The Parish Magazine May 2024

The 

Parish 

Magazine 


Parish Te 

155 

The Parish 1869 Magazine - May 2024 1 

YEARS 

Serving Charvil, Sonning and Sonning Eye 

2024 

The John King Trophy and Gold Award 

Best Magazine of the Year 2018 

National Parish Magazine Awards 

Best Overall 2015, 2020, 2022, 2023 

Best Content 2016, 2021 

Best Editor 2019 

Best Print 2018 

Serving the communities of Charvil, Sonning & Sonning Eye since 1869 

May 2024 — Rogation — Ascension — Pentecost — Trinity Sunday 

Church of St Andrew 

Serving Sonning, Charvil & Sonning Eye 

the church of st andrew, SERVING THE COMMUNITIES OF 

CHARVIL, SONNING and sonning eye SINCE THE 7 th CENTURY

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Serving the communities of Charvil, Sonning & Sonning Eye since 1869 




Parish Te 

The Parish 1869 Magazine - May 2024 1 

2024 

Serving Charvil, Sonning and Sonning Eye 

The John King Trophy and Gold Award 

Best Magazine of the Year 2018 

National Parish Magazine Awards 

Best Overall 2015, 2020, 2022, 2023 

Best Content 2016, 2021 

Best Editor 2019 

Best Print 2018 

information — 1 

Contents May 2024 

THE VICAR'S LETTER, 5 

THE PARISH NOTICEBOARD 

— Easter Saturday, 7 

— STAY, 8-9 

— Why I am a Christian, 10-11 

— Intrepid Voices, 11 

— For your prayers in May, 11 

— The Persecuted Church, 13 

— From the editor's desk, 13 

FEATURES 

— Christianity is for me, 15-17 

— April celebrations, 17 

— Looking for a Bible? 17 

— Why May is important, 19 

— Claude wonders about Radium, 20 

— RNLI 200 years, 20 

— Gaza aid, 21 

— Three in one, 21 

— Holy Week and Easter, 22-23 

—around the villages 

— Intrepid Voices, 24 

— Horticultural confidence, 24 

— Summer gigs for female voices, 24 

— School Easter bonnets, 25 

— Inner Wheel, 27 

— Scarecrow Weekend, 27 

— Healthier Lifestyle, 27 

HEALTH 

— Dr Simon Ruffle writes, 28-29 

HOME AND GARDEN 

— The glory of May, 29 

FASHION 

— High Street dreams, 31 

THE ARTS 

— The Stabat Mater, 33 

— Book Reviews, 35 

— Poetry Corner, 35 

THE SCIENCES 

The pain of suffering, 37 

Nature and science meet, 37 

PUZZLE PAGES, 38-39 

children's page, 41 

This ISSUE's FRONT COVER 

Picture: Corinne Robertson 

Open day in the Bell 

Ringing Chamber 

EDITORIAL DEADLINE 

The editorial deadline for every issue 

of The Parish Magazine is 12 noon on 

the sixth day of the month prior to the 

date of publication. 

The deadline for the June 

issue of The Parish Magazine is: 

Monday 6 May 

at 12 noon 

The Parish Magazine online 

The most recent issues can be viewed at: 

http://www.theparishmagazine.co.uk 

Earlier issues from 1869 onwards 

are stored in a secure online archive. 

If you wish to view these archives 

contact the editor: 

editor@theparishmagazine.co.uk 

From the Registers 

BAPTISMS 

The 

Parish 


May 2024 — Rogation — Ascension — Pentecost — Trinity Sunday 

155 

YEARS 


CHARVIL, SONNING and sonning eye SINCE THE 7 th CENTURY 

The Parish Magazine - May 2024 3 

Services at 

St Andrew’s 

6th Sunday of Easter 5 May 

— 8.00am Holy Communion 

— 10.30am Family Service 

— 4.00pm Choral Evensong 

followed by Tea in The Ark 

7th Sunday of Easter 12 May 

(Sunday after Ascension Day) 


— 10.30am Parish Eucharist with 

STAY and Sunday Club 

Pentecost 19 May 


— 10.30am Family Communion 

— 3.00pm Messy Church 

Trinity Sunday 26 May 


— 10. 30am Parish Eucharist with 

STAY and Sunday Club 

— 5.45pm Sunday at Six in The Ark 

OTHER REGULAR SERVICES 

Morning Prayer is held in church 

every Tuesday at 9.30am. 

Mid-week Communion in The Ark is 

held every Wednesday at 10.00am. Tea 

and coffee follows the service. 

Home Communion at Sonning 

Gardens Care Home is held on 

the first Monday of each month at 

11.00am. 

— Sunday 31 March, Rufus James Handley Plumb, in the River Thames 

— Sunday 31 March, Oliver James Preston, in the River Thames 

— Sunday 31 March, Panyaporn (Penny) Pruksakit, in the River Thames 

— Sunday 31 March, Elspeth Christine Young, in the River Thames 

information 

— Church services, 3 

— From the registers, 3 

— Local Trades and Services, 40 

— Parish contacts, 42 

— Advertisers' index, 42 

FUNERALS 

— Friday 16 March, Anthony Ercole Farnese, funeral service in St Andrew's 

Church followed by burial in the churchyard 

— Monday 18 March, Diane Stares, interment of ashes in the churchyard 

— Wednesday 27 March, Charles Morley, memorial service in St Andrew's Church 

— Wednesday 3 April, Sylvia Woodford, funeral service in St Andrew's Church


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The vicar's letter 

Dear Friends, 

As someone who has no interest in football, I have nonetheless been 

aware of a recent fuss surrounding the matter of the England team’s 

shirts. Apparently the cross of St George has been subjected to 'a playful 

update' by Nike, rendering it unrecognisable to me and looking rather 

like another flag that seems to be ubiquitous these days. 

In the general scheme of things, I suppose this is of little importance, 

but nonetheless, I can’t help but wonder if this 'update' is rather less 

than 'playful' and indicative of an erosion of the Christian heritage of 

our country. If this were an isolated news story I could be considered 

paranoid, but, coupled with so much else for those with eyes to see, one 

wonders. 

This month marks the first anniversary of His Majesty’s Coronation, 

and we look back on an extraordinary service in Westminster Abbey, 

utterly rooted in our Judeo-Christian heritage. Perhaps, to some, it 

seemed anachronistic, even faintly ridiculous, but the oaths, symbols, 

prayers and anointing all provided a bridge to both the Old and New 

Testaments and highlighted just how central the Christian faith has 

been for over 1,000 years in this Kingdom. I have long said in response 

to those who have called for us to leave all this in the past and adapt to 

becoming a secular state, with no established church, that the inevitable 

void this would create will not remain unfilled. 

To the passionate secularists I would warn that they should be very 

careful what they wish for. The Christian church, for all its human 

faults, has been a tremendous force for good since its birth, and while 

this is so often forgotten, the foundation of so many hospitals, hospices, 

adoption agencies, care homes, schools, universities, international relief 

charities and much else besides, came from the desire of Christians to 

improve their societies and to care for those in need. 

SIGNIFICANT INVESTMENT 

In a small, yet significant way, our own church continues in this 

tradition with our flourishing work with young people and children. It is 

a good news story and one that should both encourage and inspire. There 

were 76 teenagers at a recent STAY on Friday youth group in The Ark and 

so many others have been helped by Westy and Corinne in schools and 

elsewhere. If St Andrew’s had not invested in the creation of these posts 

and in housing, who else would be providing such a service to our local 

communities? Indeed, I venture to suggest that we are seeing young lives 

changed for the better, and what a privilege it was for me to baptise in 

the river on Easter Day, three teenagers and a young mother. 

MISSION AND OUTREACH 

The great church feast of Pentecost is approaching later this month, 

and we shall celebrate with Christians around the world the coming 

of the Holy Spirit upon the infant church. They were a frightened and 

persecuted group of men and women and yet through the infusion of the 

power of God’s Spirit, they went out and boldly spoke of the resurrected 

Christ and of his life changing message. The world has never been the 

same since and I believe, more than at any time during my 26 year 

ministry, that the local church is being called to refocus itself on mission 

and outreach, to overcome bureaucracy, complacency or even defeatism, 

and tap back into that power which brought our church to life 2,000 

years ago. 

Come Holy Spirit! 

Warm wishes, 

Jamie

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the parish noticeboard — 1 

Easter Saturday Free for All 


Pictures: Westy and Corinne

8 The Parish Magazine - May 2024 

the parish noticeboard — 2 

St Andrew's Youth 

email or text me, Westy, 

for ideas, a chat or to 

encourage what we are doing 

youthminister@sonningparish.org.uk 

0794 622 4106 

Reading Youth Night 

The youth workers across the town held another 

Reading Youth Night where we welcomed the 

different church youth groups to gather for 

worship, Biblical teaching on Barabbas and how 

we are him in that story. We’ve been set free while 

Jesus was condemned. The night ended with space 

to respond in prayer. 

STAY Easter Activities 

During the Easter Holidays we had a great time. We 

went to Wokingham for a couple of games of Laser 

Quest! My favourite moment was when a young 

person named themselves God and won the game. 

After finishing the game they claimed — God 

always wins! We also took groups of STAY youth to 

Chessington World of Adventures and Planet Ice 

Skating in Basingstoke. 

STAY Baptisms 

Another three young people, and one adult, were 

baptised on Easter Sunday. We had another superb 

time welcoming new people into the church and 

Christian faith. (See page 23) 

STAY on Sunday 

We had three STAY on Sunday sessions on 10, 24 

and 31 March. On Mothering Sunday we looked 

at Colossians 3:12-17 and thought about how 

our mums are so often kind, compassionate and 

caring towards us. On Palm Sunday, we looked 

at Mark 11:1-11 and thought about Jesus riding 

into Jerusalem on a donkey, only to be crucified 

that week by the very same people who had called 

hosanna a week earlier. Then on Easter Sunday we 

thought about all the things we need forgiveness 

for. We held a piece of red ribbon, then took a nail, 

a hammer and nailed the red ribbon to a wooden 

cross, symbolising our part in Jesus’s death and 

how his blood has made us clean. 

STAY on Friday 

Our weekly Friday night youth club met on 8 and 

15 March, as we had the Reading Youth Night 

on 22 March, Good Friday on 29 March and the 

Easter Holidays on 5 April. Still, we had lots of fun 

and games with the Xbox, ps5, basketball, board 

games, pool table, table tennis, foosball and cookie 

making. The sweetest thing happened when one 

of the lads friends decided to sit in chairs to play 

table tennis because he recently had to use a wheel 

chair. 

The other highlight for all the leaders was the 

initiation of three young leaders. These lads have 

been volunteering as part of their DofE awards 

and to initiate them into being full young leaders 

we gave them a memorable welcome, which 

involved kind words of affirmation and cream pies. 

STAY on Monday 

Our fortnightly Monday night group met just 

the once on 18 March and we looked at how we 

connect with God through our soul. We heard a 

speech from the Hollywood actor, Chris Pratt, 

who talked about praying and staying connected 

with God through our soul, these being the most 

important things in life, he said. We also played 

some hilarious games with balloons and talked 

about what fills our spiritual buckets by writing on 

a pre drawn picture of a spiritual bucket. 

STAY in Schools 

Our work in schools continued in March with 

assemblies, one to one mentoring sessions, prayer 

meetings and a day of answering key questions 

in Sonning school as part of the pupils RE Easter 

curriculum. 

My favourite part of the schools work was 

seeing two lads from one of the schools we go 

into getting baptised. They said, after all those 

'God loves you assemblies' it finally sank in and 

we decided to become Christians! A real wow 

moment! 

As always, get in touch for a chat. Westy

Corinne's 

column 

The Lord has risen indeed, and 

we have rejoiced in his spirit 

here at St Andrew's this month! 

I’ve felt very lucky to have 

celebrated Messy Church with 

so many of our young people 

and families, and learning 

about St Patrick. 


We talked about how St Patrick used a shamrock to 

explain the Holy Trinity to the people of Ireland, how 

he banished all the snakes (sin), and we even created 

some shepherd hooks to represent his time as a slave 

when he tended the animals. 

KINDNESS 

At Sunday Club we had the pleasure of being 

together on Mothering Sunday and to talk about 

how blessed a relationship between parent and 

child can be. 

