Ring out the old, ring in the new

Rowley’s Bells Ring Out.

St Giles is now through the gateway (0f the Year into its Centenary Year with our Bells still ringing out their call to worship, marking joyous times and sad times in the life of our Church Family and our Nation. Bell Ringers are rare men, women, and yes sometimes children, both boys and girls. We are very fortunate to be blessed with a faithful team at Rowley, headed by Bell Captain Alan Roberts and Tower Captain David Chiswell and of recent times ‘new’ Bell recruits eager to join in The Merry Dance of the Bells

Our centenary celebrations are centred on the past 100 years but the bells of Rowley have been ringing out for much longer than that,

They were rung in celebration at the Coronation of Charles II in 1661 and the Rowley Ringers were paid 6 shillings and 8 pence… in todays money 34pence.

For the Coronation of George II Rowley Ringers were paid 5 shillings … 25p. For his birthday and his Queen’s birthday 2 shillings and 6 pence

The church treasurer thinks those figures were made to the whole team and shared out! Bell Ringers have never been made rich monetarily but have known the riches of teamwork and the joy of making those bells dance, enriching the worship of the church and proclaiming its joys and sorrows in their own special unique way.

In Memoriam, [Ring out, wild bells]

Alfred, Lord Tennyson – 1809-1892

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
   The flying cloud, the frosty light:
   The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.

Ring out the grief that saps the mind
For those that here we see no more;
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in redress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
   And ancient forms of party strife;
   Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

Ring out the want, the care, the sin,
   The faithless coldness of the times;
   Ring out, ring out my mournful rhymes
But ring the fuller minstrel in.

Ring out false pride in place and blood,
   The civic slander and the spite;
   Ring in the love of truth and right,
Ring in the common love of good.

Ring out old shapes of foul disease;
   Ring out the narrowing lust of gold;
   Ring out the thousand wars of old,
Ring in the thousand years of peace.

Ring in the valiant man and free,
   The larger heart, the kindlier hand;
   Ring out the darkness of the land,
Ring in the Christ that is to be.

This poem is in the public domain, and posted with gratitude for the hundreds of times the writer of this post, and no doubt many besides have heard Rowley’s wild bells ring out. Bless you Bell ringers one and all with special memories of all those who have left Rowley’s Tower to ring those in a higher place.

Altar in St Giles Lady Chapel

The little Olive Tree

Perhaps the smallest Olive Tree in the World

I arrived home one afternoon to find the smallest Olive Tree in the world standing at the side of my door. Much perplexed after searching I found what hopefully would be the best place to put it… leaving in its pot until I saw how it would fare in different sites. It has now survived one winter and hopefully a second. Snow has been mentioned by the weather forecaster. Around 4 weeks after its arrival little Olive tree produced blossom followed by tiny olives, not many but it is after all the smallest Olive Tree in the world.

My friend, Barrie who gave me the smallest Olive Tree in the world, said he thought it was “just me” because I love the Bible so.

Well that is true. like Paul’s friend, Timothy I have ‘known the Holy Scriptures from my childhood’ (2 Timothy 3.15). I think of the dove returning to Noah with the freshly plucked olive leaf (Genesis 8. 11], of the promise that the little children of the man who walks in obedience to the Lord will be like Olive shoots around his table (Psalm 128.3) of the sadness of Jeremiah who wrote that the LORD had called Israel a thriving olive tree with fruit beautiful in form [ch. 11.16) with a warning of what would befall Israel and his beautiful olive tree because they had forgotten Him and made him angry by worshiping other gods.

“ But I am like an olive tree flourishing in the house of God; I trust in God’s unfailing love for ever and ever.
For what you have done I will always praise you
In the presence of your faithful people.
And I will hope in your name,
For your name is good.

Psalm 52. 8-9

And then, I recall singing this

Into the woods my Master went,
Clean forspent, forspent.
Into the woods my Master came,
Forspent with love and shame.
But the olives they were not blind to Him,
The little gray leaves were kind to Him:
The thorn-tree had a mind to Him
When into the woods He came.
 
Out of the woods my Master went,
And He was well content.
Out of the woods my Master came,
Content with death and shame.
When Death and Shame would woo Him last,
From under the trees they drew Him last:
'Twas on a tree they slew Him--last
When out of the woods He came.

Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane beneath the Olive Tree whose little grey leaves were kind to him, little and grey perfectly describes the leaves of the “smallest Olive tree in the world” The fruit of the Olive 🫒 is beautiful in form, and very kind to mankind, supplying oil, that is useful in many ways …. How precious it is to be useful in our Lord’s Service.

We are into the new year truly now, and St Giles is looking ahead, both as a body of people and as individuals to being useful in the Service of God in 2023. We are looking forward to seeing how the little Olive tress planted and being planted in our midst will grow…. Watching carefully, as I have been for two years for new shoots, blossoms, and then the Olives ripen …

Big ones grow from small shoots

Hymn: Sidney Lanier (1880]

Scriptures, N,I,V.

A Bit of a Royal Connection

Dedication Stone 1923

From time to time we are asked, “How old is this Church?” And sometimes, “Was there another one.?”

