Festivals and Festivities at St Matthew's

We are fortunate at St Matthew's to have music which complements and illuminates the spiritual message of Easter. The thoughtful meditations of the Lent services culminated in the Good Friday Liturgy which was powerfully and movingly interpreted by Fr Stuart and by the singing of Jonathan, Malcolm, Richard and Catherine, which spoke deeply to the hearts of those present.

Easter Day was greeted joyously at dawn with light and food and later by a packed church to celebrate not only Easter itself but also Baptisms and First Communions. As always the congregation was liberally sprinkled as a reminder of our vows. Fr Stuart preached about eggs: empty chocolate eggs reminding us of the empty tomb at Easter but the ones with more exciting treats inside help us remember the surprise that Jesus' friends experienced when they found that he was still with them. As always the flower arrangements spoke of Spring and regrowth and provided a lively background to the services.

Ascension was celebrated at St Mark's. The readers and members of the congregation came from all the churches in the parish including Christ Church. Richard Sewell of St Mark's led the service; the Mass setting was A Simple Mass by Andrew Moore. Richard Lane from Christ Church preached an interesting sermon about his understanding of the Ascension. It was an all-embracing service; not easy considering the different forms of worship in our churches. After the service refreshments were served, a chance to meet people from the other churches.

Gwyneth Llewellyn

Fr Stuart’s Annual Report at the ACM

I know we have already spoken about financial matters today but I want to begin my Annual Report with a few words about money and they are words of thanks and congratulations. As you will have seen, members of the congregation last year raised their financial support of the church by about £9K. It seems to me that this is an incredible response of generosity, especially at a time when many people are feeling the pinch financially. 70% of that increase has come from people who were not regularly giving previously. Over the past few years we have seen the make-up of the congregation here at St Matthew’s change significantly and it is encouraging to know that many people newer to the community are willing to demonstrate their commitment through financial support. We couldn’t survive without it.

I have been here seven years now and have shared in the developing life of this church. We have tried to deepen our spiritual lives and make God visible through our worship and study and through our support of various charities and good causes. However, at some point we need to admit that we are doing something quite strange, something against prevailing trends in society. As you may know, church attendance throughout the denominations has been steadily declining for many decades. It seems that fewer and fewer people want to be part of organised religion. And yet, a survey tells us that nearly 70% of people in this country believe in God. We are, as Rowan Williams puts it, haunted by the idea of God, we can’t let go of it. We don’t want to let go of it.

The great catchphrase of our age in this respect is this: I’m spiritual but I’m not religious. In other words, I believe in God and I want to be in communication with God, I want my experience of God to enrich my life, but I don’t want to commit to any organisation. There was an article about this recently in the Guardian where the writer rejoiced in what he called the Church of Everywhere, the sort of thing that the writer Philip Pullman believes Jesus was really trying to lead people into. This church has no leaders and it doesn’t matter what you believe or what your God is called. He cites the funeral of the Big Brother star Jade Goody as an example of the new faith on display. White doves, video montages, party balloons and lots of tears. Now I happen to agree with the writer up to a point. People do need flexibility to work out what they believe for themselves and to find the right way to express it. But he misses the point in one crucial respect. What is it that enabled Jade Goody’s funeral to be like that? A church and a vicar and an established Christian community to host the event.

And for such a community to exist it takes many people to share the load of keeping things running. Our reports this morning show us that it takes welcomers, tea makers, flower arrangers and car drivers as well as vicars, wardens, servers, musicians and money to keep a church running. And the reason we do those things is not just to keep the organisation going, we do those things because that is the way we serve the God we are coming to know and the way we serve each other through hospitality and care. If we want to experience God we know we have to play our part in creating the space in which we and others can do that. That is why we have rotas and working parties. I consider that everyone who is physically and emotionally able should be on at least one rota, playing their part in this community. And if we say we will do something, we do it out of respect for the other people in the family of St Matthew’s. As we look down the list of reports this morning, as well as being filled with gratitude we should also be asking ourselves where we fit in. What role do I play or could I play in ensuring that other people can experience the space for wondering and hospitality that I experience as part of this community?

