Fred Hann, also known as Alex, died at Southmead Hospital on Wednesday 19th November 2008. We much regret the loss of Fred, who has been a very loyal member and friend for a number of years. He was taken ill abroad and spent time in hospital before being air-lifted home. Andrea Clark Ward gave him unstinted assistance in his time of need, as he had given his time and patience to her work with children. His quiet but genial presence will be much missed. We offer our sympathy to his family.
~ Bernard Omar
Women's League
Please note that most of our meetings are open to all members of both chapels - gentlemen included!
On 18th November Audrey Cook invited us to her flat for a social afternoon. She had some quizzes lined up for us which taxed our brains but were great fun and caused much laughter. Thank you Audrey for your hospitality.
On Friday 12th December we had lunch at the Café Rouge in the new Cabot Circus complex.
We will be visiting the Tobacco Factory on Friday 16th January for a performance of A Christmas Carol. Tickets are £12 (concessions £8).
On 18th November Audrey Cook invited us to her flat for a social afternoon. She had some quizzes lined up for us which taxed our brains but were great fun and caused much laughter. Thank you Audrey for your hospitality.
On Friday 12th December we had lunch at the Café Rouge in the new Cabot Circus complex.
We will be visiting the Tobacco Factory on Friday 16th January for a performance of A Christmas Carol. Tickets are £12 (concessions £8).
Christmas
African Chalice, by Patricia Oliver (available as a Christmas card)Christmas is not so much a matter of explanation and interpretation, as it is a mood and a feeling. It is a time in the cycle of the year set apart by hope and fellowship and generosity. Christmas is the season of the heart.
~ Gordon B McKeenan
I heard the bells on Christmas Day
Their old, familiar carols play,
And wild and sweet the words repeat
Of peace on earth, good-will to men!
~ Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
Shall we liken Christmas to the web in a loom? There are many weavers, who work into the pattern the experience of their lives. When one generation goes, another comes to take up the weft where it has been dropped. The pattern changes as the mind changes, yet never begins quite anew. At first, we are not sure that we discern the pattern, but at last we see that, unknown to the weavers themselves, something has taken shape before our eyes, and that they have made something very beautiful, something which compels our understanding.
~ Earl W. Count
From the Minister
Dear Friends,
It is with a full heart that I greet you with the news about the birth of Gethin, son for Delydd and Darren, brother for Caitlin…. [members of our Frenchay chapel] “Joy to the World” as we approach the season of advent. Congratulations.
I also recently heard this expression “a full heart” from a minister friend of mine who had been at the centre of receiving the grief, love, support and needs of friends and family who had recently been bereaved.
And now here in Bristol, my heart feels full. Full of love for our dear friend Alex Hann who died on November 18th. Alex, known to some of you as Fred, who had that lovely quality of calm mixed with laughter. He was also a person not to be afraid of challenging that which he felt was not right.
Perhaps those are some of the qualities we need to respect and hold on to as we approach the Christmas season.
Calm: How to stay centred when all around is in material and emotional turmoil: recognising that which is really important.
Laughter: Having the ability to laugh at ourselves and our follies especially at this time when
we can so easily confuse love and caring with presents and parties!
So thank you Alex for your wisdom and integrity.
And thanks to all of you here who have contributed your wisdom, heart, and just plain hard work to the continuation of our most important Unitarian contribution and presence here in Bristol.
May your Christmas have a full heart in every way and HAPPY NEW YEAR
Lindy
The funeral service for Alex was held at Frenchay Chapel on Thursday, December 4th.
It is with a full heart that I greet you with the news about the birth of Gethin, son for Delydd and Darren, brother for Caitlin…. [members of our Frenchay chapel] “Joy to the World” as we approach the season of advent. Congratulations.
I also recently heard this expression “a full heart” from a minister friend of mine who had been at the centre of receiving the grief, love, support and needs of friends and family who had recently been bereaved.
And now here in Bristol, my heart feels full. Full of love for our dear friend Alex Hann who died on November 18th. Alex, known to some of you as Fred, who had that lovely quality of calm mixed with laughter. He was also a person not to be afraid of challenging that which he felt was not right.
Perhaps those are some of the qualities we need to respect and hold on to as we approach the Christmas season.
Calm: How to stay centred when all around is in material and emotional turmoil: recognising that which is really important.
