The Parish Magazine November 2020

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16 The Parish Magazine - November 2020Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to advertisementsComplete PestSolutionsWASPS • RATS • MICE • SQUIRRELSBED BUGS • FLEAS • BIRDS & RODENT PROOFINGLeslie Parkerparkerleslie65@aol.com0125 624 2135 0799 081 4143PROFESSIONAL PESTCONTROLLERS REGISTER2 Vyne Lodge Farm Cottage, Bramley, Tadley, Hampshire RG26 5EAWhatever you want to store ...... for whatever reason - house sale and purchase notcoinciding, travelling, house building work, paperworkoverload or just "de-cluttering" to sell yourhouse more quickly - we offer a friendlyand flexible service near Henley.With competitive rates, securestorage all on one level, and hasslefree 24/7 access, contact us now!0118 940 4163www.barn-store.co.ukOnly 5 minutesfrom Henley onthe Reading roadBUILDERS MERCHANTS01182 075 160Blanke Villa, Lambs Lane, Spencers Wood, RG7 1JBPLUMBERS MERCHANTS01189 429 499Unit 17, Stadium Trade & Businesss Park, RG30 6BXDESIGNSERVICEUnit 17, Stadium Trade & Business Park, RG30 6BXNOVEMBER 2020.indd 16 11/10/2020 23:49:41
feature — 3The earliest converts tended to be kings and courtiers whoseChristian convictions might rest simply on whether a battlewas going to be won or lost. Any perceived new leap of faith,especially one brought by foreigners, surely risked provokingthe ire of the old gods? Why should people change?The troubled aftermath and collapse of Britain’s Romano-Celtic civilisation was the context in which many soughta degree of moral certainty and some answers to what, ifanything, the after life might bring.Small communities still clung to hallowed local shrineswhich met long held psychological needs for health andfertility. Kings such as Penda of Mercia might not seek outChristians to persecute but they were loath to abandonWoden and Thor, the gods of their ancestors.Not surprisingly, many Christians felt constrainedto proceed gently — taking over non-idolatrous sites asplaces of worship, and adapting ancient festivities to serveChristian ends often became the norm. Displays of holyrelics invested with supernatural powers and mysteriousclaims of miraculous cures, appealed to sceptical orindifferent members of the community.Today, we tend to look upon these things with a morecynical eye. Nevertheless, relics were often a reminder ofvalues cherished and a believer’s sense of belonging to aspecial place. Wherever plain timbered churches appeared,images and ornaments on the inside attributed the heroicdeeds of pagan gods to Christian saints and martyrslending dramatic authenticity to the wider Christianstory.In 634, Pope Honorius I instructed Birinus (d 648), aFrankish Benedictine monk, to 'sow the seed of the HolyFaith . . . where no other teacher had been before him', amission which took him to the kingdom of Wessex southof the Thames Valley.At the time, an uneasy peace prevailed with Merciawhich regularly sent marauders across the Thames insearch of easy plunder. Wessex’s King Cynegils neededallies.Following baptism in the presence of his son-in-law,Northumbia’s King Oswald, a treaty of alliance wassecured. Birinus established a small church near theThames at Dorchester which not only became an abbeybut served as the seat of Wessex’s first bishopric whichextended across an enormous area including present dayBerkshire, Hampshire, Wiltshire, Dorset, and northernSomerset. Unchanged in size until 705, it was then subdividedinto two sees; one at Sherborne and another atThe Parish Magazine - November 2020 17SPREADING THE WORD: HOW CHRISTIANITY CAME TO SOUTHERN ENGLAND-PART 2Old beliefs challengedPeter van Went, archivist, Reading Blue Coat School, continues his series on theearly development of Chrisianity in our part of the world.Perhaps the hardest task facing missionaries was how toovercome deeply ingrained habits of thought and beliefshared by most of England’s seven quarrelsome kingdoms.SUPERNATURAL POWERSSOWING NEW GROUNDThis roundel is the earliest stained glass window in DorchesterAbbey c1250. It is believed to be showing St Birinus being blessed byArchbishop Asterius of Milan who sent him on a mission to Britain.Winchester. Two smaller churches are also attributed toBirinus in the villages of Checkendon and Ipsden, and heis even credited with founding St Mary’s minster, one ofthe oldest churches in Reading.As teaching and learning flourished in Northumbria,much influenced by the scholarship of Bede (c673-705),more scripture was translated and recited into OldEnglish.Having already laid foundations at Malmesbury wherehe was abbot for 30 years, Aldhelm (c639-709), introducedthe Benedictine Rule as the first Bishop of Sherborne, andencouraged the growth of monastic schools and centres oflearning at Frome in Somerset and Bradford-on-Avon inWiltshire.PARISH LIFE AND DEATHBy the 9th Century, most of the churches in ourvillages and towns today had been built, though few of theoriginal Saxon structures survive. So much of Saxon liferevolved around villages where, in the words of one writer:'The whole population found its dearest associations inlife and death gathered round the parish church.'1Many a king, keenly encouraged by a favourite bishopto find spiritual salvation, began to endow sees andchurches with gifts of land which in turn produced incomefrom tithes and laid the foundations of a parish systemacross England. Compared with today’s village-centredparish, our own 'ancient parish' of Sonning was enormous,stretching from Sonning Common in Oxfordshire toSandhurst in south-east Berkshire.UNIVERSAL CHURCH OF ROMEHistorians are generally of the opinion that much ofAnglo-Saxon England apart from Sussex was nominallyChristian with Canterbury at its epicentre by about 670,an achievement which owed much to the mission of a68-year old Greek monk from Asia Minor, Theodore ofturn to page 19NOVEMBER 2020.indd 17 11/10/2020 23:49:41
Page 1 and 2: TheParishMagazineTe Parish Magazine
Page 3 and 4: Serving the communities of Charvil,
Page 5 and 6: The associate vicar's letterDear fr
Page 7 and 8: the parish noticeboard — 1The Par
Page 9 and 10: the parish noticeboard — 2Wartime
Page 11 and 12: the parish noticeboard — 4STAYST
Page 13 and 14: feature — 1In early April, in som
Page 15: feature — 2from page 13Ali's Chal
Page 19 and 20: feature — 4from page 17Old belief
Page 21 and 22: The Parish Magazine - November 2020
Page 23 and 24: REMEMBRANCE SUNDAY — 8 NOVEMBERWe
Page 25 and 26: around the villages — 1New life i
Page 27 and 28: The Parish Magazine - November 2020
Page 29 and 30: around the villages — 3Santa Clau
Page 31 and 32: around the villages — 4A letter f
Page 33 and 34: healthDuring the glorious September
Page 35 and 36: THE ARTS — 1Rev Michael Burgess c
Page 37 and 38: THE ARTS — 2 the sciencesPoetry c
Page 39 and 40: HOME & GARDENIn the gardenThe Paris
Page 41 and 42: CHILDREN'S PAGEThe Parish Magazine
Page 43 and 44: Please mention The Parish Magazine

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