Welcome to the second issue of the new parish magazine for St John's East Dulwich! Each edition of The Gander will include news and insights from St John's and our local community in East Dulwich and Peckham, as well as profiles of some of our members.

This issue has been put together by: Revd Raymond Baudon, 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.

I've loved reading this month's issue of The Gander. November is the month of Remembrance, and this year is the 80th anniversary of the Blitz. We hear the story of our friend Albert Holmshaw, a lunch club and coffee morning regular, who took part in the D-Day landings. Christine Camplin takes us through the stories of two of the men who did not come home, and whose names are recorded on our War Memorial in church. Raymond recalls the moral ambiguities of war in a personal account from "the other side". Aside from wartime remembrance, I've enjoyed reading about Olivia Coates' 50 mile run, and I am sure she did not look at all like an elephant! We are very grateful for her efforts in aid of the Children's Society.

Julie outlines changes to the Robes Project Winter Night Shelters in the light of the pandemic, how caring for those in need is at the heart of the Christian faith. She describes how we can all still support their work with the homeless this year, including a Sleep-In, which sounds altogether more comfortable than a Sleep-Out! 

We are also delighted to hear from those young people who have fled the St John's nest to go to university. What a year to be a student away from home! We are glad they are safe and well, and finding ways to study and still have fun. With a fascinating interview with our own Caline McIntosh, St John's news and upcoming events, do make time to read this month's issue. We'd love to include bits of news from readers, so do drop us a note or speak to one of the Team if you have anything interesting to share. 

Christine Camplin
 

St John’s Calvary was designed by H S Rogers. It was unveiled and dedicated on Sunday, 11th December 1921. The teak crucifix, set in a memorial garden, is 17 feet high and was designed to be reminiscent of the wayside Calvaries seen by British troops on their way to battlefields in France and Belgium. It was renovated by Dolmen Conservation with the assistance of a grant from the War Memorials Trust in November 2018 and rededicated on 11th  November, 2018.
 
Inside the church, just outside the Lady Chapel, is another memorial by the same designer, a triptych displaying the names of 63 men who died in the 1914-1918 war. Six further names were added after 1945 together with six from WW2. Every year on Remembrance Sunday the congregation of St John the Evangelist, East Dulwich gathers around the Calvary in the Memorial Garden as this list of names is read out.
 
But each name has a family and a story behind it, and here are two of them.
 
George HAYDEN
It was easy to find his military record: Private (G/9094) George Hayden from Peckham of the 11th Battalion, Queen’s Own (Royal West Kent Regiment) was killed in action on 15th September, 1916 and buried in the Guards’ Cemetery, Lesboeufs, Picardie, France.
 
A “List of communicants from S. John’s who were serving their King and Country” (1916) contained George, Ernest and [George] William Hayden; the family lived at 22 Howden Street. George senior had been born in Peckham in 1862 and married Rose Ellen Rudd on 23rd June, 1894. Seven children were born between 1895 and 1914, most of whom were baptised at St John’s and attended Ady’s Road School. At the start of World War 1 the two oldest boys were working and were eligible to enlist. Ernest, aged 18,  joined the Reserve London Brigade, Royal Field Artillery, on 29th October, 1914 at Brixton and was discharged on 4th July, 1916, presumably wounded. It seemed obvious that the memorial casualty was his brother, George William, born in 1895. However, George married Maude Smith at St John’s on 27th September, 1918 and died in 1982.
 
In fact, George senior, “Jobbing Builder” had decided to do his bit and enlisted in Camberwell on 16th July, 1915. He claimed to be 39 years and 5 months old but was actually 53 and only declared his three youngest children on the form.

At this date the upper age limit for enlistment was 38; it was raised to 41 in January 1916.
 
George Hayden died in France less than a year later, aged 54.
 
Albert WARBEY
The final name on our memorial is "Albert Warley". It is one of the group of six added after World War 2. However, no-one with that name died during the First World War. The nearest match is an Albert Warbey who served with the Royal Flying Corps and whose name was misspelt “Warley” in some of the RAF records.
 
