Coming up for Prime Time

• Coffee Drops in at the Yew Tree Café - Mondays 10.30-11.30am

• Visit to the Mane Chance Horse Sanctuary - 18th July

Dear Prime Time member,

I hope this finds you able to enjoy the glorious weather now that summer seems to have finally arrived.  As ever with the UK though, we seem to lurch from one weather-extreme to another and so we find ourselves suddenly experiencing excessive temperatures rather than simply a sustained period of ‘nice’ weather which I’m sure we would all be quite content with! So please do take care and look after yourself during the current heatwave.  Try and avoid going outside during the most intense heat over the middle part of the day and remember to drink plenty to stop yourself becoming dehydrated.

The long-range weather forecast for next Thursday, (June 30th) which is when our Garden Party at Prior’s Field School is taking place is looking good; dry and warm, but not overly hot – perfect tea party weather in fact!  If you would like to attend the Garden Party on the 30th and have yet to let us know, it is not too late to reserve your place.  Please do let us know if you are intending to come though as the school do need to have an idea of numbers to ensure that there are enough cream teas for everyone!  At this late stage, an email or quick phone call to the Church Office will suffice rather than posting your reply slip back to us.

Don’t forget the invitation to the Prior’s Field production of ‘Oh to be Young’ on June 28th that I emailed you about earlier in the week – we still have some of our ticket allocation if you would like to go.  Please do email me as soon as possible if you would like to take up the offer of a ticket.

Looking further ahead than next week though, attached to this email are details of the July Prime Time event; a trip to Mane Chance Sanctuary in Compton, the horse sanctuary established by the actress Jenny Seagrove.  Long standing members of Prime Time may remember that we have previously made a trip to Mane Chance.  Incredibly that was 7 years ago!  Mane Chance was a relatively new charity at that time and the Sanctuary hadn’t long been established.  In the intervening 7 years, there have been a lot of developments at the site and in the work that goes on there and Mane Chance is now a recognised and well thought of horse-care charity, so the Prime Time Team thought it was well worth going for a return visit.

Whether or not you are ‘into’ horses, it promises to be a lovely afternoon out.  The Sanctuary site, in spite of its proximity to the A3 is calm and tranquil; very green and leafy with lovely views across the fields and nearby countryside.  It’s a great place to go for a walk and the horses and ponies are an additional bonus!

 At the end of our tour of the site, we will be welcomed back into the courtyard to enjoy tea and cake served up by the Mane Chance volunteer team.  On our previous visit, this was a lovely way to end what had already been a very enjoyable afternoon and gave us all the opportunity to chat to friends we hadn’t spotted on the way round and to make some new friends too. There is a £3 charge for this event, with all monies collected going to the Mane Chance charity as a thank you for their time (and the tea and cake!)

 And finally… July sees the launch of our new Monday morning coffee drop-in sessions at the Yew Tree Café.  These will commence on July 4th and will take place every Monday morning after that.  If you come along to the Yew Tree Café between 10.30 and 11.30am on a Monday morning, you will find at least one member of the Prime Time Team there to welcome you and chat with.  There is no need to book or let us know you are coming, just turn up on the day.  One point to note though is that the Yew Tree Café is a cashless establishment, payment is by card only – so please do come prepared for this. We are very excited about this new initiative, it’s something quite different for Prime Time to be attempting. Please do drop in to join us, a warm welcome (and very good coffee!) awaits.

 So, plenty of dates to put in your diary here which means plenty of activities to look forward to!  We do hope that you will be tempted to join us over the next few weeks, we look forward to welcoming you to an event soon.

In the meantime, enjoy the sunshine (but in moderation!)

With every blessing,

Penny

Penny Naylor| Seniors Ministry Lead

Prime Time Summer Issue

Use the links below for details about events:

• Prime Time Summer Programme

• Invitation to the Priors Field Garden Party 30 June 2022

• Outing to Chichester and Bosham

• Friendship Lunch letter re outings

• Conservatoire Concerts - Godalming Baptist Church

Dear Prime Time member,

It’s a bit of a bumper mailing this month; there is so much going on that summer must be just around the corner!

Attached to this email today you will find, firstly – hot off the press, the Prime Time Programme for the second half of 2022.  Please note the additional events listings on the back page, giving dates of our Movie Matinees, Hearing Aid Clinics and a quick mention of our new Coffee Drop-In sessions.  I realise that a number of members like to have paper (hard) copies of the programme so that you can stick it to your fridge or have it on the mantelpiece.  If you would like to have a hard copy that you can actually hold, please do let me know and I will arrange for one to be sent to you.  We will also have them available to collect at Prime Time events.

The first event on the new programme is the ever-popular Garden Party at Priors’ Field School taking place this year on Thursday June 30th.  You will find your invitation to this event attached to this email. The annual Garden Party at Prior’s Field School is always a very enjoyable event, please do consider coming along this year.

Also attached, you will find details of an outing to Chichester and Bosham.  This is not a Prime Time event as it is being run by our friends at Godalming Baptist Church, but my counterpart at GBC, Sally Pollard always extends the invitation to include Prime Time.  A number of Prime Time members have taken up previous opportunities to have a day out courtesy of GBC and people always come off the coach talking very positively about the day’s adventures.  So I conclude from that, that these outings come highly recommended!  A booking form is also attached for you to return direct to GBC if you would like to book a place.

And finally, a heads up about events taking place over the Jubilee Bank Holiday weekend.  Hambledon Church is hosting a Flower Festival which opens to the public on the afternoon of Friday 3rd June and continues throughout Saturday 4th and after church and into the afternoon of Sunday 5th.  The church will be full of floral displays created by both individuals and groups – a real treat for the eyes.  Entry to the Flower Festival is free, so if you’re at a loose end over the Jubilee weekend, why not pop out to Hambledon Church and lose yourself in flowers for an hour or so?  Do look out for the Prime Time representation, skilfully created for us by Prime Time members Di Drudge and Diane Albery.

And if the diary for the Bank Holiday weekend is still looking disappointingly empty, there is an opportunity to have an evening out at Godalming Baptist Church on Saturday 4th June as the Conservatoire Concerts make a welcome return with an Evening of German Music Through the Ages featuring works by Bach, Beethoven's String Quintet and the enigmatic and beautiful Verklaerte Nacht by Shoenberg. A string sextet from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance will be performing that evening.  Further details are on the attached flyer and also on their website www.conservatoireconcerts.org.uk

With every blessing and good wishes for happy memories as you celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee,

Penny Naylor| Seniors Ministry Lead
My day off is Wednesday

BHC Godalming
m: 07766 572934 | t: 01483 421267 | w: bhcgodalming.org | Find us on Facebook, Instagram & YouTube
the Old Rectory, Old Rectory Gardens, Godalming, GU7 1XB

Hello from Shelagh at Prime Time!

Dear fellow Prime Time members,

‘I really ought to….’

I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling flat. And I don’t know why. I have so much to be thankful for: having received my second jab when millions in the world haven’t even had their first; things opening up exponentially here when lockdowns continue in other parts of the world; the Proms happening, and with an audience, something that couldn’t have been countenanced this time last year; and Team GB’s amazing success at the Olympics. The Olympics and the stories behind the competitors, have been a real lift in recent weeks. Take Beth Shriever, deprived of funding from UK Sport who said they could only fund male BMX riders, who was courageous enough to launch a crowdfunding campaign two years ago which got her to Tokyo and winning a gold medal. Or Simone Biles, whose mental health concerns forced her to quit most of her competitions; but who came back strongly in the beam event which won her a bronze. Not to mention the rowers who were narrowly pipped into fourth place. (After all, it isn’t winning that counts, it’s the taking part.) And there are countless others. And, if you are fortunate enough to have internet or a smart TV, all these events are still available to watch from your own living room.

So why do I feel flat? Perhaps it’s the weather, autumnal now for days and days. Perhaps we’ve forgotten about that heatwave back in July, or if we remember it at all it was because it was too hot to do anything. Perhaps it’s that nagging feeling, now that I have been double-jabbed, that I should be doing more. And if lockdown has taught me anything at all, it is that it is perfectly OK to stop, to rest, to reflect. There’s a wonderful poem somewhere which tells me just that:

What is this life if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

No time to stand beneath the boughs

And stare as long as sheep or cows.

No time to see, when woods we pass,

Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.

No time to see, in broad daylight,

Streams full of stars, like skies at night.

No time to turn at Beauty's glance,

And watch her feet, how they can dance.

No time to wait till her mouth can

Enrich that smile her eyes began.

A poor life this if, full of care,

We have no time to stand and stare.

W.H. Davies, who wrote this poem, had an unconventional life. He is said to have begged his way across America, having left his native Wales, and to have lost his leg while jumping from a train.

A wise old friend once told me that I was suffering from ‘hardening of the oughteries’. Yes, this nagging feeling again. I see requests for volunteers (and the Church is not exempt from this!) and feel I should step into every need that comes to my attention. But, as another wise old friend said to me: ‘The need does not constitute the call’. It’s OK to say ‘No’. It’s OK to tell myself that that is not my job, that other people are available to  do it. And it’s OK to accept that God loves me just as I am, without my having to earn His love by rushing around doing everything for other people.

In our generation, upbringing has a lot to do with it. If we didn’t live through the Second World War, we have parents, perhaps even grandparents, who did. They had to work hard simply to make ends meet. While we have been blessed with a National Health Service (even though we’ve had to wait to get things done), a state pension at least, and a free bus pass. And aren’t we grateful! When I was a little girl I was regularly sent ten bob (now 50p) at Christmas by a kind second cousin. One year the obligatory (in our family at least) thank-you letter didn’t get written because of a communication failure (yes, they happened even in those days before internet and mobile phones). For several years after that the cousin withheld her gift. Eventually all was forgiven, without any words being said, and the gift was restored.

In fact last week has seen many answers to prayer. Much to give thanks for! We had a lovely walk last week round Nymans Gardens, followed by lunch with people with whom we have linked up in friendship (through zoom) during lockdown. We visited a vineyard in East Sussex and learned how vines can thrive  now in this country, given some training and know-how. We had the privilege of entertaining a student from Iran and enjoying his company. I enjoyed a most entertaining walk round Guildford, learning about the significant literary figures who graced the town with their presence. And things are opening up in other ways: Jim has already taken part in concerts, services and recordings. And he does love his singing.  And prayers for a couple of friends have been answered in big measure.

I have been reading a most amazing book recently: it’s The Far Pavilions by M.M. Kaye. OK, it’s 900 pages long, but during lockdown I could cope with that, and it did take me some time to read. Why? Because it became so intense and exciting that I couldn’t read it at bedtime, for fear that thinking about it would keep me awake, and I do need my sleep! I do recommend it as a good read, but it does come with a health warning, which is that many of the more tragic episodes are based on fact: I know because I checked on the Internet afterwards. The book is also available as a TV series on one of those subscription channels that most of us cannot be bothered to get, cannot afford to get, or don’t know how to get. So there I leave it. Read the book.

You know what (as my grandchildren would say), I’m feeling less flat now. So perhaps a good time to leave it there with the words of the Psalmist: ‘Taste and see that the Lord is good, blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him’.

Every blessing,

Shelagh

Shelagh Godwin

Primetime Member

Hello from Di at Prime Time

Dear Friends,

As Penny has told you she is having a well-earned break from sending you her weekly letter. We hope we can all live up to her high standards in the following weeks.

Like Penny I have been following a lot of the Olympics; I am full of admiration for the dedication the sportsmen and women put into the training for their sports. We sit in our comfy chairs cheering them on, hopefully to victory; do we think about the hard work going into achieving this ? Pushing themselves into going out on cold ,dark mornings day after day. A lot of them do this on top of holding down jobs to help finance their sport with no funding in place. How much sweeter are victories when you have gone through pain and hardships to attain them.

What I find amazing is the achievements of our sports people in our small island compared to the might and size of other countries. We are a very resilient nation as was proved during both World Wars. How much stronger are we when we have faith and God supporting us. I see a lot of the sports people kneeling to thank God after they have performed. Something else has happened recently in many sports and entertainments. A lot of youngsters have pulled out of competitions because of the mental pressures they are under. Whether it is due to media attention or abusive social communications, the strain of keeping up standards in their particular area of achievement has proved too much. Another pressure comes from the huge amounts of money that are paid to many of them. In our younger days when a lot of sports were played by amateurs, or for small financial rewards, it was for the fun of it. They didn't all have agents pushing for more money, and stayed loyal to their clubs.

I remember my sporting days at an all-girls school and we were fortunate to have our own sports field, netball courts and nearby tennis courts. We played hockey and I was put in goal, despite being

short and skinny in those days. I took one look at the ball coming towards me and just leapt in the air. I much preferred playing netball and tennis, much less intimidating than hockey sticks flying past you. Now in later years I have played bowls and been fortunate enough to have won Club competitions and seen my name on the winners board in the Clubhouse. I was always happier when playing with others rather than by myself. In life I think most of us are happier when being with others rather than alone. Like our Prime Time group over time you feel a sense of family and support in good and bad times.

