Columns (February 2010)
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Rural Affairs
with Dagmar Winter
The unusual amounts of snowfall and freezing temperatures have deeply affected rural parishes. Here are snippets from clergy reporting in mid-January. Mutual support, community spirit and the importance of local services stand out.
North Tyne and Redesdale, Susan Ramsaran (Bellingham):
As predicable, neighbours are looking after each other and the elderly are staying indoors. I haven't been able to get the car out since 2nd January. In the deanery on 10th January we cancelled services at Simonburn, Thockrington and Thorneyburn. Clergy have taken each other's services wherever routes were easiest, giving up the idea of having a Sunday off after Christmas. Michael Cooper completed his journey to Thockrington (in a cassock) on a tractor on 27th December. Clergy set out but failed to get through to Falstone and Byrness.
Redesdale, Marion Penfold (Otterburn):
Life from about the 18th December changed in Redesdale with temperatures at one time dropping to -17°C. The scenery was beautiful and breathtaking, although roads were treacherous if not impassable. The local shops tried to supply the village as best they could, the postman gave up and still we are getting the backlog of post delivered. One couple are still without water which they get from a local stream, they are using melted snow. The carol service on the 20th December had to be cancelled at Byrness, on Christmas Day we had to be towed out of the car park at Byrness and Sunday 10th January, Elsdon and Horsley (both churches without any heating!) were cancelled and the venue moved to Otterburn. I conducted a wedding blessing on 20th December, fortunately at Otterburn, and the bride wore red - just as well so we could see her!
Corsenside, Richard Virden (West Woodburn) :
I have been getting to and from church (a two and a half mile round trip) on foot, assisted by ski-poles though not the skis - it's too rough and icy for my meagre skills. People have been helping each other in many ways. The shop and pub at West Woodburn have remained open and West Woodburn First School has only lost four teaching days. Last Thursday it was so cold as I walked to the church for morning prayer (-14 degrees C) that the plastic frames of my spectacles suffered a brittle fracture, which I later managed to repair with glue and a scrap of perforated zinc. Someone told me I now look like Dame Edna Everidge - an improvement, perhaps!
Longhorsley, Peter McConnell:
In Longhorsley we are very fortunate to have a shop - with proprietors that care!! When people haven’t appeared for a while at the shop our shopkeepers alerted neighbours who would then investigate, take newspapers and shopping, and make sure all was well. Such a facility in a village is such a bonus, especially at this time of year. With a service that you will not find in a supermarket!
Slaley, David Irvine:
At Healey, a service was cancelled because the snow plough had piled the snow in deep drifts to either side of a narrow passageway (wide enough for the milk-tanker but no wider). The result was that the scattered congregation could probably have got to Church - but couldn't have got the cars off the road for the duration of the service.
At Slaley, St Mary's was due to join Slaley Methodist Church for their annual Covenant Service, but the Minister was unable to travel from Corbridge. At a hastily arranged replacement Communion service in St Mary's (18 hours' notice), the congregation included people who would usually worship in parishes elsewhere at two other denominations, but who felt it best to stay closer to home on this occasion.
Otherwise everyone is taking care of each other, keeping an eye on neighbours, and getting shopping and prescriptions. Not all services have been able to work without disruption, but we have appreciated those which have managed to continue against the odds - the bus service through Slaley between Hexham and Consett, which has to go through Whittonstall and over Kiln Pit Hill, has been remarkably reliable, and Slaley First School has been open every day for those who could get there. The local shop has remained open and well stocked, and the proprietors, Margaret and Roy, have managed to deliver their normal round of papers without exception, sometimes abandoning the car and covering the village on foot.
Whalton, Michael Bryce:
One of our organists who normally manages to battle anything the elements might throw at her has been snowed in up at Rothley Farm since Boxing Day. The vicar’s chickens all but disappeared under the snow but kept on laying valiantly, and all the trench digging skills acquired in the army have come in very useful over the last few weeks!
Heartfelt thanks go to all those in rural communities who keep going even in appalling conditions - particularly the village shop in Belsay, the postmen/women, the milkmen and other assorted delivery people - last but not least the farmers who put the snow ploughs on their tractors and cleared paths.
South Middleton Farm and not able to go anywhere else, Fiona Sample:
The weather has militated against services and visiting; some churches were considered inaccessible, one ran out of heating oil (the tanker could not get to it) and another was thought too dangerous for any one over 10 years of age without a sledge or skies. I have not yet been able to get down my drive in a car. Royal Mail got stuck. A lorry had to be pulled out by tractor. Morning Prayer is not the same when always said alone. The importance of corporate worship and shared ministry have been emphasized by their absence. Snow flurries have been matched by the flurries of emails. Folk in the Benefice have not been idle. A lot of planning has taken place. If it all comes to fruition 2010 will be a very exciting year! In contrast, the snow eased off early in the coastal areas.