3rd Air Mechanic (80733) Albert George Warbey enlisted on 24th June, 2016 and joined his Royal Flying Corps unit on 11th May, 1917. Albert was discharged as “No longer physically fit for war service” on 22nd December, 1917 and awarded the Silver War Badge on 11th January, 1918. This Badge was given to anyone who had been honourably discharged from the Forces with ill health. Recipients wore it on civilian clothes, as a clear sign that they were anything but cowards. He never served overseas.
 
Albert was born on 6th September, 1876 in 2 Canal Cottages, Peckham Park Road to Charles and Frances Warbey, the youngest of 10 children. He had a variety of occupations: Pawnbrokers Assistant (1891), Under Messenger Electric Light Works (1901), before settling as a Painter and Decorator. On 25th January, 1902 he married Alice Louisa Grubb at Holy Trinity, Croydon, Surrey. They had two children who died as babies and, according to family members, she then left him and had a child with someone else.
 
By 1911 Albert was living in Kensington with his 24-year-old housekeeper, Rosa Robinson, and their baby son Albert. They had two more children, Henry (1913) and Sidney (1915) and Albert then enlisted. Just before joining the RFC Albert and Rosa married on 2nd May, 1917 at St Mary, Lambeth. Albert was described as a “bachelor”; there was no evidence of a divorce. They had two further children, Rose (1917) and Doris (1921). Rosa died on 21st June, 1923 in Kensington of tuberculosis.
 
Albert Warbey died on 27th February, 1953 in Fulham aged 76, so must still have been alive when his name was added to the triptych. His first wife, Alice, survived her husband by four years, dying on 16th December, 1957 in Dulwich Hospital – only a few hundred yards from St John’s. In the 1939 Census she had described her marital status as “married, separated over 30 years”. Was this Alice’s final act of closure?

Albert Holmshaw's World War 2
Sue O'Neill

Albert Holmshaw has been a regular visitor to the Lunch Club and Goose Green Coffee Morning in recent years. Albert has very interesting memories of World War Two. In this month of remembrance it seems fitting to remember the experiences of our servicemen and servicewomen, and feel gratitude for their sacrifice. 
 

Bert was in the 3^rd Infantry Division in World War Two. He was conscripted in to this division, which had been General Montgomery’s in the British Expeditionary Force. Bert had been too young to be called up for that first offensive. Once called up, training was carried out in Scotland in remote locations, due to the noise from their big guns.

On D-Day Albert was with an artillery unit set to land on Sword Beach. The ship he was on had two decks, carrying heavy tanks and artillery on the lower deck and lighter vehicles, stores and tools on the upper deck. Albert’s task was to drive a trailer full of ammunition ashore. At the front of the vehicle there was a large drop down shutter and a lift to move the vehicles down from the top deck. 

During the unloading a bomb was dropped by German planes, which exploded under the front of the ship. This made the lift inoperative and meant they couldn’t disembark the vehicles from the top deck. The ship pulled back from the beach to go alongside their sister-ship off-shore and used two planks of wood to connect the top decks of each ship. This was their ad hoc solution to the situation they found themselves in; as Bert put it – there was nothing official about it. Despite being distanced furthest from the make-shift bridge, Albert found himself in the unlucky position of being first to go across as he was best placed to get a run-up.

His unit successfully crossed to the sister-ship, came down in that ship’s lift and drove to shore through the water to discharge their actions. They had landed about three hours later than the 9:30am planned and so were separated from the rest of their unit.

When the unit had first arrived at 9:30 the German forces were surprised and so only their local soldiers were in place. However the delay until around mid-day meant there was much more return of fire from the German army. There were also a lot of dead floating in the water. Bad weather meant much of the German air force was away training when Bert first landed: historians later established there were only two pilots on duty in the nearby airfield. These pilots carried out a single foray along the shore when Bert’s unit were landing and dropped bombs including the one that damaged Albert’s ship. By mid-day planes had been called in from elsewhere so it was a much bigger job getting off the beach than it would have been at 9:30.

During the night there were great numbers of aircraft and aerial bomb activity from dusk til dawn, at which point they realised one of their unit, Jock, had been killed. It meant their unit was reduced to 12 men from the original 13. Jock was buried locally and whenever Bert returns to France he lays a wreath at his grave. Albert mentions that everyone had nick-names; Bert was called Yorkie because he’s from Yorkshire. Bert’s friend John was badly wounded later in the campaign and was repatriated to England. He sadly died during surgery shortly afterwards.