We took a deep dive into John 3:16: 'For God so 

loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, 

that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have 

eternal life.' We also created some lavender scent bags 

to give to the Mothers. 

PALM SUNDAY 

On Palm Sunday's Sunday Club, which was a 

gloriously sunny morning, we did just as the Bible 

told us people did — we took Jesus into our lives and 

had our own little celebration and parade. 

We took turns pretending our cuddly toys were 

Jesus and cheered them on by shouting 'Hosanna!' 

and 'Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord!' 

The next week we celebrated Easter and Jesus’s 

resurrection by creating the traditional Easter garden 

that was blessed and put on display in the church. 

We also played a game of musical statues, which 

I know as freeze dance! This caused a bit of lighthearted 

confusion at first. 

EASTER SATURDAY 

The Easter Saturday celebrations were enjoyed by 

all ages on a beautifully sunny day when there were 

egg and spoon races, bouncy castles, egg decorating, 

biscuit decorating, egg hunts, and free BBQ food! 

AT SCHOOL 

School’s work is going well. A highlight at Sonning 

Primary was when I had the privilege to go into the 

school to discuss some of their big essential questions 

for religious education including 'should Christian’s 

always forgive?' and 'how significant is it for 

Christian’s to believe that God intended Jesus to die?' 

We had some great philosophical and religious 

discussions and I encouraged the pupils to stay 

curious.


PARISH NOTICEBOARD — 3 

During Lent, members of the congregation replaced the sermon at the 10.30am Sunday services 

with a personal talk about why they are a Christian. Last month we published the first of these 

talks, here is the next in our series . . . 

Why am I a Christian? 

By Heather Hexter, a member of St Andrew's Church 

Parochial Church Council and the choir 

I am incredibly humbled to be asked to 

do this. When I started preparing my 

talk this poem by Vernon Thomas* came 

to mind: 

I carry a cross in my pocket, 

A simple reminder to me, 

Of the fact that I am a Christian 

No matter where I may be. 

This little cross is not magic 

Nor is it a good luck charm; 

It isn't meant to protect me 

From every physical harm. 

It is not for identification 

For all the world to see. 

It's simply an understanding 

Between my Saviour and me. 

When I put my hand in my pocket 

To bring out a coin or a key, 

The cross is there to remind me 

Of the price He paid for me. 

It reminds me too, to be thankful 

For my blessings day by day, 

And to strive to serve Him better 

In all that I do or say. 

It's also a daily reminder 

Of the peace and comfort I share 

With all who know my Master 

And give themselves to His care. 

So I carry a cross in my pocket 

Reminding no one but me 

That Jesus Christ is the Lord of my life 

If only I'll let Him be. 

*Vernon Thomas 

© Permission Granted by Agoro, Inc. All Rights Reserved 

This simple poem is why I am a Christian: 

and it boils down to three things which 

are fundamental to my faith — love, 

grace and prayerful worship. 

LOVE 

God loves me. It doesn’t matter what I 

have done or not done or what my family 

background is. He loves me. 

I have been lucky. I was brought up in a 

loving household. I have wonderful parents 

who have always been encouraging and 

supportive. We were not rich, but my parents 

Charity Jumper: Heather during a fund raising 

event last year. 

goskydive.com 

gave me everything. They pushed me to do 

better every day, so much so, that I was the 

first in my family to go to university. 

I have been surrounded by love and know 

how important being told you are loved 

every day means. It’s what I have tried to 

give my kids and also those who I supported 

in Sunday club . 

It’s what, I know, that on Mothering 

Sunday all mums, or those who have the joy 

of caring for children in whatever capacity 

do. They love. 

Love is so precious. I believe that when 

you find love and understand love you hold 

on to it, you nurture it and work hard to 

ensure that the love grows. 

As a Christian, understanding that love 

is precious is at the core of my faith. It is why 

God made the wonderful world we live in 

and why God gave his only son to the world. 

Sometimes, with what I think or don’t 

think or do or don’t do each day, I find it 

hard to still believe that he can love me — 

however, every day God is there, loving me. 

I try to remind friends and colleagues 

that they are loved and awesome too, that’s 

what God wants me to do to show his love 

through me. God loves me so I can love 

others 

I was christened at 6 weeks old and 

church was always part of my life. 

My mum took me to Sunday school from 

an early age, firstly at St Bartholomew's, 

then a Methodist church and finally at St 

Thomas, Kidsgrove. I was confirmed with 

my mum in 1989. 

GRACE 

Although I was confirmed and was 

active in my local church, I never really 

understood what 'grace' meant. 

Sometimes there is just one sermon 

that stands out as a turning point and for 

me that sermon was delivered by Rev John 

Tompkins at St Thomas in Kidsgrove in 

about 1991. It was about grace. 

Five words transformed my faith when 

he explained what the five letters which 

made up the word grace stand for: 

God's Riches At Christ's Expense. 

I know that I am only here because of 

that love God has for me that he gave his 

only son, and his son came and died for me. 

I have many blessings and I am forgiven 

because of that ultimate sacrifice 

It is so simple, grace is God's riches at 

Christ's expense. It is the bedrock of my 

faith . 

That is why grace is one of the middle 

names of my daughter, Celeste. She is a 

constant reminder I am only here through 

God's grace. 

It’s grace which has allowed me to see 

life simply and know that I am blessed. 

Sometimes this is in ordinary ways, perhaps 

food on the table or a bed to sleep on. 

Knowing that is important. In good 

times and in bad, God’s grace gives me that 

perspective. 

PRAYING . . . 

My faith is sustained by my third word, 

prayer. The prayer groups and fellowship 

with others in my teenage years, is now 

sustained in our church family at St 

Andrew's in this parish. 

When Celeste was recently poorly I 

can not tell you how supported she and 

our family felt knowing that there were 

churches up and down the country praying 

for her recovery. 

Once you know that God loves you, you 

recognise your sin and are forgiven and 

loved through grace and, with the help of 

the Holy Spirit, God asks you to share that. 

. . . AND MUSIC 

One of the ways I share my faith is 

through prayer and praise. When I attended 

Sunday School I had, from a very early age, 

praise and music in my life, 

One of my favourite Sunday school 

songs was God is good to me, which has 

the great lines:


He gave me eyes to see the skies or gave me 

lips so I can eat fish and chips. 

Sometimes simplicity in faith is what you 

need! As a teenager, because I could play 

piano and sing, I was a leader in my church's 

worship group 

It was there that I learned that singing 

was one of the ways I could pray to God. It 

supports my relationship with God and has 

been a constant in my life . 

CHOIR MEMBER 

Now, as a member of St Andrew's Sonning 

choir, The Choristers Prayer is real: 

Bless, O Lord, us thy servants who minister in 

thy temple; Grant that what we sing with our lips, 

we may believe in our hearts, and what we believe 

in our hearts we may show forth in our lives; 

Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. 

The words, 'I sing with my lips I believe in my 

heart and I show in my life' is why I can't help 

but smile when we sing Shine Jesus Shine 

It's why there are some lines in hymns 

which I simply cannot sing because the words 

mean so much: 

— Servant King v3: Hands that flung stars 

into space to cruel nails surrendered. 

— In Christ alone: And as he stands in 

victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me 

for I am his and he is mine, bought with the 

precious blood of Christ. 

The music is a vehicle to send my praise 

and prayer to God and the words are elevated 

by the music. 

I want to tell God how much I love him 

and how I will try harder. 

Its an absolute privilege to be able to 

look out from the choir and see a full church 

singing their praises to God. 

CHRISTIAN? 

So why am I a Christian? It's because I 

have searched my heart through my life and 

always come back to God. In the good times 

and in the difficult times when I have asked 

for help God has been there and answered my 

prayers. I have been carried. 

My faith is simple: I believe in love, and I 

I have a relationship with God through grace 

which I share through praise and prayer. 

It seems fitting to end on the words to 

a worship song which I first heard at Spring 

Harvest in 1992 and is why I am, and why I 

remain, a Christian 

I believe in Jesus. 

I believe he is the Son of God 

I believe that he died and rose again 

and he paid for us all. 

I believe that he is here now. 

Standing in our midst — with the power 

to heal and the grace to forgive. 

New 'Intrepid' 

choral singing 

opportunity 

for children 

By Richard Meehan MA ARCO, director 

of music, St Andrew's Church Sonning 

When I look back on my own music education, it seems to me that its greatest 

success was in its breadth. 

Learning to recognise the commonalities from the most diverse styles and 

the different approaches to musical learning ultimately led to something of a 

personal epiphany in my early 20s. 

However, if I was to single out one individual element that had the greatest 

impact on my musicianship, I can think of no other candidate that that of 

choral singing. 

This is an opportunity to learn joyfully using the primacy of the human 

voice to connect and commune with others present and speaking to us through 

music history. So we can continue to make sure that children and young people 

continue to benefit from this most special of opportunities, St Andrew’s will be 

launching a new initiative, Intrepid Voices which starts in early May. 

Intrepid Voices is an 8-week singing course run by St Andrew’s Church 

Sonning and is open to young people keen to learn about choral singing. It is 

designed for children in school years 5-7, although we would also accept some 

singers outside this range in consultation with their parents. 

I will be running the course, which also includes short individual singing 

lessons provided free of charge as part of the course by Tania Pratt, a highly 

experienced singing teacher in the Reading area. 

Rehearsals will take place in The Ark, St Andrew’s wonderful multi-purpose 

hall, on Thursdays from 5pm to 6pm. The course works towards a service of 

Choral Evensong in the historic St Andrew’s Church on Sunday 2 July at 4pm. 

As well as the Evensong performance, singers will also work towards 

achieving their Royal School of Church Music (RSCM) Voice for Life White 

Award, which will be presented at the service. 

If you know of anyone in this age range who would be interested in joining 

this opportunity, please contact me, music@sonningparish.org.uk for full 

details and an enrolment form. 

For your prayers in May . . . 

— The newly baptised 

— His Majesty The King 

— Her Royal Highness The Princess of Wales 

— Those taking school examinations 

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parish noticeboard —4 THE PERSECUTED CHURCH 

Bonded labour continues 

This month we focus on the plight of 

brick kiln workers in Pakistan, the 

third largest producer of bricks in 

South Asia, writes Colin Bailey. 

Pakistan's brick sector employs 4.5 

million people producing 45 billion 

bricks per year in 20,000 brick kilns 

(data from a 2021 report). 

Bonded labour was outlawed in 

Pakistan decades ago but the practice 

has continued. 

This form of forced labour is 

considered to be modern slavery. 

Vulnerable workers become 

bonded labourers by taking loans 

from their employer and being forced 

to work to repay the debt. Any crisis 

such as an injury or health issue can 

contribute to a vicious cycle of debt. 

TRAPPED 

When his wife needed urgent 

medical attention, Majeed — an 

impoverished Christian brick kiln 

worker — had no choice but to take 

out a loan from his employer to pay 

for her care. 

'The brick kiln owner started 

deducting money from my wages against 

my loan, leaving me disheartened and 

feeling hopeless due to the burden of 

debt,' said Majeed. 

This is the reality for thousands of 

low-paid Christian brick kiln workers 

in Pakistan. 

When faced with an emergency or 

illness, their only option is to take a 

loan from the brick kiln owner. These 

debts then keep them bonded to the 

brick kiln until the debt is repaid. 

They become trapped and cannot 

seek another job. Money is deducted 

from their wages to pay the interest. 

It becomes impossible for them to 

pay off the loan in full. 

FREE 

Thanks to Barnabas Aid — an 

international, interdenominational 

Christian aid agency based in 

Coventry, in the West Midlands, 

that supports Christians who face 

discrimination or persecution as a 

consequence of their faith — Majeed 

received funds to pay off his debt 

and set him and his family free. 

'Gratefully', says Majeed, 'thanks to 

Barnabas Aid, I am now released from 

the weight of this loan.' 

Katkari children work in brick kilns. 

Daniel Buckles, Wikipedia Commons 

Rafique has worked in a brick kiln 

for 30 years, and his two sons work 

with him. He says he has struggled 

with debt for a long time, a legacy 

from his father. 

Debts are passed on to the next 

generation. Rafique’s sons also had to 

work to help pay it off. Their debt has 

also been repaid through Barnabas’s 

help. Rafique says, 'We found solace in 

Barnabas Aid. They have helped me to 

finally be curse-free.' 

