NEWSLETTER – JUNE 2009

On 5 May the Parochial Church Council appointed as officers for the coming year

Secretary - Susan Crocker

Treasurer - Richard Powell

Asst Treasurer/Gift Aid - Edith Wyeth

Electoral Roll Officer - Wendy Ramanoop

Churches Together - Alex Nelson

We left the setting up of the building, worship & mission and publicity committees until next time so that members of the congregation who are not on the PCC could be given an opportunity of joining them. (As the insert about the Ritualism Riots explains, we're also looking for a few people to work with the Rector in planning the programme to mark this.) Please let the Rector or wardens know if you'd like to be part of any of these groups.

Thanks....

....to all who helped to cater for the Marathon, providing food and drink and access (300+ callers!) to our loos. It was a good team effort that raised our profile. Special thanks to the two couples who kept our stalls in business until we sold out - Paul and Hannah, and Beth and James. Next year we hope to be able to exit the site to replenish our supplies! £250 has been sent to Richard House.

....and also to those who supported Christian Aid, which was the focus of our service on 10 May, when we thought about street families in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, emerging from the years of violent civil war with the help of Humanité Nouvelle.

Stars of stage and screen

Olive Wagstaff was chosen to be one of the group of local residents living on EastEndHomes estates who were interviewed for a film, East End Lives, by Phil Maxwell and Hazuan Hashim and sponsored by EEH. Some of us were privileged to join her at its première at Rich Mix, as part of the East End Film Festival. The interviewees were a culturally diverse group, and they all had fascinating stories to tell. Olive, of course, excelled in recalling details of the many changes she has seen over the years, both in her parish work and from her vantage point near the top of Shearsmith House. She will be spending June in Australia, so perhaps we should say to her 'good on ya, sheila', and wish her safe travels.

Some of you will have seen the BBC2 programme The Violent Highway broadcast on 16 May. (It was was shown rather late: we have an official DVD copy if anyone wants to borrow it.) This was made by a team from Blast Films whose thesis was that, despite all the perceptions about crime levels, the area around The Highway is in fact less violent today than at any time in its long and murky history. The programme was well-researched, and included interviews (about the Ratcliff Highway murders of 1811) with Baroness P.D. James - filmed in the panelled room at church - and various other 'experts'. The Rector also featured briefly, though unfortunately this majored more on last year's attack than on other more interesting material which they had filmed with him, for instance about the origins of a proper police force. Let us know if you felt the programme gave a fair picture of our community today.

St George's Gardens and the Nature Study Centre

We go to print before the official re-opening of the Gardens on 31 May, but we're hoping that the sun will shine for the day's events which have been organised by the Council's team of Rangers and others. In the context of a fun day, with activities for children and various stalls, the opening ceremony includes the planting of a tree and brief speeches by the various 'stakeholders'.

In the middle of the restored Gardens sits the very obviously unrestored Nature Study Centre, and many people have asked why this wasn't part of the project. Well, it's a long and complicated story; but the good news is that a funding bid has now been put together, by the church (parish and diocese) and the Council, and we hope that it can be brought back into use as a centre for environmental education - continuing the role that it served in this community for many years. It will also be a base for Lindsay, the Ranger attached to the Gardens, who currently uses a room in church.

St Paul's School Founders Day

is on 26 June, and there will be a service in church at 2.30pm to which children, parents, governors and members of the congregation are all invited, celebrating our partnership in education.

In our prayers....

are members of the congregation - including Jackie Saward, undergoing treatment, and Rowenna whose mother died recently; members' parents - including Wendy's mother Winifred, Michael's mother Hope, Richard's mother Margaret; and others for whom our prayers are asked, including Paula, Ben (and his wife Ellen), Ginger, Frederick, Paul, and Sid's Margie. Please join us in praying that God will strengthen and sustain them.

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