Albert was part of the forces which took the small village of Periers-sur-le-Dan just inland from the coast, on the 7^th June . Albert’s role was in giving artillery support to the infantry taking the village. His unit’s guns were heavily targeted by the German artillery.

Eventually the situation changed from an invasion in to a full-scale military campaign. Later Bert’s division became part of the forces in Holland. Being Montgomery’s former division made them a first choice to take part in key campaigns!

The 3^rd division is the only division which took part in the whole campaign from D-Day to the finish of the war in Europe. However for Albert there was no VE Day, he tells me the fighting could not be turned off like a switch. There were partisan groups still operating and allied forces remained under threat from hotheads who did not want to surrender.

After VE Day the 3^rd Division were, unsuprisingly, chosen to go to Japan where the fighting continued. They were assembled at the airport in Brussels with all their equipment and field marching orders, but were given a 24-hour stand down. They didn’t know what was happening at the time, but the first nuclear bomb had been dropped and so with the later surrender of Japan they didn’t go. Instead they were deployed to Palestine, still without having had any leave. Servicemen were given a demob number based on their age and length of service. Bert had a high number and wasn’t demobbed until 1947.

Every year on the 7^th June the village of Periers-sur-le-Dan invites all the veterans involved in their liberation to commemmorative events. The large numbers of veterans who used to attend have diminished to just two the last time Bert went, which was on the 75^th Anniversary in 2019. On this occasion Bert and the other veteran were given special medals from the village. The mayor of the village and other national high ranking officers came to the ceremony.

I am very grateful to Albert for sharing his memories with me, his personal history making those events so vivid and clearly deserving of remembrance.

An experience from the other side
Revd Raymond Baudon

My grandfather on my father’s side was born in south west France in 1922. As a child we were aware that he had spent the war in Germany, not as a prisoner of war but as part of the "service du travail obligatoire" scheme brought in by the occupying German government in France in 1942.
 
Although none of my family spoke about his wartime experiences, it was never clear whether this was because they actually didn’t know the details or because they didn’t want to tell what they knew. However, my maternal grandmother, who had experienced the Blitz in London, used to refer to him as "Quisling". This is another name for "traitor".
 
On 4th September 1942, the Vichy government decreed that French people would be obliged to work for Germany to support their war effort. Because there were not enough French people volunteering for this work, the occupying forces enlisted almost the whole of the graduating classes of 1942 and 1943. My grandfather was one of these.
 
I knew that my grandfather had written his memoirs of his wartime experiences called "J’etais le déporté du travail numéro 6219". I had never read them but recently I was tidying up at home and came across a copy.

The book opens with this introduction: "The French have a short memory and now that I am a grandfather, I realise that my grandchildren know nothing about history. When the academic books appeared after the Liberation of France, we discovered in them many deliberate omissions." By addressing these deliberate omissions - these attempts to forget about the past - the memoir makes for uncomfortable reading at times.
 
In June 1943, after receiving his papers from the occupied French government, my grandfather arrived in Eger (now Cheb), a town in what was Czechoslovakia, on the border with Germany. He, along with a number of other French civilians, lived in a camp and worked in a factory making and repairing Heinkel bomber planes. He writes that although certain books and films showed workers sabotaging the German war effort, in reality there were many quality control checks. If a plane did crash and if the fault was able to be traced then the person responsible would be sent to the Eastern front if they were German or to a concentration camp if they were a foreigner. For me this is a curious passage because he later writes: "I swear on my honour to have been completely ignorant of the existence of death camps such as Buchenwald, Mauthausen, Auschwitz, etc. I did not learn of their existence until I returned to France. I am persuaded that a large part of the German people were ignorant of the camps. At least, no-one spoke about them. The secret was well guarded." He then quickly changes the subject and describes his day-to-day life. Granted there was a difference between concentration camps and death camps but I do wonder if his quick change of subject in the book belies an attitude of turning away, of not wanting to know.
 