Barnabas Aid has freed a total of 

2,023 brick kiln workers since 2017 

but long to do more. In the next 

phases, they hope to free another 200 

Christian families whose debts range 

from £300 to £1,000. 

References and further reading 

Human Trafficking Search article 

‘Ending Bonded Labor in Pakistan Brick 

Kilns’: https://humantraffickingsearch.org/ 

resource/ending-bonded-labor-in-pakistanbrick-kilns/ 

Reuters article ‘From sex trafficking 

to forced labour, what is modern 

slavery?’ https://www.reuters.com/article/ 

us-slavery-index/from-sex-traffickingto-forced-labor-what-is-modern-slaveryidUSKCN0YM1ZJ/ 

Barnabas Aid Appeal – Free Christian 

families from brick kilns in Pakistan: 

https://www.barnabasaid.org/gb/latestneeds/free-christian-families-from-brickkilns-in-pakistan/ 

To donate to Pakistani brick kiln 

workers please phone Barnabas 

Aid on 0179 374 4557, and mention 

project 41-1356, or visit: https://www. 

barnabasaid.org/gb/donate/?project=41- 

1356&utm_medium=barnabas-aid&utm_ 

campaign=AP240405 


From 

the 

editor's 

desk 

The poetry of my life 

During my school days and throughout 

most of my life, poetry was never of 

much interest to me. This came to 

mind while putting this issue of the 

magazine together which, like many 

previous issues, includes poems which I 

hope you will enjoy. 

In fact, I had little interest in the 

study of the English language as a 

child, or indeed in my teens. I did, 

however, enjoy books, and always 

enjoyed visiting an uncle who had a 

large library of books that lined the 

four walls of his front room. 

When I was about 12 years old I 

bought my first book at a jumble sale, a 

leather bound King James Bible. I still 

have it today, along with nearly 150 

other Bibles that I have collected since! 

No, at school, I planned to be an 

engineer and work behind the scenes so 

science was my priority. The only arts 

subject I had much interest was music, 

not that I could sing — my music 

teacher threw me out of the class one 

day because I never sang in tune. It was 

an embarrassing incident that I still 

vividly remember and I still don't enjoy 

singing in public. 

I was also afraid of speaking in 

public and went out of my way not to 

take part in anything that required 

doing so. No, I was going to be an 

engineer working behind the scenes, 

although doing what, I had no idea. 

This is also why, in my early teens, I 

jumped at an opportunity to learn to 

play the drums — drummers are not 

expected to sing or speak. They just get 

on with their job sat at the back! 

So, how, 24 years ago, did I manage 

to become a licensed lay minister in the 

Church of England to lead worship and 

conduct funerals, and be a journalist 

and editor for the past 53 years? 

Answer: I put my trust in God. I like 

to think it has worked for me, so I am 

certain it will work for you!


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feature — 1 

EXPLORING 


Christianity is for someone like me! 

JMWilson 

Penny receives the sign of the cross 

Penny is baptised 

Penny Pruksakit, a new Christian 

Peter Rennie 

Westy 

By Penny Pruksakit 

I remember feeling nervous the first time I walked into St Andrew's with my 

10-month old, Dylan, strapped to my chest in the baby carrier. It was first 

weekend of January 2024 and the first time I had ever attended a church service, 

other than a handful of Christmas carol services. I was conscious of feeling like 

an interloper, saying or doing the wrong thing, or inadvertently causing offence 

through my complete lack of knowledge of the formalities of a church service. But 

the welcome from the churchwardens was warm, and the beauty and serenity of 

the church itself was undeniable. 

I signed up to the Alpha course, 

and St Andrew's had come up as my 

nearest church where it was being 

held via Zoom. 

With two children aged three 

and under, I could not commit to 

attending in-person a course which 

would run at the children’s bedtime, 

so the online course at St Andrew's 

was perfect. 

With the start of the Alpha course 

looming, I thought I had better pluck 

up the courage to attend a church 

service in person. 

Anyone who knows me well, 

knows that I am a resolute introvert 

and suffer from some social anxiety 

— something I am trying to improve 

upon! — and would not volunteer to 

meet a new group of people, especially 

without the security blanket of a close 

friend or family member in tow. But I 

felt compelled to attend and am now of 

course very glad that I did manage to 

muster up the courage to walk through 

those church doors that cold, frosty 

January morning. 

My 'journey' had started a 

few months earlier, when I began 

tentatively exploring Christianity 

via my personal favourite medium 

— books. I had started reading 'The 

Bible in One Year' by Nicky Gumble, 

the Alpha set of books, and CS Lewis’ 

books on Christianity. 

I’ve lived in the UK for roughly two 

decades. As to why it has taken me 

so long to explore Christianity, I’m 

not entirely sure, except that perhaps 

the timing had just never seemed 

quite right, and perhaps because 

of a lingering feeling of 'otherness' 

and that Christianity was simply 

not for 'someone like me', with my 

particular cultural background. I’m 

originally from Thailand, and grew 

up in South-East Asia. Thailand is, 

by recent estimates, approximately 

92% Buddhist, 6% Muslim and 

1% Christian. The remaining 1% 

comprises of a mix of other religions 

and atheists. 

MIXED HERITAGE 

My family has a mixed religious 

heritage: my father’s family is 

Buddhist and my mother’s Muslim. 

When they married, they both, to 

a large extent, left their religions 

behind, due to the somewhat divisive 

nature of their union in a political 

backdrop of 1970's. 

Thailand was contending not 

only with some religious strife in the 

Southern provinces, but also with 

the spread of communism which saw 

all religions as the enemy, during the 

Vietnam war. 

To this day, there continues to 

be a problem of religious separatist 

insurgency in the Southern provinces 

of Thailand. 

The little thought I had given to 

religion growing up therefore was 

mainly as something which pulled 

people apart, rather than as a unifying 

force. 

MIRACLE 

Fast forwarding to my 30's, I was 

now living and working in the UK and 

married to an Englishman who would 

say that he falls somewhere between 

being an agnostic and a non-practising 

Christian. 

However, after the birth of our 

first child in 2020, he confessed that, 

despite being in the medical field, he 

could not believe that the miracle of 

children could be possible without the 

existence of some form of divinity. 

His mother had been baptised into 

the Anglican faith by her own mother, 

who had grown up in strict Irish 

Catholic household and rebelled 

TURN TO PAGE 17



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feature — 2 

FROM PAGE 15 

Someone like me 

against this upbringing, although 

she later came back to faith through 

the Church of England, and had 

encouraged us to do the same. 

SPIRITUAL HUNGER 

I had explored Buddhism, and 

although I saw great wisdom and merit 

in a number of the teachings, I did not 

feel personally connected or touched 

by what I discovered. 

I had felt for some years that a 

piece of the puzzle was 'missing', 

and, despite the great joy and love of 

becoming a parent, this feeling was 

somehow compounded by the birth of 

my first son. 

My search to satiate what I can now 

describe in hindsight as a 'spiritual 

hunger' was put on the back-burner 

with the shock of the global pandemic, 

lockdown, being a first-time parent, 

and then juggling being a working 

parent in a demanding job, along with 

managing a house move while heavily 

pregnant with our second child. 

THE ANSWER 

Somewhere in between the nightfeeds, 

the chaos of having two little 

ones under three and the end of my 

maternity leave fast approaching, I felt 

extraordinarily compelled to explore 

Christianity as an answer to that as 

yet unresolved spiritual hunger that 

had started gnawing away at me some 

years earlier. 

ALPHA 

The above is a condensed version of 

what first brought me to St Andrew's 

and to Alpha, where I found a great 

offering for families with the Sunday 

Club, the family services, Messy 

Church and above all, the incredibly 

warm welcome. 

I found on Alpha a group of people 

who were incredibly candid and honest 

about their own journeys and struggles 

with faith. 

I found people who had grown up 

in the church, left and then returned 

as adults on their own terms, those 

who had discovered Christianity as 

adults for the first time, and those 

whose faith had waxed and waned over 

the years, and who are still struggling 

to define what it means to them 

to believe in Jesus Christ and be a 

member of the Christian community. 

The Alpha sessions provided a 

welcome reprieve from the frenetic 

pace of the modern world— a place for 

religious and philosophical discussion 

and exploration. 

BEYOND DOUBT 

Besides being an incredible 

learning experience, Alpha has 

sparked an even greater curiosity in 

me, and I turned back to my favourite 

medium, books. 

The book 'The Case for Christ' by 

Lee Strobel and other apologetics 

examining the historical evidence 

for the New Testament and Jesus’ 

resurrection have been compelling and 

eye-opening. 

Previously I had only been aware 

of exclusivist and pluralist schools 

of thought regarding other religions. 

However, through the literature, I 

have explored the different inclusivist 

theories, which for me, begin to 

address the very personal — given my 

family's religious background — issue 

of other religions and those who have 

not heard the Gospel message. 

Through attending Alpha and the 

services at St Andrew's, I’ve discovered 

a well-founded belief in Jesus Christ, 

but have also discovered that to 

have faith, we don’t need to have 

the answers to every single question 

beyond a shred of doubt, even if the 

latter causes the lawyer in me to 

despair a bit! 

I also found a vicar with a warm, 

empathetic and self-deprecating 

manner, unexpectedly admitting to 

me that, like my husband, he too, 

was somewhat sceptical of organised 

religion. 

All in all, I am immensely thankful 

for the opportunity to be baptised 

into Christ on Easter Day, and to be 

a burgeoning member of the warm 

St Andrew's community where the 

presence of the Holy Spirit is so strong. 

Through the St Andrew's 

community, the Holy Spirit and the 

Bible — in particular the passage 

from Revelation 7:9 — I’ve come to 

believe that Christianity is, in fact, for 

'someone like me'! 

There before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, 

people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb… Revelation 7:9 


A small selection of Bibles printed in (left 

to right) Arabic, German, Chinese, Czech, 

Danish, Dutch and French languages. 

Timawe, dreamstime.com 

Looking for 

a Bible that's 

ideal for you? 

By Bob Peters 

It is estimated that there are more 

than 80,000 different versions of 

the Bible published in over 3,000 

different languages. This means you 

have very little excuse not to find 

one that suits your needs. 

It is also estimated that more than 

six Bibles are sold every 10 seconds, 

so it is not surprising that the 

Guinness Book of World Records says it 

the best-selling book in the world. 

The British and Foreign Bible 

Society suggests the total number of 

Bibles printed is most likely between 

5 and 7 billion copies. 

And, of course, they are widely 

available online digitally. For 

example, there are currently 

over 3,030 versions in over 2,011 

languages available on: 

https://bible.com 

A good place to start your search 

for a Bible that suits your needs is 

https://www.eden.co.uk/bible-finder. 

At the time of writing, they offered 

9,746 choices! Therea re other online 

suppliers. 

I am hoping that my wife reads this 

because it makes my collection of about 

150 different Bibles quite insignificant! 

— Editor 

Believed to be the World's smallest printed 

New Testament is in the Reed Rare Books 

Collection in Dunedin, New Zealand. 

Awcnz62, dreamstime.com



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feature — 3 

Why May 2024 

is important 

for Christians 

For all Christians around the world, 

May is the most important month 

of 2024 because of four feast days 

that focus on the Holy Trinity of 

God the Father, God the Son, and 

God the Holy Spirit. 

The May feast days this year are: 

Sunday 5 May, Rogation Sunday 

Thursday 9 May, Ascension Day 

Sunday 19 May, Pentecost 

Sunday 26 May, Trinity Sunday 

In the Anglican Church, Rogation 

is celebrated on the 5th Sunday after 

Easter. It is about asking God for his 

blessing on the seed and land for the 

year ahead. 

The practice began with the 

Romans, who invoked the help of 

their pagan gods Terminus and 

Ambarvalia. A crowd would move 

in procession around the cornfields, 

singing and dancing, sacrificing 

animals, and driving away winter 

with sticks. They wanted to rid the 

cornfields of evil. 

EARTHQUAKES 

In about 465 the Western world 

was suffering from earthquake, 

storm and epidemic — perhaps it 

sounds familiar to our world today? 

Mamertius, Bishop of Vienne, 

who was aware of the popular pagan 

custom, ordered that prayers should 

be said in the ruined or neglected 

fields on the days leading up to 

Ascension Day. 

BEATING 

Rogationtide in England early in 

the 8th Century became a fixed and 

perennial time for asking God for his 

help. 