Laughter: Having the ability to laugh at ourselves and our follies especially at this time when
we can so easily confuse love and caring with presents and parties!
So thank you Alex for your wisdom and integrity.
And thanks to all of you here who have contributed your wisdom, heart, and just plain hard work to the continuation of our most important Unitarian contribution and presence here in Bristol.
May your Christmas have a full heart in every way and HAPPY NEW YEAR
Lindy
The funeral service for Alex was held at Frenchay Chapel on Thursday, December 4th.
Mary Carpenter
by Carla Contractor
Mary was the eldest of 6 children of Lant Carpenter, Unitarian minister of Lewinʼs Mead Meeting in Bristol. Exceptionally well educated at her fatherʼs Academy at 2 Great George Street, Clifton, she studied subjects such as Physics, Botany, Zoology, Maths, Greek and Latin. She and her family lived in the house and were a devoted family, especially Mary who adored her father.
She became a teacher in her Fatherʼs boys school and then, with her two sisters after Lantʼs death, in her Motherʼs boarding school in Whiteladies Road. Her sister Susan married Robert Gaskell, brother of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. The school closed in 1848, freeing Mary to devote herself to reforming the child penal system and establishing reformatories, inspired by the work of Joseph McKerman of Boston.
She first brought the concept of 'Ragged Schools' to Bristol and set up her school in the worst slums in the city along the dockside, for the very poorest and wild children there. Next she established a Day Industrial School for boys at Kingswood in John Wesley's old school buildings and would walk there and back daily to teach and supervise. Finally she bought the Red Lodge in Park Row, Clifton for the first girl's reformatory in the country. She educated the girls, all of whom had convictions, for a better life and work.
She then determined to reform the penal system which punished vagrants and young thieves and put children as young as seven into adult prisons and wrote several analyses of the educational and penal abuses of the day affecting “The children of the perishing and dangerous classes”. Slowly she succeeded in raising the age of child criminals and established a climate of change which brought in many later reforms. Free day schools were state-aided by 1861 and Day Industrial Schools by 1876. In her work she was supported by the Unitarian Matthew Davenport Hill and financially by Lady Byron who gave generously to Kingswood and helped purchase the Red Lodge and its house where Mary lived. Frances Power Cobbe, another prominent Victorian feminist and reformer, worked for a time at the Red Lodge.
In 1866 she wrote "The last days on England of Rajah Rammohun Roy". She had been greatly impressed by him in 1833 when he visited Bristol, but he alas died in a friend's house in Stapleton. He called himself a Hindu Unitarian and had been a remarkable reformer in India. Mary went to India four times between 1866 and 1876 - an elderly but determined woman alone. She went to press the Raj government to set up girls school and reform the prison system. She established the National Indian Association, acting as its journal's editor for ten years.
In 1845 she compiled an ecumenical collection of Morning and Evening Meditations which sold very well in America and Britain. Just before she died she collected nearly one hundred of her poems plus fifteen Reflections and Memorials as Voices of the Spirit. Both gave insights into the mind and religious beliefs of a very private and busy woman. Mary did not marry; surely her life was too occupied, but adopted a young girl, Rosanne, in 1858.
Mary died in her sleep at the Red Lodge on 14/15th June 1877 and is buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery, where her grave has recently been cleaned and restored. Her funeral showed Bristol's appreciation of her selfless life and dedication to "Poor and perishing children". It was attended by enormous numbers from all denominations and classes (the cortège was a half mile long) plus many of those children whose lives she so helped. Her bust and epitaph are in the North Transept of the cathedral on College Green.
Mary was the eldest of 6 children of Lant Carpenter, Unitarian minister of Lewinʼs Mead Meeting in Bristol. Exceptionally well educated at her fatherʼs Academy at 2 Great George Street, Clifton, she studied subjects such as Physics, Botany, Zoology, Maths, Greek and Latin. She and her family lived in the house and were a devoted family, especially Mary who adored her father.
She became a teacher in her Fatherʼs boys school and then, with her two sisters after Lantʼs death, in her Motherʼs boarding school in Whiteladies Road. Her sister Susan married Robert Gaskell, brother of the novelist Elizabeth Gaskell. The school closed in 1848, freeing Mary to devote herself to reforming the child penal system and establishing reformatories, inspired by the work of Joseph McKerman of Boston.