Workers such as my grandfather were not prisoners. He describes receiving relatively hearty meals, mostly made up of potatoes and meat. Although there was a curfew at the weekends, workers were allowed to go to the nearest town to go to the cinema. He even describes a relationship he had with a Polish woman called Ludwika. It is strange to think that perhaps I could have been Polish! This relationship came to an end in July 1944 when my grandfather was transferred to Greven in Germany. He writes that he spent five happy months there where he made parts for planes alongside other Frenchmen, Germans and Italians. He even had a German girlfriend. After being transferred to the Rhur he then returned to Eger.
 
As the war came to an end in Europe, my grandfather returned to France and arrived in his hometown in the south west of France on 20^th May 1945. In the conclusion of his memoir he writes: "This adventure had little glory. The deportation of French people to work in Germany was one of the sombre pages in French history. Those of us who were young and sent to factories were made to be like rats." He goes on to allude to people such as General de Gaulle, the leader of the Free French, by referring to "great strategists" and "patriots" who fought the war from behind their desks and who said that people like himself should have tried to evade the call up or should have revolted. He writes about having faced threats of violence when working for the Germans and therefore, he writes, he would say to these strategists and patriots that everyone is free to make their own judgements.
 
For me, having read my grandfather’s memoirs, it is unclear exactly what judgement to make. There is a defensiveness about its tone. He was certainly not a member of the French Resistance but was he a Quisling, a traitor? He was a 20-year old, a young man, living in extraordinary times. Whilst he did not volunteer to work for the Germans, neither was he a prisoner of war. He lived with the threat of violence but at the same time he worked for a violent regime making the planes that dropped bombs on this country, including on my maternal grandmother during the Blitz.
 
I think I have to conclude that, like so many of his generation, he made the best of the extraordinary situation he found himself in. He was no hero, but I’m not quite sure that he was a Quisling. Although you may disagree and you would be justified in doing so. Maybe there is a reason why many people decided that for them the best course of action was to attempt to forget.
 
Part of my reason for writing this piece is to provide a counterpoint to the narrative that World War 2 was simply a fight between the forces of good and evil. Of course, we have to celebrate the fact that fascism was defeated and be vigilant against its return. However, I think my grandfather’s experience shows that for some people it was more complex than that, at least on a personal level. He died in 2002 before I was able to have a heartfelt conversation with him about his experiences. Although I am not sure he would have ever been able to do that.

At St John’s we have hosted the Robes Project night shelter for the past four years and support the Manna Society with the offerings from our Harvest Festival. One might say that, as a church community, the issue of homelessness is close to our hearts.

Few people would disagree that sharing our resources (our building), our skills (cooking, cleaning, friendliness) and our time with others who are “down on their luck”  must be a good thing. I would like to propose three reasons why it should be part of the mission and work of the Church. These are love, justice and salvation.

Love

“Love your neighbour” features in the commandments given to Moses and became law for the Israelite people. When asked about the greatest of all the laws in Matthew’s Gospel, Jesus replied that all the law and prophets hang on two commandments; to love God and neighbour. All of God’s people are called to love their neighbour. You might ask, as did the lawyer in Luke 10, “who is my neighbour”? In Luke’s Gospel, Jesus answers this question using the parable of the good Samaritan. The neighbour to the man who fell into the hands of the robbers, was “the one who showed him mercy”. Notably, this neighbour was not a respected figure, in this case, the neighbour was a despised foreigner.

What does it mean to show mercy to someone? One definition of mercy is; “to respond to human need with loving kindness in a way that is entirely unearned by the recipient”. Serving those in need by offering food, shelter, company and safety and expecting nothing in return, is one way of loving our neighbour.

Isaiah 65:17-25 sets out a vision of a new heaven and new earth where justice reigns. In this vision, the people build houses and inhabit them; they no longer labour in vain, and the sound of distress will be no be no more. It is a glorious description of the justice that the Church yearns for.   

We are a people who hold onto a hope for something better, but how does the Church cry out for this? Firstly, it is not a case of waiting for the end times. Guided by the Spirit, we can strive for what is good and just in the here and now. In the context of homelessness, our enduring hope is that eventually the Robes Project might cease to exist because the problem of homelessness is no more. Pursuing justice means seeking to do more than simply hosting the night shelter or donating food. These things are important, necessary and good, but striving for justice involves taking action to address the wider causes of homelessness. This could be campaigning for more affordable housing, for better support for asylum seekers or those leaving military services, or for improved mental healthcare. These causes could be supported through working with or donating to relevant charities, direct lobbying of decision makers and by voting wisely to influence the political direction. Crying out for justice in this way is not only an individual act, it is the work of the corporate church through prayer and action.

