Welcome to the March 2022 issue of the parish magazine for St John's East Dulwich. Each edition of The Gander includes news and insights from St John's and our local community in East Dulwich and Peckham, as well as book reviews and profiles of some of our members.

This issue has been put together by Christine Camplin, Jim Nurton, Tayo Olatunde and Sue O'Neill. Click Subscribe to be added to our mailing list and you'll be notified when our next edition is available. The next issue will be published in April.

From the curate...

Revd Gemma Birt

Welcome to the March 2022 edition of The Gander.
 
As we come to publish this month’s edition, it is impossible to not have on our hearts and minds the people of Ukraine and the terrible and evil war being fought by the Russian government and forces. At St John’s we continue to pray for all those affected by the war, and we join in with all our brothers and sisters in Christ in praying for peace, justice and reconciliation. We’ve included a link to the message from the Archbishops of York and Canterbury and the Bishop of Southwark below.
 
Our Junior Library book review is of The Diary of Anne Frank and is written by Fayo Olatunde. Reading this book and Fayo’s review is particularly important at this time as we once again face war in Europe and lament for and with all those suffering as a result of the attacks by Russia in Ukraine. We are very grateful to Fayo for taking the time to share his insightful and perceptive thoughts on this book and for encouraging others to read Anne’s story.
 
We also have some pictures of the children of St John’s & St Clements Primary marching against climate change on Goose Green last Friday. As we begin a time of focusing on the environment during Lent, it is inspiring to see the awareness and passion shown by young people in our community.
 
This month we are delighted to be beginning a new series on Health and Care, led by Dorothy Oxley. Dorothy provides us with information the NHS Special Needs Dentistry Services, which provides additional and tailored support for those who struggle to attend or be looked after by dentists in their surgeries.
 
Our parish profile interview this month is with Mary Dawson, the St John’s Parish Safeguarding Officer. Mary is a detective sergeant in the child abuse investigation unit for the Met Police, and we are hugely grateful to her for leading our safeguarding team, As Mary explains in her interview, safeguarding is intrinsic to our lives as Christians and must be embedded in all we do in church and in our parish. God calls us to care and look after the vulnerable in our communities and this is a priority for us all as a church community. Mary explains a bit more about the role of the Safeguarding officer and also tells us a bit about her interests outside of work, , family, and getting married to her wife Gesine during lockdown!
 
We continue our Goose Green story, and in this edition our church archivist Clare Brown has carefully uncovered and written about the amazing effort to fundraise and rebuild St John’s after it was so badly bomb damaged in the Second World War. Do also have a look at the wonderful menu of the celebration supper in May 1951, put together despite the challenges of rationing!
 
Joining together with friends old and new to share a meal continues to be an important and vital part of community life at St John’s. Martin and Barbara tell us about more about the very vibrant and popular community Lunch Club which currently meets every Thursday in term time in the Goose Green Centre.
 
Another important part of our life as a community at St John’s are those moments in which we welcome new members into the family of God, the church. Baptisms are the way in which we mark this important life step and I have written a short article to explain a little bit more about what baptism is all about.
 
In previewing this edition, I would also like to commend Tayo’s article ‘When every word doesn’t belong to everyone’. Prompted by the recent arguments surrounding the use of the n-word by Joe Rogan, Tayo asks us to engage with critical and important questions about language, ethnicity, race and the use and abuse of “taboo” words.
 
On behalf of all the contributors to the Gander, we hope you enjoy this edition!
 
Gemma
 

Lent 2022: We are encouraging everyone to give up or take up something to help the environment during Lent. This could be anything to do with your daily routine, travel, diet, home or garden maintenance or anything else.

Please let us know what you have decided to do so we can include reports in next month's issue of The Gander!

We will also have a talk from environmental charity A Rocha at the 10am Mass on 13 March.

On 20 March we will have a special collection for the Bishop of Southwark's Lent Call. The theme this year is “home”, to support projects helping those in need of shelter, security, and a place to call home.