What I am talking about, of course, is service. Churches often call their worship a service. This is because when we come to church it is in the service of God but also to each other and you cannot have one without the other or our spiritual lives become shrunken and meaningless. We are good at service to God here at St Matthew’s. We generally turn up to worship and do our best to make worship participative and meaningful. But perhaps our service to one another could be improved.

Over Easter we heard the story of Jesus’ example of loving service as he washed the feet of his friends. We also heard him speak of how the love, concern and care that we show to one another will be the mark of the Christian community. Over the coming months I would like to reflect with you, through sermons and through our church committee, how the bonds of friendship and care could be strengthened within our community. So I invite you today to wonder what role you could play in demonstrating God’s presence and love through your support and care of members within the church community. Would you be able to visit someone stuck at home? Could you cook a meal for someone? Could you spend some time with a new Mum? Could you relieve the boredom of someone in hospital?

If the risen Christ is present amongst us in the bread and wine of the altar then we do well to meet him and honour him there. If he is present in those around us, then we are called to honour and serve him there too.

Fr Stuart

Lent Lunches

I wish I could claim credit for the idea of Lent Lunches but, sadly, that is not the case; I was introduced to the concept at my previous parish, St Dunstan’s, Stepney. It’s an idea of cast-iron simplicity: serve a simple Lenten meal, offer food and fellowship, and ask for a donation to the Bishop’s Lent Appeal.

It’s taken me a few years at St Matthew’s to get round to suggesting Lent Lunches, but then I am only just emerging from under the rock that is 24 hour childcare. Now with (a tiny bit) more time on my hands, I reckoned I could possibly manage to make a vat of soup once a week. In fact, if I timed it right, I could bring Alice along for the actual meal and other people could look after her whilst I purported to be busy in the kitchen.

In actual fact, the making of the soup is the easiest part: all you need is an unfeasibly large stock pot and an industrial supply of lentils. The hard part is when you get there and you realise that you have to lay out the tables and chairs, find the cloths, put out cutlery, bowls, butter, bread, fruit, etc, then do it all at the end, but in reverse. I solved this problem by getting other people to do it. Brilliant!

By organising Lent Lunches at St Matthew’s I have learned several important lessons:

• Olga and Janet are brilliant and they know where the spoons are kept.
• Fr Stuart doesn’t much care for parsnips, but he does love his cheese.
• The combined volume of Alice and Gabriella is rather disturbing.

So: many, many thanks to the people who did most of the work: Clare (financial acumen, soup-making and constant reassuring presence); Olga and Janet for practical assistance on every level; Sheila for washing up far beyond the call of duty; everyone who helped tidy up.

All in all, we raised £289.45 for the Bishop of Southwark’s Lent Appeal. The money goes towards the following causes:

• Food for Burkina Faso – Tearfund
• Calcutta Cathedral Relief Fund
• NDF Bugunda School for deprived girls ( Uganda )
• Dabane Water Trust Project Zimbabwe – Christian Aid
• Southwark Churches care (reducing the isolation of older people in Southwark)

And many thanks to everyone who came along and shared our food and fellowship this Lent.

Catherine Richards

The Diocesan Synod

I used to be a member of the St Matthew’s Church Committee and at one of our meetings Angela Holloway came to talk to the committee about the Deanery and Diocesan Synod. It wouldn't appeal to most people but the idea of becoming involved in one of the key decision-making bodies of the Church of England really appealed to me. Following discussions with Fr Stuart and having gone through the various processes that need to be gone through, I became one of the Merton Deanery representatives to the Diocesan Synod.

I have to say that the support mechanisms are great. You really are not just thrown in at the deep end. Before attending our first meeting as representatives, myself and other new representatives were invited to a training day where the overall structure of the Church of England and the decision making processes were explained to us. We then went into groups and discussed a motion that had gone to a previous synod, and were asked to prepare a contribution either in favour or against the motion. The motion was about Women Bishops and the discussions were really interesting, as were the speeches delivered by the different groups. I met some lovely people from a wide variety of backgrounds and it really inspired me.

