September 2014

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POPPIES IN THE PARK

This field of poppies recently graced a corner of Swakeleys Park, marking the hundredth anniversary of the start of the First World War.  A wonderful initiative of the Hillingdon Council, their Green Spaces department planted poppies at fifteen sites throughout the borough and, according to Green Spaces, Sport and Leisure Manager Paul Richard, Swakeleys turned out to be one of the most successful!

“We selected an area near the park entrance, sprayed off the vegetation, cultivated a seed bed and broadcast the poppy seed”, Paul told the ICN.  “For best results, wild poppy seed mixed with sharp sand was used.  This was done because the individual seeds are so tiny, yet we still used about ten kilos of seed altogether.”

Throughout Western Europe, scarlet corn poppies grow naturally in disturbed earth.  They were prominent in late 1914 when the fields of Northern France and Flanders were devastated by the terrible effects of battle.  After the conflict, poppies were among the only flowers to grow and became the symbol of the immeasurable sacrifice of those who gave their lives for us.  When the British Legion was formed in 1921, it adopted the poppy as its symbol and started the Poppy Appeal in aid of those serving in the British Armed Forces.

Is it significant that the centres of a number of the Swakeleys’ poppies are distinguished by the mark of the cross?

AFN

ALL SERVICES ARE DIFFERENT; WE LEAVE THE REPEATS TO TV!

When I was a child, church seemed a forbidding place.  I felt I had to tip toe so that the hush was not disturbed.  People appeared severe; so many gloomy faces!  Services are now very different; in particular, family services on the first Sunday morning of each month at St. Giles’, which buzz with joyful enthusiasm and children are invited to take an active part.

At a recent Family Service, the two children who had offered to ‘help’ were asked to open an envelope containing clues in rhyming form.  Having solved the first riddle, they searched the relevant area of the church and found a packet containing a picture in jigsaw form.  Three further ‘riddle’ clues led to the discovery of three more jigsaw pictures in other locations around the church.  The jigsaw pictures were formed on a table at the front of the church.  

A few years ago a generous legacy was used to install an audio/visual system in St. Giles’.  In this service the system came into its own.  The remote control camera homed in on the table showing the pictures being assembled.  The whole congregation observed closely as the closed circuit TV transmitted the pictures onto the overhead screens.  Many people are opposed, for a variety of reasons, to the use of such equipment in a church.  On this Sunday it was used to its optimum advantage.  I can vouch for the hush of interested awe from the full spectrum of ages congregated in the church as the puzzle pictures were assembled.  The four completed jigsaw pictures illustrated the Bible reading.

The worship songs were accompanied by the Worship Band with young children playing percussion instruments and performing actions to complement the songs.  Thank you to Anne Whitlam for the ideas and musicians for the accompaniment.

Church for the young nowadays is nothing like yesteryear!  Church Family today is a warm, friendly place in which to share.

Naomi Webb

THE URC WELCOMES NEW MEMBERS

It was with great pleasure that Beryl Jacobs, Julia and David Fish, Margaret and John Stokes, and Ian Burch (pictured left to right) were received into the membership of Ickenham United Reformed Church on Sunday 19th July 2014.  The service was taken by Peter J. Williams (pictured at back) and afterwards thirty-three people from the church all enjoyed a fine Sunday lunch in Chaplin’s Restaurant

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