She first brought the concept of 'Ragged Schools' to Bristol and set up her school in the worst slums in the city along the dockside, for the very poorest and wild children there. Next she established a Day Industrial School for boys at Kingswood in John Wesley's old school buildings and would walk there and back daily to teach and supervise. Finally she bought the Red Lodge in Park Row, Clifton for the first girl's reformatory in the country. She educated the girls, all of whom had convictions, for a better life and work.
She then determined to reform the penal system which punished vagrants and young thieves and put children as young as seven into adult prisons and wrote several analyses of the educational and penal abuses of the day affecting “The children of the perishing and dangerous classes”. Slowly she succeeded in raising the age of child criminals and established a climate of change which brought in many later reforms. Free day schools were state-aided by 1861 and Day Industrial Schools by 1876. In her work she was supported by the Unitarian Matthew Davenport Hill and financially by Lady Byron who gave generously to Kingswood and helped purchase the Red Lodge and its house where Mary lived. Frances Power Cobbe, another prominent Victorian feminist and reformer, worked for a time at the Red Lodge.
In 1866 she wrote "The last days on England of Rajah Rammohun Roy". She had been greatly impressed by him in 1833 when he visited Bristol, but he alas died in a friend's house in Stapleton. He called himself a Hindu Unitarian and had been a remarkable reformer in India. Mary went to India four times between 1866 and 1876 - an elderly but determined woman alone. She went to press the Raj government to set up girls school and reform the prison system. She established the National Indian Association, acting as its journal's editor for ten years.
In 1845 she compiled an ecumenical collection of Morning and Evening Meditations which sold very well in America and Britain. Just before she died she collected nearly one hundred of her poems plus fifteen Reflections and Memorials as Voices of the Spirit. Both gave insights into the mind and religious beliefs of a very private and busy woman. Mary did not marry; surely her life was too occupied, but adopted a young girl, Rosanne, in 1858.
Mary died in her sleep at the Red Lodge on 14/15th June 1877 and is buried at Arnos Vale Cemetery, where her grave has recently been cleaned and restored. Her funeral showed Bristol's appreciation of her selfless life and dedication to "Poor and perishing children". It was attended by enormous numbers from all denominations and classes (the cortège was a half mile long) plus many of those children whose lives she so helped. Her bust and epitaph are in the North Transept of the cathedral on College Green.
January & February 2009
January
Sunday 4th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am THE MINISTER
UMB 3.00 pm THE MINISTER
Flowers - Ms S Pugh IM
Teas - Mrs S Bartlett
Monday 5th
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
Saturday 10th
WESTERN UNION COUNCIL, Bridgwater Church 10 am
Sunday 11th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am Mr BERNARD MYERS
NO SERVICE AT UMB
Thursday 15th
Frenchay 7.00 pm Group planning meeting
Sunday 18th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am THE MINISTER
UMB 3.00pm ANNIVERSARY SERVICE ~ THE MINISTER
Flowers - Mrs O Jennings
Teas - Mrs F Webster plus congregational contributions please
Music - Bob Cook
Monday 19th
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
Sunday 25th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am Rev JOHN HARLEY
Followed by Frenchay committee meeting
UMB 3.00 - 5.00 pm ‘BRIGHT LIGHTS”
Holocaust Memorial Day: 6.00 pm St. Paul's Church, St. Paul's Road, Clifton
February
Sunday 1st
FRENCHAY 10.30 am THE MINISTER
UMB 3.00 pm THE MINISTER
Flowers - Mr A Brown IM
Teas - Mrs S Wildman
Monday 2nd
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
Sunday 8th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am - Yvonne Aburrow
NO SERVICE AT UMB
Monday 19th
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
Sunday 4th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am THE MINISTER
UMB 3.00 pm THE MINISTER
Flowers - Ms S Pugh IM
Teas - Mrs S Bartlett
Monday 5th
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
Saturday 10th
WESTERN UNION COUNCIL, Bridgwater Church 10 am
Sunday 11th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am Mr BERNARD MYERS
NO SERVICE AT UMB
Thursday 15th
Frenchay 7.00 pm Group planning meeting