I have subsequently attended a couple of meetings of the Synod which covered many interesting topics and included a wide range of speakers from various charities and from churches across the world. One of the most interesting presentations was about Fairer Shares which showed the importance of redistributing wealth amongst churches. This allows churches in deprived areas to do the critical work of serving God in our poorest communities, supporting particularly young people in getting involved in the Church and transforming those communities and giving them hope.

It was one of the Parochial Church Councils from our own Diocese of Southwark that actually put forward the motion that allowed women to become priests, and that will have come from a small local church committee like ours at St Matthew’s. So we really can make a difference. I would encourage anyone to come forward if they have strong views about how they believe we need to change as a Church. Each of us as a member of St Matthew's really can influence the way in which we do things within the Church. If you have views that you would like expressed at the Synod please do come to speak to me or a member of the Church committee and together we can shape the future of our Church.

Beth Bickerstaffe

The role of Parish Warden in the Wimbledon Team Ministry

Within the parish of Wimbledon, it has sometimes been over the last few years as if I had a split personality. At St Matthew’s, I suspect I am principally (I sometime wonder whether exclusively) known as a loud singer, whether in the congregation or in the choir/as a soloist, and as an even louder stand-in organist. (Irrelevant anecdote – I once said in the vestry that I would be playing a loud voluntary, to which John Kitchener’s comment was that my voluntaries were always loud – so my counter-response had to be that it would be loud by my standards of loud.) When I attended meetings as parish warden, my role often seemed to be as a (boring?) lawyer doing an administrative job. So mouths dropped when I was, for example, the baritone soloist in the parish Fauré Requiem for Remembrance Sunday.

The office of churchwarden dates back to at least the fourteenth century. Over the centuries, churchwardens acquired civil law functions, the most well-known being responsibility for the poor, raising money through rates. They were therefore elected by the ratepayers, in the vestry meeting (named after what we call a vestry today). Their civil functions were gradually transferred to local government bodies between 1894 and 1933. The other functions of the vestry were largely transferred to parochial church councils ("PCCs") in 1921, as were many of the churchwardens’ functions. Vestries have had no function since 1964, when the power of electing churchwardens was transferred from it to the modern meeting of the parishioners, although for a lot of that time they technically still existed.

The historical role of churchwardens is reflected in the fact that they are still not elected by the annual parochial church meeting, but by a meeting of the parishioners that includes those on the electoral role of the local council. For that reason, churchwardens are not automatically on the PCC, but only if they are communicant members of the C of E.

The churchwardens of each parish together are in the legal jargon a "quasi-corporation" or have "quasi-corporate personality". While that sounds very painful, it means that they are for some specific purposes rather like a limited company. In particular, ownership of certain property passes automatically from one churchwarden to another when a new one is appointed, without the outgoing one having to sign a transfer. In practice, that applies to any school or church trusts of which churchwardens are ex officio the trustees, and the "plate, ornaments, goods and other chattels" of the churches in the parish which are owned by them as trustees for the parish.

Churchwardens are officers of the bishop. There are a significant number of legal duties imposed on them. They take office legally not when elected, but when subsequently admitted to office on behalf of the bishop, after making a declaration to serve the office properly. That is normally done by the archdeacon at a special service. The admission services I have attended have been very up-lifting occasions, and our current archdeacon, both in his preaching at them and in his charge (the formal advice given to churchwardens on that occasion), has been inspirational. I was not able to attend two of them (one because I was elected after it), and the same procedure still has to be gone through, normally at a short service in the archdeacon’s office.

In Wimbledon, the historic arrangements mean that although there are four churches, there are still only two churchwardens in the strict sense of the word. They are usually referred to as parish wardens. That is why they are if possible always present at visits by the bishop. The wardens elected by each church are not churchwardens in this sense, but are often referred to as "wardens" of a particular church, sometimes abbreviated to church wardens, making for thorough confusion. I will, where it is necessary, call them local wardens, to be clear which office I am referring to. The parish wardens as a result retain all the legal duties and liabilities for all four churches, including ownership of the plate ornaments goods and other chattels, even though that is in practice delegated to, and exercised through, the committees and local wardens of each church.