Envelopes will be available for cash donations and you will also be able to donate using contactless machines.
 

On Friday 25 February the children of St John's & St Clement's Primary marched to save the planet on Goose Green. As you can see from the photos, they had placards and banners protesting against climate change. During Lent this year, and encourage everyone at St John's to give, or take up, something to help the environment.

Martin Howell and Barbara Deller
The Goose Green Lunch club was started by the Goose Green Community Association with the support of Southwark Council in 1997. The Council Social Services department provided a grant for the fitting out of the Centre kitchen and towards the running cost of the club.

The condition of the grant aid stated that the purpose of the grant was “Initially, provide a 1 day, 25 place lunch club for parishioners in Bellenden Ward, particularly those living alone, through which they will receive companionship and support and be helped to maintain independent lifestyles. It is hoped that the service will grow in scale in the future.”

The Council continued to support the running of the club through the 2000s with a reduction in the grant at the end of the decade. The grant was withdrawn in the 2010s as part of local government cutbacks. Since then the club has operated largely on a self-supporting basis.

Due to the pandemic we suspended meetings from March 2020 until the end of September 2021, with a further break over December/January. Thankfully we felt able to resume meeting on 3 February 2022. As part of our measures to keep everyone safe, we are now using the whole hall and have limited numbers to 4 people per table.

Whilst the number of people attending the lunches has fluctuated over the years, reaching 30-45 each week in the late 2000s, we still provide lunches for 20-30 members each week, plus volunteers, with members of the clergy attending from time to time. The majority of our members are regulars, including one of our original members from 1997, who is now in her 90s. 

For £5, members get a two-course hot meal, prepared by our chef Sally, followed by a tea or coffee. Typical menus include ham with parsley sauce, roast potatoes and veg, followed by apple crumble or steak and mushroom pie, mash and veg, followed by trifle and compote.

The club wouldn’t be able to operate without our team of volunteers, who help prepare the veg, put out the tables and chairs and lay the tables, serve and clear everything away afterwards.

The social aspect of the club is still very important. Many members of the club keep in touch with each other by phone and our volunteers kept in contact with members during the pandemic. In addition to regular meetings we hold an annual Christmas party and summer party in July. Unfortunately our 2021 Christmas party had to be delayed due to the Omicron outbreak, but as you can see from the photos we were able to hold it on 24 February, with music, fairy lights, Christmas raffle and all!
 
We also usually have a summer outing. In 2019 we went to Morden Hall Park for tea at the National Trust cafe. We travelled there by Routemaster bus, which brought back many memories and was much easier for many of our less mobile members to get onboard than a modern coach. The trip was supported by a grant from Southwark Charities, who paid for the cost of the bus hire.

Following the pandemic, the quotation for public liability insurance increased significantly, which would have made the club uneconomical. After discussions with the church’s insurers the Vicar proposed that the club should come under the church’s wing, and this was subsequently approved by the PCC. We are extremely grateful for their support.

The Club meets at 12.30pm every Thursday in term time. If you are free then why not join us? Whilst the majority of our members are elderly we are open to everyone. No need to book. If you would like further information, please contact Barbara Deller (07940 266 353) or Martin Howell (07939 288 885)
 

We’re pleased to be including a new regular feature about health and care, written by Dorothy Oxley. Dorothy has much experience and interest in this area, so we are fortunate she is sharing her accumulated knowledge with us. All her articles will be factually checked and include contact details where you can find out more.

Topics Dorothy hopes to cover include the Community Rehabilitation and Falls service, Intermediate Care Southwark (including physiotherapists, social workers, pharmacists and more) and Community Foot Health. We think these articles could be very helpful for those in our congregation who need to access health services as it is not always easy to know how to get help.

 

 
Even before the Covid pandemic, people were finding it difficult to access a dentist taking new NHS patients. That problem persists, and sadly it’s not one that we can answer easily in The Gander, though I have put a few guidelines to possible sources of help at the end of this article!
 