A party, led by a bishop or a 

priest, together with a cross bearer, 

would lead the people, many of 

whom carried wands of willow, 

around the boundaries of the parish. 

The Parish Magazine records confirm 

that it happened here. 

At certain points along the route 

such as a bridge, stile or ancient 

tree, the party halted and a litany, 

or rogation, was said, imploring God 

to send seasonable wealth, keep the 

Ascension Day tapestry, Vatican Museums, Rome 

corn and roots and boughs in good 

health, and bring them an ample 

harvest. At some point beer and 

cheese would be consumed! 

'Beating the bounds' was still 

very common as late as the reign of 

Queen Victoria. 

The season of Rogation lasts 

five days from Sunday to Thursday. 

On Thursday the Anglican Church 

celebrates Ascension Day, the day 

when Jesus returned to heaven after 

his resurrection on Easter Sunday. 

ADVOCATE 

Before Jesus left his disciples he 

promised that God the father would 

give them an advocate to help them 

and be with them forever. According 

to the Gospel of John, he called 

this advocate, 'The Spirit of Truth'. 

Today, the advocate is better known 

as 'The Holy Spirit' who arrived 50 

days after the crucifixion, hence the 

feast day we call Pentecost — 'pente' 

being Greek for 50. 

Many elderly folk will remember 

that we used to call Pentecost, 

Whitsun, meaning ‘White Sunday’, 

which took its name from when 

children marched to church in white 

on that day. 

CONFIDENCE 

The year Jesus was crucified his 

followers were together in an upper 

room in Jerusalem. 

They were afraid to show their 

faces in case the authorities arrested 

them. But on the day of Passover, 

they had an amazing collective 

experience. They described it in 

terms of wind and fire, a great surge 

of spiritual energy and confidence. 


Preisler Dreamstime.com 

Afraid no longer, they burst out on 

to the streets where crowds were 

gathering for a Jewish festival, and, 

led by Peter, they began to tell them 

about Jesus and his resurrection. 

Although many of the people in 

the crowd were foreigners who spoke 

other languages, everyone heard 

them in their own tongue. 

Peter told them that what they 

were seeing was the fulfilment of an 

old prophecy when God would pour 

out his Spirit on the human race, 

men and women, young and old. 

As a result 3,000 people believed 

and were baptised in the name of 

Jesus. They became the nucleus of 

what, within 100 years would be 

a Church that would turn history 

upside down. 

For Christians, Pentecost is thus 

the birthday of their Church. 

LARGEST 

Many people find the idea of the 

Holy Spirit mysterious and elusive, 

and this thought was not helped by 

the earlier title of ‘Holy Ghost’. 

Today we recognise this and use 

the term 'Holy Spirit' because the 

Spirit is not spiritually a ‘ghost’ but a 

precious gift from God, the father of 

Jesus Christ. 

This three-in-one relationship 

between Father, Son and Holy Spirit 

is always celebrated on the next 

Sunday after Pentecost, and is known 

as 'Trinity Sunday'. This year it falls 

on Sunday 26 May, making May the 

most important month of 2024 for 

an estimated 2.38 billion Christians 

who form the world's largest religion 

among the total population of about 

8 billion people.


feature — 4 

Claude wonders about things 

he should not know . . . 

One of my greatest pleasures is 

listening to audio books from my 

local library. Recently, I have listened 

to a book which was particularly 

interesting - 'The Radium Girls' by 

Kate Moore. 

It is based on a true story which 

concerned young women in America 

who used to paint dials on watches to 

make them luminous. 

Radium was an exciting discovery 

which was used to make watches and 

navigational instruments luminous. 

Not much was known at the time 

about the devastating impact this was 

to have on their lives. 

The job of ‘dial painter’ was a 

lucrative one as the these young 

women could earn far more than 

their counterparts in other factories 

and it was a job that they enjoyed 

immensely. 

Eventually it became apparent that 

the work was causing serious medical 

problems, they suffered disease and 

unusual ailments; this included the 

loss of limbs such as fingers falling 

off. They all died young with many of 

them never reaching the age of 30. 

BEATING 

Although it was obvious that 

radium was to blame, their employers 

were making so much money, and 

there was so much demand for this 

work, that it was unthinkable to them 

that this could be the case. 

The authorities tried to prove 

it was safe and it even went to the 

highest court in the US. The argument 

was that it was harmless and even 

that radium was beneficial! 

Eventually, there was enough 

evidence to outlaw it but sadly not in 

time for many of these girls. 

It reminded me of similar 

radioactivity that killed my dad. When 

I was on my National Service, he got 

a job at Aldermaston AWE. He was a 

metal turner making the casings for 

atom bombs. 

I remember that he brought home 

a little bit of uranium. It was about the 

size of an acorn and twice the density 

of lead. He put it in my hand and I was 

surprised of the unexpected weight of 

it. He told me that if you put a Geiger 

counter on it, it would go berserk! I 

didn’t live with him at the time but it 

was left in the lounge, on the mantel 

piece and he never took it back to work. 

Maybe his employers didn’t realise, but 

there couldn’t have been much security 

back then. 

When, in the 1960s, it became 

apparent in the news what was 

happening at Aldermaston, a 

newspaper columnist from The Evening 

Post asked if people could ring up 

if they knew anything about it. I 

rang and told them about my father, 

who although he had already died 

was involved with radioactivity. The 

reporter wanted to know any details 

about his work, including his death 

— which I am sure was due to the 

proximity of uranium. 

The reporter never rang me back 

for this information the next day, and 

I wonder whether there was a press 

embargo from the government to 

prevent any information becoming 

public. 

It makes me wonder how many 

press embargoes there are that the 

government and authorities don’t want 

us to know about. How often does it 

happen? 

I do wonder. 

RNLI celebrates 

bicentennial 

The Royal National Lifeboat 

Institution (RNLI) has been 

saving lives at sea around the UK 

and Ireland for 200 years. Since 

the charity was founded in 1824, 

its volunteer lifeboat crews and 

lifeguards have saved an incredible 

146,277 lives. 

To mark the significant milestone 

a Service of Thanksgiving was held 

on 4 March at Westminster Abbey 

during which the Archbishop of 

Canterbury, Justin Welby, gave the 

sermon. 

His Royal Highness The Duke of 

Kent as President of the RNLI was 

present and the service was attended 

by representatives from every RNLI 

lifesaving community around the UK 

and Ireland. 

The service took place at the same 

time the RNLI founding papers were 

signed in 1824. 

There were also a number of 

events in areas where the RNLI 

operates and means so much to the 

communities it serves. Flotillas took 

place during the day and lifeboats 

were paraded through their town 

centres to remember past volunteers 

and to symbolise a time when 

lifeboats were hauled by horses. 

APPRECIATION 

Two special stamps from An Post, 

which depict the charity’s lifesaving 

work in Ireland, were unveiled. 

Dublin based artist David Rooney 

has created two images which show 

the moment of rescue between the 

lifeboat crew member and the person 

in the water. 

In appreciation of the RNLI and 

its brave volunteers across the coast, 

national monuments and historical 

buildings were lit up in yellow on 

the evening of Monday 4 March 

2024. This included the London 

Eye, Dover Castle, the Millennium 

Bridge in Newcastle and Broughty 

Ferry lifeboat station in Scotland. 

There was a special birthday message 

displayed across the BT Tower. 

More events around the country 

are being planned throughout the 

year: https://www.rnli.org

feature — 5 

Maiden Erlegh Rotary Club 

provides urgent aid for 

mothers and children in Gaza 

The Rotary Club of Reading Maiden Erlegh has stepped forward to extend 

assistance towards alleviating the dire humanitarian crisis in Gaza. 

Recognizing the pressing need to aid vulnerable populations, Rotary, as a 

non-political organization, has committed resources to support its mission of 

‘Saving mothers and children’, one of its core aims, writes Tony Cornell. 

Amid the ongoing crisis in Gaza, where up to 1.9 million people, comprising 

85% of the population, are displaced, the Rotary Club of Reading Maiden Erlegh 

has prioritised the well-being of mothers and children, who form the majority 

of those affected. 

With many forced to seek refuge in community buildings, makeshift 

shelters, or even open spaces, the situation demands urgent intervention. 

To address this critical need, Reading Maiden Erlegh is collaborating with 

Shelterbox, a renowned charity founded by Rotarians in Cornwall in 2000. 

Shelterbox, now an independent partner to Rotary, responds to humanitarian 

crises worldwide, providing emergency shelter and essential aid. Gaza, 

undoubtedly, stands among the areas with the highest need for immediate 

assistance. 

EMERGENCY ITEMS 

Nesbeer, dreamstime.com 

Through this partnership, vital aid will be delivered to Gaza, facilitated by 

locally based Shelterbox employees in conjunction with the UK charity MAP 

(Medical Aid for Palestinians). 

The aid package includes emergency items such as tarpaulins and ropes to 

weatherproof damaged structures, blankets, mattresses, pillows, and floor mats 

to ensure warmth and comfort, as well as sanitary items to uphold cleanliness 

and hygiene standards. 

Richard Nicholson, president of the Rotary Club of Reading Maiden Erlegh, 

expressed the club's commitment to humanitarian efforts, stating, 'In the 

last 12 months, we have financed aid missions to Ukraine, Turkey, and Morocco. We 

endeavour to extend assistance wherever possible and felt compelled to act in Gaza. 

With our longstanding partnership with Shelterbox spanning over 20 years, we are 

confident that aid will reach those who truly need it'. 


Three in one 

How many colours does your TV use? 

Answer: three ‐ red, green and blue. 

These are TV’s three primary colours 

which, when their luminescence is 

fired at your eyes, give all the colours 

of the visible spectrum. 

They are ‘additive’ colours. Mix 

the three together in different 

proportions, and your screen can offer 

you 16 million colours. 

For painted and printed colours, 

the sequence is: red, yellow, blue. 

A TV gives out light in three 

colours, whereas paint daubed on 

paper absorbs and removes some 

colours and so reflects a small part of 

the light — the colour you see. 

IT DOES MATTER 

TV's three colours illustrate the 

Holy Trinity. There are three distinct 

persons — Father, Son and Holy Spirit 

Take away any member of the 

Trinity, and you slip into theological 

error; take away any of the three TV 

colours and you need a repair engineer! 

It does matter that God is our 

Creator and Father — otherwise our 

whole life is a meaningless illusion. 

It does matter that Jesus is God 

the Son, otherwise his death is simply 

a human tragedy, with no promise of 

salvation or eternal life. 

It does matter that the Holy Spirit 

is with us here and now, otherwise we 

are disconnected from God. 

SONNING VILLAGE WALK 

The walk is on 17 May and 

led by Pam Szadowski from 

U3A. It starts at 10.00am 

and will incorporate places 

of historical interest, the 

Church, Mill and various 

houses of well known 

people. It is limited to 20 

people and there will be no 

charge but you will need to 

reserve your place by text 

to Heather Kay on 

0785 177 5467


feature — 6 

HOLY WEEK AND 

EASTER SUNDAY 

CELEBRATIONS! 

EIGHT DAYS OF WORSHIP, PRAYER AND FAMILY FUN 

During the 8 days of Holy Week, which began of Palm Sunday, to Easter Sunday the 

St Andrew's Church Sonning attendance figures totalled over 900 this year. Our, 

now traditional, Easter Saturday Fun Day (see page 7 of this issue) was as popular 

as ever, as was our main Easter Sunday service during which the Rt Rev Rt Hon 

Lord Carey, who was the Archbishop of Canterbury from 1991 to 2002, presided and 

preached.


Pictured (left to right) after the Baptism in the 

River Thames are: Rufus James Handley Plumb; 

Westy, youth minister; Oliver James Preston; Lord 

Carey; Elspeth Christine Young; Panyaporn (Penny) 

Pruksakit; and Rev Jamie Taylor, vicar of Sonning 

Images by Peter Rennie, Will Jeffery and Martha Wilson


around the villages — 1 

Horticultural confidence has returned 

So, says the Twyford and Ruscombe 

Horticultural Association (TRHA) 

which reports that they are seeing 

an increase in both exhibitors and 

visitors to their shows. 

The Spring Show in March confirmed 

this trend and was a great success. 

Visitors and exhibitors were 

impressed by the number, and 

standard, of the exhibits especially 

in the arts, craft and floral art 

classes. 

Encouraged by the success of the 

Shows in 2023, TRHA has decided on 

a new look for 2024. 