In Wimbledon, it is frequently the case that parish wardens are people who have recently served (or are nearing the end of their period in office) as local wardens of their own churches. It is customary for one to be from St Mary’s as the mother church of the parish, and one from the other churches in rotation. My predecessor was from St Mark’s and my successor is from St John’s. I was warden of St Matthew’s for two years in the early 1990s (so not recent), and had also been secretary of the parish finance committee before that.

I was approached unexpectedly in spring 2005 by the then rector, Fr Christopher Davies, at, I later learnt, Fr Stuart’s suggestion. A message from Fr Christopher one Sunday afternoon, and a request to come and visit me that evening when I returned the call, implied something of importance. He explained that the role was not onerous, really being only the need to attend three or four PCC meetings a year, except when and if he moved on as rector. Needless to say, that was not an accurate description.

First of all, I was rung by the secretary of the parish committee with dates of meetings. Seemed that I was on that. At my first meeting, I was surprised to see that the minute book was the one I had provided as secretary in 1990.

Then I was asked by my fellow parish warden for my full name and date of birth for the charity commission annual return in my capacity as a trustee of the Adelaide Welch charity for the relief of the poor of Wimbledon. I was advised not to get excited: the assets were £26, and the previous year’s income 56 pence. So, like a wicked uncle in a Dickensian novel filching the next generation’s inheritance, I disendowed the charity. The result was that we could spend the charity’s capital, and wind it up.

Then I got a copy of a letter terminating an appointment – with a final line that the person "had a right of appeal to the parish wardens". That was decidedly not in the job description.

More charities, or at least one – the Bishop Gilpin Trust. The history of the charity is that it originated in a gift of the freehold of land in the late eighteenth century from Earl Spencer (until quite recently the Earls Spencer were still Lords of the Manor of Wimbledon) of the land the school then occupied. The money arose from a surplus on the sale of that site when the school moved to its present one. The object of the charity is "the provision of elementary education for the children of the labouring poor", which lost its main point with the Elementary Education Act of 1870. There is a significant sum (although not massive) in the charity. The trustees were considering spending the capital on a building project, so Wicked Great Uncle Jonathan disendowed this charity as well. Then the financial crash put all that on hold.

More interestingly, as a result of being a trustee, I attended two services for the school’s 250th anniversary celebrations, one lead by Bishop Tom in the school, the other the leavers’ service lead by Archbishop Rowan in St Mary’s. Both were uplifting spiritual occasions. From the one attended by Bishop Tom, I learnt that the mitre represents the tongues of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, part of his sermon having compared his "uniform" to theirs, especially the school badge.

The last unexpected duty arose on the departure of the parish administrator, Julian Kent, to be ordained in Australia. As a result, I was one of the people interviewing for a new administrator.

The most interesting and important role was to be on the patronage board. It was responsible for advertising for, short-listing, and interviewing clergy for the post of rector. The patronage board is based in the mists of history. It now consists of the area bishop, a representative of the patron, and three local representatives, in practice the two parish wardens and one of the wardens from St Mary’s (the rector being also vicar of St Mary’s, in practice if not technically). The patron is the Dean and Chapter of Worcester Cathedral. Patronage has a long history, originating in the right of the person who endowed and set up a parish to choose its incumbent. Wimbledon is historically, with Putney, part of the parish of Mortlake. Henry VIII wanted shooting land or rights owned by Worcester Cathedral, and acquired them in exchange for the patronage of Mortlake. So Worcester is now the patron of all three of the modern parishes then in Mortlake. In practice, one of the cathedral canons is assigned to represent the Dean and Chapter, and attends all relevant meetings and the induction.

I was subsequently the representative of the wider parish on the committee appointing the new vicar of St John’s. That brought to three the committees appointing current team clergy I have been on, having also been on the St Matthew’s one which appointed Fr Stuart (because one of the local wardens was away).

One role I specifically decided to undertake was to attend services regularly at the other churches. I had intended to do so once a month, but like a lot of good intentions, that became nearer once a year unless there were specific reasons for attending. My duties had made me very conscious that we are part of a team ministry, and that the clergy work as a team, but the churches are much more individual. My visits to other churches were a small part of trying to make all the churches aware of how we are established.

