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FROM THE CHURCHES’ REGISTERS Baptism at St Giles’ Wedding at St Giles’ Cremations at Breakspear Crematorium
ST GILES’ CHURCH STREET PRAYER LIST Each Sunday at St Giles’ Church we pray for all the people who live or work in a particular road in the Parish. During April we will pray for the following roads: Apr 1st Gibson Road If you live in one of these roads why not join us at our 8am or 9.45am services? You will be most welcome.
MAUNDY MONEY FOR PETER The day before Good Friday is called Maundy Thursday. On this day, Jesus ate the Last Supper with his disciples, then washed their feet as an act of humility and love, and commanded them to love one another as he had loved them. The word Maundy is derived from the Latin ‘Mandatum’ meaning Commandment. It became the custom in the 13th century for royalty to recall this simple act of humility by washing the feet of their citizens but, by the eighteenth century, the process had been replaced by the Monarch’s distribution of money to the ‘deserving poor’. Despite this change, the practice of carrying nosegays of sweet smelling herbs and flowers during the ceremony (originally to offset the odour of once smelly feet) still persists! The tradition continues to this day, with our current Queen distributing this ‘Maundy Money’, now to a group of recipients chosen by local churches, in recognition of their service to the church and the community. Each year, there are as many recipients as there are years in the Monarch’s age, and each receives that number of pennies in their Maundy purse.
Peter was born in 1933 in Slough but brought up in Hillingdon where he sang in the choir of St John’s church. He came to live in Ickenham in 1961, and still retains links with friends here. Peter was a Reader at St Giles’ until 1988 when he moved to the Isle of Man. Today he is one of the Church Commissioners for the Island as well as holding other church offices. Along with the other recipients, Peter received two purses – one red and one white. The red purse contained a £5 coin, commemorating the Duke of Edinburgh’s 90th birthday in June 2011, and a 50p coin struck to celebrate the forthcoming Olympics. The white purse contained the coveted Maundy Money itself – especially struck for the occasion. This consists of an assembly of small silver coins each with a face value of from one to five pennies, amounting to the 85 pennies’ worth required that year. Maundy Money is legal tender, but it has a considerable resale value, so is not found in general circulation. And few of its owners would want to part with it: Peter regards having been chosen to receive it as a great honour. We thank him for sharing his story with us here in Ickenham! AFN
IT’S A FAIR TRADE DAY! Two events held in March furthered the cause of ‘Fairtrade’ – the organisation that seeks to ensure fair terms of trade for farmers and workers in the developing world. A Fairtrade market was run in St Giles’ church hall by members of both Ickenham churches, who then went on to attend a special service in St Paul’s Cathedral, celebrating the designation of London as a Fairtrade Diocese.
And the St Paul’s event too was a great success, attended by around 1500 people representing almost 250 Fairtrade parishes in the diocese of London, as well as invited folk from across Africa. In the cathedral, Dr Harriet Lamb, Executive Director of UK Fairtrade Foundation, presented the Bishop of London with a Fairtrade Diocese certificate, and each parish also received their own certificate from the bishop’s representative. Traidcraft was established in 1979 as a Christian response to poverty, and combines the trading company with the development charity, so all Traidcraft goods are also labelled with the Fairtrade logo. The URC has been a Fairtrade Church since 2007 and St Giles since July 2009. They always use Fairtrade branded tea and coffee, and aim to promote and use other Fairtrade products whenever possible.
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Last Easter, Maundy Thursday fell precisely on the Queen’s 85th birthday, and the ceremony took place in Westminster Abbey, just eight days before the Royal Wedding. Unusually, not all the recipients were local: forty of the 85 were from the Isle of Man, and this group included Peter Cavell, a former resident of Ickenham. 
The event at St Giles’ raised £150 from donations and the sale of Traidcraft goods. Even the weather was fair enough for people to sit outside!