The Parish Magazine May 2021

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34 The Parish Magazine - May 2021 Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to advertisements Cruz Kitchens Bespoke, Made to Measure Kitchens Designed | Supplied | Installed Call 0118 961 1295 Email: info@cruzkitchens.co.uk Visit: www.cruzkitchens.co.uk ALL WASTE CLEARANCE John and his team can clear all waste and rubbish from your office, house, garden or loft. He can deal with property clearance for probate and the demolition of any outbuildings – sheds, greenhouses, garages, conservatories, summer houses, etc LICENSED WASTE CARRIERS - NO JOB TOO SMALL! Free phone: 0800 012 6798 Mobile: 0771 021 2056 email: j.garmston@ntlworld.com DAC Mobility Services Keeping you on the move Mobility Scooters Wheelchairs Power Chairs Stairlifts Contact Your Local Engineer 07885 750350 dacmobility@gmail.com Sales . Servicing . Repairs . Callouts We also have a selection of refurbished mobility scooters. We come to you! www.dacmobilityservices.co.uk Respite and relaxation with 20% off Asking for help isn’t easy. But it’s important to take a break. The past few months have been challenging for everyone - especially those caring for an elderly loved one. At Sunrise, we’ve developed new ways to protect our residents physically, mentally and socially, allowing us to welcome new residents safely. And now we’re offering 20% off respite care * . We’re working hard so that, for a short time, you don’t have to. Call 0118 338 2986 or visit SunriseSonning.co.uk for more details. Sunrise of Sonning Old Bath Road, Sonning, Berkshire RG4 6TQ Residential, nursing and dementia care home 9 June 2018 *Terms and conditions apply. Please visit www.sunrise-care.co.uk/care-services/terms-and-conditions for more information
THE ARTS — 1 From the sun to the Son By Rev Michael Burgess From time immemorial people have placed the sun at the centre of life and worship. As Christianity spread, it took over ceremonies and practices associated with that belief, but moved the focus from the sun to the Son, Jesus. In May we celebrate the goodness and fruitfulness of nature brought by the sun with maypole dancing, the crowning of the May Queen, and games and sports, just as the Romans went dancing in the fields, rejoicing in the gifts of Flora, the goddess of nature, and druids greet the sun on a high place. That custom persisted for several centuries, particularly at Magdalen College in Oxford. In 1840 Dr John Bloxam revived it. Holman Hunt*, one of the group of artists known as the Pre-Raphaelites, visited Oxford in 1851 and so enjoyed the Christmas festivities that he decided to honour the college life in one of his paintings. It took many years to reach the canvas: his painting of May Morning on Magdalen Tower (above) is one of his last complete works in 1890. We can identify the choristers gathered to greet the rising sun in music and song. Amid the clouds and blue sky, the birds are flying and the floor where the choir stand is bedecked with flowers. It is a glorious celebration of the fruitfulness of May and summer: God’s creation bringing so many gifts. The college president is the man with the dark beard at the right, and Dr Bloxam is beside him. WELCOMED TO SHARE commons.wikimedia.org But there is an unusual character there — a Parsee, an ancient worshipper of the sun from Persia, perhaps representing not only those who look to the light of the sun, but are also searching for the light of truth. The young chorister in the middle looking out at us holds a lily, the symbol of Mary, the mother of God’s Son. All creation is gathered to greet the dawn and the rising sun of May with the birds above and people below, young and old, Christian and non-Christian — all united to proclaim the goodness and renewal promised by the sun. Holman Hunt said that he wanted to represent ‘the spirit of a beautiful, primitive and in a large sense eternal service.’ Here is a vivid reminder the faith we profess opens our eyes to God’s goodness and glory symbolised in the rising sun, and that he welcomes everyone to share in those gifts. *William Holman Hunt (1827-1910), lived in Thames Street, Sonning, during the last part of his life. His ashes are interred in St Paul's Cathedral. The Parish Magazine - May 2021 35 From the organ bench As a further tribute to David Duvall — see pages 10-11 — we republish his contribution to our October 1992 issue . . . Fashionable music? Like many other things, poetry and music for the most part come in and out of fashion. Some blessed souls achieve permanent favour, such as Shakespeare and Mozart: others appear briefly and are then forgotten. Who remembers Alfred Austin and Zdenek Fibich? The former succeeded Tennyson as Poet Laureate, the latter was a Bohemian composer, a contemporary of Dvorak and Smetana and in his day as famous as both. But the popularity of most writers and composers depends on what is and isn't in favour. At the recent Royal British Legion re-dedication service we sang a fine example of a hymn which is unpopular with many modern churchmen because of its apparent unthinking patriotism: I vow to thee, my country. THE WISDOM OF GOD Sir Cecil Spring-Rice wrote these words in 1918 when he was the British Ambassador to the USA. They were a recasting of an earlier poem which reflected on how we are citizens of two countries, our own and the kingdom of heaven. In the earlier version he had apparently glorified war, but in the final version Spring- Rice makes his last line a quotation — actually with a word altered — from the glorious passage from Proverbs 3, about the wisdom of God: 'And her ways are ways of pleasantness and all her paths are peace' The third line of the poem, The love that asks no question, is the one that many people object to, on the reasonable grounds that love shouldn't be uncritical. It should be especially if it is the love of one's country. To say that a country, or government, is always right is jingoism. But Spring-Rice meant that we should love our country enough, whatever a government might or might not do, to make a sacrifice for it — because this is what Christ did for us. He said in a speech soon after finishing the poem: The Cross is a sign of patience under suffering, but not patience under wrong. The Cross is the banner under which we fight... different in form, in colour, in history, but the same spirit, the spirit of sacrifice. Unlike some composers whose music is used for hymns without their knowledge, Gustav Holst was proud to set the main theme from Jupiter, part of his planets suite, to these words, and he called the tune Thaxted after the village in Essex where he lived. I vow to thee, my country is one of the finest matchings of words and music that one could find, and is a favourite hymn of a great many people, not least the Princess of Wales who chose it for her wedding.
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