Sunday 3rd June 2012
I suggested, aware that she who gets the vision gets the job, that
together with the traditional combined church service (Anglican, Methodist,
Baptist), we have a Sunday Brunch! Brunch from 10.30 and the service at 12noon. However, I am very grateful to the
long-standing community members who actually carried out the Sunday Brunch and
combined Jubilee Sunday service! They planned the brunch, the cooking
facilities, the buying, the serving and even the washing up! Thank you! They
were the ones who knew the people to contact, knew where to buy, how much to
buy, who to ask to help, and the seating and tables! The ministers of the three churches did their thing and
representatives from each played their part with the Jubilee liturgy, the hymns, readings, sermon, prayers, and the national anthem. Thank you to everyone who planned, worked, and cleaned up afterwards! 
‘The Plan’ was that Sunday 3rd June would be a
beautiful sunny summer’s day like it had been for the past week. However, come
the weekend, (and if you watched anything of the Jubilee Thames Pageant you
would have seen) the clouds ganged up, threw down raindrops and blew a lot of cold
air over more than our little village!
So the marquee that was planned to serve the brunch, was not needed. The
envisaged scenes of people standing out on the soft green grass of the parish
church eating bacon rolls, drinking coffee, fruit juices and eating pain
chocolat while shielding their eyes from the pleasant Sunday morning sun, were
replaced with chatting villagers laughing and sharing stories in the church
school room and spilling over into the church itself. Everyone was relaxed and unphased by the change of plan.
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| Inside St Andrews |
‘The Planned’ open air combined service became an inside
service of thanksgiving to God for giving our Queen the wisdom and strength to
rule over us for sixty years. The
Anglican church’s usual congregation was more than tripled and not just with
regulars from the other two churches, but with ‘non-regulars’ as well.
Like the Open Gardens, this became a time to meet new
people.
The clouds, wind and rain were not going to stop the good
British people from having a colourful pageant on the River Thames with over 1000 boats of various kinds and sizes joining Her
Majesty’s Barge as it sailed from Battersea Bridge to Tower Bridge. From the
comfort of our dry homes, many of us watched as red, white and blue bunting,
Union Jacks, huge umbrellas, and lots of wet happy people waved and cheered
along the banks!
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