Most of our volunteers at the Robes night shelter say they get far more out of it that they put in. There is a wealth of empirical research that shows that volunteering has many benefits, in fact people who volunteer even seem to live longer! In Matthew 25:31-46 Jesus tells us that when we help anyone in need, we are in fact tending to Him. This wonderful reversal suggests that being with those in need is not merely an act of mercy, but an opportunity for us to meet Christ and to receive the healing and salvation that accompanies this encounter. This brings us back to the Good Samaritan. In a reversal of the usual interpretation, some suggest that Jesus is asking us to put ourselves in the place of the man attacked by the robbers and see the one who risks everything to help the injured traveller as Christ. In this reversal, Christ comes to us in the form of someone we consider to be least likely or able to help us. Interpreting the parable in this way suggests we must be open to meeting Christ in the most improbable people and places - including the encounters we have with our homeless guests.

Most of you will be aware of what happened to the night shelter here at St John’s in March, when we hosted all the guests 24/7 for 6 days from the start of lockdown until all guests were housed by the “everyone in” project. See the Robes annual report for more information about the last season.

COVID-19 has affected the way the night shelters will be able to operate this coming season. It is likely that with the effects of the global pandemic on the economy and employment, the problem of homelessness will significantly increase. At the moment, the plans for continuing the “everyone in” project, which houses rough sleepers in hotels,  are unclear.

Church night shelter schemes typically involve large numbers of guests moving from church to church everyday and meeting many different volunteers in each location. This will not be possible this year due to the excessively high risk this would pose to everyone concerned. Therefore, the Robes Project has had to work support those living with homelessness in different ways.

One option is to open accommodation at a static venue for guests. This would consist of a small number of single en-suite rooms where guests stay and are able to social distance while they work with support workers to get back into housing. This has not yet been formalised, but there may be roles for a limited number of volunteers in supporting guests at this static venue.

Volunteers visit guests at their hotel accommodation to provide essentials such as toiletries and clean clothing. Staying in a hotel might sound luxurious but hotel accommodation doesn’t provide much opportunity to prepare meals or do laundry and some guests have been placed far from existing social networks.

Check-in and chat

There is also “check in and chat” service. Volunteers are given a cheap phone and paired with a guest. Volunteers call guests once a week for a chat or to help with English language practice.

Hosting is where one guest temporarily lives with a household in their spare room while they address the issues leading to homelessness. It is supported by the charity Housing Justice.

A number of people at St John’s will be participating in the sleep-in on 27^th November. Usually the sleep out takes place at Southwark Cathedral, but this year this is not possible. Therefore, participants have signed up to sleep outdoors in their own garden or outdoor space for one night. If you would like to participate as part of the St John’s team, let us know. To sponsor our team, follow this link.

Harvest Festival: Thank you to everyone who donated to the Harvest Festival on 4th October. The donations were bagged up and collected by the Manna Society, which runs a day centre for homeless people near London Bridge. You can find out more, and make a donation to support their work, on their website here.

 

Knot Garden: Chris Eldridge has planted new rosemary and plumbago shrubs in the knot garden outside the Goose Green Centre. A number of people have made gifts to remember loved ones and there will be a short ceremony to acknowledge these soon. A big thank you to all those who help with gardening in the churchyard; if you would like to join the gardening team, please contact the churchwardens.

Sponsored Bike Ride: Chris, Roger and Jim completed the 10-mile bike ride around Peckham, Sydenham and Dulwich on 10th October. Luckily the rain held off and they even managed to see a member of the congregation en-route. Their reward for the three-hour trip was a quick drink in Dulwich Village. The bike ride was in support of the 5K for St John’s appeal: find out more here. 

Children in Read: Children in Read 2020 is the sixth online auction of signed books. All proceeds are passed on to BBC Children in Need. Anne Coates is offering the four books published so far in the Hannah Weybridge crime thriller series (Lot 20): Dancers in the Wind, Death’s Silent Judgement, Songs of Innocence and Perdition’s Child. If you’ve already bought and read these books, they would make a great Christmas present with a personal dedication. You can bid for Lot 20 or any of the other amazing books in all categories on offer here until 13th November.

