June - July 2008

Busking

We have invited local musicians to play in the Abbey on Sunday afternoons for 20 minutes in every hour. They may put a hat out for charity. Details will be posted on the notice board.

'Quiet Spaces' in Dorchester Abbey

Celebrating the presence of God through worship and art is among the aims of the Abbey community, and we hope you will join us on 20 June from 8.30 to 10.00 pm for the second in this series, when you can enjoy all of the above in the golden evening light of the year's longest day. Entry is free, but donations are encouraged to sustain this project.

'Quiet Spaces' events are organized by Rebecca Hind, chair of Contemporary Arts in Dorchester Abbey (CADA). The new altar frontal was made by textile artist Helyne Jennings, commissioned by CADA and funded by the Friends of Dorchester Abbey. Carl Gabriel's wire sculptures form a temporary exhibition by kind permission of the artist.

Team Service - 29 June

This will be at St Paul's Church, Culham at 10.30 am.

St Birinus Pilgrimage - Sunday 6 July

The Pilgrimage starts on Churn Knob, Blewbury, at 1 pm, but bring a picnic to eat there at 12.30 and sing a hymn and a prayer at the short service on the hill before starting the walk. From Churn Knob to Dorchester is about 12 miles, all off road, along some footpaths but also over land that is not normally accessible to the public. You can walk at your own pace and either enjoy the quiet and lovely countryside on your own or, if you feel like it, chat to others and meet new friends on the way; it is entirely your choice. A coach leaves Dorchester (rose walk exit of Abbey) at 11.45 for Churn Knob (£5 adult, £2.50 child, £1 dog).

If you don't feel you can walk 12 miles, then start at the halfway point, from Brightwell cum Sotwell, at about 3.30. You can buy a cup of tea, soft drinks and cake to sustain you at Brightwell village hall (toilets also available there). And when you arrive back at Dorchester there is more tea in the St Birinus Presbytery garden (a donation would be appreciated).

On the walk, as well as looking around you at the lovely views, you have the opportunity to visit and have a good look at Blewbury, South Moreton and Brightwell churches. To encourage you to do so, you will be supplied with a passport map, which you can get stamped at these churches with a special stamp depicting the saint that each is named after and leaves you with a lovely visual reminder of the walk.

Even if you don't believe in God or go to church, do come and enjoy the walk. You never know - you might find it a spiritual and uplifting experience as well as an enjoyable walk.

The Pilgrimage Service

For the Pilgrimage Service, gather in the St Birinus Presbytery garden at 6.15 to process to the Abbey for the service at 6.30pm. The preacher this year is our very good friend and past Rector, the Revd Canon John Crowe. The Reading Central Salvation Army Band will play for us, accompanying the hymns. It is always a wonderful service. You are most welcome to come to the service even if you have been unable to take part in the Pilgrimage walk.

After the Pilgrimage service, at about 7.30pm there is a BBQ and bar in the Abbey cloister garden. Graham Beland and his team of expert helpers will offer a delicious variety of food for all, including vegetarians, and the occasion is always great fun. In addition, while you eat, there is lovely music played by a superb group of musicians directed by Professor Marshal Stoneham, always well worth hearing. Again everyone is most welcome at the BBQ, even if that is the only thing you come to.

Annual Pilgrimage and Dorchester Village Barbecue
Sunday 6th July at 7.15pm in the Abbey Cloister Garden

MENU

Roast pork and apple sauce in a bap
Leg of lamb in rosemary and garlic

Honey-roast (slightly herby) sausage in a roll

Lemon/pepper crumbed Chicken drumsticks

4oz pure beef burger in a bap

Crunchy veggie-burger in a bap

Jacket potato with butter/cheese

Corn on the cob

Field mushrooms, sautéed with garlic

Fresh baked rolls and baps supplied by 'Mr Crusty'of Berinsfield

Top quality meat supplied by Calnan's of Didcot

The Annual Pilgrimage BBQ is for EVERYONE, not just for walkers.