Now a majority of the population has been doubly jabbed and life is slowly resuming, perhaps not to how life was before the pandemic, we can look forward to meeting face to face again. I hope the Quizzes and chats we had during lockdown helped some of you feel less isolated and raised your moods with some laughs, and perhaps you learnt something new.

I hope you can all enjoy the rest of the summer and look forward to meeting again in small groups to start with. How time flies these days it will soon be autumn again. My daughter Amy will be 40 next week and that makes me feel older, where have the years gone?

Looking forward to seeing you all soon.

Love and virtual hugs to you all.

Di

Di Drudge

Primetime Team Member

Summer news from PrimeTime

Dear Prime Time member,

Well, the school summer holidays have started and with a certain air of inevitability, the weather has taken a distinct turn for the worse…  I must admit that the intense heat of last week I did find a little much, but even when I was looking forward to things cooling down a bit; I wasn’t imagining that we’d fast forward into something that feels more like autumn!  I hope you’ve managed to avoid going out in the worst of the weather this week.  As the school holidays are now upon us, I’ve temporarily returned to being a full-time mum.  Just as well really as I seem to have spent a large part of this week trying to dry out wet kit!  Harry has spent the last fortnight undertaking the National Citizen Service scheme.  His NCS experience started when temperatures were hitting 30 degrees and it ended yesterday playing a charity football tournament in the pouring rain, with temperatures at least ten degrees cooler than when he started the programme!

When the rain really deluged on Wednesday afternoon, Harry was involved in a charity awareness-raising exercise outside the Spectrum Leisure Centre in Guildford.  Less than 20 minutes after the storm started I got an SOS asking if I could go and pick him up as the weather had forced them to stop activities for the day.  Not before he and everything he had taken with him had been well and truly soaked though.  His shoes had to be stuffed with newspaper and put in the airing cupboard to dry out and when I opened out the folding chair he had taken with him, there was a visible puddle sitting in the middle of the seat!  I’m not sure that the chair will ever be quite the same again…

Everything was just about dry in time for yesterday’s football tournament.  We knew what to expect in terms of the weather, so I was prepared that he would return home wet again yesterday (and muddy this time too) but very unfortunately, the team Harry was part of had been drawn to play in white.  You can imagine how I spent yesterday evening…!

When I haven’t been operating a home-based laundry this week, I have managed to watch some of the Olympic action.  It’s been a nice feeling waking up each day and hearing of Team GBs overnight successes on the news.  I’ve enjoyed watching some sports that I don’t normally take that much of an interest in; much to my surprise, I found myself quite enthralled by the surfing competition. (Not enough to make me want to try it out for myself though!)

The TV coverage of the Olympic Games has included some fascinating articles and interviews, but one in particular caught my interest; a feature about pole vaulter Mike Bull.  Born in 1946, Mike Bull competed for Team GB in the Summer Olympics of 1968 and 1972. Maybe you have a memory from that time of watching him compete?  Now aged 74, Mike has come out of retirement and has his sights set on competing once again in a Masters Pole Vault competition.  He credits last year’s Lock Down as his motivation for re-starting his involvement in the sport. As I watched the feature, it really resonated with me as it chimes with my focus as Prime Time Co-Ordinator; getting the message out there, not just to people of Prime Time age – but across all generations, that older age can be fulfilling and that one’s ability to contribute does not stop with retirement.

In the coverage of the Olympics, much is made of the potential for current competitors to inspire the younger generations who are watching at home; fuelling a passion in them to take sport seriously and in so doing bringing on the next generation of sports men and women.  Maybe a child might have seen the feature about Mike Bull and be inspired to try the Pole Vault as a result; but as I was watching this item, I realised that Mike’s continuing contribution is as an inspiring role model for the Prime Time generation.  Please don’t for an instant think that I am suggesting that you should go out and try Pole Vaulting -  I would not wish to have the inevitable injuries on my conscience!  However, what I found so inspirational was that Mike was returning to activity he assumed that due to advancing age was lost to him.  I wonder what hobbies or past times you might be prompted to pick up again? If you are feeling a little doubtful about this, your words of encouragement this week, once again come from St Paul the Apostle in his letter to the Philippians; ‘I can do all things through him who strengthens me’ (Philippians Chapter 4; Verse 13).  Sage advice for people of any age.  If you’d like to view the BBC feature that inspired the content of this week’s Prime Time email , you can see it by clicking on the following link:  https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-northern-ireland-58017671

As I’m on leave, I’ll be handing over the Prime Time weekly email to some guest contributors during the coming weeks.  I’m sure you’ll enjoy the greater variety of ideas than is possible when just one person is responsible for the content.  So my appreciation goes out in advance to Di, Shelagh and Olwen who have offered to take on the mantle while my brain has a few weeks off to recharge itself!

It is my prayer that we all have a happy and healthy summer and that those who wish to, are able to reconvene in person when Prime Time events re-start in September.

With every blessing,

Penny x

Penny Naylor

Primetime Befriending Co-ordinator

Hello from Prime Time!

Dear Prime Time member,

What a difference a week makes…!  Last weekend saw us diving for cover due to the unseasonably wet conditions and this weekend will see us diving for cover again, but for the entirely opposite reasons!  Forecasters are predicting that temperatures could climb as high as 31 degrees Celsius over the weekend and into early next week, (that’s 87.8 Fahrenheit in ‘old money’!)  Flood warnings have been replaced by ‘Heat Health warnings’ and which I make no apologies for repeating here as one of the identified high risks groups for developing heat-related health issues are individuals of Prime Time age.

I know you’re all adults who have lived through many more summers than I and so have much greater experience of keeping yourselves safe in extreme weather conditions, but just as a reminder – when we experience temperatures as high as the ones we are likely to have on Sunday and Monday the advice is:

• Keep your curtains closed to help keep your property cool

• Drink plenty of fluids, becoming dehydrated not only feels very unpleasant but can have serious implications for your health

• Stay out of the sun between 11am and 3pm when ultraviolet rays are strongest

It’s common sense really, but as I heard someone say on the radio just this week, “The trouble with relying on common sense is that it isn’t that common!”  Please look after yourselves and each other while we enjoy this mini-heatwave.  Be aware of how you’re feeling and if you start to feel unwell please seek assistance from a friend or relative or call your GP surgery or an ambulance if the feeling persists.

I think it would be fair to say that our weather has been very changeable and unpredictable this summer.  The plants in my garden are confused.  I was out watering the plants yesterday evening and discovered that we have a daffodil about to burst into bloom; it’s only about 5 months late (or 7 months too early!)

All things are meant to be (although I have yet to work out how a daffodil blooming in July fits with that particular expression!)  However, it could indeed be applied to the annual Garden Party that Prime Time usually enjoys at Prior’s Field School on the last Thursday in June.  Due to the pandemic, for the second year running this much anticipated event had to be cancelled.  This year however, as Thursday 24th June dawned murky, damp and with temperatures well below average for the time of year, I did note the date and count our blessings that we hadn’t arranged a Garden Party for that particular day!  Hopefully we will be able to resurrect this wonderful event in 2022 and bring it back better than ever I know the school are keen to renew their links with Prime Time once restrictions allow.

Prime Time has not slipped from the Prior’s Field staff and students’ minds and to make up in some way for the absence of joint events over the last year and to wish everyone ‘Happy Holidays’ the girls and staff have put together the attached selection of photos for you to enjoy, complete with a message from everyone at Prior’s Field to everyone at Prime Time.  Some of the faces will no doubt be familiar to you from past events, although you may well notice how much some of the girls have grown in the eighteen months since we last saw them!  The girls wanted to share with you some of the activities that they have been able to undertake during the past couple of terms.  For a number of the girls, Prime Time members are like ‘Honorary Grandparents’ and the photos are shared with you in this spirit, so please consider yourself in the role of ‘Honorary Grandparent’ as you look at the photos.

As well as renewing our connection with Prior’s Field School, your Prime Time Team have been making plans for the autumn term.  We will be hosting a series of tea parties here at the Old Rectory between September 7th and 17th when we will be inviting small numbers of members to join us for afternoon tea as a gentle reintroduction to us gathering together again in groups.  This format will also allow the team to sit down and chat with members to get a feel for how everyone has fared over the previous eighteen months and what you feel should be our priorities as we plan future Prime Time events.  We hope to do a Walk & Pub Lunch in October and re-launch our Saturday Movie Matinees in November.  After that, well it’s all downhill to Christmas and the staff team here met on 7th July to start planning our Christmas offerings and our annual Afternoon Carol Service was included in that planning process; (yes we really do start planning Christmas in July…!) The Prime Time programme for 2022 will be guided by the ideas and feedback members give us during our garden party sessions in September, so do look out for your invitations arriving in mid-August and get thinking about what you’d like to see Prime Time offering.  It is also looking hopeful that we may well be able to restart our regular Hearing Aid Clinic here in Busbridge during October.  If you have previously visited our clinic; then once the re-start has been confirmed, you will be sent a letter giving you the dates for the remainder of the year.

So exciting times for us here as we begin to plan for events and activities starting up again.  Even for us though, our planning is tempered with caution.  This coming Monday might be being billed in the press as ‘Freedom Day’ and yes, that is the day when all legal restrictions on our lives as a result of Covid are being lifted.  However, it is clear from the statistics that Covid-19 is still very much with us and it is right for us to be ever mindful of that as we look to the short-term future and make our plans.  Please be assured that as an organisation, we will not take any unnecessary risks.  We will continue our efforts to minimise the risk of the virus being transmitted between people while attending services or events that we organise and certainly with regard to Prime Time; if local incidence of the virus were to become very prevalent – we would consider cancelling an event or moving it online if that were possible, in order to keep people safe.  We will also continue to offer services online for those who prefer to stay at home or who are having to because they have been instructed to isolate.  Please don’t feel that you have to join us in person; it’s important that you do what feels right for you.  If you would like to have more Prime Time events and activities available to you online, then please do say and we will do what we can to make this happen.

As a church, our Leadership Team of the two Reverend Simons along with our Churchwardens  would like to check what people think and feel about easing precautions at Busbridge & Hambledon church, particularly at this stage with regard to Sunday services. They have prepared a short online survey entitle ‘Do You Want to Sing?’  which can be accessed on the following link: https://bhcgodalming.surveysparrow.com/s/Do-you-want-to-sing/tt-0b4b6b? If you were coming to services prior to the pandemic, whether or not you have already started to attend services in person again, please do consider filling in this survey form which will help us to ensure we are meeting as many people’s needs as possible.  If you would prefer to fill out this form on paper, please do let me know and I will post one out to you.  Please be assured that I will be posting out paper forms to those Prime Timers not on email, that is in my diary for early next week!

At the start of the pandemic, there was an apparent groundswell of support for those in out networks, be they neighbourhood ones, work-based ones or friendship groups.  We learnt to be more patient and considerate to one another’s needs and how they were feeling.  More than ever at the moment, there is a need for a continuation of this compassion and understanding.  While it maybe great that as a nation we are moving forwards and that the remaining restrictions are being lifted, but in many ways it is easier being told what to do and to live within the rules (even if we may not like them!)  Working out as an individual how each of us wants to proceed is fraught with potential pitfalls and anxieties.  What is right for one person may not be right for another and no-one should feel pressurised to take a course of action that they do not feel comfortable with.  Do reach out to friends and family and talk through any concerns you may have with people you trust.  You may find that they share similar worries and you can work your feelings through together.  And it goes without saying that you can always approach me in confidence or ask to speak to a member of our church team if you prefer to speak to someone independent of family or friendship ties.

When I was approaching a difficult situation recently, one of my colleagues reassured me that ‘God knows all about it you know…’  In amongst our worries, concerns and hum drum of daily life it’s easy to forget that there He is in the middle of it all with us.  My prayer for all Prime Time members this week is that those seven words are of support and encouragement to you in the week ahead.

Enjoy the sun – but don’t overdo it!

With every blessing,

Penny x

Hello from Prime Time!

Dear Prime Time member,

Hmm – what a change in the weather.  I’m rather regretting having introduced the topic of ‘Flaming June’ in last week’s letter as the orange hues of Frederic Leighton’s painting have been replaced by the grey and damp of a stereotypical British summer.  On the plus side though, I won’t be needing to water the plants for the next few days – every cloud has a silver lining…!  And the rain will do our gardens, parks and other outdoor spaces a lot of good by helping to keep the verdant green shades and prevent plants and trees from prematurely turning brown. Having said that though, I for one am hoping that the sunshine, once rested after its endeavours earlier this week – returns soon.

The glorious weather we enjoyed over last weekend was not just a blessing to us, but of course showed off the natural beauty of St Ives to perfection as that little Cornish town had the world’s media spotlight shone on it as it hosted the summit of G7 leaders.  I love seeing places that I’ve visited feature on TV.  I like the experience of thinking ‘I recognise that place; I’ve walked there!’ or ‘I remember that shop!’  The news coverage of last weekend’s summit brought back many happy memories of summer holidays spent in Cornwall.  I’m assuming that St Ives marauding seagulls were somehow kept at bay for the duration of the G7 summit.  I didn’t hear any stories of Boris Johnson or Joe Biden having had had their lunch stolen out of their hand by a seagull as was my experience as I sat on St Ives beach a few years ago!  The seagulls of St Ives have actually become such a nuisance, that there are now official street signs placed at regular intervals all around the harbour advising people to sit with their back up against a wall if they are eating so that seagulls cannot swoop at you from behind and steal your food.  Pity I hadn’t noticed the signs before I started eating my lunch…!