What if your problem is more complex?
For example, you may be disabled and need to be seen at a surgery which is fully accessible and the dentist and nurse understand and can help if your movements are restricted. You may even be housebound, and unable to get out to a dentist at all – can a dentist come out to you?
 
Maybe you have a child with special needs and you’re desperate to find a dentist who will be able to communicate effectively with them. Or perhaps you’re simply terrified of dental treatment; you’ve put you off going to the dentist for years and years and now your teeth are in a real mess, but you couldn’t possibly face sitting in a dental chair unless you could be sure the dentist would understand your fears and maybe offer you some form of sedation.
 
The Community Special Needs Dentistry service
This service is led by King’s College Dental Hospital, and is available to people living in Southwark, Lambeth, Lewisham, Croydon, Richmond, Kingston, Merton, Sutton and Wandsworth. It offers specialist help for people who have one or more of the following:

• physical disability
• medically complex conditions
• learning disability
• severe anxiety/phobia
• severe mental health conditions  

Depending on the nature of the problems, they may arrange for patients to be seen for treatment either:

• in hospital – they can direct referrals for patients requiring hospital based special care dental treatment to appropriate south London hospitals, including King’s Dental Hospital itself, and receive and process referrals for children aged 15 years and under who need hospital paediatric treatment
• at a specialist local dental clinic (there are around 20 of these across south-east London)
• in their own homes (which can include Care Home patients who can’t get out to a dentist)
• in an accessible surgery, if you’re plus sized and need, for example, a larger than standard chair

They can also see homeless people, who so often miss out on dental care. The service uses a dental mobile clinic to visit a number of centres for people experiencing homelessness in Lambeth and Southwark. Homeless people may also be seen in the health centres used by the service, if their referral meets the acceptance criteria set out above.
 
For children aged under 5 who have special needs, they run the Infant Preventive Dental Scheme, offering friendly, informal home visits aimed to help parents prevent dental problems from developing.
 
How can I access the Community Special Needs Dentistry Service?
As you can imagine, the service is in high demand and has to prioritise those who need it most. It is a referral only service and as such you will need to ask your current dentist (if you have one), your doctor or other health care professional (for example, a District/Community Nurse) to refer you.
 
The referral will be dealt with by the service’s clinical triage team, who will decide whether you need to go to a Community Special Care Dental 3 Service Clinic in South London (if accepted, you’ll be sent details of your local clinic).
 
If you need to be seen in a local hospital they will arrange for your referral to be forwarded on. If you need a home visit, they may phone you to assess you as part of the referral process.
 
What if you don’t need to see a Special Needs Dentist – you just can’t find ANY NHS dentist?
Sometimes ‘word of mouth’ recommendation can help – ask any friends who have an NHS dentist if their practice is taking new NHS patients. Otherwise, the first point of call is the NHS’s own site where you can search for NHS Dentists near you.
 
But remember that, unlike doctors, dentists don’t need to take patients from a strict geographical area – you could search near your workplace too.
 
If you’ve still not found one, call NHS England’s Customer Contact Centre on 0300 311 2233. You could also see if your local Healthwatch can offer any helpful advice.

If you need urgent dental care and have a regular dentist, you can also try NHS111. Dentists have a large backlog after COVID-19 and this is what you are advised to do. It is recommended!
 

Throughout the hardships of the war years the parish had enjoyed the committed leadership of the Revd Frank Bishop, and it was he who led the fund-raising efforts with a view to rebuilding the church. The Diocesan Surveyor had visited the church the day after the December 1940 bombing and advised that nothing could be done until after the war, though a local builder, A Coldman & Son of Heber Road, was called in to overhaul the main roof slopes and make good some of the damage at a cost of £33 11s. In May 1941 the parish was awarded a grant towards this of £20, equivalent to just over £1000 today, by the City Parochial Charities (Ecclesiastical) Fund.

