Service of Rejoicing and Thanksgiving for the life of Dorothy Hart

On Saturday 20th April (11.00am) St John's Seven Kings will hold a Service of Rejoicing and Thanksgiving for the life of Dorothy Hart. Dorothy, who had recently celebrated her 90th birthday, died on 8th April 2013.

In her late 40s, while she was herself recovering from cancer, she met the Rev. Peter Hudson and became involved with the creation of Redbridge Community Care, now known as Redbridge Voluntary Care.

Redbridge Voluntary Care was established 40 years ago to provide a ‘good neighbour’ service helping residents when they have no one else to turn to. A broad range of help is available through Redbridge Voluntary Care including transport to hospital, clinics, etc, emergency shopping, light help in the home and visiting those who are housebound. Volunteers are on duty 24 hours a day, every day of the year, to make sure there is always someone on the phone who can help if necessary. This can also include collecting prescriptions, shopping, visiting lonely residents and providing transport. Once a year, they also take 100 elderly house-bound residents on a drive through the Essex countryside.

In 2011 the organisation was presented with the Queen's Award for Voluntary Service in recognition of outstanding voluntary contributions judged to be of the highest standard. Dorothy, as Vice President of Redbridge Voluntary Care, attended Award ceremonies at Buckingham Palace and James Hawkey Hall. When she accepted the Award on behalf of the organisation Dorothy said, “We are very touched to receive this award. Over the years we’ve worked with some unbelievably kind volunteers who go to great lengths to help people in their time of need. If more people came along to volunteer as result of this it would be wonderful.”

Dorothy was also a long-term member of St John's Seven Kings. She became a Sunday School teacher at the age of 17 and was a member of the Mothers' Union branch, volunteering in the Contact Centre which the branch has run for more that 20 years. She taught in the borough and her two children were involved in Redbridge Music School and Youth Orchestra, going on to become, respectively, a professional composer and musician  and a music therapist pioneering music therapy in France.

Music will feature significantly in the service, as Dorothy's home was always filled with music while her children were growing up. The Service will include performances by Dorothy's children and grandchildren of: Etoile Radieuse du Matin; Berceuse from The Dolly Suite by Gabriel Fauré; Roses Are Blooming In Picardy; Clair de Lune by Claude Debussy; and Sweet Georgia Brown. 

In sharing the eulogy prepared by the family, I will say, "As anyone who knew Dorothy can testify, she offered up her love to every person with whom she crossed paths, somehow managing to make each and every one of them feel special. She was the archetype of a good neighbour. No matter what their creed, colour, age or background, she made a point of letting others know she was there if they needed her. Her example, in turn, inspired goodness in others. If everyone in the world could take just one leaf out of her book, the world would truly be a better place."

During the service I will also be saying that the "most fitting tribute to her memory is to be inspired to follow in her footsteps by living Christ-like lives ourselves whether by volunteering with Redbridge Voluntary Care – and she particularly wanted this service to encourage new recruits – or in some other way of our own choosing."

Anyone interested in volunteering for Redbridge Voluntary Care Service or wanting to request their help, can call 020 8514 0980.

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Paul Hart - Cartoon.

Aldborough Hatch: The village in the suburbs

This evening I led a service of Holy Communion at St Peter's Aldborough Hatch where I took the photos above. Ron Jeffries, a local community activist and historian, is a member of St Peter's and has written a book about the history of Aldborough Hatch:

"This book is the culmination of many years of delving into the life and lives of a unique community on the edge of the Green Belt in the London Borough of Redbridge. Born here, the author is one of many who have campaigned locally to keep the countryside of Aldborough Hatch open for all to enjoy.

This is not an official – nor is it an unofficial – history of Aldborough Hatch. Rather it is a lively, often amusing and sometimes revealing journey across the centuries – from the time when the forest of Essex covered much of Fairlop Plain to the present day when the traffic on the A12 on its southern boundary roars past on its way into mainland Europe and far beyond. If St. Peter’s Church features large in this book, this is because it has been at the very heart of Aldborough Hatch for the past 150 years and much local history is tied up within its walls.