As I watched the news coverage of last weekend’s summit as well as reminiscing about happy holidays past and with the reports very much focusing in on Joe Biden’s first trip to the UK as US President, I found myself viewing the media reports with something of a professional eye.  Why?  Joe Biden’s age.  At 78, Joe Biden is Prime Time age.  Whilst at the summit, the President of the United States was introduced to another very well-known face representing the Prime Time generation; Her Majesty the Queen.  Joe Biden is the oldest person ever to assume the office of President of the United States and at 95 years of age, Queen Elizabeth II is the longest lived British sovereign.  Why I am telling you this?  To encourage.

After church last Sunday morning, we hosted a welcome event for people new to the church.  All of the team here were asked to introduce ourselves and as briefly as possible explain a little as to what we do.  Obviously I mentioned Prime Time as well as the Hearing Aid Clinics and our Befriending Scheme.  I also talked about all of our shared activities with local schools but I ended by saying that a lot of my role is about encouragement.  I am in the privileged position of being able to go to events like these and stand there and say that society has created quite a negative view of older age which can lead to a situation where we do not tend to celebrate this stage of people’s lives.  As a church we recognise that and are doing what we can to encourage self-belief and self-esteem in individuals as they journey through this stage of life and in so doing, hopefully fostering a sense of self-value within people as they age.  By getting this message out there, not only to the Prime Time generation, but importantly to the wider community – it is our hope that locally at least, much greater value will be placed on people living through older age. This is why we give such priority to our intergenerational work.  Today’s young people are the leaders of tomorrow and we hope that by introducing the concept of value in older age to these young people, as they grow up and take their place in society, they will not only value older people but value the contributions people of older age are still able to make to their families and communities.

Last month at the age of 81, Sir Tom Jones topped the UK album chart with his latest album and of course we will all remember last year’s fantastic achievement by Captain Sir Tom Moore who a few days before his 100th birthday claimed the No. 1 spot in the UK Singles Chart with his rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone.  In so doing, he became the oldest ever artist to hold the UK No. 1 spot.  Now I’m not suggesting that Prime Time members need to try their hands at becoming recording artists or running for high political office (unless you want to that is…!)  But I would encourage everyone as they age to not see age in itself as a barrier to achieving; or if not achieving, to just ‘doing’ or ‘participating’.  Be warned, if you’re chatting to me and I hear ‘I can’t do that at my age!’, you’re likely to receive the response ‘Why not?!’ If there is something you would like to do, but feel that age is preventing you either physically or because you just feel the activity is not open to you on the grounds of age – please do feel you can talk to me about it.  I may not be able to help make those aspirations happen, but I’ll give it my all in trying to help you get there; whether ‘there’ is learning a new skill, volunteering or making new friends and socialising (or anything else that is on your ‘bucket list’ but you have previously thought you couldn’t openly say because you felt it might not be appropriate for your age).  As well as running groups and activities to enable older adults to stay connected, I’m here to help challenge and break down barriers – be they real or perceived and to encourage a change of attitude toward ageing.  Life doesn’t stop at retirement, 70 or even 80.  There’s a lot of life to be lived in older age; and if you’ll let me, I’d like to help you find it.

‘They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green’  (Psalm 92, Verse 14)

The Queen is a fantastic role model of someone ‘still bearing fruit in old age’.  Next year will be the 70th anniversary of her accession to the throne – her Platinum Jubilee.  We are in the early stages of planning some Prime Time Jubilee celebrations, some of which at least we hope to be able to share with the children at local schools; in a similar way to the World War II event we were able to enjoy together a few years ago.  Once we have plans firmly in place and dates we will let you know.  I realise that the Jubilee celebrations are many months ahead, but I wanted to let you know that we are thinking of the future, past Covid and our current socially-distanced existence.  There will be events before next year’s Jubilee I assure you, but we wanted to let you know that we are working behind the scenes and making plans for the future.  We will be back, but when we are we want to make sure we get it right, do it well and keeping everybody as safe as possible.  Above all we want to ensure that Prime Time is meeting your needs.  Over the next few weeks you will be receiving an invitation to come along to the Old Rectory and in a small group spend time chatting with me and other members of the team which will give us an opportunity to get a feel of where all our members are at both individually and collectively; so that future events and activities that we plan are more likely to hit the spot and be what is needed.

I quite often get asked where I find my inspiration for the content of the weekly emails.  The answer is that I keep my eyes open; in the media, online and even when reading advertisements, for content that might be relevant to the Prime Time generation.  This week’s inspiration came from a page on the BBC website entitled ‘13 proverbs and quotes to help you in times of need’.  No. 12 on the list was a quote from Ancient Greek Philosopher Plato.  ‘He who is of calm and happy nature will hardly feel the pressure of age’.  I cannot guarantee a life of constant calm and happiness.  Being a Christian does not protect you from the bumps in the road along life’s journey; sometimes they feel more like rather big pot-holes if we’re being honest…  But what being part of a church community such as Prime Time does give you is upgraded suspension which helps keep going on along that road and knowing that you are not journeying on your own. 

A glance out of the window confirms to me that it is still raining.  I’ve just looked on the calendar; apparently today is International Picnic Day.  Oh dear, soggy sandwiches again…  (But maybe picnicking in the rain is the solution to having ones sandwiches stolen by seagulls…!)

Wishing you a dry and happy week ahead.

With every blessing,

Penny x

Penny Naylor
Seniors’ Ministry Lead

Hello from Prime Time!

Dear Prime Time member,

The sun may be shining but it’s not exactly warm is it?  I’ve just been chatting with my colleague Liz, who reminded me that this time last year we were enjoying something of a heatwave. So would I prefer to be in the warmth and sunshine of spring 2020 but with the prospect of a further twelve months of the pandemic dominating our lives, or would I rather be where we are now; somewhat cooler (and damper!) but with a real sense of optimism that we may now be permanently emerging from the shadow of Covid?  I think I’ll take the latter; unsettled weather and all…

By May, I am usually adapting the menu in the Naylor household; switching warming comfort food for lighter salads more appropriate for the late spring weather.  However, at the moment I am still reaching for the casserole recipes and dessert is more likely to be rice pudding than fresh fruit salad!

A bowl of rice pudding is one of those memorable childhood staples; a once a week treat, eagerly anticipated.  As a child, my topping of choice was a dollop of jam, preferably red in colour, the flavour being less important.  As my tastes have matured, however, I would now reach for the tin of Golden Syrup rather than the jar of jam.

Lyle’s Golden Syrup is a store cupboard staple.  Those green and golden tins are so familiar to us and indeed this iconic product holds the Guinness World Record for the World’s Oldest Unchanged Brand Packaging. We would probably say that we are all familiar with what a tin of Lyle’s Golden Syrup looks like; “It’s green and gold with a lion on the front isn’t it?”  Well, yes – but how closely have you actually looked at that lion?  I was reading a recent article in the Waitrose Food magazine and I was surprised to learn that the lion on the front of the Lyle’s Golden Syrup can is actually a dead lion and it’s swarming with bees!  Furthermore, a tin of Lyle’s Golden Syrup bears a biblical reference; who’d have thought it?!  I’m probably by now speaking to myself as I’m sensing that it’s likely you’ve stopped reading and are heading to the kitchen cupboard to hunt out the tin of Golden Syrup that’s lurking there, just to see what on earth I’m talking about!

Below the image of the lion on the front of the tin is the wording: ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’ which is a reference to Samson’s riddle which comes from the Book of Judges: Chapter 14, verse 14.

The Israelite Samson (he of the strength-giving hair, later betrayed by Delilah) on his wedding day sets a riddle to a group of Philistine men, with the aim of getting one over on his long-standing enemies.  If the men could solve the riddle, Samson would reward them handsomely; but if they failed to work out the riddle’s meaning – the men would have to reward Samson to the same degree.  As the riddle was based on a personal experience of Samson’s and of which he had told no-one, the riddle should have been impossible for the men to solve.

Shortly before his marriage, while walking along the road, Samson had been attacked by a lion.  Using the strength gifted to him by the Lord, Samson was able to overcome the lion with his bare hands and killed it, leaving the carcass beside the road.  The next time Samson journeyed along that stretch of road, he noticed that a colony of bees had made its home in the carcass and that they were producing honey.  It was this incident that Samson used as the basis for his riddle: 

‘Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong something sweet’.

I’m not going to provide a spoiler by saying how the story ends, but if you would like to top up your knowledge of Samson beyond that of his ill-fated alliance with Delilah, then Chapter 14 of Judges is a short and easy read.

Abram Lyle was a deeply religious man. In the article I read he was described as ‘a man so pious he once said he’d rather his son be dead than drunk’.  Why Golden Syrup cans bear the reference to Samson’s riddle is unclear.  There have been suggestions that ‘Out of the strong came forth sweetness’ is a reference to the strength of Lyle’s business, while others have said it is a reference to the strong container in which the product is sold. Alternatively, maybe this was a favourite Bible verse of Abram Lyle; we are perhaps destined to never know…

What is certain though is that the existence of Lyle’s Golden Syrup is a happy accident.  Golden Syrup is actually a by-product of the sugar-cane refining process, which in the 1880s was Lyle’s sugar-cane refinery’s primary business.  ‘Goldie’ as it was originally known was first sold in 1881, mainly to the employees of the sugar-cane refinery where it was served up to the workers out of wooden casks.  The iconic tin came two years later in 1883 when Lyle expanded the business and began selling his Golden Syrup to local grocers, and the rest is (very successful) history…

Who would have thought that something so familiar to us as a can of Golden Syrup could be so interesting? Facts like this fascinate me and I seem to have a bank of such trivia stored up in my head to wheel out when needed!  I’m definitely of the opinion that ‘one is never too old to learn’.  I look forward to the Prime Time quizzes because invariably I come away with a few extra tit-bits of knowledge that I didn’t have before.  I know that I am not alone in this knowledge-gathering habit as we have a loyal group of members who regularly tune in to the virtual quizzes that Di has been preparing for us throughout the last year.

By popular request there is another Quiz date for your diaries; a little over two weeks away.  We will be back on Zoom on Tuesday 25th May for the next session of the popular Prime Time Quiz.  Proceedings will start at 2.30pm.  If you haven’t joined one of our quizzes before, please do give it a try – we would love to have you with us.  We have four ten-question rounds; the theme of which at the last quiz were Royalty, Science, Colours and Food.  The main focus is on having fun and enjoying the time spent with friends, so there is as much laughter as there is head-scratching!  Joining details will be included in the weekly email on the Friday before the event. 

One last notice before I end off and leave you to go and dig out your tin of Golden Syrup (if you haven’t done so already!)  Last week, the funeral took place of Prime Time member Doris Borthwick.  Doris’ funeral service was Live Streamed at the time for the benefit of those who were unable to attend the service in person.  Doris’ daughter has given her permission for the recording of the service to remain available for people to watch and draw comfort from if they were unable to watch the live broadcast.  If you would like to view Doris’ funeral service, it is available on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCWua9wgZGOSAIOK8xTj1FPg

We also send our love to the family and friends of Prime Time member Nora Kennea whose funeral service was held at Busbridge Church on Tuesday this week.  Our thoughts and prayers are particularly with Nora’s husband Trevor, who is also a long standing member of Busbridge Church and himself a member of Prime Time.

Hopefully by the time I write next week, the temperature will have risen by a few degrees again and it will feel as though spring has returned.  In the meantime, stay warm by tucking into rice pudding with Golden Syrup!  (Hopefully Waitrose won’t now sell out!)

Until next Friday,

Penny x

Penny Naylor
Seniors’ Ministry Lead

Hello from Prime Time after a momentous week!

Dear Prime Time member,

Hasn’t it been a momentous week? The news about the Duke of Edinburgh which, although shouldn’t have been entirely unexpected, still came as a shock. Listening to his life story, I myself had not realised how much he had sacrificed in the early years of his marriage; normally expecting twenty years of so having a ‘normal ‘ life and career, but instead taking on very quickly the full-time roll of Queen’s consort. I learned a lot about him that I had not known or had known but forgotten!   I expect this may bring back memories for you too, some poignant some peaceful, of loved ones lost; either recently or in times past. It’s times like these we really miss hugs from families and friends. I pray that God’s love will sustain you all.

Di’s letter last week was suggesting we remember things in our past, invoked through sights, sounds and smells. I suppose my favourite would be the smell of new mown grass, reminding me of caravan holidays in the Lake District. But my very earliest memory is of sitting in a tin bath in front of the fire. Did you have one of those? Then we progressed to a weekly bath in an upstairs bathroom, but only one filling of water for all of us. I was third in line! And yes, old newspapers came in handy...... well, we did come from Yorkshire. The latest loo roll shortage didn’t faze me a bit.

Di and I have obviously got a lot in common. I also got married in 1969 and watched the moon landing actually on our honey ‘moon’  on the hotel television.  I also made my blue bridesmaids dresses on an old treadle machine in the basement of the YWCA I lived in at the time; and ironed them with one of those flat irons that you only see now in the servant’s quarters of National Trust houses.