Ulgham & Widdrington, Helen Barton:
I'm happy to report that despite the snow, services were maintained at both Ulgham and Widdrington. Due to bad roads, attendance halved at Widdrington where most of the congregation drive to church. However, at Ulgham attendance figures were maintained since most of the congregation live within walking distance of the church.
Cresswell & Lynemouth, Alan Simpson:
We made the mistake of believing the weather forecast and so discouraged our elderly members from braving the snow and ice on Sunday, 10th January and cancelled the events scheduled for Monday - only to find the snow had thawed (not frozen) on Saturday night and almost fully cleared by Monday!
Farming
And finally, while trading days were lost at the Mart both in Hexham and Scots Gap, the prime issue for the farming community has been getting food and water in a fluid state (blowlamp? kettles?) to livestock. Farmer Malcolm Corbett from Rochester is also concerned that due to recent mild winters, sheep might have lost their traditional knowledge of how to cope with prolonged snow, finding shelter in the hills. Young ewes learn from older ones but they haven’t had the opportunity in recent years.
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View from the Lantern
by Canon Sydney Connolly
Since my late teens, I’ve enjoyed writing letters and articles (perhaps because I’m not much of a conversationalist?). The first formal letter I wrote was when I was about 18 or 19 – 50 or so years ago.
It happened because people had rather alarmingly started to suggest that I think about a vocation to the priesthood. The first step, after a chat with my Vicar, was to write to the Bishop of Liverpool and alert him to the situation. His name was Clifford Martin, and he was a gentle and wise soul. I took ages to compose a suitable letter, and then didn’t know how to finish it. The local library came to my aid when I found there a splendid dictionary. It had all sorts in it – “abbreviations, signs, and symbols”, “foreign phrases and words in common use”, “pronunciation of proper names”, and – pure gold – “how to address dignitaries ”. In the “Bishops” section (I presumed correctly that he was a “dignitary”) I discovered that the right way to formally conclude a letter to such an eminent personage was with the words.
“I remain, sir, your humble and obedient servant” Off the letter went, and I often wonder what Bishop Clifford made of it. Anyway, he responded kindly, invited me to meet him in his office, asked a few gentle questions, blessed me and sent me on my rather bewildered journey to ordained ministry.
When I was a student at Leeds and Mirfield, I loved writing letters to my family and my friends. I took the matter very seriously: nice paper, fountain pen, careful handwriting - and always I had a trusty dictionary at my side (still got it!) and checked every word for correct spelling. I will admit to an over fondness for brackets, colons, dashes and the like – you will have noticed that! – and I’m quite certain I don’t always use them in the right way! The technological revolution has almost killed off the art of letter writing, alas. I use texting only as a matter of necessity, and so far have held out against using abbreviations and “text language” in my rare mobile phone communications. Consequently, it takes me a long time to text even the shortest of messages, because I insist on writing every word in full, littered with dashes, exclamation marks and colons! (and brackets, of course).
As a parish priest, writing the monthly letter in the parish magazine rarely caused me any anxiety, though it is a safe bet that not all of the articles made sense to those who read them. The biggest problem for most writers, I guess, is trying to put into words in a clear and understandable manner, the thoughts that they are trying to express. Often, what is absolutely lucid to the writer comes across as muddled and unclear to the reader. (I have the same problem with preaching!)
It is now about two years since I wrote my first View from the Lantern and look forward to writing more in the year that lies ahead. Perhaps I ought to stress that the “Views” are purely my own, and do not in any way represent the views or opinions of the Cathedral community. The Dean graciously allows me to write what I like and does not impose any form of censorship whatsoever (though I imagine the odd article causes him a raised eyebrow now and then!)
Lent 2010: a little less use of texting and e-mailing, and a little more of the dying art of letter writing? (Ash Wednesday is on 17th February)
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Green Links
by Janis Irvine
At the time of writing the snow is falling yet again, obliterating our recently-cleared paths and driveway, the clearing of which has taken up to an hour or more each day for the best part of two weeks. It may be frustrating but is amply rewarded by the sheer beauty of the landscape around us; fields, trees, hedgerows, walls, and of course the houses, are all muffled in a gloriously thick blanket of white — and it is magical. These are memory pictures to store up; our climate is changing so much that there are no certainties any more. Our local weather patterns are no longer assured from one year to another although one constant of late would seem to be more extreme weather patterns, whether it be heat, rain or snow. Pity our farmers who have to forge their way through these extremes of weather and somehow work with them to sow and harvest crops or tend animals in order to feed the nation.
Now we are at the start of a new year and a new decade. On the environmental scene the past decade has shown an increasing appreciation of climate change within the World’s population. Severe flooding in coastal areas such as in Bangladesh, mud slides in Asia, increasing sea levels impacting on low-lying Pacific Islands, long-term drought conditions in many African countries and in Australia, the melting of Arctic and Antarctic ice shelves - these are all conditions experienced over the past decade and attributed to climate change.