But this is no dull catalogue of the past, for the pages bring to life little-known facts such as that Aldborough Hatch had its own “Lover’s-walk”, that the Dick Turpin has its roots in a Beer House in a cottage, that diarist Samuel Pepys visited, and poet John Donne and politician George Lansbury lived here, that Lulu’s Boom Bang-a-Bang started life here, that in 1862 villagers hereabouts spent the evening engaged in “rustic sports”, that the first lady Churchwarden at St. Peter’s was elected in 1915 (three years before women had the vote) and that actor, producer, director and author Bryan Forbes lived here and Hollywood superstar Rock Hudson visited a home here.

Published in 2012 to coincide with the 150^th Anniversary of the Consecration on 6^th March 1862 of St. Peter’s Aldborough Hatch, the book includes maps dating back to 1777 and in addition to the history of Aldborough Hatch Chapel, St. Peter’s and St. James, the stories behind Cuckoo Hall, St. Chad’s Well, the farms in Aldborough Hatch, Fairlop Airfield, Fairlop Waters, Newbury Park Station and the Ilford War Memorial Gardens."

Aldborough Hatch

The Village in the Suburbs – A History

120pp in full colour with 143 photographs, 13 illustrations and 10 maps

Publication March 2012 – ISBN 978-0-9561877-2-7

£14.99 plus £2.50 postage and packing in UK

Pre-Publication Offer £12 (plus £2.50 postage if sent by mail in UK)

Please make cheques payable to Ron Jeffries

Available direct from the Publisher: Ron Jeffries - Tel: 020 8599 7250; Email: ronjeffries@live.co.uk

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The Members - Sound Of The Suburbs.

Perhaps the most underrated band ever

"Rock'n'roll is a vehicle to express the emotions you are not allowed to use in everyday life. We shouldn't waste rock and roll. Rock should be looking at some of the big questions. At its best, it's an art form that inspires, sometimes teaches, sometimes threatens. Its only crime is when it bores." Michael Been

Michael Been, The Call's singer/songwriter, was born in Oklahoma City but migrated to California before forming The Call with Scott Musik. Sin and salvation were staples of the diet that The Call served up. Been thought "that every fault in the world is within him" and said that he had had "hundreds of born-again experiences" needing them because he is dead a lot of the time. "I believe in truth. Whatever is necessary for a person to experience to find the rock bottom, to know the darkness of his life, that's right. A lot of our music is confrontational, it deals with the dark side of life because that teaches us something."

Been’s focus on the dark side of life led to the band being labelled as negative and may have restricted their overall impact – their greatest success was with the deliberately life-affirming single 'Let the Day Begin' which reached number three in the American charts. Another limiting factor, in the UK at least, was that they were perceived as playing the ‘Big Music’ when the likes of U2, Simple Minds and The Waterboys had fallen out of critical fashion. The fact that Bono and Jim Kerr contributed to their albums didn’t help dispel this perception. In reality, though, the band that the Call most resembled (never more so than on Red Moon) was The Band, and both Robbie Robertson and Garth Hudson contributed to their albums. Support was also lost among American Christians (something Been had been at pains to build up – he sent copies of the single 'I Still Believe (Great Design)' to Christian radio stations together with a signed copy of the Apostles Creed) when Been appeared as the apostle John in the Martin Scorcese film The Last Temptation of Christ. He was asked to take part as a friend of Scorcese – The Call were reputedly Scorcese’s favourite band – and got involved because he “wanted to show something of the struggle Christ had”. However a lot of people wrote to him saying, “Your records helped me when I was down. But now you’re involved in this film I can’t listen to them anymore.”

The Call’s original career may have ended with Red Moon but it ended on a high, that album together with 1986’s Reconciled representing the peak of their work. Combining literate lyrics with powerful anthems and genuinely encompassing despair, ecstasy and the stages in between, The Call are "perhaps the most underrated band ever".

"A preacher and a teacher, Michael was always much more than your usual 'ten-a-penny' careerist '80s rock star. As driven as he was with his beliefs, he was far from sanctimonious and always a hoot to be around. He had a similar soul that one perceives in true American greats such as Robbie Robertson, but he also had the wickedly spirited comedy of John Belushi draped all around him." Jim Kerr

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The Call - Let The Day Begin.