An eight-piece wind ensemble will play. There is a licensed bar.

New Notice Board

Just before Evensong on 20 April, the Rector dedicated the beautifully crafted notice board in the Abbey Porch. It was given by Andy and Sheila Arthur in memory of Sheila's parents Bob and Marjorie Graham and of their baby son James. Bob was born near Bedford; Marjorie's father was Mr Joseph Kirby who built Meadside a few years after the First World War and the present primary school in 1933. Her grandmother lived in the prettiest cottage in Dorchester. After she died it was knocked down to make a car park for the Castle (the Castle was the pub in Bridge End) - now there are three small houses in what was the front garden (No 6 Bridgend).

May Day in Dorchester

For the 12th year two a part welcomed May with their concert in the Abbey but for the first time were prevented from singing from the tower by heavy rain. Instead the traditional rendering of 'Now is the Month of Maying', 'Calon Lan' (in Welsh) and 'Cwm Rhonda' (in English) came from the organ gallery. It was suggested that throwing buckets of water at the singers while performing might help create the right atmosphere, but this idea was refused on the grounds that it would damage the newly upgraded organ.

More than 80 people enjoyed a continental breakfast in the Abbey whilst listening to two a part's characteristic arrangements of music ranging from Gilbert and Sullivan to the Beatles. The event raised nearly £500 shared between the Noah's Ark Project and the Abbey Funds. Thanks go to all those who gave of their time, talents and money and to Dorchester Post Office for once again looking after ticket sales.

Ely

On Monday 12 May a party of Friends of Dorchester Abbey visited Ely Cathedral. It was perfect weather and the countryside was so beautiful; large soft green fields, with the bright gold of the rape fields here and there, bordered by hawthorn in full blossom. Even the M25 behaved impeccably!

Just after passing near Cambridge we could see the towers of Ely ahead. The name 'Ely' is said to mean an island of eels, for it is on slightly higher ground formerly surrounded by marshes (the fens were drained in the 16th and 17th centuries).

The first Abbey on this site was built by Etheldreda, the eldest daughter of Anna King of East Anglia in 673. When she was quite young she was 'married' to a local chieftain. That alliance was dissolved and she was sent up to Northumbria for another 'diplomatic' marriage to Egfrith the young king - this was also in name only. After a few years she escaped and returned to Ely where she set up a religious house. Her sisters and some nieces joined her and it was a very successful foundation.

Unfortunately she died in 679 from plague. Her tomb became a very popular place of pilgrimage and it was said that over the years it became encrusted with jewels. Audrey was another name for Etheldreda. A fair was held on her day - St Audrey's - and later some poor-quality laces were sold at St Audrey's from which we get the word 'tawdry'. Etheldreda was followed by her sister Saxburga and she had been Queen of Kent. St Audrey's Day is 23th June.

The Danes came in 870 and destroyed the Abbey. One soldier tried to steal an emerald from the shrine and he 'dropped down dead'. After that nobody touched her tomb.

Many legends grew up about St Audrey. She is supposed to have a cousin called Wendreda - Mildred - who lived a hermit's life near three holy wells, living mainly on plants she gathered. Two does came from the forest to give her milk. The wells are near Newmarket and have been used by their trainers to cure racehorses' sore feet.

Around 912, St Ethelwold was born in Winchester. As a young man he served the king - King Athelston - but then he went to Glastonbury where he became a priest. Athelston did much to continue the gradual absorption of the Danish newcomers into England. Ethelwold and Dunstan - both Benedictines - restored the ruined Abbeys at Bath, Malmesbury, Westminster and others including Abingdon, which had been completely destroyed by the Danes in 871 (a year after Ely).

Ethelwold came to Abingdon in 953 and with an enthusiastic band of fellow monks soon turned Abingdon into a flourishing community. He became Bishop of Winchester in 963; he replaced the Winchester canons with monks from Abingdon and so Winchester, founded by St Birinus, became the first monastic cathedral in England.

