CHAPLAIN’S LETTER
Some years ago when I was a Birmingham Vicar the city churches organized a Billy Graham type mission, with large public meetings in some of our local football stadiums. Many of us attended the meetings, and all the local churches were asked to take part in “follow up” visiting. It was a busy parish, and I was usually run off my feet, so I didn’t have a lot of spare time for these extra visits. The result was predictable: as the pile of follow-up cards grew higher and higher on my desk I felt less and less inclined to do anything about them. Guilt, resentment and anger set in equal measure! In desperation one afternoon I grabbed a handful of cards and set out, secretly hoping that most of the people would be out, so that I could leave a follow up leaflet and tick them off my list. After a couple of people who were out, a door opened and a man said something I have never forgotten; - “I’ve been waiting for you to knock on my door.”
It was the start of a visit that changed that person’s life.
It may be that among your friends and acquaintances there is someone who is just waiting for you to knock on their door. So please start praying that the Lord will show you just who that person might be. If that becomes clear then please say your prayers, take courage in both hands and invite them to the Guest Service that we are holding at Holy Trinity at 10.30 on Sunday 26th September.
Although it is a Eucharist it won’t be an ordinary service - we are going out of our way to make it accessible and interesting for any visitors and guests. The theme of the service is “Science and Faith” and we shall be exploring what has often been a very hostile relationship with the help of some of the scientists who are members of our congregation.
You will find small invitation slips in church and in the parsonage, to remind you to pray about this event, and possibly to help you to invite someone. Please take one, and if possible, pass it on.
Some of you who already attend Holy Trinity have asked about Confirmation.
I am pleased to tell you that Bishop David Hamid will be visiting Utrecht on the 26th March next year to conduct a confirmation service.
If you would like to prepare for confirmation, please would you email me, or write your name address and telephone number on your service sheet and give it to me at the door to register an interest. I hope to start a confirmation group later in September – in which we will explore some of the main aspects of our faith and what it means to belong to the church. One way and another I think it might be a busy September.
Fr John
ONE DOWN FROM THE FEAR OF GOD!
A police recruit was asked during the exam, "What would you do if you had to arrest your own mother?"
He answered, "Call for backup."
A NEW DIOCESAN ENVIRONMENT OFFICER
In June this year at Diocesan Synod Madeleine Holmes picked up the baton from Brian Morgan. She writes :
I am a Reader in the Archdeaconry of France and have been involved in the Diocese for 16 years.
These are the conferences I am attending on your behalf this year:
Prague – Assembly of the European Christian Environment Network 9 to 13th June
London – 2nd Church of England Conference ‘Shrinking the Footprint’-30th June
Bath/Wells – Environment Conference 23rd October
I am excited and encouraged that together we can continue to make a difference in the coming years in our habits and our caring/preservation of the environment. I am aware that many of you have taken big steps in the areas of energy, recycling and protection both in your church buildings and in the local community, which is such an encouragement to us all.
Here in France an Eco Group supports me, amongst others - a group quite independent from the local church. They regularly pass on information to aid us in living more ecologically. It is a wonderful way of working together outside the church, and one which you might like to consider for ‘outreach’. For many, caring for the environment gives rise to a new sense of ‘spirituality’.
Whatever we do corporately is important but I also think it is our combined personal efforts that will make the biggest difference – water and food being our prime concerns – it is vital that we conserve and value these, employing wisdom and discernment.
I will leave you with the 5R Concept for consideration:
Refuse
Avoid buying environmentally burdensome materials whenever possible
Reduce
Reduce waste material
Reuse
Reuse waste material when possible
Reform
Reuse materials in a different form
Recycle
Reuse materials as resources
Finally, may I ask for your prayers, that I will represent the Diocese and work faithfully, with God’s help, to encourage us all to make this important difference to our world. With every blessing to you all. Madeleine Holmes, Lille, France.
All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the Lord God made them all.