The first visit was to St Mark’s where Cynthia Jackson was taking the service, whom I knew well from her many years in the congregation at St Matthew’s, and later when she had been ordained. That led to me being introduced to the congregation at the notices, which became the norm when I did pay a visit. I found it much easier to introduce myself to people I did not know having, or have been introduced as having, a specific role. A further visit to St Mark’s led to me volunteering as organist once a month while a new permanent one was found, and visits to St John’s led to me being asked to deputise as organist there as well.

Of the five years I have served as parish warden, Anthony Leonard (who was already the other parish warden and one of the St Mary’s wardens) took the lead role during the first four. That was partly as a result of his recent experience, which included leading a very successful funding campaign for St Mary’s to raise funds to repair the roof and completely overhaul the organ. I agreed to do an extra year above the four years Fr Christopher had said was the usual term to enable a phased hand-over. I took over from Anthony preparing agendas for PCCs, and my first (with the detailed notes) took over three hours to prepare, and made it look as if I was trying to take over.

One of the most important roles for parish wardens is to be an adviser or sounding board, sometimes confidentially, for the rector. It is a sort of elder statesman role, with the advantage of not being involved in the time-consuming day-to-day practical running of a church. Two interesting jobs particularly come to mind. The first was that Mary Bide asked Anthony and me to accompany her when she went to see the archdeacon to make her plea for money to be made available for St John’s to have its own part-time priest. We sat either side of her while she made her case. The second concerned George James. He had been a very long standing member of the congregation at St Mary’s, and was chairman of the finance committee when I was its secretary. He left a significant legacy to the rector and parish wardens to spend on St Mary’s and other charities as they decided.

I am very aware of the enormous amount of work that is done by the local wardens with the support of the committees of their individual churches, for which I thank them.

As I hope I have shown, the job I have done as parish warden, whilst generally being routine and formal, has had many interesting and unexpected duties. It has been a privilege to serve the parish as a whole, and through it the individual churches and the congregations, in this way.

Jonathan Turton

Another addition to the Archive: The David Robbins Collection

St Matthew’s Church has a relatively short history. The building we worship in now was dedicated in 1958, its bombed predecessor in 1909. Through articles and photographs collected over the years from various sources we have been able to piece together much of its story. Now, thanks to the squirrel-hoarding of the late David Robbins and the generosity of his family, we have the chance to fill in some of the gaps.

Photographs of people form part of the collection: some formal groups – servers, choir – and several processions. There are a couple of early plays performed in the church, at Christmas and in Advent. A precious congregational photo has survived from the days of the old iron St Matthew’s Church, no longer used for worship once the 'new' church was in use. The men stand together at the back of the group, the women and a few children in front. In one photo taken at the Laying of the Foundation Stone in 1958, the boat boy is young John Kitchener.

David was a collector. Whenever an event took place at St Matthew’s he kept a booklet – continuing a family tradition, it seems, as some of the events took place before he was born. The name Alice Robbins crops up frequently so perhaps she started the collection.

Other items record the history of the two St Matthew’s churches. My own archive account records: ‘Architects were invited to submit designs. Ernest Shearman’s was chosen because….’ A member of David’s family – possibly Alice Robbins - had the forethought to pick up and store one of the discarded designs with floor plan, exterior elevation and interior looking east. The name is indistinguishable but the date is clear – 1901. There are also plans of our present church [a welcome addition to those already in our archive] drawn by the architect Sebastian Comper. Comper designed the old church hall [replaced in 2004 by our fine new hall], and David kept the original plan.

Our archive already contains one photo of the crowning of the May Queen. It’s now clear that this was a popular annual event during the ‘fifties. Not only has David made a list of the girls chosen for the honour, he has also preserved the script of the poem which each May Queen read out, slightly different from year to year. The event was given generous coverage in the local paper, & those cuttings have been kept too.

The contents of this collection will gradually be absorbed into our existing archive. Before then we hope to set up a display of the newly-acquired items, possibly in the autumn. An event not to be missed!

Jean Porter

An Englishman Abroad

Before the arrival of Fr Stuart, Fr Leslie Drake was our priest-in-charge. He recently returned to his native USA. This year he has had visitors from St Matthew’s; Jenny Pascall, a former Warden, surprised him by joining his congregation for a Sunday morning Mass and shortly afterwards our organist Malcolm Barron spent a holiday at his home.