New table coverings, signs, and 

niches for the Floral Art displays, 

have been were purchased with 

dark colours chosen to set off the 

colourful blooms. 

The Association is now preparing 

for the Summer Show on 15 June in 

Loddon Hall. Visitors are welcome 

to enjoy the displays and have tea 

and home made cakes from 2pm. 

BENEFITS 

While exhibiting at the shows 

is open to all comers, membership 

of TRHA brings other benefits such 

as the opportunity to purchase 

horticultural goods at the store in 

Loddon Hall Road at competitive 

prices. Prospective show entrants 

can see the exhibition classes on: 

https://www.trha.org.uk 

St Andrew’s Church Sonning is proud to announce… 

INTREPID VOICES 

An exciting new course for anyone in 

School Years 5-7 who would like to take 

their choir singing to the next level. 

The course will run during May and June 2024 on 

Thursdays, from 5 — 6pm. It will be held in The Ark at 

St Andrew’s Church Sonning, and will finish with 

a joyful service of Choral Evensong in the Church 

at 4pm on Sunday 7July. 

This FREE course will be run by Richard Meehan MA, 

ARCO, our highly experienced Director of Music. It will 

also include individual singing lessons given by Tania 

Pratt an experienced professional singing teacher. 

For more details, including our safeguarding policy, 

and enrolment forms, please contact: 

music@sonningparish.org.uk 

A Bring and Buy plant sale is also 

planned for Sunday 2 June. It will 

be in the TRHA Store, Loddon Hall 

Road, Twyford, RG10 9JA during the 

opening hours 9.30am - 11.00am. 

Donations, especially of unusual 

plants, will be very welcome. 

Any surplus plants will be sold at 

the Summer Show on 15 June. 

Meanwhile, TRHA is organising 

a quiz evening on 10 May 2024 in 

Charvil Village Hall. 

The proceeds will go to local 

horticultural charities. 

For more details about TRHA 

contact Jenny Wager: 

trhamembership@gmail.com 

Summer gigs for 

female voices 

On Saturday 8 June from 2-4 pm 

in Charvil Village Hall, Suzanne 

Newman, a local music teacher and 

choir director, will be running 'Love, 

laughter & legends —the music of the 

Beatles. 

It will include a selection of songs 

by the Beatles arranged for two-part 

female voice choir such as: 

Can't buy me love, Penny Lane, Yellow 

submarine, Let it be and Hey Jude. 

A fee of £12 includes music and 

refreshments 

SMASH HITS 

And then on Monday 15 & 22 

July from 8-9.30pm in Charvil Hall, 

Suzanne Newman will lead Abba 

Smash Hits! 

Songs will include: Thank you for 

the music, Fernando and Waterloo 

arranged for two-part female voice 

choir. These sessions, which cost £20, 

will also include some work on vocal 

technique and the music. 

For more details and to book a 

place, contact: suzanneynewman@ 

btinternet.com / 0118 934 0589 




CHARVIL, SONNING and sonning eye SINCE THE 7 th CENTURY 

Like two peas in a pod by Phil Mason

around the villages — 12 

Where did you get that Easter bonnet? 


Phil Sherwood, head teacher of 

Sonning Primary School, writes: 

As a Church of England school, 

Easter is an important time of year. 

As well as engaging in the fun 

and more child-focused aspects 

of Easter, such as egg hunts, we 

also focus throughout the term 

on the events leading up to Holy 

Week. Throughout our collective 

worship each week since January, 

we have learned about and discussed 

different parts of the Easter story, 

culminating in our Easter service. 

As part of our strong links with 

St Andrew’s Church, we all visited 

the church for a special Easter 

service, led by our pupils and Rev 

Jamie. 

Rev Jamie spoke about reflection 

and preparation at this time of year, 

which resonated with all of us. 

This term, as well as Lent and 

Easter, also features Ramadan, and 

we have enjoyed understanding 

more about these important events 

in Islam. With many Muslim 

pupils in the school, it has been a 

wonderful way to show our respect 

and curiosity — two of our school 

values — for other religions and 

faiths. 

As part of Easter and spring, 

we also had a farm visit us. The 

pupils loved seeing the animals and 

learning about them. 

Finally, as a key part of our 

celebrations around Easter, we 

finished the term with our annual 

Easter Hat Parade, which featured 

a range of very creative hats! The 

children and staff all walked our 

‘cat walk’ and showed off their hats 

to the rest of the school by dancing, 

strutting, bouncing and sliding down 

the cat walk to music! It certainly was 

a feel-good end to the term. 

We hope everyone reading this 

also enjoyed a relaxing and familyfilled 

Easter!



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around the villages— — 31 

Inner Wheel raises funds for 

The Book Bus and Cowshed 

The Inner Wheel Club of Reading Maiden Erlegh has been 

raising more funds for The Book Bus and The Cowshed. 

On International Women’s Day, 8 March, the club 

members celebrated with a soup lunch held at a member’s 

home. The proceeds — £205 — from voluntary donations 

will go to the Club’s international charity ‘The Book Bus’ 

which operates reading schemes in Malawi and Ecuador. 

After lunch they gathered in the sunshine with 100 

tote bags (pictured below) made by them for The Cowshed, 

a local charity which provides support to people and 

children of all backgrounds in times of crisis. 

The bags will be filled with clothing and other items, 

but why 100 bags? Because ‘100 for 100’ is an initiative the 

club's centenary year which began in the UK in 1924 and is 

now one of the largest organisations for women with over 

100,000 members in more than 103 countries. 

The Inner Wheel Club of Reading Maiden Erlegh meets 

at Sonning Golf Club on the third Thursday evening of 

every month and welcomes new members to join in the 

fun, take part in activities, raise funds for charity and 

support the local community. https://www.innerwheelrme.org 


Butterflies and scarecrows 

invade Sonning . . . 

But don't panic! The butterflies are made from a clay-like 

material, and the scarecrows come in a huge variety of shapes, 

sizes, and materials! 

Sonning Art Club has been preparing for this year's Scarecrow 

Trail on 26 - 27 May by learning to make butterflies to enhance 

their scarecrow which will form part the group's 

popular exhibition held in the Committee Room 

of Pearson Hall during the Bank Holiday weekend. 

Jill Watkins, one of the club's members, taught the 

other members how to make butterflies and 

flowers from 'Fimo', a clay like substance which can be 

baked in a domestic oven for just 30 minutes. 

Barbara Carr, the Scarecrow Trail organiser, has asked 

us to pass on a big thank you to those who are opening 

their gardens, but she says they could do with some more. 

If you are willing to open your garden or help in any way 

please contact her at the address below. 

Barbara also thanks all those who recently filled 

Sonning Club to register their scarecrows and to offer 

help! However, there is still time to enter a Scarecrow if 

you get in touch with Barbara by Tuesday 7 May! 

If you have not registered your scarecrow it will not 

be listed in Scarecrow trail map! To register your entry 

or find out more contact: Barbara.carr71@hotmail.co.uk 

contact@sonningscarecrows.com or o118 934 5886 

Healthier lifestyle for everyone 

at Sonning Tennis Club 

Sonning Tennis Club is supporting a 'healthier lifestyle' 

for everyone. The local tennis club is introducing new 

fitness options that are open to non members, and to 

people of all levels of fitness. 

Walking Tennis, for example, is aimed at people who 

would like to stay active, but don't feel that they can 

cover a whole tennis court. It is tennis without running 

or jumping and is on a smaller court. The ball can bounce 

twice. It runs every Tuesday from 10.30am - 12noon, with 

tea ⁄coffee available. A small charge applies. 

One Sunday each month, the club is inviting anyone to 

try tennis. Sessions are free and allow everyone to simply 

have a go! 

Another choice is Cardio Tennis. These are sessions 

designed for anyone to have a fun fitness class to music, 

based on tennis. No tennis skills are required and they are 

open to non members. These sessions run from 9.30am 

- 10.30am Tuesdays, and 7pm Thursdays. A small charge 

applies. 

Further information can be found on the Sonning 

Tennis Club website: 

https://clubspark.lta.org.uk/SonningLawnTennisClub 

or for more information email: 

coaching@sonningtennis.com


HEALTH — 1 

Dr Simon Ruffle writes . . . Comparisons 

Recently I wrote about comparing the 

NHS to other healthcare services. 

While researching that article I 

fell down the USA rabbit hole of 

healthcare. I had some vague notions 

of USA healthcare but this was skewed 

by the bankruptcy issues caused by 

medical bills. 

Recent American Journal of Public 

Health figures for 2019 estimated that 

medical problems contributed to 66.5% 

of bankruptcies in the United States. 

I thought that the Affordable Care 

Act, (ACA) colloquially known as 

Obamacare, addressed this problem in 

2010. Obviously it hasn’t. 

ACA was introduced to cover people 

who couldn’t afford or weren’t given 

insurance as part of their employment. 

Opposition to the Act includes similar 

arguments against the NHS, although 

not being constitutional is not one. 

Stifling innovation and choice, it 

is overly bureaucratic and costs the 

consumer and tax payer as it attracts 

tax payment. NHS has the same 

finance issues. 

It also leaves some uncovered, 

which, cannot happen in the UK but 

variability in quality and accessibility 

remain in both systems, and affect 

deprived areas the most. 

INSURANCE 

Most Americans are covered by 

insurance schemes. Some are provided 

by employers, others by the federal 

government such as Medicare. This 

covers over 65s and disabled peopledepending 

on disability. 

Medicaid is another scheme 

designed to help those with low 

incomes and there is a Children’s 

program called CHIP. 

This is essentially gap insurance 

for children of those who cannot 

afford insurance but do not qualify for 

Medicaid; what about the parents? 

Most of these insurance policies do 

not allow the American — home of the 

free — to choose their hospital. 

Health Management Organisations 

(HMO) that provide the policies have 

their own network of doctors, hospitals 

and allied services. 

Similar to the NHS the patient must 

see their primary care physician (PCP) 

to obtain a referral. Again these GP-like 

doctors are within the HMO’s network; 

step out of that network and you will 

receive an out of pocket expense, more 

on that later. 

UK GPs, unlike USA PCPs, have 

their own specialist pathway for 

training which is more extensive and 

thus provide a more comprehensive 

service that reduces the number of 

referrals to secondary care. Many 

HMOs look to the UK model and more 

and more North American systems are 

aggressively recruiting UK GPs. 

UNTOLD PROBLEMS 

Hospitals in the States can be 

public, private, for profit and not for 

profit organisations but receive their 

funding from payments for activity. 

The drive to reduce costs is huge. 

Some payments are from private 

people and companies ‘supporting’ 

the hospitals and there are church and 

charity funds. This still doesn’t create a 

universally covered system. 

Despite insurance other out-ofpocket 

expenses are often required. 

These cause untold problems. As 

mentioned, out of network services 

occur. For example, if you need 

treatment or elect to have treatment 

in a hospital or clinic that isn’t in ‘your’ 

network, you are liable for the cost out 

of your pocket. 

Co-insurance for some people may 

be part of their insurance. Essentially, 

the patient is gambling on not getting 

sick to the tune of a percentage of the 

cost of treatment, not dissimilar to 

choosing a cheaper insurance policy 

and a higher excess instead. 

Co-payments can be part of your 

insurance. For example a fee every 

time you use your policy; essentially 

encouraging you not to seek help. 

Then we come to deductables. This 

is the amount of payment you have to 

pay before your cover kicks in, again. 

It's a like our excess policies on car 

insurance. These are often contentious 

as the condition and onward costs may 

not be covered either, as described. 

Like the UK there is a prescription 

cost to a certain percentage of the 

drug costs. However, in the UK this is 

a fixed costs per item and not a fixed 

percentage of the cost. 

In general in the UK, the patient is 

in a better position having a mixed cost 

but if you receive more than 13 monthly 

prescriptions a year there are schemes 

to pre-pay this and there is a list of 

conditions that exclude any payment 

at all: children, those in permanent 

education and over 60s also pay no 

prescription charge. 

MANY LAWS 

The charges go straight to the 

treasury so are a tax and not as a lot of 

people think that they are paying for 

their medication. Often the medication 

cost is way above the prescription fee. 

In the USA Annals of Internal 

Medicine in 2017, 'nearly 20% of new 

prescriptions are never filled, and 

approximately 50% of medications 

TURN TO PAGE 29

FROM PAGE 28 

HEALTH — 2 

Comparisons 

for chronic conditions are not taken as 

prescribed.' 