Contributed by the Holy Trinity Green Awareness Group
DEMON ADVENTURES
An interesting outing at the beginning of June: "How to become a more inviting church". With a pleasant, small group we headed for Amsterdam, full of expectations, but the start of the day was not very promising. We had bought train tickets for each other and discovered at the last moment that we had got too many and had no time to return them; at least that is what we thought. As it turned out, we spent ages waiting for the train and almost took root on the platform and it was more than half an hour before we finally left Utrecht. Perhaps the engine driver had started his weekend with a relaxing Saturday morning sleep and missed his alarm clock! We never heard if that was the reason for our delay!
In Amsterdam we continued by tram and had to get out at the Munt tower. Yes, that was the plan, but the conductor happily went on and took us to the following stop. There again a problem arose: he did not open the doors. After loud protests he finally got the message. Everybody got out, except me. I screamed like mad and got a second chance to jump through the newly opened door. Fr John said that a demon was harassing us, as he did not like churches visiting each other. When we finally arrived at Christ Church, I supposed that Fr John would be happy because the demon had not achieved his aim of preventing us from getting there and he would harass us no more. But Fr J said: "say no more until the end of the day". Nonetheless, we had reached the church and we learned interesting things. However, I felt rather daunted when we were asked to double the number of our churchgoers. If we achieved that, I could see us all sitting on each other’s laps in Holy Trinity and even spilling out onto the van Limburg Stirum square!
Back in Utrecht, the demon played his last trick. Two if us went home on a bus that had a slight disagreement with a car. Fortunately, nobody was hurt and then the demon could finally go to sleep, defeated - at least for today!
But, a few weeks later he seemed to remember me as one of the church-visiting people and sent in one of his big brothers to deal with me. I took the 9.13 train to get to the airport to go to the tribunal there. A few minutes later we were told to leave the train at Hilversum because there were problems with the signalling. We had to move to a train heading for Amsterdam. In Amsterdam we were told that the train to Schiphol was waiting on another platform, so we ran full speed for that train. That proved not to be necessary, because the train did not move for another half an hour!
When it finally had left the station, a loudspeaker message proclaimed: “You are sitting in the train to Vlissingen. This train does not stop today at Schiphol, the first stop will be in Leiden.”. Phone calls to Schiphol assured me that we were not the only victims of the railways that day.
In Leiden we were sent to platform 4 to take a train to Amsterdam-Sloterdijk. When we got there, a loudspeaker said that we had to go to platform 8 and there we were told that the train to Amsterdam-Sloterdijk had been cancelled. Suddenly I saw a group of KLM stewardesses running all over the place. They said that
>outside of the station there would be a bus waiting for us. The bus delivered us to the airport at 12.30.
At the tribunal there was complete chaos as a result of all the railway problems. I finally I arrived home at six p.m. instead of in the early afternoon as had been the original plan.
I decided to stick with Holy Trinity and its small demon and not to take on the big up-to-date version that was bugging the national rail network! But there is a happy end: I am able to punish these nasty demons because I'll get paid a very welcome number of extra hours from the Department of Justice and part of that will go to the windows fund. I hope that will keep our malicious little demon quiet for ever!
Maya
WEEK OF PEACE
The theme of this year’s Week of Peace is the care of our neighbours and the community. This year will be the first time that Holy Trinity participates in this worldwide event. We have been asked by the ‘Buurkerken’ in the inner city of Utrecht to host a meeting. How better could we do this than by inviting them for Choral Evensong? The ‘Buurkerken’ in the city came together on an initiative of the Baptist congregation Silo in 2001. Six denominations joined them and they are the small congregations of Doopsgezinden, Remonstrantse gemeente, Vrij-katholieke Kerk, Oud-katholieke Kerk, Lutherans and Eglise Wallone.
The Buurkerken are very enthusiastic about our proposal and look forward to this very special English kind of service on Thursday evening 23rd September. But, as well as the Buurkerken, I have also invited our neighbour churches around the Wilhelminapark. So members of St Aloysiuskerk (R.C.) and Wilhelminakerk (PKN) look forward to joining us in this very ecumenical service at 8 pm. The service will be bilingual of course, where the spoken word will be in Dutch and the musical parts will be sung in English. As a good host we have asked representatives of the ‘Neighbouring churches / Buurkerken’ to read parts from Holy Scripture, to say the prayers and to give a short address.
