazine / Publicity Mr Paul Fella 07379 679741 Church Office Answerphone 729702 Church Organisations Book Group Vacancy Reach Out Team Ms Ruth Figgest 729702 Family Support Work Mr Robert Ascott 728892 Chatstop Fr Anthony Fiddian-Green 381796 Lunch for One Mrs Yvonne Dyer 07702 199844 Guild of All Souls Vacant Our Lady of Walsingham / CBS Miss Mary Delves 735410 Mission to Seafarers Mrs Isobel Nugent 725796 Additional Curates Society Vacancy