Now, can anyone visualise Di as a cowgirl? Well, that gave me a chuckle. The nearest  memory I can get to that is having a crush on Hopalong Cassidy, a goody two shoes cowboy on TV in about the fifties. Does anyone remember him? I saved for ages to buy his  annual. Can anyone remember the name of his horse?  Mind you, he did have a very deep sexy voice. (Hopalong, not the horse).

I asked husband for his earliest recollection, and found out he doesn’t  even remember getting married (which I can assure him we did!)

It’s been lovely going down Memory Lane but I just wish my short term memory was as good!  All those jokes about going upstairs and forgetting what you had gone up for are no longer funny!

Lockdown is gradually starting to ease, the weather is warming up and we must find the courage to emerge and start living again. I must admit I haven’t found Penny’s seven daisies yet,  although I have seen seven snowflakes, and lots of bright cheerful daffodils. Zoom has been invaluable, but I can’t wait  to start meeting you all again. I hope you feel the same.

Keep going. We are nearly there!

With love and many blessings,

Olwen x

Olwen Downhill

Primetime Team Member

Happy Easter from Prime Time

Dear Prime Time member,

Well here we are already on the second day of the Easter Bank Holiday weekend.  Although the past three months may at times have felt dull and dreary while we’ve been confined to barracks due to the most recent Lock Down; I know I’m not alone in thinking that, in many ways, the time seems actually to have passed quite quickly.  I’m not sure that it feels as though more than three months have passed since we celebrated Christmas.  Even though the Christmas festivities were more muted than usual last year, the occasion definitely was marked; but in my mind it doesn’t feel as though more than a quarter of a year has passed since we were singing carols and opening presents.  But the calendar assures me that this is so.  We passed the Spring Equinox on March 20th which heralds the astrological first day of Spring and last weekend the clocks went forward signalling the start of British Summer Time.  And although according to the weather forecast, temperatures are set to plummet in the next couple of days which will have the effect of making it feel as though we are still in the depths of winter; this last week we’ve had a few days when the mercury rose higher than it sometimes does in the height of summer!

According to an article I read this week however, there is yet another measure by which we can declare spring has (or hasn’t!) arrived; because according to ancient lore, spring has only arrived when you can fit seven daisy flowers under your foot.  A quick scan of our lawn at home shows it to be completely devoid of daisy flowers; there isn’t one let alone seven in a space small enough to be covered by my foot print!  So from that, are we to surmise that spring hasn’t yet arrived in this part of south-east England?!?

The easing of Lock Down restrictions and the hope brought by the vaccine roll-out feel something akin to spring at the end of a long, hard winter brought about by the pandemic.  As we look to the future with renewed hope that the worst of the pandemic may at last be behind us, I am reminded of a verse from the Song of Solomon; Chapter 2, Verses 11-12; 

‘For behold, the winter is past; the rain is over and gone. The flowers appear on the earth, the time of singing has come… 

And as a church family, we will be actively singing tomorrow for the first time in  more than a year as we gather together (outside) for our Easter Day services.  Both services are now fully booked to attend in person, but please do join us online via our YouTube channel.  The links to the services are easy to find on the Homepage of our website: www.bhcgodalming.org  The service from Hambledon starts at 9am, while the one at Busbridge is a little later – 10.15am.  Both can be watched live, or viewed later in their recorded form.

Our Rector Simon writes: ‘We’re waiting for the end to restrictions, distance relationships and lack of community and the end of this phase of the amazing vaccine effort but as a Christian I know that there is another ending. It is the ending longed for in Scripture across generations and it is the defeat of the darkness of evil. The ending which arrives at Easter is the resurrection of Jesus… There is hope for tomorrow and in it I invite you to remember that yours is a precious God given life. Easter means the waiting is over and we have a new life to live which takes us to the end of time’.

Easter and Spring are full of symbolism pointing to ‘new beginnings’ and ‘new life’, none more so than the tradition of the chocolate eggs which are now synonymous with Easter.  This Easter it has not been possible for BHC to host its annual Easter Egg Hunt in the gardens of the Old Rectory.  However, so as not to leave the younger members of our community disappointed for the second year running, my colleagues in the Children, Youth and Families Team have devised Easter Egg Treasure Hunts in both Busbridge and Hambledon which can be completed at any time in the next two weeks.  So if you have grandchildren visiting during the Easter holidays for their permitted ‘garden visits’ or you have neighbours with young children, do tell them about the BHC Easter Egg Treasure Hunts.  Treasure Hunt flyers can be picked up from the porches at both churches and further details can be found on our website: https://www.bhcgodalming.org/cyf-easter-egg-hunt where you will also find a promotional video which fully explains how this Egg Hunt works.  Even if you don’t know any young children, it’s worth watching the video for sheer entertainment value and to marvel at the ingenuity of my colleagues!  (You will also be introduced to Sheepy who has become something of a local internet sensation over the past year with the very youngest members of our church family).

I’ll be taking a bit of a break for the next two weeks as it is the school holidays; but fear not – your weekly Prime Time email will still be arriving regularly in your inbox courtesy of the lovely volunteers on the Prime Time Team.  On my return from leave, I will begin compiling the Prime Time Lock Down Year Book, so if you have any further contributions, please do get them to me either via email or post over the next couple of weeks.  My final suggestion for things that could be included in the Year Book are personal reflections from the past year.  What has the last year meant to you?  Has it been frustration after frustration or have there been some positives to come out of the experience as well?  What have you learnt about yourself or the world?  What have you discovered you’re capable of?  If a future generation was to face a worldwide pandemic, what advice would you give to them?  In your opinion what lessons need to be learned?  A copy of our Year Book will be stored in the church archive.  What words about the pandemic of 2020 would you like to speak out of the pages of our Lock Down Year Book?  This is your opportunity to have your voice recorded for posterity – so please don’t hold back.  I look forward to reading what you come up with.

It just remains for me to wish you a peaceful and peace-filled Easter and the extra joy that the easing of some of the Lock Down restrictions may bring.

Until  next time,

Penny x

Bible Reading Fellowship Lockdown stories: business as (un)usual for Prime Timers

Here’s an article Penny contributed to BRF online about her experience and thoughts of leading the Busbridge&Hambledon Seniors Ministry during the past year:

https://www.brfonline.org.uk/blogs/collections/lockdown-stories-business-as-un-usual?utm_source=BRF+E-News&utm_campaign=3174fc4e15-BRF_LF_SALES_22March2021&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_01f315e404-3174fc4e15-314796001&mc_cid=3174fc4e15&mc_eid=b477fb777b

Prime Time News

Dear Prime Time member,

I’ve called this email ‘Prime Time News’ just because there seems to be so much information to impart this week!  So I think it best if I don’t say much else for now, so that you can focus on the important stuff!

This coming Tuesday, March 23rd sees the latest in our regular series of Lock Down Quiz events.  Zoom in for a 2.30 start. Prime Time Team member Di Drudge will once again be our quiz master for afternoon, putting our little grey cells to the test in the way that only Di can, (usually with quite hilarious results!)  Join us for an afternoon of fun; yes, it is a quiz - but we are careful never to take it too seriously and there will be plenty of laughter and chat along the way.  New for this time – Di will offer participants a choice of topics on which to answer questions, so do come along and help influence what questions are posed.  We plan to ‘level the playing field’ on this occasion too, so any households competing as a team of more than 1 will find that a small handicap is applied!

If you’re tempted by the thought of joining in, but are worried that your general knowledge might let you down, here are a few example questions from recent Prime Time quizzes (You’ll find the answers at the end of the email!)

1.       The Titanic sank on 12th April of which year?

2.       What is the capital of Portugal?

3.       Which poet composed ‘To Autumn’, the 1819 poem which begins ‘Season of mists and mellow fruitfulness’?

4.       In which English town was ‘Fawlty Towers’ set?

5.       Which ruler referred to the England as ‘A nation of shopkeepers’?

Hopefully you’re now thinking, “Yes, I can do this!” so here are the all-important joining instructions:

To join the quiz via your browser:  https://zoom.us/j/9463914833

or type 946-391-4833 into the Zoom ‘join a Meeting’ window.

In both cases enter the password 2021 when asked.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will have spotted that this is exactly the same link as for the Thursday afternoon ‘Catch Up & Chat’ sessions. This is because both events take place in the BHC Public Zoom Room.  So keep hold of this link once the quiz is over on Tuesday and join us again on Thursday afternoon anytime between 3.30 and 4pm for a chance to chat with your Prime Time team and other members.  We had 12 people join us on Zoom yesterday afternoon which is our biggest turn-out to date.  We had a very wide ranging discussion, from  jigsaws and books to travelling in Iceland.  Do put next Thursday afternoon in your diaries too and let’s see if we can achieve another record attendance!

Another topic of conversation during the ‘Catch Up & Chat’ session yesterday afternoon was the 2021 Census.  Sunday March 21st is Census Day this year, which is only 2 days away now.  Hopefully you have received a leaflet through your door explaining the process?  If you haven’t dealt with it already, it’s time to dig that leaflet out again and follow the instructions.  You don’t have to wait for Sunday in order to complete the Census form online; it can be done now if you are eager to get it ticked off your ‘to do’ list.  I know we’re approaching Easter, but the Census always reminds me of Christmas.   Thanks to school Nativity plays, children tend to get introduced to the concept of a Census at a very young age.  And we continue to be reminded of that story every Christmas too, as Mary and Joseph’s journey to Bethlehem and the reason for it, is the point in the story at which we tend to start our Bible readings at the Prime Time Carol Service each year.

‘In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered. This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria. And all went to be registered, each to his own town. And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David, to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child’.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                           (Luke: 2, 1-5)

The Roman Census was key to the fulfilment of the prophecies which foretold the birth of a Saviour as it was this event that led Mary and Joseph, Jesus’ earthly parents to be in Bethlehem at the time of his birth, just as it was foretold in Micah: Chapter 5, verse 2.

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah, though you are small among the clans of Judah, out of you will come for me one who will be ruler over Israel, whose origins are from of old, from ancient times.”

So as you complete your Census form on Sunday, maybe consider the importance of that Roman Census and how it influenced the bigger story playing out at the time; a story that had been foretold many centuries previously and which remains relevant in our lives today, especially during this season of Lent.

Looking ahead to Easter, which happily coincides with a further, (albeit small) lifting of some of the current Lock Down restrictions - there will continue to be online Sunday services, but in addition to what is online – for those that wish, on Easter Sunday we are inviting congregations back to worship in person at both Busbridge and Hambledon churches.  The services will be held outdoors at both locations, as this enables more people to attend.  Numbers will be limited to 100 at both sites, so there is a requirement to sign up ahead of the event.  Please visit our website: www.bhcgodalming.org for details as to how to do this.  The congregations will be safely distanced; face coverings are required and congregation singing is not permitted, but there will be hymns and music.

The pastoral team will be offering Home Communion to those who can’t make it to the services on Easter Sunday.  This will be done outside, in front gardens. If you would like a member of the pastoral team to visit and share communion with you or someone else, please email Jill Johnston on: pastoral@bhcgodalming.org

In further news from in and around the church, I am sad to report that our friend and fellow Prime Time member Doris Borthwick died on Sunday evening.  Until ill health prevented Doris from attending our events, Doris was a very regular face at Prime Time events where her smile and warm welcome for everybody lit up the room.  We send our love and prayers to Doris’ family and her many friends as we do for the family and friends of Barbara Hubble who died last month.  Barbara and her son Julian have been Prime Time members for a number of years; indeed, they have been associated with Prime Time for longer than I have!  Julian would welcome any of Barbara’s Prime Time friends to join the service of thanksgiving for her life which is taking place at Clandon Wood on Thursday next week (March 25th) starting at midday.  Due to the current restrictions on numbers, we will be joining the service virtually via the Clandon Wood livestream.  If anyone would like the details of how to access the service for Barbara online, then please do get into contact with me and I will share them with you.

And finally, before I end off for this week – the request for items for the Prime Time Lock Down Yearbook has reached its third week.  I revealed this week’s subject at yesterday’s ‘Catch Up & Chat’ session and I must say it generated a lot of interest, so I’m anticipating a flurry of activity in my inbox this week!  What I’m asking for this week are reflections on the TV programmes that you’ve been watching during Lock Down.  What are the TV programmes that have helped to get you through the last 12 months?  For me it was ‘The Great British Sewing Bee’ during Lock Down number 1, ‘Strictly Come Dancing’ during the second Lock Down and most recently, ‘The Great British Dig’  has helped get me through the last few weeks during Lock Down #3.  Does anyone else share the same viewing tastes as me?  Quite possibly not, so do tell me what you’ve been watching over the past year.  You could just send me a couple of lines containing the titles of the programmes, or you can go into detail about the programmes and send me a bit more than two lines.  I really don’t mind, but it would be great to see if we can spot some trends.

Television isn’t everyone’s thing; so instead, perhaps there’s a book that you’ve read during Lock Down that you’d like to recommend to other Prime Time members?  I’d be delighted to receive a few book reviews, (long or short) that we can include in our memories of this last year.