Closer to home, environmental issues permeate working practice for most institutions, including country councils and the health service, as well as private businesses. Children now learn about environmental issues as part of their education, whilst schools are increasingly incorporating green issues into their practical life by way of vegetable and fruit gardens, wildlife gardens, compost making, tree planting, waste sorting and saving and even solar panels or wind turbines. Our churches too are increasingly embracing green issues with the launch of the Shrinking the Footprint campaign a few years back and now the launch at the end of 2009 of the Church of England’s Seven Year Plan for the Environment.
Energy provision has come high on the agenda in the past decade. We are now more aware of where our energy comes from and that some sources are finite, as with oil provision. The North Sea no longer provides for all our oil needs and we now rely on supplementation from other countries. It is sobering to think how quickly we became reliant on this valuable resource or how little thought was given to how soon supplies would dwindle. Now more and more people are installing their own micro energy resources such as solar, wind, photovoltaic or even geo thermal for domestic use while some are even selling energy back to the National Grid. Wind turbines are increasingly becoming a normal feature either on windy hill tops or off our coast and we learn of the efforts of scientists to produce energy from waves and other natural means. We are increasingly learning not to waste natural resources. Garden composting has become common-place again, as it always had been prior to the 1970’s, while grow-your-own has become the ‘in’ thing for many young 30 and 40-somethings.
We no longer expect to be given plastic carrier bags and most of us now take a good supply of cloth bags with us when we go shopping. Recycling has become the norm, although there is still room for improvement as there does not seem to be a common recycling policy across the nation. We are now also much more aware of ethical shopping and many of us will choose to support only those business with sound green credentials. Fairly traded goods have increased from a narrow band of tea, coffee, spices etc. to a staggering variety of goods, each of which will give the supplier a fair and assured payment allowing them an income which they can actually live on and which will often also pay for their children to go to school.
As a nation we have come a long way in the past decade but there is still a distance to go. The Copenhagen talks have shown us how seriously climate change is viewed by World’s leaders but also how fragile and complex are their negotiations and attempts to reach agreement. At the beginning of this new year and new decade our personal resolution must be to build on our own knowledge and efforts of the past few years so that green living becomes part of our very being. In addition we should constantly remind ourselves of how much our efforts really matter. Happy New Year!
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Christian Aid
by Judith Sadler
Haiti – after the earthquake
I am writing this a week after the earthquake in Haiti and 33 minutes after Prospery Raymond, Christian Aid Haiti Country Manager, last added an item of news on Twitter. His message reads: ‘Farmers outside PAP [Port-au-Prince] do have food to sell so CA sourcing locally. Important to buy locally if poss and support our farmers.’
Prospery, along with Abdonnel Doudou and Ronald Labady were all in the Christian Aid office when the earthquake happened. It collapsed, along with most of the surrounding buildings. They pulled themselves out and, having checked on their families, set about contacting partner organisations to co-ordinate an immediate response.
The immediate task was distressing: some partner organisation staff have been horribly affected by deaths and bereavement. Sadly, however, Christian Aid and its partners in Haiti are all too familiar with emergencies and are very experienced in responding due to the frequent disasters they have experienced. Thus, despite the shock and horror, those who can are getting on with the urgent tasks of sourcing emergency relief items for distribution to more than 15,000 people in eight communities.
Meanwhile Christian Aid in London launched a £1m appeal – which reached its target in an unprecedented six days. The Disaster Emergency Committee, of which CA is a member, launched its appeal a little while later – it is now standing at £23million!
Back in Haiti everyone is working together: five partners are providing food, tents, hygiene kits, blankets, Jerry cans for water and water purifiers. One of these partners is a specialist healthcare organisation and will also be providing medical support.
As Prospery says in his Twitter, they are sourcing food from markets in Haiti if possible, but all other items will need to come in from outside. In neighbouring Dominican Republic the CA office and partners have been hard at work too.
Christian Aid and partners in the Dominican Republic are part of a 23-strong Help Haiti coalition. The coalition now has bases at all four border crossing points and is channeling aid overland into Haiti. Christian Aid is specifically supporting the provision of medical equipment and supplies for tent hospitals at the Jimani border, providing first aid and health care to Haitian refugees injured in the quake.
You can help the people of Haiti by continuing to pray for the situation and by encouraging support of the Haiti Earthquake Appeal.
DEC: www.dec.org.uk. Phone: 0370 60 60 900. Make cheques payable to: DEC Haiti Earthquake and send to PO BOX 999, London EC3A 3AA Christian Aid
www.christianaid.org.uk/emergencies/current/haiti-earthquake-appeal/index.aspx
Phone: 080 80-004-004
If you hold a collection in your church you can order emergency envelopes from Christian Aid by calling 08700 787788.
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