Just after the Easter celebrations at St Matthew’s I went to America for a two week holiday in Aiken, South Carolina. There I stayed with Fr Leslie Drake who was vicar of St Matthew’s from 1999 to 2003. During that time we struck up a friendship based on a shared love of trains, cigars and Fr Jack (Jack Daniels bourbon). The entry into America is protracted because both you and all your baggage are subjected to the same screening procedure as at your point of departure which seems excessive. Finally your face and fingerprints are photographed and then you are free to go. Wow, have they got you on file!

Since his arrival the interior has been redecorated by the parishioners and looks wonderful and a great improvement judging by the ‘before’ photos that I saw. The walls have been painted a pale green colour, cornices added, a curtain hung behind the altar covering a hideous mosaic,and bizarre paintings for the Stations replaced by simple bronze figures set in plain wooden frames. The Sanctuary area was small and cramped so that has been enlarged. Incidentally, the church is 12 miles from his house which is no great distance in America, but then petrol is only about 40p a litre so the expenses are not great.

Aiken is a very genteel and wealthy town with very wide main streets having a central strip planted with flowering shrubs. Its wealth stems from the late 19th century when rich northerners were attracted to it as a winter resort. They brought their horses with them for wintering and as a result it became and remains a centre for horse racing and polo.

The other factor in its continuing prosperity was the establishment in 1950 of the Savannah River Site where the hydrogen bomb was developed. This brought in a large number of professional people most of whom made their home in Aiken. Although the bomb construction part of the site is being decommissioned it still remains a centre for research into the peaceful uses of nuclear power and other alternative energy sources.

The town owes its existence to the building in the early 1830s of a railroad between Hamburg, a few miles East of Aiken on the Savannah River, which divides Southern California from Georgia, to Charleston on the coast. It has the distinction of being the first steam-powered railroad in America. During the Civil War Aiken was one of the few places where General Sherman’s Union forces were defeated in their campaign of destruction through the South, and to understand the South you have to remember the devastation that was wrought on it by the North however justified you think it might have been. Memories of the War are everywhere and inescapable.

There are few ‘must-sees’ in Southern California but one of the most impressive is Charleston which we visited. This was a focal point in the Revolutionary War and also where the first shots in the Civil War were fired when the Confederates shelled Fort Sumter in Charleston Bay. Most of the buildings date from the late 18th century. The centre is full of attractive houses and a great number of churches of various denominations. A big programme of historic preservation has ensured that no modern buildings have been erected that would spoil the townscape. Charleston was badly damaged not only in the Civil War but also by a powerful earthquake (7.5) in 1886.

Just as you can’t forget the Civil War (sometimes referred to as ‘the recent unpleasantness’ or ‘the war of Northern aggression’) you can’t forget its cause, slavery, although this is not the whole picture. At its heart was the claim from the Southern States for the right to be independent and govern themselves without outside interference as opposed to a Federal system (like the UK not wanting a centrally controlled Europe). Be that as it may, slavery was still central to the economy of the South. We went to Redcliffe Plantation Site a few miles from Aiken where the owner’s magnificent mansion is preserved along with one of the originally four slave quarters. The latter is a single storey substantial wood building with two rooms each about 14 x 12 ft, one for each family. The rooms at the moment are completely bare so you have to use your imagination as to how they would have looked when in use, but there are plans to furnish the rooms. The park is beautiful and could have been Richmond Park except for the different trees and cactus plants and copperheads (poisonous snakes).

We drove to various other places, usually involving trains and one pilgrimage to JR Cigars which has the most complete range of Cuban cigars I have ever seen. So, no real cultural highlights? Not on my trip, but Aiken is not a cultural desert. There are choral societies, a symphony orchestra, art galleries and many concerts by visiting performers. We drove everywhere because there is no other way of getting anywhere under 500 miles. Railroads only do freight nowadays outside the big cities.

Had it not been for Fr Leslie’s presence in Southern Carolina I would never have thought of going there, but it was fascinating to see rural America far from the main tourist destinations. It is a very different country, but for all its faults is deserving of our respect and concern.

Malcolm Barron