The choir will lead the congregation in the singing of appropriate hymns. The anthem is based on the theme of the week: The peace of God that passeth all understanding. The music is by John Rutter and the words come from the Book of Common Prayer at the end of the Communion Service (and can be found in Common Worship as well). They are based on Philippians 4.7. The evening canticles are by Herbert Brewer one time organist of Gloucester Cathedral.
You, as the reader of this Newsletter, are cordially invited to join us. The service begins at 8 pm on Thursday 23rd September and will be followed by refreshments in the parsonage. This is an excellent opportunity for everyone to speak to our (ecumenical) neighbours.
Henk, ecumenical representative of Holy Trinity and secretary/vice chairman of the U.S.R.K.
NAVIGATORS STUDENT ASSOCIATION
Are you familiar with the concept of a Christian student association?
We would like to introduce you to the Navigators Studenten Verenigingen to give you an impression of what a Christian student association is.
NSV
NSV is a countrywide network of Christian associations and already includes fifteen fast growing Christian associations throughout The Netherlands. There are at present Navigators Student Associations in Leeuwarden, Groningen, Zwolle, Enschede, Nijmegen, Wageningen, Ede, Utrecht, Amsterdam, Leiden, Den Haag, Delft, Rotterdam and Tilburg. Knowing Christ and making Him known is our motto. A Navigators Student Association is an association within which you grow in your faith, develop your gifts and talents, build up friendships and are challenged to live life. Believing in Jesus Christ is central to NSV and our members have various church and non-church backgrounds. There is lots of room for questions and discussion, because we want to be an environment in which everybody can think about God, Jesus and him- or herself.
Activities
When you become a member of NSV, you also become a member of an association of about 25 to 30 members, called a ‘kringhuis’ or ‘dispuut’. This is the group that you will be part of for the whole year and where everyone is a member of a bible study group. Apart from the bible study groups lots of other activities will be organised: a few times a year there is a get-together, where we sing together and listen to a speaker. The parties are also much attended activities in the year’s programme. After the ‘kring’ or activity, there is always a drink in our own building for everyone who enjoys a drink, a social environment or a good conversation.
This is only a small selection of the broad scala of activities. In addition there is an annual song festival, the gala, the sports day, theatre for your fellow students or housemates, fun weekends, etc.
Vision
We would like Navigators Studenten Verenigingen to be more widely known. However, our main concern is that (starting) students are made aware that Christian student associations exist. Our experience is that a student association can be of great value in the development of an undergraduate. Our advice: have a look around to see if you can find a student association where you can feel at home!
For more information about NSV, look up
www.navigatorsstudenten.nl
THOUGHTS FOR THE MONTH
A friend is someone who reaches for your hand, but touches your heart. Anon
A wise man will desire no more than he may get justly, use soberly, distribute cheerfully and leave contentedly. Anon
To continue the season of Oeke’s poetry, something perhaps a little more thought-provoking:
INSIGHT
sometimes
for a fleeting moment
eternity
breaks through
time
it can take you by surprise
the light in the morning
sunshine on a flower
the laugh of a child
a hand on your shoulder
a blackbird singing
it can take you by surprise
this insight
sometimes
suddenly
just for a moment
boundlessly
the insight of the soul
Oeke Kruythof
Jenny Narraway translation/transcreation
SINGING FOR THE LORD!
Choir rehearsals start again on Thursday, 2nd September at 8 pm. We gather in the church hall, van Hogendorpstraat 26, and we would love to welcome new singers. If you like singing why don't you come and give it a try with us? Usually we are nice and friendly people! However, if a weekly rehearsal of two hours is too much of a commitment for you, then why don't you come for either the preparations for our Carol Services, or for Choral Evensong. These rehearsals last only about 1 hour.
