Articles from the Parish News
Contents:
Message from the Vicar
Songs of Praise - July 20th
The Ritz at HT
Shape
Quiz - Statues and Monuments
Parish Roundabout
Message from the Vicar
Dear friends
…halfway to Christmas…!
The birthday of St John the Baptist reminds us that it is halfway to
Christmas – now there’s a sobering thought!
The whole story of the birth of John, Jesus’ cousin, the son of
Elizabeth and Zechariah, is recorded in Luke 1. It is the most
amazing story of wonder, doubt, mystery and faith: might I commend
it to you to read again? It begins at his conception, when the angel
tells Zechariah that Elizabeth is to bear a child, but Zechariah is
so disbelieving that this will happen, that he is struck dumb. The
angel continues to announce that “even before his birth John will be
filled with the Holy Spirit”; and indeed the unborn John leaps in
the womb when Mary, Jesus’ mother, tells Elizabeth the Good News
that she is to bear a son: the first great ‘Alleluia’ in
anticipation of the birth of the Messiah.
The story continues with John’s naming and circumcision at eight
days old, according to Jewish law, and the release of his father’s
tongue, as disbelief turned to faith, and he declares that the child
shall be names John. All the people wondered “What then will this
child become”, for indeed the hand of the Lord was with him’. This
is followed by Zechariah’s prophecy, the Benedictus, which those who
know the service of Matins, may know well… “Blessed be the Lord God
of Israel…” The story, and indeed first chapter of Luke concludes,
“The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the
wilderness until the day he appeared publicly to Israel”. A very
succinct way indeed of describing his childhood, adolescence and
early adulthood!
We celebrate this great birth, exactly six months before we
celebrate the birth of Jesus, 24th June – half way to Christmas!
This year this feast has an extra special significance here at Holy
Trinity, for it marks the birth of a new ministry here: that of Rev
Elaine Dando, our new Assistant Priest. Elaine will be licensed by
the Archdeacon of Northolt at 8pm on Tuesday 24th June, and we very
much look forward to her joining our ministry team, and to her
ministry amongst us. The service will celebrate and give thanks for
our ministry team, with whom it is a great joy for me to minister:
Ann, Margaret, Kevin and Thiago and those many other people who
share in Christ’s ministry in this place. It will be a service of
welcome for Elaine as she joins this lively and diverse team, and
begins to share her priestly ministry with us. We look forward to
her getting to know us, and our getting to know her! Elaine will be
introducing herself in next month’s Parish Magazine. Please join us
if you can for this service on 24th June and the usual Holy Trinity
style reception that will follow!
With prayers and very best wishes as we journey together towards
Christmas!
Your friend and Vicar
Richard
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Songs of Praise - July 20th
So the Fete is over, but the summer heralds a golf tournament,
opera, holidays and lots of open air events. What better way to give
thanks to God than for everyone in Northwood to join together in a
lusty Songs of Praise at the London School of Theology at 3pm 20th
July?
Last year was the first time the Churches Together in Northwood
experimented with this event and it was a great afternoon, thanks
especially to Douglas Cameron who presented it, encouraging those
from every Church to tell us about their choice of hymn, and also
the Yiewsley and West Drayton Brass Band which really entered into
the spirit of the occasion.
There will be more to the occasion than singing. From 1pm we can
gather with our friends for a picnic and hopefully meet new ones -
that is if you bring your own picnic and something to sit on! But
ice creams, tea, coffee and soft drinks will be available. This year
we will try to compensate for the loss of the Fun Day by including a
Bouncy Castle, use of the tennis courts and any outside game you
choose to bring and enjoy until the 3pm start.
Finally, we need helpers. Please would you help with stewarding or
serving refreshments. Also, Shirley Askew would be grateful for
volunteers for a scratch choir which will meet to rehearse on the
previous Friday evening at 7.30 at the Methodist Church. This will
also secure you a parking place in LST instead of parking at the
bottom of Green Lane. However parking on site is also available for
those for whom walking with a collapsible chair is difficult.
If you can help, please phone me on 01923 824235.
Hazel Gammage
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The Ritz at HT
If you didn't get to go to The Ritz on April 26th, you missed
something really special. The members of Shape and Seekers had gone
to town - from candlelit tables graced by flowers and sparkles to a
truly delicious three-course meal, most professionally served - -
and not forgetting a wonderful welcome complete with special
Brazilian cocktail and copious well-supplied and yummy appetizers.
We were given the happiest evening, and a huge thank you is due for
all the care and work that had so clearly gone into it.
It was an excellent means for supporting Kat, getting ready to go to
help at Orphaids and for assuring her of our love and prayers - -
and a wonderful way to "join up the dots" right across the
congregation. I do hope that one of these days there can be another
occasion for The Ritz at Holy Trinity!