Finally, the HMO has the last way 

in if the treatment is covered, or they 

could cover one treatment rather than 

another. 

The UK also has a system to regulate 

this via NICE, but this doesn’t have 

shareholders. Although there is no 

specific law in the USA that forces 

shareholder primacy there are laws that 

protect investors in publicly floated 

companies, such as the Securities 

Exchange Act of 1934 which aims to 

protect investors and the integrity of 

the securities markets. 

Many laws applied to these 

companies do not protect them trading 

overseas. 

So, while the USA and the UK have 

different systems of funding healthcare 

we face the same problems of cost, 

accessibility, choice, fairness and 

political interference. 

Both nations need to have a grown 

up apolitical discussion on their 

futures. 

This is likely to be more difficult in 

the USA as the corporate involvement 

is higher than the UK, but this is 

changing. Our outcomes are not 

dissimilar but the costs to the tax payer 

are as follows: 

Per Capita: 

UK 2020: $4300 

Bankruptcy: 0% of cases 

USA 2020: $11582 

Bankruptcy: 66.5% of cases 

While there is no one perfect system 

the principles of ‘do no harm’ 

must surely extend away from the 

medical issue at hand to the societal 

responsibilities of those in charge or 

those having the most influence on how 

the systems are run. 

Phil Mason 

HOME AND Garden 

The glory of May 

Maia, Greek goddess 

Pinterest.co.uk 

with Roman numbers. 

Traditionally, Wisteria is one of 

May's floral glories. I once spent four 

years coaxing a 10-year-old wisteria 

into flower only to be asked if I could 

remove half the flowers as it was too 

gaudy for a Cambridge university 

professor! 

Many plants have juvenile and 

adult growth — Ivy is a classic 

example — and wisteria flowers on 

‘adult’ spurs. 

To promote spurs regular pruning 

is required. Train main branches 

horizontally and tip when they reach 

the correct size, this will generate a 

flush of side shoots. Prune these side 

shoots back to 3/4 buds to encourage 

spurs and repeat annually and after 

flowering. 

Japanese wisterias (floribunda) 

have shorted broader racemes, and 

twine in a clockwise direction. They 

more readily have a second flush of 

flowers. 

Chinese wisterias twine in an 

anticlockwise direction and have 

narrower longer flowers. 

How to control greenfly (aphids) 

is another question that regularly 

pops up in May. They are an 

important food source for smaller 

nestlings, especially sparrows and 

tits. Instead of using insecticides 

I recommend leaving them and 


By Ray Puddefoot 

Wisteria tree 

Valeria Sangiovanni, dreamstime.com 

The first 6 months' names are associated with Roman gods except May, which 

is named after Maia the Greek goddess of growth and fertility. Followed by 

two months named after Roman emperors and four vacant waiting months 

APHID CONTROL 

accepting a few distorted flowers. 

Alternatively, washing them off with 

a soapy water or a hose with the 

nozzle on a jet setting. 

MAY TIPS 

— Prune early flowering shrubs like 

forsythia, ribes and Japanese quince. 

— Remove seed heads from 

hellebores, stake perennials and tie 

in climbers as required. 

— Apply liquid feed around spring 

bulbs and top dress your borders and 

roses with granular fertilizer. 

— Prepare and plant up your 

summer pots with summer bedding. 

— Always use fresh compost ideally 

one designed specifically for summer 

pots incorporating a wetting agent 

and water retentive granules. 

— Check hose pipes and fittings for 

leaks and if necessary, replace the 

washers, it is far cheaper than buying 

new connectors.


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FASHION BY HARRIET NELSON 

A girl can dream, can't she? 

The issue of sustainable fashion is slowly filtering down from the top fashion 

houses to high street shops. Global warming has increased significantly, and the 

fast fashion industry is currently the third largest polluter after the oil industry. 

Luxury Brands are facing the issue 

of creating fashion that isn't just 

made for the runway, worn once, and 

thrown away. They are now turning to 

sustainable materials and products to 

reduce their environmental impact. 

Sales within sustainable brands 

and products have risen dramatically, 

and a great example of a fashion 

luxury brand addressing this issue 

is Stella McCartney. She is working 

on many sustainable collections 

using organic materials and is known 

worldwide for her sustainable work. 

VEGAN FAMILY 

Stella grew up vegan within her 

famous family and she naturally looked 

at the fashion world slightly differently 

from her peers. It was no surprise 

that she has never used animal or 

unsustainable materials in her designs 

and has continued to grow her business 

with sustainability at its heart. 

Her designs use organic cotton, 

vegetarian leather, recycled cashmere, 

and recycled nylon and polyester. 

I had a fantastic opportunity last 

year to tour the Stella McCartney store 

in London and received good answers 

to my questions. It was fascinating 

that Stella's clothes were not the only 

sustainable aspect. The shop was 

also constructed sustainably with 

collections displayed artfully using 

recycled materials. 

The walls, for example, were made 

from recycled materials and paper 

from the brand's head offices. Looking 

closer at the wall, I saw many different 

types of papers layered to create unique 

elements and textures within the walls, 

I was amazed and inspired. 

SUSTAINABLE 

McCartney has displayed all her 

products on sustainable furniture. 

Upstairs, there was a beautiful, upcycled 

piece of wood displaying the 

bags, which were made in Venice. 

Some sustainable high heel shoes 

were displayed on a red silicone 

material produced using sustainable 

silicon. It was a unique material to use 

to display shoes, and looked amazing. 

My favourite areas were the lifts and 

dressing rooms. Each dressing room, 

designed personally by Stella, was 

unique with a different sustainable 

theme. One was embroidered with 

brown sustainable thread with beads in 

the shapes of hands. 

SPEAKERS 

There were speakers in the lifts 

telling you about Stella's inspiration for 

the collections and, as you went to try 

on the clothing, they told you about the 

sustainable materials used. 

Inside another dressing room was 

a wide mirror with quotes: 'If I can, 

then there is no reason not to.' - Stella 

McCartney. 

A main feature downstairs was a 

collection of Stella's designer shoes 

displayed on the wall. What stood out 

to me was the colourful barcode on 

most of them. 

I scanned one of the shoes, and was 

directed to her website which showed 

a page about her S-wave trainers — 

Stella's most sustainable sneakers. 

Most of the garments were from 

her spring and summer collections. 

Each part of the store had a different 

collection with wild and unique colours 

for spring. 

Upstairs, for example, displayed 

a room full of the sportswear, and 

downstairs showcased Stella's most 

popular garments that were seen on the 

runway and ready to wear collections. 

ESSENTIAL 

At the back of the store was a 

display of her sustainable skincare 

products. I use these and love them. 

I have her Essential Travel Set, which 

includes a Reset Cleanser (50ml), Alter- 

Care Serum (20ml) and Restore Cream 

(20ml), packaged in an eco-designed 

travel bag made from recycled nylon. 

All these products are perfect for 

fulfilling a sustainable beauty routine 

for your holiday, or at home. 

As you can guess, I’m a huge fan of 

Stella McCartney’s brand and love her 

commitment to reducing waste and 

pollution. At the moment my budget 

doesn’t run to buying clothes from her 

beautiful Bond Street store, but a girl 

can dream, can’t she? 

The Parish Magazine - May 2024 31


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THE ARTS — 1 

The Stabat Mater 

Rev Michael Burgess continues a series on great works of music. 

May is traditionally the month of Mary, the mother of 

Jesus. When we read of Mary in the Gospels, we sense the 

heartache and trial of much of her life: a teenage mother 

giving birth in a stable, fleeing with her new-born baby and 

Joseph to Egypt, losing the child Jesus while on pilgrimage 

to Jerusalem, following her son on his ministry but always 

in the background, and there at the foot of the cross as he 

is crucified. It is then Mary must have thought back to that 

occasion in the temple when Simeon took her child and told 

her that a sword would pierce her own soul. 

That sense of heartache and the sorrow it brings is poignantly 

expressed in a beautiful poem of the Middle Ages called Stabat 

Mater, which pictures Mary at Calvary and that sword of 

desolation and sadness that pierces her soul. 

We are not sure who wrote this poem. It is ascribed to 

Jacopone da Todi, who became a Franciscan friar on the 

death of his wife in the 13th Century. The contemplation 

of Mary’s sorrows in the Stabat Mater has inspired many 

composers, and there are wonderful settings by Palestrina, 

Rossini, Dvorak, Verdi and Poulenc. 

PRODIGIOUS FURY 

This month we focus on a very simple setting, but one 

that captures those searing pangs of sorrow at the heart of 

the poem. It is by Antonio Vivaldi, who was born in Venice in 

1678. In 1703 he was ordained a priest, but by then he had made 

his name as a skilled violinist and composer. He continued to 

compose throughout his life: a vast amount that includes some 

40 operas — though only 18 survive with 400 concertos — and 

over 100 choral works. 

In 1730 Charles de Brosses described him as ‘an old man with 

a prodigious fury for composition.’ For much of his life Vivaldi 

was music director of the Ospidale della Pieta, a music school 

for girls. Then, in 1740, he left Venice hoping for preferment in 

Vienna. That was not to be, and his final days were marked by 

poverty and neglect. In 1741 he ws buried in a pauper’s grave. 

THROBBING RHYTHMS 

Vivaldi is well known for the brilliance and colour of ‘The 

Four Seasons’ and his setting of 'The Gloria'. The tone is more 

restrained in his setting of the 'Stabat Mater'. There is a very 

fine CD recording entitled ‘Vespers of Sorrow’ where the work is 

linked to a sonata, a psalm setting and the Magnificat for an 

imagined celebration of our Lady’s feast. 

'Stabat Mater' is a long poem and Vivaldi restricted himself 

to setting eight verses for contralto and strings: the solo voice 

standing for Mary as she sings of the despair and agony as the 

mother of Jesus. 

The opening verse, ‘At the cross her station keeping’ captures 

the intensity of emotion with the throbbing rhythms of the 

accompaniment. a mood that recurs throughout the work. 

And then with the verse, ‘Eja Mater, fons amoris’ (O thou 

Mother! Fount of love!) the violins and viola accompany without 

any bass instruments. It is a pivotal point in the work as the 

solo voice cries out ‘Mater’ across the heights and depths of the 

music, leading into the prayer that the love of Mary will touch 

all human hearts. The final verse set by Vivaldi begins ‘Make 


me feel as thou hast felt,’ and so Mary stands for all mothers 

who have lost loved ones: perhaps sons killed in Afghanistan, 

perhaps daughters dying through disease. 

Mary’s love for Jesus, her son, touches the hearts of them 

and of all parents. Hers was a protective, sacrificial love that 

led her to the foot of the cross, where Jesus gave his mother 

and John, the beloved disciple, into the care of each other. The 

sacrificial love of a mother mirrored in the sacrificial offering of 

her son in death. 

MOTHERLY LOVE 

Wikipedia commons 

Julian of Norwich meditated on this motherly love in her 

Revelations. In chapter 60 she wrote, ‘A mother’s caring is the 

closest, nearest and surest for it is the truest…As we know, our own 

mother bore us only into pain and dying. But our true mother Jesus, 

who is all love, bears us into joy and endless living. Blessed may he 

be!’ 

So the protective care of mother Mary cries out to us in 

Vivaldi’s setting of 'Stabat Mater'. The closing lines of that poem 

look to Christ’s maternal love like Mother Julian: 

‘Christ when Thee shall call me hence, 

Be my mother, my defence, 

Be thy Cross of victory.’

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THE ARTS — 2 

Book Reviews 

Jesus and the Powers: Christian Political Witness 

in an Age of Totalitarian, Terror and Dysfunctional 

Democracies, by Tom Wright, SPCK, £12.99 

Tom Wright and Michael F Bird join forces to ask: How 

can Christians engage with the turbulent politics of our 

times while remaining true to the teaching of Jesus? They 

argue that Christians can embody a counter-cultural witness 

that upholds the Biblical ideals of justice, mercy and truth 

and challenge believers to take a stand against tyrannical 

forces wherever they may appear. 