Choral Evensong will be held every second Sunday of the month and begins at 2.30 pm. I look forward to hearing from you (065-313 0086 or via office@holytrinityutrecht.nl) or meeting you at one of our Thursday rehearsals.
Henk, Director of Music
PRAYER CHAIN
If you have any requests for the prayer chain, or if you feel called to take part in this ministry, please contact Anne Miechielsen
WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? - AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT: 2 CORINTHIANS.
‘For anyone operating under the naďve presumption that joining a Christian church is a good way to meet all the best people and cultivate smooth social relations, a reading of Paul’s Corinthian correspondence is the prescribed cure.’ (Eugene Peterson).
The apostle Paul is undoubtedly the author of 2 Corinthians. It is the fourth letter that he sent to the church in Corinth, together with the house churches in Achaia (modern day Greece). The four letters are (1) a previous letter mentioned in 1 Cor.5:9; (2) 1 Corinthians; (3) a ‘severe’ letter mentioned in 2 Cor. 2:3–4; and (4) 2 Corinthians. Paul wrote the letter from Macedonia around A.D. 55, a year or so after 1 Corinthians.
Paul had a number of reasons for writing the letter:
1. To express the comfort and joy he felt because the Corinthians had responded favourably to his painful letter (1:3-4; 7:8-9,12-13).
2. To let them know about the trouble he went through in the province of Asia (1:8-11) and explain why he changed his travel plans (1:12-2:4).
3. To ask them to forgive those who offended him (2:5-11).
4. To warn them not to be “yoked together with unbelievers” (6:14-7:1).
5. To explain the true nature and calling of Christian ministry (2:14-7:4).
6. To teach them about the grace of giving and to ensure that they completed the collection for the Christians at Jerusalem (chs. 8-9).
7. To deal with the opposition in the church (chs. 10-13) and prepare for his coming visit (12:14; 13:1-3,10).
It is the most personal of all Paul's letters, as he defends his leadership against his opponents. They accused him of inconsistencies, questioned his motives and challenged his credentials. A major theme of the letter concerns the relationship between suffering and the power of the Spirit in Paul's life and ministry. His opponents argued that Paul suffered too much to be a Spirit-filled apostle of Christ. He replies by showing that his weakness is the means by which believers are comforted and Christ is made known in the world. His sufferings embody the death of Christ, while his endurance demonstrates resurrection power and is a means by which God reveals his glory, ‘But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me.’ (2 Cor 12:9).
HEARING IS NOT BELIEVING ...
A wise schoolteacher sent this note to all parents on the first day of school: ‘If you promise not to believe everything your child says happens at school, I’ll promise not to believe everything he or she says happens at home.’
OUR PILGRIM PLACES: HISTORIC CHRISTIAN SITES IN BRITAIN : IONA and LINDISFARNE - part 3
Over the past two months we have remembered that in 563 a little group of monks from Ireland arrived in Scotland. They were headed by a monk called Columba, and they settled on Iona. Soon the little island was recognised as a centre of Christian spirituality. Now read on...
While the Celtic Christianity that flourished at Iona succeeded in evangelising large parts of Scotland, its influence also reached England. In the 630s Oswald was King of Northumbria. He had visited Iona at least once and was very impressed with the Christian community there. Oswald was a baptised Christian and he was concerned about the evangelisation of the pagans in his kingdom. He wanted a strong, missionary-minded evangelical bishop to oversee the Church in Northumbria and he asked Iona for help.
The monks at Iona asked Aidan, bishop of Scattery Island at the mouth of the river Shannon in the west of Ireland to go to Northumbria. Aidan consented and in the year 635 he arrived in the northeast of England. He made his home on the island of Lindisfarne (Holy Island) but set up his episcopal centre at nearby Bamburgh on the mainland.