Ann K
Thank You!
Another huge thank you to everyone who came and those who helped
out to make the Ritz Dinner such a huge success. We managed to raise
an incredible £700 total so thank you all so much for your support.
In terms of planning for my Gap Year everything is running pretty
smoothly at the moment and this donation is no doubt a great help
with the financial worries we had. I will, of course, keep in touch
while I'm away and let you all know of the work that’s being done
over in Ecuador. If you want to find out more of what I'm doing
while I'm away please feel free to speak to my parents, Conrad and
Shanese, from the end of September when I leave. Thanks so much once
again and I hope everyone had a great time too.
Kathryn Gempf
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Shape
The Ritz evening was organised and carried out by Shape and it
was a great success, but what is Shape?
Basically, the whole of the older youth from Holy Trinity Church
belong to Shape, here we join together to pray together, laugh
together and seek a deeper and more meaningful relationship with
God.
We do this by meeting together every week on a Sunday evening at
each others’ houses. We also think about important qualities that
Jesus had and that we must try to emulate.
We symbolise this through ‘taking bullets’. In this, we have a stone
symbolising one of the qualities, for example, love, peace, hope,
trust or generosity. Then, using this stone we can keep a particular
quality that we wish to exercise in our consciousness by keeping
that stone in a pocket. This way, we are constantly thinking about
that quality and our actions reflect that, hopefully.
Each individual in Shape is assigned an angel. This angel looks
after the member and calls them up regularly or they meet up in a
coffee shop to see how they are getting on, so we all look after
each other. The Shape leaders hold a role of responsibility, so they
hold the role of an archangel, which means they are angels to each
member, not an easy job I can assure you!
These special people are Anna, Thiago, Kat and Chris and it is
thanks to them that Shape got started at all and they are still
running it, and I’m glad that they are. Shape is a great and fun way
to get to know God better and I am very thankful for this
opportunity.
Alastair Cotterell - a member of Shape
Back to Contents Quiz: Statues
and Monuments
1. The Statue of Liberty : (a) What does it commemorate? (b) What
nation gave it to the USA? (c) What is its official title? (d) What
is held in her left hand?
2. The Monument (London) : (a) What does it commemorate? (b) What is
significant about its height? (c) Who designed it and how was it
used scientifically?
3. The Angel of Christian Charity (also officially known as 'The
Shaftesbury Memorial Fountain') (a) By what name is it usually
known? (b) Who and what does it commemorate? (c) Of what rare (at
the time) metal is it made?
4. The Angel of the South : (a) Where is it? (b) What does it
depict? (c) Of what is it made? (d) What might displace it and
where?
5. Cleopatra's Needle (The Embankment) : (a) What connection does it
have with Needles and Cleopatra? (b) What name is given to this type
of monument? (c) What does it commemorate?
6. Nelson's Column : True or false : (a) Nelson has a patch over his
RIGHT eye. (b) The column is shrinking. (c) A wily Scotsman sold the
column to an unsuspecting American tourist. (d) Hitler planned to
erect the column in Berlin. (e) A stuntman parachuted from the top
to draw attention to China's occupation of Tibet.
Answers
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Roundabout
Not to be outshone by his twin sister, Rob Clarke and wife Grazie
are celebrating the birth of their daughter, Agatha May. A healthy
8lb 1oz, she was born at 5.31 am at Northwick Park Hospital. Very
many congratulations to the parents, grandparents and the rest of
the two families.
Sarah Archer has written to thank everyone at Holy Trinity for their
generous gift to her and Steve for their wedding. She writes: ”It
couldn’t be more appropriate for us because we’re sharing a one
bedroom flat and there’s not much room for wedding presents! Poor
Mum and Dad will be looking after them for a while I expect. I
jettisoned most of my furniture when I left White City so we’ll
certainly make good use of the voucher once we’re in a larger
place.”
Congratulations to Andrew Newell who was elected as Churchwarden for
the coming year at the Annual Meeting.
Thiago’s parents, Archbishop Mauricio and Sandra, will be with us
from time to time until after the Lambeth Conference in July. Make
sure they get plenty of opportunity to practice their English.
Our young athletes have continued their exceptional form. In the
last month, Sky Draper has: run the fastest 1500m in the UK by a 12
year old; won the 3000m at the Watford 10k; won the Hillingdon
Duathlon and the Hatch End triathlon. Lewis Hawkins has: won the
Hillingdon duathlon; finished third in the same 3000m and triathlon;
and Nicholas Hawkins, Katie Stronell and Thomas Stronell have
started competing in triathlons while B J Oyekanmi has entered
sprints and the long jump, winning a recent event.
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