So lots to think about this next week:

1.       Sunday March 21st – Census day

2.       Tuesday March 23rd – Prime Time Quiz on Zoom starting at 2.30pm

3.       Thursday March 25th – Barbara Hubble’s funeral (online) starting at midday

4.       Thursday March 25th – Prime Time ‘Catch Up & Chat’ session on Zoom starting at 3.30pm

5.       Any day - Send Penny TV and Book reviews for inclusion into the Year Book.

May God continue to watch over and protect you and those whom you love over the coming week.

Until next Friday,

Penny x

PS: The answers to the quiz questions are as follows:

1.       1912

2.       Lisbon

3.       John Keats

4.       Torquay

5.       Napoleon Bonaparte

Penny Naylor
Primetime Befriending Co-ordinator

Busbridge & Hambledon Church Office

Phone: 01483 421267

Website: www.bhcgodalming.org

(Day off Monday)

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Prime Time Calling...!

Dear Prime Time member,

On Thursday afternoon I was joined on Zoom by a small group of Prime Time members who popped into the BHC Zoom Room to chat and share their week’s news.  I’m really enjoying these ‘Catch Up & Chat’ sessions. The chat flows very naturally and even though we’re all on screens, you can still discern a sense of friendship, camaraderie and community.

‘Community’ has taken on a greater significance over the past twelve months.  As the nation first went into Lock Down, communities were talked of as ‘pulling together’ and much was made of ‘community spirit’.  We certainly witnessed this is both Busbridge and Hambledon; as by the end of the first week of restrictions, a small army of volunteers had stepped up – prepared to help with shopping, collecting prescriptions, posting letters and making phone calls to people who needed support.

It was evident from the news reports at the time, that the community mobilisation we were witnessing in Busbridge and Hambledon was being replicated across the length and breadth of the country.  I like to think that this will be a lasting, positive legacy of the pandemic.  Looking out for each other, being aware of neighbours who might need an extra bit of support – even in some cases  just being aware of who your neighbours actually are; all are simple things to achieve but yet will help foster that sense of ‘community spirit’ that collectively the British public went on record to acknowledge had been lost in many places prior to the pandemic.

The dictionary definition of ‘community’ is given as; ‘the people living in one particular area or people who are considered as a unit because of their common interests, social group, or nationality’.  I’m sure we’d all agree on that, but as a definition it’s very sterile.  However, if you add the word ‘spirit’ after ‘community’ it hints at something different. If a neighbourhood is described as having ‘a real sense of community’, the same dictionary defines the neighbourhood as having  a ‘caring and friendly feeling’; therefore, what we might identify as this elusive ‘community spirit’.

It is this ‘caring and friendly feeling’ that I pick up at our ‘Catch Up and Chat’ sessions.  Prime Time is not a community because it is not a defined geographical location.  Prime Time members do not all live in Busbridge and Hambledon; we have a couple who live over the border in Hampshire and a few who reside in the opposite direction within the Borough of Guildford.  But Prime Time can be called a community because it’s members all belong to the same social group; every Prime Timer is of retirement age or over.

There are occasions, however, when the term ‘community’ is used interchangeably with ‘family’. Within the church you may hear the term ‘church community’ used to collectively describe the members of the church.  You might equally hear the term ‘church family’ used to describe the exact same group of people.  It does not mean that all members are blood relations, but rather it describes the close relationships that are forged through areas of commonality. Applying the term ‘family’ to a church also reflects the generational make-up because as with our own families, the church family is comprised of many generations and its members are of varying ages.

‘A father to the fatherless, a defender of widows, is God in his holy dwelling. God sets the lonely in families’. (Psalm 68, Verses 5-6)

Prime Time is a community, but it is also very much a family.  It matters not how you came to be part of our ‘family’, what matters is that you are one of our number.  We share life’s ups and downs together, celebrating the ‘ups’ and offering a reassuring hand to grip onto during the ‘downs’.

Like all families we share memories; some will be collective memories of activities we have done together while others will be individual memories, but sharing a context of time or place with other family members.  Some may wish to preserve these memories somehow in case the memory fades, while others may seek to record the memories for future generations to find and therefore understand a little more about their heritage.

‘Children's children are a crown to the aged, and parents are the pride of their children’  (Proverbs Chapter 17, Verse 6)

Prime Time is currently involved in a project to preserve our memories of Lock Down; a kind of scrapbook in which we can stick items that we associate with this very strange period of our lives.  It will be a diary of the year we’ve just lived through but also a reminder of some of the things that have helped get us through.  Thank you to everyone who submitted your Lock Down recipes last week, if it was something you meant to do but never got around to, there’s still time; so please don’t feel that you’ve missed the boat on this one.  This boat won’t set sail for a few weeks yet!

Today I’m asking for photographs please.  Every scrapbook needs some illustrations, so I’d love to add in to our scrapbook any photos that you have taken during Lock Down.  Maybe you were particularly proud of your garden last year and not being able to have friends and family round to see it in person, you took photos of your prized specimens to send to them instead?  Maybe you snapped some wildlife visiting your garden or you took some images of the snow that blanketed the area for a few days in January?  Or perhaps you joined in some of the BHC Covid-safe Christmas activities such as the Advent Walk or the Christmas Eve Drive-In and took your camera along with you? I would love to see your photos and include them in the book, so please do send them through.  You can either email me the digital image or I can take copies of printed photos and then return the originals to you.  Photos can be posted to me at the Old Rectory, Old Rectory Gardens, Godalming. GU7 1JT

Don’t forget that the contents of our Scrapbook are always part of the discussion at our ‘Catch Up & Chat’ sessions on a Thursday afternoon.  It’s amazing what we can cover in half an hour.  Yesterday our conversation ranged from the apparent national shortage of cat food pouches to my need for a haircut, and everything in between!

You’ll find me in the BHC Public Zoom room between 3.30 and 4pm every Thursday afternoon between now and Easter – do come and keep me company!

To join the meeting via your browser:  https://zoom.us/j/9463914833

or type 946-391-4833 into the Zoom ‘join a Meeting’ window.

In both cases enter the password 2021 when asked.

Remember to look out your Lock Down photos this week, (and send them to me!)

Until next Friday,

Penny x

Penny Naylor

Primetime Befriending Co-ordinator

Prime Time celebrates British Pie week

Dear Prime Time member,

Although we’ve probably all been stuck at home for most of this week due to the current Lock Down; none-the-less, according to my diary it’s been a very busy week. Monday was the 1st March and therefore St David’s Day, Wednesday was ‘World Maths Day’, while on Thursday you could have double the fun as it was both ‘World Book Day’ and ‘World Wildlife Day’ and today is St Piran’s Day – the National Day of Cornwall.  But I think my favourite fact of the week is that this week is ‘British Pie Week’.  Yes, the humble pie is given a whole week in which it’s comforting stodginess can be celebrated.  The warmth and calories contained in a pie help us get through winter, indeed pies may well have helped get some of us through the last year…!  Pies are what are described as ‘good, honest food’. There’s nothing pretentious or fancy about them, you know what you’re getting; put simply, they are the embodiment of ‘comfort food’.

I don’t tend to make that many pies.  The best pies apparently have meat in them, and as a vegetarian, that doesn’t fit well with my diet…  Andy and Harry are both meat eaters, but as I’m the one who does the majority of the cooking in our house, they do get served up a lot of vegetarian food.  They are, on the whole, quite polite about this but one comment I do hear quite frequently is ‘Hmmm – it was OK, but it would have been better with some meat in it!’.

To coincide with British Pie Week, a survey has been published detailing the most common internet search results for pie recipes that we Brits are looking for and according to this survey, the Top 10 Pies are as follows:

1: Cottage Pie

2: Fish Pie

3: Shepherd’s Pie

4: Chicken & Leek Pie

5: Chicken and Mushroom Pie

6: Steak and Ale Pie

7: Meat and Potato Pie

8: Pork Pie

9: Steak and Kidney Pie

10: Corned Beef Pie

I was quite surprised that the traditional Steak & Kidney Pie didn’t feature further up the list – but then, as a vegetarian, what do I know about the worthiness of meat pies?!  Unsurprisingly, there is not a vegetarian pie anywhere in the Top 10…  Does your pie of choice feature on this list?

One of the topics of conversation at yesterday’s Prime Time ‘Catch Up & Chat’ sessions on Zoom was food.  Ed had taken me at my suggestion and brought along a slice of delicious-looking homemade chocolate cake in order to make it feel more like a ‘proper’ Prime Time event and I was treated to a ‘Homemade by Harry’ oat cookie to enjoy with my cup of tea yesterday afternoon.

As a group, we began to explore the idea of including recipes in our Prime Time Lock Down Year Book.  The concept is that over the next few weeks, I will be inviting all Prime Time members to submit items that we might be able to include in a book that catalogues some of our memories of the last year.  The plan ultimately would be for us to have multiple copies of the book printed and you would each be given one so that you have something positive to reflect on from this strangest of times and hopefully it would also be a means by which you feel (re)connected to your Prime Time friends.

So as a starting point, this week I’m asking you to send in a recipe that’s helped get you through Lock Down.  It might be a new recipe you’ve tried or a trusted favourite you’ve been making for years but which brings you comfort whenever you make it.  It doesn’t have to be a cake recipe; any recipe, sweet or savoury will be accepted.  I’ve tried out lots of new recipes over the past 12 months (with varying degrees of success!) but the stand out one for me is a recipe for sweet potato mash with soy sauce and spring onions.  It’s got more butter in it than is probably good for me, so I wouldn’t have it often but the texture is so smooth and the taste delicious.  It goes well with sausages, both meaty and vegetarian and it will forever in my memory be associated with this time of Lock Down.  I wonder what your food memory of Lock Down is?  You can either email me your ‘Lock Down Recipe’ or post a paper copy to The Old Rectory, Old Rectory Gardens, Godalming. GU7 1XB  Either is fine.  Your Prime Time Team will also be back on Zoom next Thursday afternoon for our regular ‘Catch Up & Chat’ slot.  If you are thinking you might wish to submit a recipe but aren’t sure if it would be to everyone’s taste, bring it along to our chat and get the opinion of the other Prime Time members who have also dropped in for a chat.  During that session, I will also be revealing what the next item I’ll be asking for is going to be; so by attending the Zoom chat you get twenty-four hours advance notice over people who do not!

Prime Time Catch Up & Chat sessions every Thursday afternoon until Easter between 3.30 and 4pm.

To join the meeting via your browser:  https://zoom.us/j/9463914833  or type 946-391-4833 into the Zoom ‘join a Meeting’ window.

In both cases enter the password 2021 when asked.

Food is a recurring theme for Prime Time activities.  Cake tends to be served quite regularly and is an integral element of our ‘Tea & Talk’ afternoons.  We also have the regular ‘Walk & Pub Lunch’ activity in addition to our annual Spring Lunch and I remember a few years ago we realised after we had planned our summer activity programme that we would be consuming cream teas at three consecutive Prime Time events! Oh well, in for a penny, in for a pound (or should that be ‘lb’ ?!)

It’s no coincidence that as a church, such high value is placed on hospitality.  Eating together or sharing time over a cup of tea encourages us all to slow down and chat, thereby building relationships.  Fellowship is an important element of life within any church and Busbridge & Hambledon is no exception. ‘Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing’ (1 Thessalonians Chapter 5, Verse 11).  Elsewhere in the Bible, through 1 Peter: Chapter 4 Verse 9 we are instructed to; ‘show hospitality to one another without grumbling’.  In Genesis: Chapter 9 Verse 3, God reminds us that: ‘every moving thing that lives shall be food for you. And as I gave you the green plants, I give you everything’.

Including recipes in our Lock Down Year Book will not only reflect the joy and comfort that being creative in the kitchen has brought to some of us over the past year; the recipes will also reflect the importance of food and fellowship at Prime Time events.  And you never know, your favourite recipe might just inspire another Prime Time member to dust off their apron and oven gloves and get cooking too… 

‘So, whether you eat or drink, or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God’.  (1 Corinthians 10:31) 

And apologies if I’ve made everyone want pie for their tea tonight!

Until next Friday,

Penny x

Hello from Prime Time! - 26 Feb

Dear Prime Time member,

What a difference a week makes…!  This time last week was dreary, grey and rather damp, but looking out of the window this afternoon I see blue sky and sunshine!  It’s enough to put a spring in my step, daring to hope that longer, warmer days are on the horizon.  And if the news that broke earlier this week is to be believed, sunnier days are ahead too in terms of society opening up again, as already the vaccine programme would seem to be having the hoped-for effect of driving down Covid transmission rates, serious illness and deaths due to the virus.  I don’t think it’s just me, but there seems to be a level optimism around that can’t solely be put down to the reappearance of the sunshine and a few tantalising glimpses of spring.  We all realise that there’s a way to go yet before the restrictions on our lives can be significantly lifted, but belief does seem to abound that maybe this time, lock down easing might just be permanent.  Some might say ‘there’s light at the end of the tunnel’, others that there’s ‘hope in the darkness’; but however you choose to phrase it I hope that the news this week has helped to lighten the burden that you have all been carrying for the last year.  I know it won’t have removed it completely, but I do hope that burden feels lighter than it has done of late.