King Oswald warmly welcomed Aidan and the two men became firm friends. Oswald gave Aidan every possible help and encouragement and Aidan began a ministry of visitation, preaching, teaching and evangelism that was to result in Northumbria being the most Christianised of all the provinces in England. It was the19th century Bishop Lightfoot of Durham, famed scholar and historian, who said that England’s real patron saint was neither St George nor Augustine of Canterbury but Aidan of Lindisfarne. This judgement can hardly be challenged. Aidan not only made Northumbria a great centre of Celtic Christianity but the example of his loving, humble and sacrificial ministry inspired his fellow clergy and many more in the centuries following.
When Aidan died in 651AD, he had, with the help of his clergy and monks, not only evangelised Northumbria but also he had taken Celtic Christianity to other parts of England. Lindisfarne had become the English form of what Columba had first established on Iona. Celtic Christianity, in Iona and Lindisfarne, had always traced its roots to St John and Asia Minor. On Scotland’s island of Iona and England’s island of Lindisfarne, the Johannine tradition of Christianity, in the form of Celtic Christianity, flourished. Having lighted the fires of authentic New Testament Christianity in Ireland with the life and work of Patrick, the sparks of Celtic spirituality were carried first to Iona and later to Lindisfarne.
In 1938, a year before Europe was plunged into the horrors of World War ll, the Rev Dr George MacLeod founded the Iona Community. He took a party of working men from Glasgow to rebuild the ruined medieval Iona Abbey. It was the beginning of a project to make Iona a spiritual retreat. The Iona Community has grown in reputation across the decades as it seeks to interpret and apply the gospel in the contemporary world.
So for about 1445 years the Christian faith has been established on this little Hebridean island. As the prophet asked, ‘Who has despised the day of small things?’ (Zech. 4:10). When Columba and his fellow monks pulled their little boat ashore on Iona in 563AD, it appeared indeed to be a day of small importance. But God was with them and, using the Bible’s metaphor of spiritual fire, the sparks kindled on Iona brought the light of the gospel to the pagan darkness of Scotland and England.
Dr Herbert McGonigle is Senior Lecturer in Historical Theology and Church History at Nazarene Theological College, Manchester
MIRACLE 16 – A PEAK EXPERIENCE
Berlin! A city with a turbulent history and admired for its modern architecture. We had been making plans for ever to visit this city and last week finally decided not to wait any longer and just drive over there, as it was still holy-day time. From all the stories I heard I was expecting a vibrant city, full of new and old buildings. That’s about how it is, only the atmosphere had a rather depressing effect on me. It is a seriously wounded city, full of war memories. The first encounter with this, on the day after arrival, was during a visit to the Kaiser Wilhelm Gedächtnis Kirche: a church blown to pieces by bombs and left in that exact state as an illustration for future generations of what war does. Inside the church there are remnants of the most magnificent mosaic, and a cross donated by Coventry (U.K.) just after the war: a cross made of three nails from the Coventry Cathedral roof, which had also been bombed during the war. This cross, which has been placed next to the damaged statue of Christ, is a shocking reminder of all the useless destruction and killing. And so it went on: the holocaust memorial made of over a thousand concrete tomblike stones, the Berlin wall, and big empty spaces in different parts of town, where the bomb rubble had been cleared up many years ago but nothing new built. In every impressive old building, like the Charlottenburg palace, there is the mention of war devastation by the guides. By the time it was Sunday I was saturated with gloom and very glad to be going to the morning service at the Anglican St. George’s church in Berlin: to pray and grasp all we had seen. It was our last day and I was hoping for a change of mood. And that prayer was answered! Being the Sunday of the transfiguration of Christ the assistant pastor Reverend Irene Ahrens focused on what she called ’peak experiences’. For Peter, James and John seeing Christ surrounded by dazzling white light must have been such a peak experience, she said. Then she went on giving different examples: like that of the sick man, she once nursed, who kissed his bread before eating it; which made her suddenly realise what a miracle bread really is. Often these are simple situations, she explained, where God’s presence is unmistakably felt. And all of a sudden the Coventry nail cross, next to Christ’s statue, did not seem morbid any more: it is so small, but it conveys God’s piercing message about war in an indisputable fashion. In lighter spirits we started our journey home, after promising Father Christopher Jage-Bowler of St. George’s Church in Berlin to say ‘hello’ to all of you at Holy Trinity in Utrecht!