Sunday 18th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am THE MINISTER
UMB 3.00pm ANNIVERSARY SERVICE ~ THE MINISTER
Flowers - Mrs O Jennings
Teas - Mrs F Webster plus congregational contributions please
Music - Bob Cook
Monday 19th
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
Sunday 25th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am Rev JOHN HARLEY
Followed by Frenchay committee meeting
UMB 3.00 - 5.00 pm ‘BRIGHT LIGHTS”
Holocaust Memorial Day: 6.00 pm St. Paul's Church, St. Paul's Road, Clifton
February
Sunday 1st
FRENCHAY 10.30 am THE MINISTER
UMB 3.00 pm THE MINISTER
Flowers - Mr A Brown IM
Teas - Mrs S Wildman
Monday 2nd
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
Sunday 8th
FRENCHAY 10.30 am - Yvonne Aburrow
NO SERVICE AT UMB
Monday 19th
FRENCHAY 6.15 pm - 7.45 pm Meditation Group
New Year
It would be a dull soul who does not raise a glass on New Yearʼs Eve. Whether itʼs among a motley crowd of mostly strangers, or sitting alone in front of the television, surely the ritual deserves acknowledgement. In my memory, the image that lingers is of clocks, Victorian railway clocks, the face of Big Ben, strong Roman numerals, neat plain numbers or even the blinking of a digital alarm. Shut your eyes and they emerge from the past, seared on the retina year after year, marking the man-made calender. “itʼs no different from any other day” say the New Yearʼs equivalent of Scrooge, the wet blankets who go to bed early with cocoa and no companions. But that is to miss the entire point: if we insist a day is different, that in itself is enough to mark it out. In any culture rituals differentiate one day from another. They define our lives.
Indeed, our everyday patterns are driven by them: the feeding rituals of three meals a day, coffee and tea breaks, an evening drink, the final nightcap; the annual rituals of birthdays and anniversaries. rituals are but grand forms, habits the daily fodder. Both are the repeating routines by which we count our hours and days. Rites of passage mark the shift from one set of rituals to another. Students give up on three meals a day, the retired give up on the 8.15 to Paddington. Religions have built practically impregnable rituals to back up implausible stories. Thatʼs why so many of us who have given up on the creed still go for the carol service and the Easter hymns. Thereʼs nothing phoney or bogus about this. The stories themselves carry for the agnostic the message of hope, renewal and salvation, which for Christians is vested in the figure of Christ. Non-believers need that message and its rituals too.
From The View From Here by Joan Bakewell
(Contributed by Ray Raitt)
Indeed, our everyday patterns are driven by them: the feeding rituals of three meals a day, coffee and tea breaks, an evening drink, the final nightcap; the annual rituals of birthdays and anniversaries. rituals are but grand forms, habits the daily fodder. Both are the repeating routines by which we count our hours and days. Rites of passage mark the shift from one set of rituals to another. Students give up on three meals a day, the retired give up on the 8.15 to Paddington. Religions have built practically impregnable rituals to back up implausible stories. Thatʼs why so many of us who have given up on the creed still go for the carol service and the Easter hymns. Thereʼs nothing phoney or bogus about this. The stories themselves carry for the agnostic the message of hope, renewal and salvation, which for Christians is vested in the figure of Christ. Non-believers need that message and its rituals too.
From The View From Here by Joan Bakewell
(Contributed by Ray Raitt)
Services for December
Below are the services we will be holding in December. It would be lovely if you and your family and friends could join us. You will be most welcome.
Sunday 14th
Gift Services
Frenchay Chapel 10.30 am
Unitarian Meeting 3pm
Bring yourself, a gift of money or anything appropriate for the homeless.
Sunday 21st at 10.30am
Carol Service
Frenchay Chapel, Beckspool Road, BS16 1ND
Thursday 25th at 10.30 am
Service for Christmas Day
Unitarian Meeting, Brunswick Square, BS2 8PE
Looking forward to seeing you.
[Download leaflet for these services - PDF]
Gift Services
Frenchay Chapel 10.30 am
Unitarian Meeting 3pm
Bring yourself, a gift of money or anything appropriate for the homeless.
Sunday 21st at 10.30am
Carol Service
Frenchay Chapel, Beckspool Road, BS16 1ND
Thursday 25th at 10.30 am
Service for Christmas Day
Unitarian Meeting, Brunswick Square, BS2 8PE
Looking forward to seeing you.
[Download leaflet for these services - PDF]
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