So what else in the news has caught my eye this week?  The journalist Fi Glover airing her views via her column in the Waitrose Weekend free weekly paper, in which she described a recent interaction on her radio broadcast.  Fi and her colleague Jane Garvey do a weekly broadcast on Radio 4 called The Listening Project.  Earlier this month, one broadcast featured a conversation between two ladies, Joyce and Joan.  Joan is 90, Joyce 86 – they had never met, but were happy to discuss together their views about ageing and have it recorded for public consumption.  Well, it did make me smile and reminded me so much of conversations that I’ve had with various Prime Time members over the years.  The general gist of the conversation was ‘I might be 90 but don’t pension me off!’  90 year old Joan is still a School Governor and a trustee for a charity.  She had a remarkably positive and upbeat view on Lock Down saying that her social life hasn’t been this good in years and commenting that she no longer has to go outside and meet people because they all come to her on her screen!

Frustrations were aired too with both ladies admitting that ageing brings with it a sense of invisibility, with older people generally not being newsworthy unless they’re ‘being a nuisance or doing something wonderful such as jumping from an aeroplane’ as one of the pair commented.  A general feeling was expressed that they didn’t feel represented in films and on TV or in the media; ‘I turn on the television and I don’t see people who look like me’ was the observation made here.  Of course, feelings like that are not exclusive to the older population, those very same comments were coming to the fore last year as awareness of issues affecting Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic groups achieved widespread recognition in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement.  I wonder if Joan and Joyce’s radio broadcast will have such far reaching impact?  Probably not, but it’s a start and if enough of us have these kinds of conversations, maybe attitudes will change.  It’s somewhat overdue…

The conversation between Joan and Joyce is well worth a listen.  You can hear it via the BBC website at: https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p0965h2b You don’t need a BBC account or to sign in, you can just ‘click’ and listen.  The conversation between Joan and Joyce is the first one featured in the broadcast and last about 8 ½ minutes.

Joan and Joyce didn’t mention this familiar road sign; but I’m sure they have an opinion on it, probably you do too…

How do you feel as you drive past that?  Do you feel it represents you?  If not, you’re not alone.  I was interested this week to read about a competition to update this image as there has been concern that ageist stereotypes can become self-fulfilling prophecies as they can affect how older people view themselves, their capabilities and the sorts of activities they take part in.  Such concerns were the starting point for a competition run by the charity Centre for Ageing Better which asked designers to submit ‘age positive’ alternatives to the walking sticks and hunched-over figures that we are so familiar with in visual depictions of old age. 

So how do you feel about this version?

Yes, this is the winning entry in the competition.  Alas we won’t be seeing it on a road sign anytime soon as the new design is not intended for use as road signage, but it will be used in reports and other materials to represent older people in a positive way.  The designer has used the original symbol of the couple crossing the road but given it an energetic spin, with their walking stick becoming a dancing cane. “Dancing is one of the things that people of all ages love,” he said. “It promotes physical, mental and emotional health as well as a chance to be sociable, expressive and uplifting.”  So if images depicting older people can become self-fulfilling prophecies, I think the Prime Time Team need to be planning a tea dance as one of our first events once we are permitted to socialise in large groups once again!

If dancing isn’t your thing, maybe reading is.  For my birthday last year I was given a copy of Richard Osman’s debut novel ‘The Thursday Murder Club’.  Have you come across it yet?  If not, I can highly recommend it.  Set in a retirement complex; one of the book’s charms is the depiction of older people as sharp, funny and capable of solving cases younger police officers can’t.  In the book, Mr Osman (yes, the same Richard Osman  of ‘Pointless’ fame) creates a vibrant community of lives fully lived and appreciated.  How refreshing!  The film rights to the book have already been snapped up.  I am praying that once it is released it will be a film that we will be allowed to show for one of our Movie Matinees; I suspect it would be very popular!

Whilst we’re on the topic of books and reading and age being no barrier; I have a proposal for you.  Our Sunday morning children’s groups are currently all online due to the current restrictions and the leaders of these groups having done this on and off for the best part of a year now, are sensing that maybe the children are getting  a bit fed-up of seeing the same faces on screen week-in and week-out.  Recently, one of our Prime Time members was asked by our Children’s Worker Judith if she could make a video recording of herself on her phone reading the story for that week.  Well, it was such a success.  The children loved having someone new read to them and the Prime Time member later contacted Judith and thanked her for ‘making me feel useful again’.

Encouraged by such positivity on both sides, Judith has approached me with the suggestion that maybe we could make ‘Reading with Prime Time’ a regular feature.  What do you think?  Would you be up for it? No previous experience necessary… You would be provided with the story to read and you would do it at your convenience in the comfort of your own home.  No-one would be watching you; it would be the perfect social distancing activity!  Maybe you’ve been reading bedtime stories to your grandchildren via Zoom during Lock Down or maybe you’re missing your grandchildren as you haven’t been able to see them and this might help fill a bit of that children-sized hole.  Please do give it some thought and let me know.  I’d love to say to Judith that Prime Time are right behind this initiative; Judith and her colleagues in the Children, Youth and Families Team have been so keen to support Prime Time members over the past year; this is our opportunity to give a little something back.  As the writer of Psalm 92 encourages: ‘They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green’.  Will you accept the challenge and thereby revealing to the younger members of our church family that the words of Psalm 92 are indeed true?

Maybe you can think of other ways this week to show that you remain as ‘fresh and green’ as the new spring buds on the trees.

Until next week,

Penny x

Penny Naylor

Primetime Befriending Co-ordinator

A half-term 'Hello from Prime Time'

Dear Prime Time member,

It has been half-term this week so I’ve been enjoying a more relaxed and leisurely pace over the last few days.  As many of you are probably aware, I generally don’t work through the school holidays in order that I can concentrate on being mum to Harry when the schools are off.

Of course, for the past three months Harry has been at home all the time, but holiday time still feels a bit special as we don’t have to set the alarm and we’re not fixed to a set routine (although it’s not really possible to vary things much at the moment is it?!)  Harry has reached the age now where school work seems to occupy a great proportion of holiday time and so even this week he’s spent a lot of hours at his desk and in front of a computer screen.

I’ve had some very supportive messages from Prime Time members during lock down; many particularly commenting on how hard home schooling must be.  I actually consider myself very fortunate, because as Harry is now seventeen, I don’t really have to ‘home school’ him.  Luckily in the main he’s quite a motivated chap and gets on with what he needs to do; so apart from the occasional nudge to keep him on task and the daily check to make sure he knows what’s in his diary for that day and seeing if he’s on track to meet homework deadlines, I’m not having to get too involved with school life.

The housekeeping though is an entirely different matter…!  I may not feel as though I’m running a school at home, but running an open all hours café – most certainly yes!  Having a teenage boy at home all the time seems to necessitate an endless supply of food and every time I go into a room, I seem to find a used plate and half-drunk glass of water abandoned there.  It’s ‘brain food’ Harry tells me by way of justification; “it keeps my brain cells working!”  Our weekly shopping bill has risen exponentially since we went into lock down (but happily this is offset by the equally sharp drop in petrol costs from not having to do the twice daily school run!)

I do consider myself very fortunate that I do not find myself in the position of having to home-school younger children.  A number of friends as well as colleagues are needing to, and I’m aware it can be quite a challenge.  Whereas for me, I can view the school closures as something of a blessing.  Not since Harry was little have we had the opportunity to day in, day out spend so much time together.  Just at the point in our lives when we as parents are having to contemplate the reality that in eighteen months Harry could well be living away from home; we find ourselves able to spend extended periods together as a family.  I’m sure that nobody will look back on the pandemic year with fondness, but there have been elements of the enforced change to our way of life that I will cherish, and the time spent with Harry will be one of them.  As the saying goes, ‘Mothers hold their children’s hands for just a little while but their hearts forever’. 

Children growing up and moving towards independence is a challenge that most parents have to face at some point.  It can be a time of very mixed emotions; utter joy as you see your life’s work in this young adult as they prepare to take their place in the world, but sadness too as a chapter of your life (and theirs) firmly closes and you know there is no going back.  As a staff team we are very much facing that challenge at the moment as we prepare to say goodbye this weekend to our Curate Dave Preece.  (A former Curate at BHC used to describe himself as a ‘Vicar with ‘L’ Plates’ if that helps you place a Curate within the church staffing structure!)  Dave joined us in the summer of 2017, ostensibly for a period of three years (although Covid has extended his time with us – another unforeseen blessing of the pandemic, although Dave might view that differently!)

It’s been wonderful to watch Dave develop his skills and grow into his potential.  He has become an extremely valued member of the staff team and a good friend to us all. We will miss him.  Dave has been a great supporter of Prime Time too and we’ve loved welcoming Dave, his wife Hannah and their two young daughters to our events.  They’ve been on trips with us, come to our bowls sessions and of course we made sure that Dave experienced the Prime Time Carol Service.  Personally, I’ve been very grateful for Dave’s technological know-how when setting up for Prime Time events.  Without Dave being on hand, there would have been several events when you would have had no sound and nothing appearing on the screen!  We had all better collectively start hoping that when Prime Time events can resume, that I find someone else around the Old Rectory who can support me with such challenges!

Dave has been appointed Priest in Charge of Saxmundham with Kelsale cum Carlton; a combined benefice (so similar to Busbridge and Hambledon in that regard) in Suffolk, about midway between Ipswich and Lowestoft.  Dave’s last working day with us is this coming Sunday (Feb 21st).  We’re making sure that he works hard on his last day with us as he’ll be putting in an appearance at both the 9am and 10.15 services.  Both will be available to watch on our YouTube channel as due to the current restrictions we are unable to gather in person.  If you remember Dave form some of the Prime Time events he has attended, why not tune in on Sunday morning and see him for one last time?  The 9am Classic service, follows the format of the more traditional Classic service that usually would take place in Busbridge Church on a Sunday morning; while the 10.15 Conversations from the Couch has a rather more contemporary feel.  Don’t be put off by this though; I am usually much more at home in the Classic congregation, but I am really enjoying Conversations on the Couch.  To me it feels as though I’m listening in to a conversation between two friends as they discuss a passage from the Bible.  On Sunday the discussion will be between our Rector Simon Taylor and of course, Dave.  Dave’s wife Hannah will also be putting an appearance; as will their two daughters.  Do consider tuning in as we wish them well in the next chapter of their lives.  Our YouTube channel can be accessed via our website: www.bhcgodalming.org  Scroll down to about halfway down our homepage and you will see a big red rectangle that says ‘YouTube BHC Godalming’; click on that and you will be taken to our You Tube channel where you can click on the service you wish to watch.  (And if you oversleep on Sunday morning, both services will be recorded so you can watch them later in the day!)

When a Curate is placed with us, we are always aware that we only have them for a limited period of time.  As a church, we have a long history of being a ‘sending’ church; which means that we have a tradition of raising people up and sending them out either for ordination or mission of other kinds.  As a church community we do feel like proud parents on such occasions; full of joy for what the future might hold for these individuals but sadness too that our part in their lives is drawing to a close and that from now on, our contact with them may be of the long-distance variety.

On such occasions I am reminded of a line from Proverbs ‘Let your father and mother be glad; let her who bore you rejoice’ (Proverbs: chapter 23, verse 25)  And rejoice we do for Dave, Hannah and their girls and also the benefice of Saxmundham with Kelsale cum Carlton as they have a very fine Priest in Charge heading their way.  As he prepares to leave us, we pray for Dave as he sets out on the next stage of his journey with God and as he journeys on taking our prayers with him, maybe at some point Dave will reflect as Abraham Lincoln once did;  ‘I remember my mother’s prayers and they have always followed me.  They have clung to me all my life’.  Hopefully a little bit of BHC will cling to Dave throughout his life too (in the nicest possible way!)

And before I sign off for this evening; a little reminder that next Thursday afternoon (Feb 25th) we are opening up the BHC Zoom Room for the first of our Coffee, Catch Up and Chat sessions.  The virtual doors will be open between 3.30 and 4pm – do drop in and say hello. 

The direct link is: https://zoom.us/j/9463914833

Or the Personal Meeting ID (PMI) if you prefer to type it directly into the Zoom ‘Join a Meeting’ box is 946-391-4833

Password:  in both instances you will also need to enter the following password: 2021

Maybe see you on Thursday on Zoom…?

Until then, with every good wish,

Penny x

Penny Naylor

Primetime Befriending Co-ordinator

It's the Prime Time weekly email! (12 Feb)

Dear Prime Time member,

As I sit at my desk and write this, I’m looking across the churchyard towards the church.  There’s blue sky and the sun is shining.  From the warmth of the Old Rectory, it looks almost spring-like outside; but I know that if I opened the front door, I would be greeted by a blast of arctic air that would make it feel anything but spring-like!  It has been a little chilly this week to say the least hasn’t it?  I for one have been pleased to not be living in Scotland this week when temperatures of -22.9 degrees Celsius were recorded in some areas!  It makes our -6  or -7 seem positively balmy!