The parish knew it could count on some war damage payments from the Government under the War Damage Act (1941). Fr Bishop wrote in an appeal leaflet: “the Government has promised to provide plain substitute Churches or plain repair Churches for those destroyed by Enemy Action. This is as generous as can be expected, but will undoubtedly have to be supplemented if our Churches are to be worthily furnished for the worship of God, and improvements do not come within the scope of the compensation for War Damage. This severe damage, requiring such extensive restoration suggests that now is the obvious time to carry out such minor improvements as may be within our power.” From 1943 the proceeds of the annual Christmas Sale were reserved for the Restoration Fund, so too was money raised by Gift Days and other efforts of the congregation, such as individual collection boxes or individual gifts. Full details were regularly featured in the parish magazine.

Shortly after VE Day, 8 May 1945, Bishop Simpson asked Fr Bishop to leave St John’s and take on the parish of St Giles’ Camberwell, where he was instituted at on 3 November. The church’s 80th birthday was celebrated that year in the ruins of the church and £411 17s 11d raised for the Restoration Fund. In his sermon that day Bishop Simpson recalled his long association with St John’s (he had been baptised there in 1883 and later been a member of the choir), and mentioned with gratitude the sacrifice he was asking the parish to make in Fr Bishop’s move to St Giles, and spoke of looking forward to the time when he should come to bless the new St John’s.

Revd Charles McKenzie
After an interregnum presided over by the Revd A M Bray, the parish welcomed the return of the Revd Charles Gerard McKenzie, a former curate, as Vicar. Fr McKenzie was 31, a Cambridge graduate, and had served as a Chaplain in the RAF Volunteer Reserve for four and a half years. Part of this time had been divided between Africa and Italy where he had been responsible for the building of a dozen churches for members of the Forces. According to the South London Advertiser: “one in Italy seated over 200 and was built by a labour force of ten Italian builders, four carpenters and odd helpers.”

It was for this work that Fr McKenzie was awarded the Order of the British Empire in January 1946. He told the Advertiser that above all he wanted to get bomb-damaged St John’s Church rebuilt as speedily as possible and to build a parish hall: “And naturally, having been a Forces’ Chaplain, I shall take a very keen interest in the men and women of the parish coming back from the Forces.” Who could be better fitted for the task than a priest who already knew the parish and had experience of building churches?

Fr McKenzie’s Induction took place at the Church of the Epiphany, Bassano Street, on 9 March 1946. By the autumn the PCC had nominated J B Sebastian Comper FRIBA as their preferred architect and by January 1947 he had been appointed. Sebastian Comper (1891-1979) was a son of Sir Ninian Comper, the last great Gothic Revival architect, and nephew of William Bucknall with whom his father was in partnership. He was a local boy, born at Knight’s Hill in Norwood and educated at Dulwich College. He had been his father’s assistant until the mid-1930s, thoroughly imbibing his style. His design used the columns of the nave and the chancel arch from the 1865 church but raised the north and south walls by nine feet, with eight clerestory windows on each side giving a light, airy feel to the church. An image of it was used as the parish Christmas card that year.

Restoration and fundraising
The actual rebuilding, however, was dependent on fundraising as well as access to scarce building materials. In June 1948 Fr McKenzie wrote of the Restoration Fund in the Parish Magazine: “Our need to increase this fund becomes more and more urgent as we look forward to the day when the work of restoration will begin. We hope to pass, well pass, the £3,000 mark this year. Already we have made an excellent start with our Lent saving, our Patronal collections and donations. Over £150 has been given this year, but by December 31^st we hope to increase this sum fourfold.” He then went on to advertise an American tea, sideshows, music and a mystery stall in the Epiphany Hall on 12 June, followed by a grand Whist Drive, concluding: “We are very hopeful this will be as successful as our previous efforts, and we are confident that our people will respond with their usual generosity to so important a fund as the Restoration Fund.”