Madeleine
SHERBORNE CHOIR WEEK
The sun shone as singers and organists arrived from various direction on Monday 26th. Owe were augmented by Helen (who sang with us while at Utrecht University), Norman (our organist from Birmingham), Henry (who married Norman’s daughter Heather) with his fine baritone voice and Heather (a former chorister of Birmingham cathedral. Sherborne Abbey is one of those ancient churches where prayers have been said for many centuries. The choir found accommodation in the famous girls’ school where we were looked after by dedicated staff and enjoyed delicious food. There was tennis equipment and many of us played on grass for the first time. We had our own Wimbledon tournament. Sadly the Dutch team lost to the English, even with a Dutch referee!
After a hearty breakfast, the choir had a 20-minute walk to the abbey across the playing fields. These walks proved to be excellent exercise and saved time warming up in the song room. The music of the day was rehearsed from around 9 am until noon; we also rehearsed music for the days further in the week. Our coffee break was kindly provided by head verger Andrew. He faithfully waited for us when we needed more time than Henk had planned. We were spoiled with coffee, tea and biscuits. After the morning rehearsal we had a couple of hours to ourselves. There were tasty lunches in tearooms, or supermarket shopping trips. Some went back to the school to practise the less secure parts, while others raided shops and bank ATMs, or bought postcards to show to friends what Sherborne is like.
At 4 pm we returned to the abbey and rehearsed in the choir stalls. This greatly helped our organists. Both Norman and Everarda played the three manual organ and made a lovely sound. Together they gave a lunchtime recital which was enjoyed by all. In the choir stalls we could hear the sound we were making, echoing back to us in that vast building. The afternoon practise lasted an hour and then, again, we enjoyed Andrew’s hospitality. A couple of minutes before the service we lined up in the choir aisle and asked for God’s help in singing our music to his glory. The weekday services was not packed, and choristers started a book on how many worshippers there would be the next day! The winner donated the proceeds to Holy Trinity’s window appeal.
The variety of music was large: different pieces every day. Sunday morning we sang our Trinity Mass with Everarda at the organ, as she was for Wednesday and Friday Evensong. Norman was on duty for the other services. Singing the daily services with four hours rehearsal is not what we are used to, so we enjoyed our free time on Saturday. Everyone spent it their own way from staying with friends to a day trip to Bath together with thousands of other tourists.
The school had common rooms on two floors where we spent time together, playing games or working on jigsaw puzzles together. The laughter, talking and singing lifted our spirits and it was very sad to say goodbye to our English friends after Evensong on Sunday. The same happened after breakfast on Monday morning, as we said goodbye to each other. Some extended their stay with a short holiday on the beautiful south coast while others started their journey back to Dover and home. And still the sun shone.
We will always remember how this lovely week knitted us together as a choir and helped us make lovely music for the Lord. We look forward to continuing with Choral Evensong on the second Sunday of the month, back in our own Holy Trinity Church.
Henk, Director of Music.
SHERBORNE REVISITED
For me this month started on a rather low note. The medics had decided that, as I would soon need a kidney transplant I had better have a shunt fitted to my arm so that they could proceed with dialysis. This of course required investigation as to where it would be fitted. I, being right handed, nominated my left arm. A surgeon, equipped with an echo sounder, tested the arm and decreed that the shunt be fitted to the upper arm. So off I went to the operating room while Harry waited in the recovery ward for my return. This happened faster than expected and I was returned in the same condition that I had left. The surgeon got called away to deal with a road traffic accident, so I got put on hold for a couple of hours. The second attempt went much better and this time I came back with a shunt in my lower arm (I don't know why) and my left arm in a plaster cast from the wrist to the armpit. This fiendish device stopped me driving, typing and made sleeping very difficult. Fortunately it only was on for a week. When it came off we could at last see what the damage was like. Two incisions, one at the wrist and another at the elbow. However my arm had taken exception to this sort of treatment and was now about twice its normal size. My left hand had taken on the appearance of a rubber glove that someone had blown up like a balloon, this coupled with the swelling in my ankles left me wondering it I was turning into the Michelin Man.