I hope that you have managed to keep warm and snug in your homes and hopefully no Prime Timer was tempted out into the snow and put themselves at increased risk of falling over.  I was relieved to be able to stay inside and just look at the snowy views from inside my warm house!  I must admit, there haven’t been many advantages of the restricted lifestyle that’s been imposed on us because of the pandemic, but not having to worry about driving in the snow has definitely been a plus point for me.  Usually when snow is forecast, I’m tossing and turning at night wondering whether I’ll be able to get Harry to school in the morning, “will I even be able to get the car down the hill?” (And back up again!) and “what happens if we get stuck?”.  I have been able to sleep easy over the last couple of snowy weeks, safe in the knowledge that come what may, I won’t need to get in the car and drive about.  Every (snow) cloud has a silver lining…!

On the subject of sleeping easy (or not as the case may be…) are you one of the many people reporting greater trouble in sleeping since the start of the pandemic?  So many people are struggling to sleep at this worrying and unsettling time and sleep researchers are now calling this ‘Covid-somnia’!  Apparently, older adults seem to be disproportionately affected by this phenomenon; so in response, the Daily Hope telephone line that I’ve mentioned in my emails a couple of times previously has recently commenced a new service: ‘Sleep Well With Daily Hope’.  This option on the existing free phone service comprises of a series of gentle and relaxing reflections using wonderful Bible verses for callers to listen to on the phone while they're in bed.  Just dial 0800 804 8044 in the usual way and follow the instructions on the menu.  For ‘Sleep Well With Daily Hope’ you’ll be asked to press ‘#’. It is well documented how beneficial sleep is to improving mental, emotional and physical health, but research has also shown a strong correlation between a good night’s sleep and effective vaccination.  It would appear that while you are resting, your body is still hard at work producing anti-Covid antibodies in response to the vaccination you have received.  What greater incentive is needed at the present time to pick up the phone and listen to ‘Sleep Well With Daily Hope’?!

I know one of the things that impacts on my sleep is if I’ve been in front of a computer screen too late into the evening – my brain just seems to be buzzing when I do finally get to bed.  I seem to have spent a lot of time on Zoom again this week; as the expression goes, ‘like buses’, invitations to join Zoom meetings seem to have all come up at once in the last few days.  No need to feel too sorry for me though, many of these sessions on Zoom have been very enjoyable!  One such ‘virtual’ meeting that took place this week was a get-together of the Prime Time Team.  It was lovely to see Jane, Di and Olwen again, (if only on a screen) and as always there was plenty of laughter alongside the serious business of planning some Prime Time activities for you to enjoy.  So, open your diaries, grab a pen and make note of the following:

Tuesday 23rd March at 2.30pm – Prime Time Quiz (on Zoom).  I have handed back the Quiz Master’s baton to Di  after she briefly relinquished it to me for the Christmas Quiz.  Don’t worry, I won’t make a habit of picking up the baton – apparently I made it too hard…!) Zoom joining details to follow nearer the time.

New to Prime Time, commencing on Thursday 25th February – Coffee & Chat.  A regular weekly drop-in session for Prime Time members to catch up with the team and each other.  Members of the Prime Time Team will be on Zoom between 3.30 and 4pm each Thursday afternoon between 25th February and 1st April.  If there is ongoing demand, we will consider extending this beyond Easter too.  So pour yourself a cuppa, bring a biscuit or cake along to the Zoom room too (to make it really feel like a Prime Time event!) and chat away with old friends (and maybe make some new ones…)  The Zoom joining details will remain the same each week:

The direct link is: https://zoom.us/j/9463914833

Or the Personal Meeting ID (PMI) if you prefer to type it directly into the Zoom ‘Join a Meeting’ box is 946-391-4833

Password:  in both instances you will also need to enter the following password: 2021

We have an idea for a project that we could all jointly collaborate on, a project to ensure that our memories of the past year do not get forgotten.  These Coffee & Catch Up sessions will give us the ideal opportunity to discuss this project and to share ideas. So if you have been writing poetry in lock down, taking photographs or tried out a new recipe that you’d like to share, bring it along and tell us about it.  But if you would prefer to join the session and just chat about day to day life, or just sit and listen – that’s absolutely fine too.

You may have noticed that when I mentioned the Prime Time Team, there was a name missing from the usual line-up; my colleague Karen Franks.  Karen decided at the start of lock down last March that she would like the time to concentrate on her family and therefore she hasn’t been working alongside me for nearly a year now.  However, we have kept in regular contact and it was her hope that she would return once there was a greater need again for the administrative support she was able to provide.  However, over the past year, Karen’s parents have both had periods of ill health and she needs to have much more flexibility in her week in order to support them to the extent that she would wish to.  With no timescale available as to when we might be able to get face-to-face activities up and running again for Prime Time, we’ve mutually agreed that now seems a good time for Karen to be able to say that she is permanently available to support her Mum & Dad whenever they need it and so Karen will not be returning to her role with us.

This is absolutely the right decision for Karen.  Like myself, she has a very strong focus on family and I am not at all surprised that she feels her role now is to be there for her Mum & Dad.  Karen’s departure is a big loss for us but Karen leaves us having  gained a lot of knowledge and understanding regarding the challenges associated with advancing age and that will be of enormous benefit to both Karen and her parents as they face this new stage of their lives together.

Karen has been with us for about 5 years now.  Karen has definitely been my wing-woman and her help and presence has enabled us to grow Prime Time and the wider BHC Older Person’s Ministry into what it is today.  Karen has taken on so much more than what she originally thought she would be doing and she risen to every challenge.  It was Karen who has been the one producing all the beautiful invitations and flyers that you receive from Prime Time; until lock down she was the one sending out all the emails, she answered phone calls, wrote letters, prepared articles for both parish magazines and logged everything that we were doing so that we could keep track of our activities and report back on what had been achieved.  We even persuaded her to come out from behind her desk on occasions and come to some of the events she helped to organise – so I know that a number of you will have met her.

We would like to thank Karen for all that she has given to us and to let her leave with a gift that she can remember her time with us by.  There is a collection open here at the Old Rectory if anyone would like to contribute.  Cash or cheques (made payable to Busbridge PCC) can be left at the Old Rectory and it is also possible to use the ‘Giving’ page on our website:  https://www.bhcgodalming.org/giving  referencing your donation ‘Karen Franks’.

Saying goodbye is never easy and the inevitable changes that come with personnel movement take a while to get used to.  But I am reminded that ‘For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven’ (Ecclesiastes Chap 3, verse 1).  The season for Karen’s time with us has passed and there is a new season ahead for both Prime Time and Karen.  Further encouragement can be found in Isaiah Chapter 43, verses 18-19: ‘Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert’.  Perhaps you feel that you are being called to help ‘make a way in the wilderness’ or be ‘the river in the desert’ – if not you, then maybe someone you know?  We encourage all volunteers, not just people who are members of our church community who step forward.  So if you are someone, or know of someone who has a heart for supporting older people and they have a little spare time, whether they are church goers or not, please do feel free to give them my phone number or email address so that I can chat to them about the opportunities we can offer.

It is a time of continued uncertainty and change for us all. ‘The Times They Are A-Changin’ as Bob Dylan famously sang.  But may we all find comfort in the knowledge that ‘Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever’. (Hebrews: Chap 13, verse 8)  That’s a thought that certainly helps me to sleep at night.

And to send you off with a smile on your face, a funny quote regarding the Covid-era that popped up on my radar this week:  ‘The world has turned upside down.  Old folk are sneaking out of the house and their kids are yelling at them to stay indoors!’

Until next Friday (by which time hopefully we’ll be needing a few less layers!)

Penny x

Prime Time Calling...! (5 Feb)

Dear Prime Time member,

Well, here we are now in February.  How was January for you?  On Monday morning as I ate my breakfast, I was listening to the radio as the presenters were celebrating that what they referred to as ‘the longest month on record’ was now over.  Personally, I found that January seemed to go by pretty quickly, thankfully much like every other month has since we first went into lock down.  I know I have work to keep me busy and give structure to my day, but the time really does seem to fly past for me.  I can barely believe another week has gone by already and that somehow we’re at Friday.

I know the weather is set to turn cold again at the weekend and into next week, but I’ve been encouraged this week by a few signs of spring.  I was particularly excited at the weekend to find some bulbs shooting up their first green leaves in a pot beside our front door.  I’m particularly excited about this, because I had only planted them 2 ½ weeks before!  I know that you’re going to tell me that I shouldn’t be planting spring flowering bulbs in January, but having dug them out of the ground in early summer last year during lock down number one when we were giving our garden a bit of a makeover, they have laid in a box in the garage ever since.  I had intended to replant them in the autumn, but every weekend during bulb planting season seemed to be wet and the job never got done.  Having been in the garage over the Christmas period, I noticed that these bulbs were beginning to shoot, so I thought ‘well, I can try planting them and if they don’t survive, they don’t – but they definitely will not survive staying here!’  So in about the second week of January, out I went to do some planting – I don’t think I’ve ever gardened in January before; I normally consider it too cold for me to venture out into the garden until at least May!  But I got all these bulbs planted, hundreds of them – some little bigger than a pin head and I just hoped for the best.  Never did I imagine that I would see shoots poking up in less than 3 weeks!  Whether or not my appalling bulb husbandry will be rewarded later with flowers, remains to be seen – I may of course get nothing but leaves (and that would be what I totally deserve!), but we shall see…  I’ll keep you updated as to what develops!

Just yesterday I noticed some splashes of yellow and purple in the front lawn – the crocuses there are in flower. They are always the first in our garden to show colour.  They are right outside our kitchen window and I see them every time I stand at the sink – so I see them quite a lot! Their joyful colours always make me smile.  And for a couple of weeks now we’ve had snowdrops flowering in the front bank.  They weren’t even spoilt by the snow we had recently. The weight of the snow completely flattened them, but once the snow melted – up they stood again.  Did you know that snowdrops are also known as ‘Candlemas bells’?  I didn’t until very recently when I was reading an article about Candlemas.  Candlemas is a Christian holiday celebrated annually on February 2nd.  Many Christians believe that Jesus’ mother Mary presented him to God at the Temple in Jerusalem after observing the traditional 40-day period of purification of mothers following his birth and February 2nd is forty days after Christmas Day.  (Proof if it were needed that indeed time is passing quickly – does it really feel like 40 days since we celebrated Christmas?)

When Joseph and Mary bring baby Jesus to the Temple, they are greeted by Simeon, a man of Jerusalem described as’ righteous and devout’. At the Temple at the same time was an elderly widow, Anna; the New Testament’s only prophetess.  Simeon embraces the baby and instantly and independently recognizes Jesus as Messiah. Anna begins to preach: “She … began to praise God and to speak about the child to all who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.” (Luke chapter 2, verse 38).  Simeon and Anna saw embodied in the six-week-old baby Jesus, the culmination of all their hopes and longings. Simeon and Anna both had a very close relationship with God and were led by the Holy Spirit. Imagine the joy these two elderly people must have felt when they beheld the infant Jesus. Their whole lives had been leading towards this moment – Simeon felt a total sense of peace. They were among the earliest people to bear witness to Jesus.  One commentary on this Bible passage notes that ‘The story of Simeon and Anna is a great encouragement as we grow older – it’s one of the few occasions in the Bible when older people get the best lines!’

Simeon, in his wisdom, recognised Jesus as the Messiah who would be the light of the whole world, when he said: ‘For my eyes have seen your salvation… a light for revelation to the Gentiles, and the glory of your people Israel. (Luke 2:31–32) In other words, for everyone. Jesus came as a light in the darkness, just as the snowdrops are bright and white in the dark soil. Many Christians see the snowdrop as a symbol of Jesus Christ being this hope for the world, and whatever your beliefs, for everyone snowdrops are also a symbol of hope that springtime will come.

When you see snowdrops in the coming days and weeks, may they be a symbol of hope for you too.  And if you don’t happen to have any in your garden – you don’t have to travel far to see them.  At this time of year there is a veritable carpet of snowdrops in the churchyard here at Busbridge Church.  When you are out partaking your allowed daily exercise, why not include the church on your walking route and stop to view them yourself?  But if that’s not possible, please do enjoy this photo and may it bring you joy and hope just the same.

I recently had to post a letter to a property with the name ‘Candlemas Barn’.  I wonder what the origins of that house name could be and in what way a building could be linked to the Christian holiday of Candlemas?  Answers on a postcard please!

And finally – a word of caution…  According to folklore, there is a superstition that states that snowdrops should not be brought into the home until after Candlemas.  Thankfully, the holiday of Candlemas has passed for this year, so for 2021 we are free to collect up snowdrops from our gardens without worry and enjoy them in vase if we so choose.  But do remember these cautionary words should you be overcome with excitement when you see your first snowdrop of 2022 and be tempted to pick it!

Happy snowdrop spotting!

Until next Friday,

Penny x

Penny Naylor

Primetime Befriending Co-ordinator

Hello from Prime Time! 29 Jan

Dear Prime Time member,

After the flurry of emails yesterday, things have been a little more peaceful today and I’m back on track, doing what I normally do on a Friday afternoon which is writing to you!