St John’s tower and apse had, by good fortune, survived the bombing; in September 1948 the clock was renovated and could be heard striking the hours ‘to show St John’s was very much alive’. At the end of December 1948 the South London Advertiser reported that Fr McKenzie hoped that the church might be rebuilt sooner than anyone dared to hope. He is quoted as saying: “There is unanimous agreement in the parish that it will be a great day in the life of the community in East Dulwich when our church is restored and opened. When I have put forward the urgent claims of rehousing, people have still maintained that the church should be restored as soon as possible.”

Rebuilding makes quick progress
From the carefully annotated photographic record largely put together by Peggy Dowling, a long-standing member of the congregation, it looks as if rebuilding began in earnest in 1950 and progressed surprisingly quickly. The builders were Holland and Hannen, and Cubitts Ltd, a major London firm who had been responsible for County Hall and the University of London Senate House.

By the end of May 1950 the roof trusses and boarding, as well as the south-west and north-west pinnacles were complete. In June, St George’s Chapel was demolished and on 1 August work began on a new Lady Chapel on the site, extending its footprint westward and lowering the ceiling. The vaulted ceiling of the church was created in September and October using aluminium trusses as a cheaper and lighter alternative to wood, infilled with liquid fibrous plaster. On 1 October the rose window at the west end was complete. By early November the interior of the church was clear of scaffolding and a new floor had been laid.

In March 1951 the baldachino over the altar was erected, made of plaster rather than wood. This was a new feature, designed by Sir Ninian Comper, with the opening verse of St John’s Gospel in Greek inscribed in gold lettering under its edge. The Lady Chapel was complete by early April and the tester, also designed by Sir Ninian, was erected on 29 April, though not painted and gilded until later. It was not until 1954 that the West Gallery was added to house the organ console and choir.

The new building, with its bright, white interior, was rededicated on Saturday 5 May 1951 by Bishop Simpson in a lengthy service in which each part of the building was consecrated. In June’s edition of St John’s Magazine, Fr McKenzie commented: “How kindly the Bishop spoke of our parish and its traditions. We are conscious of our inheritance and we have tried to be worthy of it. Then the first Sunday in the new church. The Bishop of Brechin [the Rt Revd Eric Graham] said the first Mass and afterwards the Sacrament was again reserved in its true home. What encouragement we received from the congregations on that first Sunday.”

The following day, the solemnities over, the parish held a rededication supper. Fr McKenzie called it “an incredible achievement! The sight of those tables as we entered the hall! The ‘maestro’ of catering and her assistants surpassed themselves. A never-to-be-forgotten occasion, no one was more impressed than our architect.” Bearing in mind that rationing did not entirely cease until July 1954, the menu, comprising chicken, ham and tongue; green and Russian salads; pickles and sauces; fruit salad, trifle, cream custards, fancy cakes; rolls and butter; cheeses, including cream, cheddar, gorgonzola and gruyère; dessert, coffee and tea, was indeed a tour de force of catering.

However, fund-raising was still very much needed. The same issue of St John’s Magazine gave further information on finance: “Five years ago we appealed for £10,000 for the restoration of our church. Unfortunately, in five years the value of money has decreased but we have now collected £9,888 9s 6d., which includes £1,000 given to us by the Church Overseas. This year already £698 12s 6d. has been given, over £400 during the Re-dedication Festival. We have also received a legacy from the will of Miss Lyttle of over £1,800. The parochial contribution to the Restoration will not be less than £15,000. We are already approaching this figure, for we have already allocated the £3,300 from the proceeds of the sale of S Andrew’s to our Restoration Fund.” By the time the rebuilding was complete at least £15,000 had been raised by the congregation, a tribute to their dedication and commitment to rebuild a precious part of their lives.

In her memoir My decade of Vicars of St. John’s, East Dulwich, Norah Cullingford wrote: “I think zeal was the operative word with Fr McKenzie. He was the most ebullient person imaginable with his hearty laugh and often friendly slap on the back!... He was a priest of deep devotion and sincerity and a friend and counsellor to many.” She recalled that he was an excellent preacher but “with all his geniality, Fr McKenzie also had a stern side which came uppermost in regard to anything of which he disapproved.”