No Ceiling to Hope: Stories of grace from the world’s most 

dangerous places, by Patrick Regan and Liza Hoeksma, 

SPCK, £10.99 

Real-life stories from around the world show how 

Christians are helping the most vulnerable in society with 

God's love. In Bolivia, Christians are backing education 

projects to help families to find a way out of poverty. In 

London, XLP is mentoring young people to turn aside from 

violence. In Los Angeles, a new future is being offered to 

gang girls. In high security prisons in the UK and US, the 

Spirit is turning lives around. In Belfast's Shankill Road area, 

a group of elderly ladies is cooking meals for men who sit all 

day in local pubs . . . The list is extensive, and inspiring. In all 

circumstances, Christ is offering hope. 

Grandparenting for Faith: Sharing God with the children 

you love the most By Becky Sedgwick, BRF, £9.99 

Part of the joy of being a grandparent is to help your 

grandchildren learn to have confidence in God’s love for 

them. This book encourages grandparents to be a unique 

voice, speaking into their grandchildren’s lives, and helping 

to nurture them into the reality of a relationship with the 

God who loves them. 

Spiritual Growth in a Time of Change: Following God in 

midlife By Tony Horsfall, BRF, £9.99 

Our 40s and 50s are often times of personal change and 

emotional transition for our families, but they can also 

be important years for our spiritual lives. Tony Horsfall 

addresses a number of ‘midlife’ issues from facing up to the 

past, to renegotiating relationships, and how to navigate a 

spiritual journey, leading to deeper faith. 

Finding Flourishing: Time and pace for your work-life 

wellbeing by Naomi Aidoo, BRF, £9.99 

Wellbeing should be an accessible pursuit, even for the 

busiest of us. Naomi Aidoo presents a practical approach to 

helping achieve wellbeing that doesn’t require adding yet 

another technique to your busy schedule. It shows how to 

enhance mental, emotional and spiritual well-being. 

Neighbourhoods Reimagined – How the Beatitudes 

Inspire our Call to be Good Neighbours by Chris 

McKinney and Elizabeth McKinney, 10Publishing, £8.99 

Many of us drift away from our next-door neighbours, 

and now we’re not sure we can get back again. We are unsure 

of how to befriend them and how to spot opportunities of 

sharing God’s love with them. How can the counter-cultural 

values of Christianity affect them, and our neighbourhood? 

Poetry Corner 


Promised 

Pentecost 

By Steven Rolling 

Acts 2: 16-21 parts 

Tune: Down Ampney - ‘Come down, O love divine’ 

1. Pentecost, your Spirit 

You promised, Lord, lives lit 

With your living presence, we here now you sense 

He comes to us empower 

Us daily, each hour 

And in human hearts pleased to make residence 

2. This is that prophesied 

By Joel, ‘Tis none beside 

Than Scripture’s fulfilment, the Spirit you sent 

Tongues, dreams, and prophecy 

Thes things now sure shall be 

To show God’s glory, he works his good intent 

3. And too wonder above 

The Spirit, holy dove 

And signs beneath, blood, fire, and vapour of smoke 

Sun shall be turned to dark 

Moon be turned to blood, hark 

Before great day of the Lord come, no revoke 

4. It shall come to pass so 

That they the Lord shall know 

Whosoever calls on His name shall saved be 

Trusting your life within 

Us, cleanse us here from sin 

To go witness, that all the Saviour shall see 

Dove image: Kostya Pazyuk, dreamstime.com


RENDEZVOUS 

IN THE ARK 

Tuesday 14 May 

Tuesday 28 May 

at 12 noon 

Open to everyone of all ages 

for lunch 

and conversation 

Reserve your seat on: 

0118 969 3298 

St St Andrew's Andrew's Ark Ark 

St Andrew's Ark 

Third Sunday of the month (accept August) 

Third Sunday Third Sunday of the of month 3pm the — month (accept 4pm (accept (except August) August) 

3pm — 3pm 4pm 

Craft— Science — 4pm — Puzzles 

Stories Craft— — Craft— Science Games Science — Songs Puzzles — Puzzles — Celebration 

Stories Stories — Games — Games — Songs 

Free — Food! Songs — Celebration — Celebration 

Free Food! Free Food! 

An afternoon of fun, fellowship and a free meal together 

An afternoon An afternoon of fun, A of fellowship different fun, fellowship theme and a each free and meal month a free together meal together 

A different A different theme each theme month 

For more information: 

each month 

For more For information: 

more Corinne information: 

Corinne Corinne 

corinne@sonningparish.org.uk 



the church of st andrew, SERVING THE 

COMMUNITIES OF CHARVIL, SONNING and sonning eye 

the church the of church st andrew, of st andrew, SERVING SERVING THE THE 

COMMUNITIES COMMUNITIES OF CHARVIL, OF CHARVIL, SONNING SONNING and sonning and sonning eye eye 




Serving Church of St Andrew 

messy 

Sonning, church 

Charvil poster 

& A0 

Sonning Feb 2024.indd 

Eye 

Serving Sonning, 1 

Charvil & Sonning Eye 

15/01/2024 14:44:57 

messy church poster A0 Feb 2024.indd 1 15/01/2024 14:44:57 

messy church poster A0 Feb 2024.indd 1 15/01/2024 14:44:57

THE SCIENCES 

'Pain that is 

not expressed 

can never be 

transformed' 

By Dr Ruth M Bancewicz, church 

engagement director at The 

Faraday Institute for Science and 

Religion, Cambridge 

The question of suffering comes 

up regularly in discussions about 

science and faith. When I visited a 

school to speak to some of the older 

teenagers, one had sadly died from 

cancer a few weeks before and his 

classmates asked, 'How could God let 

this happen?' 

While questions about where God was 

in this situation were important, the 

school's chaplain gently reminded the 

class that their friend’s family were 

Christians and they were finding their 

experience of loss had brought them 

even closer to God than before. 

One way that grief can bring us 

near to God is when we share it with 

him by telling him exactly how we 

feel. 

The Biblical writers had no 

scruples about expressing themselves 

to God, giving vent to emotions we 

often hold back in a church context. 

As my colleague Roger Abbott, 

wrote in his book about unanswered 

prayer: 'Let us not confuse reverence 

with spiritual prudishness. Perhaps 

honesty, the way it feels, is precisely 

what God is waiting to hear from us.' 

Please remember your 

donations for the 

Woodley Food Bank 

Please inside remember St Andrew's your 

Church which is open 

10am - 4pm every day 

donations for the Woodley Food 

Bank and place them in the box 

just inside St Andrew's Church. 

Thank you! 

Jorisvo | Dreamstime.com 

About one third of the Psalms 

express some form of grief. 

Job is a series of responses to 

one man’s suffering as he loses his 

children, property and health in quick 

succession. 

Lamentations is also one long 

outpouring of sadness at what 

happened to Israel under the 

Babylonians. 

Some of the prophets, especially 

Jeremiah, express their pain at these 

sort of events which reflect something 

of God’s own feelings at the suffering 

of his people. 

Most of these Biblical authors 

would have had access to scriptures 

that encouraged them to turn to 

God whatever the circumstances. 

Emboldened by their knowledge of 


A stained glass window in the Cathedral of Brussels, Belgium depicts the prophet Jeremiah 

lamenting the destruction of Jerusalem. The Lamentations of Jeremiah in the Bible consists 

of five poems in the form of laments for Judah and Jerusalem when they were invaded and 

devastated by the Babylonians in 586 BCE for the sufferings of the population, and for the poet 

himself during and after the catastrophe. 

Jorisvo, Dreamstime.com 

EMBOLDENED 

his character and promises, these 

divinely inspired writers even express 

their anger to God about the things 

he lets happen, or complain that he 

seems to act unfairly or ignore them 

in their plight. 

Not only do these people let out all 

their feelings without fear of reprisal, 

but they also clearly expect a helpful 

answer. 

Some record a resolution to their 

troubles, often simply because God 

speaks to and comforts them. He 

enables them to keep going. 

The biblical writers demonstrated 

that God can handle pretty much 

anything — anger, blame, bitterness 

— if we are actively looking to him for 

help. 

As Pete Greig of the 24-7 prayer 

movement has written, 'pain that is 

not expressed can never be transformed'. 

Nature and science meet faith in films 

'God Saw That It Was Good' is a four-part film series that aims to reconnect 

people with the wonder of the natural world and a sense of the divine within 

it while inspiring a renewed vision of creation care. 

The short films focus on environmental issues around themes of coasts, sky, 

trees, and life. They are written and presented by Rev Dr Dave Gregory, a 

Baptist minister and former meteorologist and climate scientist at the Met 

Office and European Weather Centre. 

He says, “In our visual age, people are captivated by stunning images of our world and 

cosmos seen in nature and science programmes streamed to our TVs and phones. They are 

entranced by the wonder they see, yet often left with a sense of mystery and asking is there 

more to know? 

“The God Saw That It Was Good films take people deeper in the wonder and mystery of 

the world. They enable viewers to encounter the wonder, playfulness, and connections in 

creation that science reveals, and through which God may be encountered.”


PUZZLE PAGE — 1 

BIBLE CROSSWORD 

Across 

1 One who owes money, goods or services (Isaiah 24:2) (6) 

4 ‘A good measure, pressed down — together running over’ (Luke 6:38) (6) 

7 Continuous dull pain (Proverbs 14:13) (4) 

8 This bread contains yeast (Amos 4:5) (8) 

9 ‘But take heart! I have — the world’ (John 16:33) (8) 

13 And the rest (abbrev.) (3) 

16 What Paul was accused of by Tertullus, the high priest’s lawyer, in his 

trial before Felix (Acts 24:5) (13) 

17 Rap (anag.) (3) 

19 Founder of the Jesuits in 1534 (8) 

24 ‘For where your — is, there your heart will be also’ (Luke 12:34) (8) 

25 The first word written on the wall during King Belshazzar’s great 

banquet (Daniel 5:25) (4) 

26 ‘We all, like sheep, have gone — ’ (Isaiah 53:6) (6) 

27 One was given in honour of Jesus in Bethany (John 12:2) (6) 

Down 

1 ‘The blind receive sight, the lame walk, the — hear, the dead are raised’ 

(Luke 7:22) (4) 

2 Conduct (Colossians 1:21) (9) 

3 In the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, the body of a saint or his 

belongings, venerated as holy (5) 

4 ‘Like a — of locusts men pounce on it’ (Isaiah 33:4) (5) 

5 Very old (Genesis 44:20) (4) 

6 In Calvinist theology one who is predestined to receive salvation (5) 

10 How Nicodemus addressed Jesus (John 3:2) (5) 

11 Sea (Psalm 148:7) (5) 

12 ‘I will — you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever’ 

(Psalm 145:1) (5) 

13 One of the groups of philosophers that Paul met in Athens, who 

disagreed with his teaching about the resurrection (Acts 17:18) (9) 

14 Barred enclosure (Ezekiel 19:9) (4) 

15 ‘Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in — with the Spirit’ (Gal 5:25) (4) 

18 Cares (anag.) (5) 

20 Garish (Ezekiel 16:16) (5) 

21 ‘So God said to Noah, “I am going to put —to all people”’ (Gen 6:13) (2,3) 

22 Just (2 Corinthians 6:13) (4) 

23 ‘The — of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge’ (Proverbs 1:7) (4) 

They Missed The Boat Verse Search by Ralph 

A 

R 

C 

H 

A 

E 

O 

P 

T 

E 

R 

I 

X 

M 

T 

R 

D 

I 

A 

M 

R 

E 

M 

I 

N 

O 

T 

A 

U 

R 

S 

O 

B 

U 

R 

C 

X 

K 

W 

S 

B 

U 

O 

B 

I 

T 

U 

T 

F 

N 

N 

H 

E 

R 

A 

L 

T 

D 

G 

C 

E 

O 

O 

P 

I 

I 

R 

I 

S 

A 

L 

O 

U 

S 

E 

Ralph's ‘verse search’ grid above contains the names of 

26 animals — including extinct and mystical creatures — 

whose names begin: A; 4B; C; E; F. G; I; K; L; 2M; 2P; R; 3S; 

2T; U; V; W; Z. If you find all 26 you will also notice that the 

unused letters in the grid spell out a relevant verse from 

the Good News Bible. You might even manage to identify 

the verse. Good luck, and God Bless! 

Write your answers here . . . 