Eco Church: The pandemic and the accompanying lockdown have delayed our initiative to be formally recognised as an Eco Church. Over the coming weeks we will now look to complete the "Eco Survey" which will lead to this recognition.

For those not familiar with the Eco Church, churches are required to visit the A Rocha website and complete the unique online Eco Survey about how they are caring for God’s earth in different areas of their life and work. The answers a church provides will collect points towards an Eco Church Award – the more a church does, the more points it gets! The survey takes you through five key areas of church life.

Coffee Morning talk: Goose Green Coffee Morning enjoyed Prof John Wood coming to talk to the group on 28 October. We heard the surreal "message from his sponsor", how exceptions are important, about music which does not follow patterns and his playing in the band Deaf School. There were other concepts like the machine for saying sorry, and also, of course, busking. This was all new ground for many of us, thought provoking and funny. We're very grateful to John for sharing his world with us. If you would like details for joining coffee morning please email Sue O'Neill by email.

 

 

Public Worship: The government has announced that places of worship must close for public worship from 5th November until at least 2nd December as part of the nationwide lockdown. We are awaiting further guidance and will share information by email. If you have any questions, or need any support during this period, please contact one of the clergy using the email addresses and phone numbers listed below.

Annual Meetings: Our postponed Annual Meetings will take place virtually on 15th November at 3pm and everyone is welcome to join via the Zoom video-conference platform. The revised Electoral Roll is now available to inspect in the church, as well as the Annual Report. More information is on the website here.
 

Coffee morning: Coffee morning now takes place from 11:30 am to 1 pm on Wednesdays via Zoom. Everyone is welcome to join by logging in during this time for friendly chats while you enjoy a coffee break or lunch, even if you can only join for 10 minutes! We also host guest speakers from time to time and details will be announced by email. The link to join Coffee Morning is here.

Robes Sleep-in: This year, the Robes Project fundraiser is a SleepIn rather than a SleepOut: you can sleep on a balcony, tent, back garden, living room floor or anywhere at home that is safe. It takes place on the night of Friday, 27th November. If you would like to take part, sign up on the Robes website here. Support those participating from St John’s with a donation here.

This month we read about how five university students from the St John's community have coped with home-schooling and returning to university in the midst of a pandemic.

Mathilde Pollard
Where are you just now and what are you studying?
I have been at the University of Birmingham for the last four years studying history and French. I spent one of my years in Lyon as an English language assistant as part of the French side of my degree. I have LOVED my time at the University of Birmingham and was sad to say goodbye to the student life.
 
However, I am still living in Birmingham and have just started my graduate programme with the commercial bank at HSBC virtually.
 
How has the past term been for you?
A highlight was getting my final results which I was very pleased with. I was especially pleased to get my dissertation back because you spend so much time on it and it was a relief it went well. A challenge was finishing my exams in the midst of a global pandemic.
 
What has kept you going when it’s been tough and what are you looking forward to?
My family and friends have kept me going. They are all very caring and supportive and they were a great help during my exams in lockdown!

Joe Pollard
Where are you just now and what are you studying?
I’m at the University of Oxford, Worcester College, studying Geography
 
How has the past term been for you? What were the highlights and challenges?
Overall, I enjoyed the online summer term despite the difficult circumstances. It felt a bit like I was back revising for my A-levels at home because of not being at uni, but it was nice to have a summer with a lot of time back in London. It gave me plenty of opportunity to stay in contact with my home friends and to explore my home city by bike.

Highlights: bi-weekly Zoom quizzes with my friends kept me going throughout the term.

Challenges: Having to do all the workload of a uni term (particularly the exams) without being able to do any of the fun things that would usually keep me sane!
 

Iona Clark
Where are you now and what are you studying?
I've just started my second year studying History at Queens' College, Cambridge University.

How has the past term been for you?
It's really lovely to be back but adjusting to online learning has been weird. Also having spent so long at home this year I think I'm more homesick that in first year. (My mum will laugh reading that because I spent the whole summer complaining about being stuck there. It's always greener and all that.)