Life after St John’s
For much of the 20th century St John’s, like many other Anglo-Catholic parishes, had a tradition of unmarried clergy. Fr McKenzie was a bachelor and his parents, Arthur and Annie, lived with him at the Vicarage. His mother acted as housekeeper for him and his father, who had worked in insurance, was very involved with the finances of the rebuilding.

The three of them also holidayed together, but on a cruise to Norway Fr McKenzie met a young lady, Joyce Fox, travelling with her widowed mother. According to their daughter Mary, he reorganised all their excursions to be on the same ones as Joyce and her mother, and some of their later courtship took place at Heathrow Airport, near her home in Windsor. Joyce had been in the Wrens during the war and was working as a nursery school teacher when they met.

Finally, Fr McKenzie resigned the living of St John’s and, as Vicar designate of St Matthew’s, Northampton, he and Joyce were married in Windsor Parish Church in August 1955 (see photo). The Dean of Peterborough, the Very Revd Noel Christopherson, a former Vicar of St John’s, and Canon R Creed Meredith, Vicar of Windsor officiated, and the Revd Hugh Mansfield Williams, a former curate of St John’s, was best man. In going to St Matthew’s, Northampton, Fr McKenzie succeeded Canon Walter Hussey, who had become Dean of Chichester. Canon Hussey was a great patron of the arts and had commissioned works by Henry Moore and Graham Sutherland for the church, as well as compositions by Britten, Rubbra, Finzi and Howells and others.

Fr McKenzie did not long enjoy his family or his artistic inheritance. In October 1961 he died, tragically early, leaving Norah Cullingford to comment: “We have always felt that overwork and worry at that job caused his untimely death at 47 years of age.” A Solemn Requiem was held for Fr McKenzie at St John’s on 4 November 1961 and his ashes rest in the Calvary.

Fr Rolt, who succeeded him at St John’s, and had known him as a curate, wrote: “Our deep sympathy is extended by thought and prayer to his wife, his two little children, his mother, who suffered yet another bereavement the next day in the death of her husband, his other relations and his parishioners at Northampton. We can think of him only as full of life and vitality, giving his whole self to his ministry and expending all his energies, which seemed to be boundless, in his love for God and God’s people. That he should die in his prime when his work according to earthly standards seemed to be at its full height of success is a bewildering shock, but a reminder that our reckonings are not God’s… What always impressed me about him was his devotion to his people, his wise pastoral sense, and his great love for souls. This last must be his greatest memorial, for there must be hundreds of people who first learned of Our Lord and His Church from Fr McKenzie, and they must bless God and thank Him for such a devoted priest… May God give rest and reward to Charles McKenzie, a faithful and wise steward of his mysteries.”

St John's Junior Library
The Diary of Anne Frank, reviewed by Fayo Olatunde

‘The Diary of Anne Frank’ is an actual diary book written by a teenage girl who, throughout the diary, writes about her life as a German-Deutsch teenager born into a Jewish heritage, in hiding, during World War 2.

Anne Frank was one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust, and people still talk about her and the impact of her diary during remembrance of all the victims that died in the Holocaust. Anne Frank was born in Frankfurt, Germany, in 1929.

She received her diary on 12 June 1942, for her 13th birthday, and it was something that she really wanted and, later, something that she very much valued. She wrote in her diary very often and, later when she died, likely between 1 and 31 March 1945, her father, Otto H Frank and Mirjam Pressler, a German novelist and translator, edited and published her diary for the world to know and see the daily life of Anne Frank.

In this diary, Anne Frank stated many essential quotes, such as: "I know what I want, I have a goal, an opinion, I have a religion and love. Let me be myself and then I am satisfied. I know that I’m a woman, a woman with inward strength and plenty of courage." This statement shows us that Anne Frank was a bold person and believed in her rights and beliefs.