ANSWERS TO LAST MONTH'S FAMOUS PEOPLE SEARCH 

ATTENBOROUGH 

CHARLEMAGNE 

HERODOTUS 

RUTHERFORD 

MICHELANGELO 

MACHIAVELLI 

WASHINGTON 

BOTTICELLI 

G 

I 

O 

H 

A 

E 

C 

I 

M 

Y 

K 

A 

B 

A 

R 

O 

R 

P 

F 

W 

R 

L 

O 

T 

E 

N 

E 

U 

U 

A 

S 

S 

I 

O 

G 

I 

I 

C 

R 

O 

R 

Y 

N 

R 

T 

A 

U 

L 

F 

S 

I 

A 

C 

D 

N 

R 

A 

Y 

O 

O 

U 

F 

S 

K 

F 

D 

B 

O 

O 

I 

F 

F 

I 

P 

P 

CONSTABLE 

BROWNING 

HANNIBAL 

CROMWELL 

MUSSOLINI 

MANET 

NOBEL 

EINSTEIN 

R 

L 

A 

A 

O 

I 

N 

U 

A 

L 

O 

F 

P 

O 

S 

LEONARDO DA VINCI 

U 

D 

T 

R 

G 

O 

N 

F 

R 

E 

E 

G 

L 

D 

R 

S 

A 

E 

O 

Y 

E 

I 

B 

M 

O 

Z 

V 

T 

E 

R 

The hidden Bible verse was from Joshua 6:27 

(Good News Bible) 

HIS FAME SPREAD THROUGH THE WHOLE 

COUNTRY 

B 

T 

R 

O 

L 

L 

P 

B 

A 

N 

S 

H 

E 

E 

O 

P 

L 

E 

P 

R 

A 

C 

H 

A 

U 

N 

O 

I 

E 

C 

CHURCHILL 

BANISTER 

PICASSO 

MONET 

ROSSINI 

DEFOE 

RAVEL 

BACH

PUZZLE PAGE — 2 

CROSSWORD 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 

8 

9 10 

11 12 

13 

14 15 16 17 

SUDOKU 


answers in the next issue 

April 

Solutions 

CROSSWORD 

C O D E E M B A R K E D 

A U M O N I U 

P R O T E I N T O N G S 

T M T T H G K 

A R O M A T H E R A P Y 

I P S O I R 

N Y M P H S S P O N G E 

S I Y T O V 

U N A S S A I L A B L E 

I I I U O R R 

M I M I C R A G T I M E 

P U A U Y D N 

S I M P L E S T T E X T 

20 

18 19 

21 22 

23 24 

Across 

1 - Break 

or burst 

or 

(4) 

burst (4) 

3 

-- Burns 

slightly 

slightly 

or chars (8) 

or chars (8) 

9 

-- Perennial 

plant with 

fleshy 

fleshy 

roots (7) 

roots (7) 

10 

- 

- 

Loop 

Loop 

with a 

with 

running 

a 

knot 

running 

(5) 

knot (5) 

11 - Completely 

unaware 

unaware 

of (12) 

of (12) 

14 

-- Acquire; 

obtain 

obtain 

(3) 

(3) 

16 

-- Show 

off (5) 

off (5) 

17 

-- Measure 

of length 

of 

(3) 

length (3) 

18 

-- Give 

a false 

a false 

account 

account 

of (12) 

of (12) 

21 

-- Place 

of refuge 

of refuge 

(5) 

(5) 

22 

- Due 

- Due 

to the 

to 

fact 

the 

that 

fact 

(7) 

that (7) 

23 

- - Tanks 

for storing 

for storing 

water (8) 

water (8) 

24 

- - Associate 

(4) 

(4) 

CODEWORD 

Down Down 

1 - Be envious of (8) 

1 - Be envious of (8) 

2 - Transmits 2 - Transmits (5) (5) 

4 - Fall behind 4 - Fall behind (3) (3) 

5 - Body of voters in a 

given 6 - area Enunciate (12) (7) 

6 - Enunciate 7 - Look for (7) (4) 

7 - Look for (4) 

8 - Persistence (12) 

8 - Persistence (12) 

12 - Furnish or supply (5) 

12 - Furnish or supply (5) 

13 - Shiny; sparkly (8) 

13 - Shiny; sparkly (8) 

15 - Robbers (7) 

15 - Robbers (7) 

19 - Be the same as 19 - Be the same as (5) 

20 - Stylish (4) 

20 - Stylish (4) 

22 - Round 22 - Round bread bread roll (3) 

2 5 6 6 25 9 22 1 13 

5 - Body of voters in a given area (12) 

14 4 15 2 4 6 14 7 9 6 

12 4 17 15 26 17 13 

12 23 4 26 4 8 9 4 11 5 4 

9 9 24 17 26 17 

26 16 6 9 26 15 12 4 23 18 9 6 

19 2 15 2 

1 4 17 4 10 9 26 22 24 25 14 17 

1 23 21 10 16 14 

3 9 20 5 4 12 26 16 5 1 12 

17 4 10 4 22 2 16 

9 6 16 12 16 14 17 15 9 8 

15 9 17 22 14 9 12 26 24 

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z 

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 

D 

14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 

V X 

Each of the nine blocks has to contain all the 

numbers 1-9 within its squares. Each number 

can only appear once in a row, column or box. 

WORDSEARCH FOR MAY 

Rogation Sunday is on 5 May 2024 

The first Sunday in May is Rogation Sunday. 

This is when many parishes still ‘beat 

the bounds’. Rogation means an asking 

of God for blessing on the seed and land. 

The practice began with the Romans, who 

processed around the cornfields each 

Spring, singing and dancing, sacrificing 

animals, in order to get rid of evil. About 

465 AD the Western world was suffering 

from earthquake and storm. Mamertius, 

Bishop of Vienne, aware of the pagan 

custom, ordered that prayers should be 

said in the ruined or neglected fields. Thus 

‘beating the bounds’ became a Christian 

ceremonial. It arrived in England early in 

the eighth century. Each Spring, led by the 

priest, a little party from the parish would 

set out with a Cross to trace the boundaries 

of the parish. They’d implore God to keep 

their corn and roots and boughs in good 

health, and bring them to harvest. In the 

days when maps were scarce, ‘beating 

the bounds’ helped remind everyone just 

where the boundaries were. Do you know 

yours today? 

SUNDAY 

MAY 

ROGATION 

BEAT 

BOUNDS 

ASKING 

BLESSING 

SEED 

LAND 

ROMANS 

PROCESSED 

CORNFIELDS 

SPRING 

EARTHQUAKE 

STORM 

PRAYER 

CROSS 

BOUNDARIES 

CROPS 

HARVEST 

MAPS 

CODEWORD 

A X L E F R A G R A N T 

M A U E U P R 

B O T A N I C A L P H A 

I E Q K R R N 

T U X U O D R O P S 

I E N N U I V C 

O R S A E R 

U O T W A I N I 

S U S H I D S C O P 

N E O J H R T 

E A T E N O R I G A M I 

S T E I P Z O 

S P E N D I N G C Y A N 

SUDOKU 

WORDSEARCH APRIL 

BIBLE CROSSWORD



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Call Richard Homden: 0149 168 2050 / 0771 040 9216 

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We are a family business with excellent references 

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CHILDREN'S PAGE 

The Parish Magazine - May 2024 41

42 The Parish Magazine - May 2024 Please mention The Parish Magazine when replying to advertisements 

information — 2 

Parish contacts 

Ministry Team 

— The Vicar: Revd Jamie Taylor (Day off Friday) 

The Parish Office, Thames Street, Sonning, RG4 6UR 

vicar@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 969 3298 

— Youth Minister: Chris West (Westy) 

youthminister@sonningparish.org.uk / 0794 622 4106 

— Licensed Lay Minister: Bob Peters 

bob@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 377 5887 

— Female Youth and Children's Worker: Corinne Robertson 

corinne@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 969 3298 

Churchwardens 

— Stuart Bowman sdbowman73@aol.com / 0118 978 8414 

— Liz Nelson liz.nelson1@ntlworld.com / 0779 194 4270 

Deputy Churchwardens 

— Simon Darvall sdarvall@businessmoves.com / 0793 928 2535 

— Terry Hunt terencehunt@me.com / 0773 470 7368 

— Sue Peters mail@susanjpeters.com / 0118 377 5887 

— Ruth Jeffery, ruth@jefferyfamily.net / 0797 101 8730 

Parish Office Manager 

— Hilary Rennie, office@sonningparish.org.uk / 0118 969 3298 

Parochial Church Council 

— Secretary: Hilary Rennie 0118 969 3298 

— Treasurer: Jerry Wood 0118 969 3298 

Director of Music, Organist and Choirmaster 

— Richard Meehan MA ARCO 

music@sonningparish.org.uk 

Safeguarding Officer 

— Nicola Riley: nic.nige@sky.com / 0742 517 3359 

Sonning Bell Ringers 

— Tower Captain: Pam Elliston 

pam.elliston@talktalk.net / 0118 969 5967 

— Deputy Tower Captain: Rob Needham 

r06needham@gmail.com / 0118 926 7724 

Advertisers' index 

ABD Construction 6 

Abbeyfield Wey Valley Society 6 

ACG Services Locksmith 40 

Active Security 30 

AMS Water Softeners 14 

Barn Store Henley 6 

Berkshire Stump Removals 40 

BHR Maintenance 40 

Big Heart Tree Care 40 

Blandy & Blandy Solicitors 40 

Blue Moose 14 

Bridges Homecare Meals on Wheels 12 

Bull Inn 32 

Canon Tree Care 30 

Chole Lefroy Counselling 40 

Clark Bignall Plumbing 40 

Computer Frustrations 40 

Crosfields School 32 

French Horn 4 

Gardiners Home Care 32 

Good Oaks Home Care 26 

Great House Sonning 12 

Handyman and Decorating Services 40 

Handyman and Satellite TV repairs 40 

Haslams Estate Agents 2 

Hicks Group 18 

Home Stair Lifts 18 

Kingfisher Bathrooms 30 

MC Cleaning 40 

Mill at Sonning 44 

Muck & Mulch 18 

Reading Blue Coat School 14 

Richfield Flooring 16 

Sabella Home Furnishing 34 

Shiplake College 16 

Smallwood Landscaping 40 

Sonning Golf Club 16 

Sonning Scouts 32 

Studio DFP 40 

Thames Valley Water Softeners 40 

Thames Chimney Sweep 40 

The Abbey Nursery 43 

Tomalin Funerals 14 

Walker Funerals 12 

Water Softener Salt 18 

Window Cleaner 18 

St Andrew's Church Parish Website 

http://www.sonningparish.org.uk 

The Parish Magazine: http://www.theparishmagazine.co.uk 

— Editor: Bob Peters 

editor@theparishmagazine.co.uk / 0118 377 5887 

— Advertising: Harriet Nelson 

advertising@theparishmagazine.co.uk / 0770 707 7773 

— Print and Distribution: Gordon Nutbrown 

classified@theparishmagazine.co.uk / 0118 969 3282 

The Parish Magazine is produced by St Andrew’s PCC and delivered 

free of charge to every home in Charvil, Sonning and Sonning Eye. 

The Parish Magazine is printed in the United Kingdom by 

Sarum Graphics Ltd, Old Sarum, Salisbury SP4 6QX 

The Parish Magazine is distributed by 

Abracadabra Leaflet Distribution Ltd, Reading RG7 1AW 

The Parish Magazine template was designed in 2012 by 

Roger Swindale rogerswindale@hotmail.co.uk 

and David Woodward david@designforprint.org

Please mention The Parish Magazine when responding to this advertisement 


AB0049_The_Abbey_Little_Knellies_Ad_175x255.indd 1 06/03/2024 09:32


BOOKING NOW 

11 APRIL- 1 JUNE 2024 

6 JUNE- 13 JULY 2024 

THE WATERWHEEL BAR 

STORYTIME 

Open Tuesday - Sunday 11am - 5pm for Hot Bar 

Food, Homemade Cakes & Artisan Coffee. Come 

and treat yourself to a scrumptious lunch in the 

most beautiful setting. 

PLEASE FIND FULL MENU ONLINE 

On Wednesday Mornings, enjoy a magical 

experience as pre-school children are treated to 

a story and singing in the theatre, followed by 

dressing up and colouring in activities in the 

Waterwheel Bar. £6, book at Box Office. 

B O X O F F I C E : ( 0 1 1 8 ) 9 6 9 8 0 0 0 

millatsonning.com

The Parish Magazine May 2024

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