In 970 he had the 100-year-old ruins of Ely rebuilt; it was a Benedictine monastery for men. It soon became a very rich foundation second only to Glastonbury. A hundred years later came another great upheaval: the Norman Conquest. A staunch East Anglian held out against the invaders - 'Hereward the Wake', 'Hereward the Watchful'. He was an important landowner and with his band of followers was able to harass the 'foreigners' and then escape along the safe paths through the marshes.

Today Ely Cathedral is truly magnificent. We gazed up at the 220 ft west front and the tower with all its turrets and carvings showing several styles of architecture - Norman at the base as in the Galilee porch; going through the wonderful early Norman West Door we were stricken by the Nave (Ely is more than two and a half times longer than Dorchester Abbey) with its three tiered arches and wonderful painted ceiling.

After a cup of coffee in the refectory some people visited the National Stained Glass museum, others walked across to Oliver Cromwell's house, so passing the former Bishop's Palace built in the 15th century (now a Sue Ryder home). We noticed that the bricks of the older houses were an unusual colour of a soft yellowy grey, made from the local clay.

Oliver Cromwell was MP for Huntingdon and lived for ten years in Ely. His house has recently been turned into an excellent museum, each room with relevant commentary on customs and clothes.

Ely became a diocese in 1109. Remegius, the first Norman Bishop of Lincoln, reorganised the boundaries and the huge Diocese of Dorchester ceased to exist; the Abbot of Ely was Bishop as well. The monastic buildings were in the south of the Abbey. The lovely early Norman Prior's Door has a lovely carved tympanum showing our Lord, and the collection of small animals running up the sides are incredibly well carved.

We had a very knowledgeable and amusing guide. He pointed out so many things, the oldest of which came from the time of Etheldreda: the base of a cross in memory of her steward Ovin and the newest: the millennium sculptures one of which is 'Christ in Glory' above the pulpit. 'Christ in Glory' is the central base of Ely's famous Octagon built in the 14th century, and also high in the Octagon are paintings of events in the life of Etheldreda. The Cathedral has a strong atmosphere of continuing worship from the time of its foundation. Etheldreda's famous shrine has long gone, but a simple slate slab with her name engraved marks where it stood in the lovely 13th century presbytery.

In Bishop West's chapel is an inscription in memory of Bishop Ednothus - Bishop of Dorchester in 1016 - he was almost the last of our Saxon Bishops. In 1979 Bishop Peter Walker became Bishop of Ely - he had been Bishop of Dorchester and in 2000 Bishop Anthony Russell left Dorchester for Ely. He paid us a short welcome visit on Monday.

Ely, like Dorchester, fell into a poor state by the end of the 18th century. We had WC Macfarlane; they had Dean Peacock and the very generous support of Edward Bawyer Sparke, son of a previous Bishop.

The great restoration resulted in the new floors - the amazing painted ceiling of the Nave - the repair and augmentation of the beautiful carvings of the choir stalls and of the misericords and the very splendid gilded reredos by Gilbert Scott, which took 18 years to make. It has five panels of events in Holy Week. The hundred-year-old organ was re-sited, windows were repaired and lovely stained glass now tells many stories.

Then we went to the Lady Chapel: a huge, bare room with enormous windows with plain glass. Around the walls are elaborate, carved arches filled with beautifully carved figures - every one defaced - and empty niches where there were formerly statues and the fifteen altar niches, which were empty. In the 15th century this had been supposedly the most elaborate Lady Chapel in Europe. Completely destroyed in the Reformation: no wall paintings and just a few fragments of all the stained glass in one window remain. Now above the altar is a modern statue of a young girl with outstretched arms, wearing a short blue dress.

We saw the 'dead hand' result of religious intolerance against the wonderful loving tranquil beauty of the Cathedral. We had a pleasant journey home for which we thanked our driver and we gave very many thanks to Yvonne Lawden for arranging such a memorable visit!