‘Peace’ happens to be the topic of this week’s email – the fourth and final instalment of my email challenge, prompted by the conductor’s speech at this year’s New Year’s Day Concert in Vienna.  We hear the word ‘peace’ used a lot.  Leaders call for ‘World Peace’, parents trying to work from home during lock down whilst trying to home-school their children may dream of ‘a bit of peace and quiet’ and how many Christmas cards did you receive last month that had the words ‘Peace on Earth’ printed on the front?

According to one definition I found on Google, peace is defined as ‘a stress-free state of security and calmness that comes when there's no fighting or war, everything coexisting in perfect harmony and freedom’. So when there are calls for ‘World Peace’ that’s only part of it; peace is more than just the absence of conflict between nations or factions, although the Bible does refer to peace in this context.  Hebrews 12:14 states that we should ‘Strive for peace with everyone’ which is a theme continued into the New Testament in Matthew Chapter 5, Verse 9: ‘Blessed are the peacemakers’.  We can take from this that people who strive for peace will be blessed by God.  Our Rector Simon has talked about 2021 when we as a church need to be ‘Reconcilers’, bringing healing to the damaged situation we find ourselves in.  Interestingly, if you look up ‘reconciler’ in a dictionary, you will find it defined as ‘someone who tries to bring peace’; ‘peace’ you just can’t get away from the word.  It’s almost as if we’re being shown how important the concept is.

In the Bible, we read about ‘the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding’ (Philippians 4:7).  This refers to a more Biblical meaning of peace in that peace is more than just the absence of conflict or state of rest. It means completeness or wholeness, and it points to the presence of something else.  I acknowledge that this is a huge concept, and for someone who tries to be quite methodical and logical it makes no sense at all to say that I’m prepared to put my trust in something that I can’t see and can’t touch.  It really does ‘surpass all understanding’ and I know it sounds rather crazy.

Jesus is referred to in the book of Isiah (Chapter 9, Verse 6) as ‘The Prince of Peace’.  When we receive a Christmas card with an image of a dove clutching on it accompanied by the words ‘Peace on Earth’, perhaps then the dove is announcing the birth of The Prince of Peace and therefore that peace is now on earth, this ‘something else’ that makes us complete or whole, rather than a declaration that all conflict is at an end.  Although, I admit, that I think world peace would make a very agreeable gift at Christmas too.  Probably my favourite verse in scripture concerning  peace (and actually one of my favourites verses full stop) is from the book of John, (Chapter 14, verse 27) which records Jesus as saying ‘Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you’ which is a far better summary of this concept of the duality of peace than I think I’ve managed in the last few paragraphs!

And what of those dreaming of a little ‘peace and quiet?’  The dictionary defines this kind of peace as ‘the state of not being interrupted or annoyed by worry, problems, noise, or unwanted actions’ echoing the earlier Google definition that peace is ‘everything coexisting in perfect harmony and freedom’.  We all need those moments, let’s be honest.  Times when we just need to escape, either out of the house and away from other people or just the ability to lose ourselves in a thought, view or piece of music.  A little like those ‘little rays of sunshine’ I talked about in a previous email.

I’ve always been a fan of BBC’s ‘the Watches’; Springwatch, Autumnwatch, Winterwatch I have them all set for ‘series record’.  Like many other things in life, this programme has had to evolve and adapt due to the restrictions imposed because of Coronavirus.  However, I’m really enjoying the new format and I think it’s given the programme a new lease of life.  I’m particularly enjoying the new feature ‘Mindfulness Moments’ where there is a short clip of a landscape with no voiceovers, no music, just the natural sounds of that environment accompanying some fantastic views.  If you are looking for a ‘little peace and quiet’, I can highly recommend them.  Many of the ‘Mindfulness Moments’ have been added to the BBC website.  The current series of Winterwatch concludes this evening, although you can catch up with the whole series on the BBC iPlayer.  If you just want a quick peak though at what I’m talking about, click on the following link and you’ll see a ‘Mindfulness Moment’ from the current series. www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p0956656 And if you’re a supporter of British wildlife, you may wish to know that this weekend the annual Big Garden Birdwatch takes place.  It’s not too late to register to take part.  Go to www.rspb.org.uk for further details.  You don’t need to be an expert ‘Twitcher’ to participate and all they are asking is for an hour of your time over the coming weekend.  Maybe this could be where you’ll find your own bit of ‘peace and quiet’ in the next few days…?

In our world, it can seems as though there's not nearly enough peace. However peace can be big and small, seen in entire countries or brief moments. Peace does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work – it means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart.  To quote Vincent van Gogh, ‘There is peace, even in the storm’.  Where you believe that sense of calm or peace originates may depend on your beliefs, but Christians will say that it is God, the Holy Spirit, the Prince of Peace. Or maybe it’s all three – but that’s a story for another day…

So what have I found out over the past 4 weeks as I’ve researched the content for these letters?  Most strikingly I think is how many times in scripture, the four words of ‘joy’, ‘love’, ‘hope’ and ‘peace’ are connected with each other – however, I have yet to find one passage in the Bible that contains all four – the best I can do is three.  ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace’ (Romans Chapter 15, verse 13). Can anyone tell me differently and enhance my education on this one?!

Wishing you a peaceful and peace-filled week ahead. (And if you’re finding it difficult maintaining peace with everybody, you may wish to bear in mind some wise words of Mother Teresa’s; ‘Peace begins with a smile…’

Until next Friday

Penny x

Penny Naylor

Primetime Befriending Co-ordinator

Hello from Prime Time!

Dear Prime Time member,

Well – talk about making life tricky for myself;  I seem to have set the bar very high with my email last week…!  Thank you to everyone who replied to me; I know that I haven’t managed to respond to everyone – please try not to take it personally if you haven’t received a response from me – I will endeavour to reply to everyone eventually but I just received so much feedback, that if I had replied to each email, I wouldn’t have achieved much else this week!  I can promise you though that I have most definitely read every email and have appreciated each one for the insights as to your own ‘little rays of sunshine’ and also for your wisdom and encouragement.  Thank you for responding in such a positive way – it means a lot and yes, reading through all your emails did bring me a great deal of ‘Joy’.

So have you been on tenterhooks, waiting to find out what the subject of this week’s email would be?  Would I pick ‘Peace’, ‘Love’ or ‘Hope’?  Well the wait is over and I can reveal that this week I am shining the spotlight on ‘Love’.  It might have perhaps seemed a more obvious choice to have held onto this one for another month and used it for the email ahead of Valentine’s Day weekend, but as happened last week, this week’s email has rather formed itself thanks to events that have occurred, items of interest that I’ve come across as well as contributions that I have received. ‘Love’ just seemed to tie all these things together.

On Monday, I wanted to write to my friend and fellow Prime Time Team member Jane whose mum had died a few days previously.  As I pondered over what to say and what words I might use to bring comfort to Jane, I began considering the relationship between love and loss and why grief can be such a painful experience.  I came to the conclusion that grief is our penalty for having the capacity to love and to be loved; we cannot have one without the other.  The author Francis Weller wrote ‘Grief and love are sisters, woven together from the beginning.  Their kinship reminds us that there is no love that does not contain loss and no loss that is not a reminder of the love we carry for what we once held close’.

Many of us are grieving at the moment.  I am aware that a number of Prime Time members have lost close friends or family members in recent months.  If you are reading this email and grieving the loss of a someone important in your life, I hope that the Francis Weller quote is of comfort to you.  I know I shall return to it again and again to help me through times of loss.  We are all to some extent experiencing loss at the moment.  It may not be the death of someone close to us, but the last phrase of Francis Weller’s quote could equally apply to a population who has lost, if only temporarily, their accustomed way of life, their freedom of movement, freedom of choice.  Our memories remind us daily of the aspects of our lives that ‘we once held close’ and we are experiencing a form of grief reaction when we acknowledge that these things are currently ‘lost’ to us.  When you consider a lost way of life, or a way of life that is no longer open to us in terms of being a grief reaction, it’s easy to see why it hurts.  If this is you, you may find comfort in the words of Psalm 34, verse 18; ‘The Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in sprit’.  I can definitely identify with those last three words.  I don’t know about you, but with each round of lock downs, I’ve found it just that little bit harder to stay motivated.  Things seem just that little bit more of a struggle and it’s harder to stay positive.  Yes, at times it feels as though my spirit is being crushed and at those times is comforting to know that ‘The Lord is close’ and those ‘little rays of sunshine’ that we talked about last week certainly do bring me joy and help to lift my spirits when they feel as though the pandemic has just trodden on them with a big boot.

The word ‘love’ is a commonly recurring word in the Bible; a quick Google search tells me that it appears 551 times in the New International Version which is the one we tend to use here at BHC.  We are probably all familiar with Jesus instruction to ‘Love one another’ which came in his final commandment to his apostles during the Last Supper.  ‘…love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples’.  (John 13:34-35)

Integral to Christian teaching is the understanding of the need to show unconditional love to all.  I am in the extremely fortunate position in my role here at the church of being surrounded by colleagues and volunteers who completely embody this requirement and live it out in their daily lives and the volunteers who with me, form the Prime Time Team are a terrific example of this.  They are keeping in regular contact with people who we have identified could be particularly vulnerable at this time, especially those who are not on the internet and so do not receive this weekly email.  As the pandemic has gone on, however, I have also become aware that like myself they are continually on the alert for news items, articles poems and sometimes ‘funnies’ that might be of interest to our members and they send them onto me with a note saying ‘I thought this might be good for Prime Time’.  When Jesus instructed his followers to ‘Love one another’, he did not mean ‘just love your family and friends’, the implication is much wider.  In the Gospel of Mark, Jesus is recorded as giving the commandment; ‘Love your neighbour as yourself’ (Mark 12, verse 31) and no, he wasn’t just referring to the person you happen to live next door to, he is referring here to the requirement to show unconditional love to all, which is what we on the Prime Time team try to do.

Earlier this week I received an email from Prime Time Team member Di Drudge reporting that scammers seem to be quite active again at the moment and asking me to consider making Prime Timers aware of a couple of email scams that she has become aware of in the hope that it will make it less likely that anyone would be taken in by them.  Prime Time isn’t all about tea and cake you see (although we would agree they are very important components of life) but we are called to love people in whatever way is needed – public service announcements included!

So please read the following carefully and if you receive any emails which seem to include similar content, please do double check and think carefully ‘Is this email genuine?’.  If you are in doubt, press ‘delete’ or ask someone you trust for advice before replying.

TV License Scam Email: Emails are being received purporting to be from the TV licencing authorities advising that a Direct Debit had been cancelled and please would the recipient create a new one by replying to the email and providing their bank account number and sort code.

Covid-19 Vaccination Scam: Emails are being received purporting to be from the NHS regarding an invitation to attend for a Covid vaccination.  The recipient is being asked to confirm their identity by replying to the email, giving their bank card details as the means of verifying their identity.  You will either get a letter through the post inviting you to attend for a Covid vaccination or you will receive a phone call or text message from your GP surgery –you would not receive an email such as this.  A genuine contact about the vaccination process would NEVER require you to give your bank details.  All NHS procedures are free of charge and the Covid vaccine is no exception.

Please be vigilant.  Fraudsters are trying to capitalise on a very topsy-turvy world and are catching people off guard when they are feeling low and perhaps pre-occupied with anxieties about the current situation.  If you fall victim to a fraud, you are not to blame – you are the victim of a crime.  Please confide in someone so that they can help you report it, and the more quickly the better as in some instances it can be possible for the money to be recovered.  It might be embarrassing to admit that you were taken in, but the person in the wrong is the fraudster, not you.  There are a number of organisations who can help support victims of fraud, so please do not keep it to yourself if you should fall victim to one of these scams.

I’m not going to end on such a sobering note and of course I’ve not yet mentioned Olwen, our fourth and final Team member.  Olwen provided me with the ‘Eureka’ moment this week – the point at which I knew I had something to offer you that might just rival Beethoven’s ‘Ode to Joy’ from last week.  Olwen had come across some illustrations from a book published last year entitled ‘The Boy, the Fox, the Mole and the Horse’ by Charlie Mackesy.  Have you come across it?  I had heard of it, but wasn’t really familiar with its content until Olwen emailed me about it on Thursday and I must say, I think I’m going to invest in a copy – so advance warning here,  you can expect a few more Charlie Mackesy illustrations cropping up in Prime Time emails in the future!  It’s essentially a picture book with reading of appeal for ages 4 to 104, as the illustrations explore the thoughts and feelings that unite us all.

So without further ado, I give to you your little treat for this week (courtesy of Olwen)…

For me, receiving this was another ‘little ray of sunshine’ moment that made me smile and brought me joy.  It also reminded me of a verse from Lamentations, ‘The steadfast love of the Lord never ceases’ (Lamentations Chapter 3, Verse 22).  I’ve attached the illustration to this email as well so that if you wish to, it is easy for you to print out and stick to your fridge (or wherever you like to have such things on prominent display).  This is from the four of us to all of you – and we hope that it helps you to know this week that you are loved.

‘So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love’ (Corinthians: Chapter 13, Verse 13)

With love from us all (how else could we end this email?!)

Your Prime Time Team; Jane, Di, Olwen and Penny xxxx (It’s been rather a Team effort this week!)