The stone pictured above, photograph courtesy of Mike Tandy, answers both questions rather well… although in actual fact we understand that before the building of the first Church that lay brothers farming the land for the Monastery of St Leonard’s Clent used to preach and pray around ‘a “Preaching Cross” erected where, in pagan times there was a burial ground, long before the present churchyard.

Whether this was a stone cross, or as is more than likely, a simple one made from wood, we do not know, nothing remains now either of the Cross or the first Church which seems to have been a simple building mainly a wooden structure but which withstood the elements seeing kings and queens come and go until the reign of Queen Victoria when an Act of Parliament separating Rowley’s Church from the Parish of Clent was given Royal Assent by Queen Victoria on 21st June 1841.

Before William Conquered.. Rowley was here

Rowley was a Royal Manor belonging to the Godwin family of whom the famous King Harold was a member and in years 1100 – 1190 Rowley was a Royal Hunting Chase and is shown as Terra Regis or King’s Land, belonging to the Crown. This was during the reign of Henry 11 … [1154-1189}

Then along came King John 1199-1216

Then the first Church in Rowley is said to have been erected and the Manor of Rowley was held by King John’s daughter, Joanna wife of Llewelyn the Great of Wales.

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There is so much more to tell of Rowley’s History and that of its Church but we are todays children and today is all we have to live out as best we can, because we are followers of a Heavenly King that means following as closely as we can, and taking the Royal Law as written in the Holy Scriptures as the pattern for our daily lives. Today, perhaps more than ever we need to remind ourselves often of whose we are, to whom we belong like the king’s liegemen and hand maids of old

St Giles Parish Church of Rowley of the King in Recent Years

“God, the blessed and only Ruler, the King of Kings and Lord of lords, who alone is immortal and who lives in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honour and might for ever. Amen.

2 Timothy 6. 15-16 N.I.V.

Images: Dedication Stone photographed by Mike Tandy. Altar with Banner (R.A.F.Cosford) by Tides and Tidings

Someone Has to Write it Down

Carole, Vera, Iris, Barbara

In every church, there is always a need for someone to write it down. Whether it be an entry in the Service Registers, the Churchyard Records, a name, a place a date on the Side’s Persons Rota, the intercessions Rota, the Flower Calendar, the list goes on. So very important the simple note left to ask someone else to return a phone call, and to inform announcements made before Sunday Service, and the pew sheet. Nowadays we have technology at hand to assist the Parish Administration … the Live Events Diary prompting the Administrator to send Cards, and the Vicar to call the Banns.

But truly, the humble paper and pen will never, in my view, go out of fashion and archived copies of Parish Magazines going back before the Dedication of our present Church Building (4 church buildings on 1 site since 1199) are continually researched by local historians. Even more so this year which is our Centenary Year This 4th Building being dedicated September 29th 1923. It will be An exciting year, and one I hope which will be written about at length and by many..

I spend, many hours looking for answers in response to questions asked today, concerning people, events, of years long gone and past, helping to fill in gaps for persons scattered far and wide, sometimes from overseas, people looking for family roots … so satisfying and rewarding to find the few lines or words that mean so much to earnest seekers.

The photograph of four ladies sitting together would be just a puzzle to someone looking at it from the future, without the names recorded beneath, it Carole, Vera, Iris and Barbara for the record:-

Carole is Carole Annetts our current Parish Administrator the lady who keeps the Rotas and Schedules updated. Carole organises Parish Outings amongst other events

Vera Round was born, grew up and still lives in Rowley. Vera once boasted red hair, is still outspoken, with a gentle, warm and outgoing personality… Vera’s writer daughter, lives in Australia and is of the firm opinion that Vera will be with us to celebrate her personal centenary year. Amen to that.

Little Iris, Iris Westwood is in the green cardigan. Sadly Iris is no longer with us to help with the flowers, she was enormously talented that way, and quietly, very generously kind, contributing that really useful jar of coffee, and this and that when most needed. It is the little things, the little flowers in life, such as Iris which make life beautiful and sweeter.

Next to Iris in the grey blue Jacket is Barbara Callow. Barbara is Mum to Churchwarden, Yvonne Owen, and on many an occasion has taken the writer of this post under her motherly wing as well.

Why have these little things been written down?

Well, because small things, small and humble persons are not forgotten before God, who considers them so important that His Angel Scribes write them down inscribing each name in golden lettering in the book of life.

During this Centenary Year of 2023 many photographs will be taken, many words, hopefully, written down which will endure, carefully laid up within the archives for years and generations yet to come preserving those little snapshots and memories of shy, little people behind the scenes.

Others Who Wrote it Down

In my former book, in my former book , Theophilus, I wrote about all that Jesus began to do and teach until the day he was taken up to heaven

Acts 1. 1

This is the disciple who testifies to these things and who wrote them down. We know that his testimony is true.

John 21. 24

Where the Lord Promises to Write it Down

“I will put my law in their minds and write it on their hearts.
“I will be their God , and they will be my people.l

Jeremiah 31.we

Memo to Self

Keep The Memory Write it Down

scripture quotations taken from the Holy Bible N.I.V.