What were the highlights? 
Highlights so far include finding some of the blue Wagon Wheels in Sainsbury's, seeing some students destroy Jacob Rees-Mogg at a university debate and eating dinner next to the river when the weather was still nice.

What has kept you going when it's been tough and what are you looking forward to? 
I'm finding cooking really relaxing at the moment. Eating massive amounts of carbs and cheese seems to be oddly soothing when the world seems to be falling apart. I'm looking forward to my college's big Christmas dinner at the end of term (which will hopefully go ahead) and being reunited with my cat in December.

Mattie O'Neill
Where are you studying and what accommodation?
I’m a second year at the University of Bristol studying film and television with innovation. I’m living in a six-bedroom house in the Stokes Croft area where there are quite a few other students.

How has this term been so far, highlights and lowlights?
I’m in week four of regular uni work now and adapting to the new systems has been quite challenging. I’m glad that lecturers have made the course function as safely as possible but this does mean that all of my content is online – bar one seminar.

I find online seminars quite difficult to contribute to especially if it’s a module where I don’t know people as well so it does feel like I’m getting less out of my course right now. Fortunately, the course itself this year has somewhat made up for it and getting out of first year student accommodation has made day-to-day living much more comfortable and enjoyable.

What’s kept you going when things are difficult?
Living with my closest friends at uni always means that even when there’s harder days, they’re never completely hopeless. When we’re staying at home so much of the time, having a room that’s comfortable and feels like my own space is also something I am glad for everyday.


Thanks to all the students for sharing their experiences with us!

When did you start coming to St John’s?
It was in the late 1970s, about 1978. I was born in Jamaica and came to London as a teenager and then went to college. I was living in Clapham South at the time. My husband I were looking for properties to buy and we saw a house in East Dulwich that we liked. The area was not as developed as it is now: it was much quieter, but it was close to shops and buses and a train station.

I grew up in the Church of England so I was happy when I realised the church was just across the road from where we were living. It was a very, very warm welcome at St John’s and I felt this was a church I would like to continue worshipping at, and this was a good church family to be around.

What things have you been involved with at St John’s?
In the late 1980s and 1990s, St John’s used to run two weeks of activities for children in the area whose parents couldn’t afford to take them on holiday. We used to have volunteers come from universities to help and we would put them up and give them food. We would take the children to theme parks, museums, parks and things like that. We could have over 100 children. We did that for many years and many members of the church were involved, and I wish we could still do something like that.

I was also involved in the fundraising for the Goose Green Centre. We went on day trips to France at least three times a year to make money for the fundraising, and we did sponsored walks, and had Gospel concerts and High Tea. Many people in the local community supported the fundraising.

When the Centre was built, we could not afford an administrator at first so I took that on for over five years. My husband and I were always going backwards and forwards to lock and unlock the hall. Ken Deller also started the weekly lunch club and a few of us did all the cooking until we could employ a cook. I carried on helping with serving lunch for many years.

Before the Goose Green Centre we used to hold Sunday School in the Vicarage and I remember very well we used to take all the children across Adys Road and back every week. We had to be very careful with the traffic!

When did you start fostering?
I worked as an administrator for the BBC and then for one of the large chartered accountancy firms. About 1988/89 I stopped working and started doing fostering. Over the years I have fostered about 100 children – some just for a week, but others for many years. I’m still in touch with many of them and they are part of my family.

When you see young people who are sad and have been neglected, and their faces brighten up and they start smiling, it makes you feel very good. We can give them love and care that they didn’t get because of neglect or for whatever reason. I find it a very rewarding job: it’s a wonderful thing to give a child love, a home, support and care.

One of the biggest challenges is when the parents feel you are taking over their role. It’s something that you have to overcome, especially if it’s a long-term fostering. You need to let them know that you are not taking over being the mother, you are just there to help the children. I try to accommodate the parents as much as I can because I think it is very important that if the parents want to stay a part of the child’s life, they should do so.

I’ve had up to four children at one time, for example when there have been three from the same family and I already had one. I still do fostering but only one at a time now! I would recommend fostering to anyone who is considering it, although there’s been a lot of changes since I started.

What else are you doing these days?
With the pandemic, I spend a lot of time de-cluttering and clearing out! I also enjoy doing gardening and reading. And I like to go for walks: on Sundays I go for a walk and drop off pew sheets to some people who are not coming to church at the moment.

I usually go to the leisure centre about three times a week for yoga, Pilates and aerobics so I have missed that since it has been closed.

What are you looking forward to?
I had booked a Mediterranean cruise for my 70^th birthday in July but it had to be postponed, so I hope to go next year instead. I love travelling and going on cruises: I’ve been on six cruises in the Caribbean. I have a home in Jamaica and I was there in March: I got back to the UK two days before the lockdown started!

The pandemic has also given me time to dig deeper into my spiritual journey. Having been a subdeacon and a sides-person at St John’s for many years, I miss doing that. Every night I pray that the day will come when I will be able to shake the hands of my church family, give people a hug and enjoy the lovely singing and music again.

When I first thought about signing up to the "50 miles in September" challenge, it was summer and I had not yet started back at school. I also signed Chris up without telling him, which he was delighted about!

Initially I was full of enthusiasm, which has, I must admit, dwindled slightly as the nights have been getting darker and the days at work longer. However, it was all for a great cause. So, after my final four hours, I have been reflecting on the last month. When running, one has time to think (which after a busy day teaching is something to be valued). I am humbled by the generous donations and enthusiasm shown by others. So thank you.

Two weeks in I remember thinking: gosh this is a long road I've embarked on. I can’t say I didn’t have the same thought on Monday night, two days before finishing, when it was cold and wet.

After 50 miles I have also realised what I dislike about running:  I am not a gazelle. Far from blending into the wild with all the other gazelles, I stand out like the rogue elephant in the herd. I do not prance along with ease, waving at the other runners as they pass, no, I am the elephant. I plod along, breathing heavily, looking progressively more and more like I may fall over. The red, sweaty-faced look is in this month I’ve heard…

Also, being overtaken doing laps of Peckham Rye Park, more than once by the same person! This, my friends, is the ultimate embarrassment. And that’s when you realise how slow you are actually running because you have been distracted by the rather odd-looking dog (who looks remarkably like their owner) to your left.

Once again, thank you for supporting us in our fundraising effort for The Children’s Society. The work they do for young people is so important, especially currently. The work they do is vital in the fight to ending child poverty and neglect, and helping all children have a better chance in life. You can support them here.

 

For many years now I have made a Christmas Cake using Delia Smith’s classic recipe. In her Complete Illustrated Cookery Course Delia advises the cake is made about eight weeks before it is needed, and for once this year I am on schedule!

The month of November includes Stir-up Sunday, which is the last Sunday before the start of Advent. The collect for the day in the 1549 Book of Common Prayer is:

"Stir up, we beseech thee, O Lord, the wills of thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may of thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen"

Tradition had it that as well as being a call for us to be stirred to do God’s work, this was a useful reminder to housewives or servants that they should “stir-up” the pudding so that it would have time to mature before Christmas.

This Sunday is now the celebration of Christ the King and so has a different collect, but the same words may be included as the post communion prayer or as the collect during the week.

With Delia’s timetable not quite fitting Common Worship, late October or early November is a good time to be stirring up the Christmas Cake, although it doesn’t matter too much if you make it later than this. You can see the full recipe here,  but here is an overview of the steps:
 

The trans-Atlantic slave trade has often been viewed primarily through the prism of slaves that survived being shipped from their homes in West & Central Africa to Europe, the Americas and the Caribbean.

“Enslaved” is a 4-part BBC docu-series which explores slavery through three different perspectives. However, of particular interest is how it explores what happened to the over two million slaves that died en-route to their “new homes”.

Narrated in part by famed actor Samuel L. Jackson, who traces his ancestry to Gabon, this mini-series provides a different narrative to the various slavery documentaries we’ve become accustomed to. In one of the episodes "SLJ" is joined by British Journalist Afua Hirsch, author of the best-seller Brit(ish) to explore the slave route from Ghana to Britain, and the slaves that died en-route. In another episode we watch as a group of divers from the organisation Diving With a Purpose (DWP) explore the underground railroad, made famous by the abolitionist Harriet Tubman and the route (by sea) from slavery in the US to freedom in Canada.

If you are looking for something educative and enlightening to watch either alone or with the family, then this series is worth a watch.

It is available to watch on BBC iPlayer or on-demand on cable/satellite tv.