A few days after the plaster came off a nice nurse, with a pair of tweezers and a scalpel removed the stitches. Some time later, while we were in Sherborne, I was picking at the scabs (yes I do know that you're not supposed to do that, but everyone does) I noticed some small tufts of Anglican purple thread. As I had not been in the vicinity of a bishop recently I concluded that they were left over from the operation. I let Harry have a look and he confirmed that the nurse had left a stitch in. However he promised me that he could take it out quite easily with a pair of tweezers and a sharp knife. It takes a lot of courage to let someone take your stitches out using a Stanley knife, but I managed and the stitch came out.
Gloria, our sat-nav died on us and I didn't have time to reload the maps before we set off. However we had a road atlas and they still work. Mind you, driving West, directly into the setting sun, is not easy, especially on the twisty B roads. One of our first tasks when we arrived was to ferry people from the station to the school. We had arranged for them to phone us before they arrived and we would be there to meet them. We decided to do a test run just so we knew the route and while we were in the station it was obvious that a train was due. Being an ex-railway type I insisted on seeing the train, then lo and behold Ella and Arnie were on it! When we went back to collect our second load, Helen, there were two elderly ladies on the platform, one of whom was using her mobile. Alas she was a 'shouter' and so her side of the conversation was audible from both platforms. It appears that a friend of hers had received an Email requesting all her Internet bank details, which she had supplied. (I though everyone knew about this scam.) The unsurprising result was an empty bank account. When she came off the phone she confessed to her companion that she had gone to an ATM, withdrawn one hundred pounds, then taken the receipt, but left the cash sticking out of the machine. To her
surprise, when she realised and returned to the machine, the cash was gone! Some people make it too easy.
Although our hotel room in Sherborne was excellent it was sadly on the second floor and getting up two flights of stairs just about killed me. On the outside of the building there was an ivy plant and I'd swear that it was climbing up faster than I was. As a result, I didn't go out much. However I did always check that I had everything that I needed before I left the room, as the thought of climbing the stairs more that absolutely necessary made my blood run cold. So I never made it to the Abbey to hear the choir sing. They were accommodated in the school for the third time, and each time it has been in a different house. This year great fun was to be had in the dining room where there were lots of tables, each accommodating about six people. However the choir decided that we should all sit at one big table, so all the little ones were pushed together to make one that was double the width and about four times as long. This of course meant that most of the serving bowls were out of the reach of all but a few. So it took quite a long time to load up your plate if you wanted a bit of everything. The week just flew by and soon we were on our way to Petworth. Before we left we managed to get to Makro to buy our stock of British goodies. But unfortunately they were revamping the store and had a very limited selection on sale. We also managed to visit a PC World with the idea of getting another sat-nav. As soon as we went through the door, the 'lurker' jumped on us and inquired if he could help us. We politely declined and chose to look round on our own. Soon we had found the one we fancied then we tried to get someone to serve us. Sadly no one was interested and even the lurker admitted, he couldn't actually sell anything. Eventually he found an assistant for us and we got to buy the thing.
After a relaxing week in Petworth we set off for Dover. When we stopped for lunch I managed to give the spoiler on the front of my car a bit of a knock against a high kerb while parking. As we left the service area and had just joined the motorway there was a heck of a bang then a terrible noise from the engine. I immediately pulled off onto the hard shoulder and diagnosed the fault as an uncoupled exhaust system. As this was not a place to get under the car to look, I decided to drive on and try to ignore the noise. When we got to the Ferry Terminal I opened the bonnet and what I saw took me by surprise - one of the spark plugs was hanging loose on its lead. The car had been serviced just before we left and the plugs had been replaced, one must not have been tightened up properly. So we now had loads of fun trying to put a hot spark plug back into an even hotter engine. By taking turns, we eventually got the thing back in and I tested the engine. It started perfectly and ran silently. However, some time later, when the other cars in the queue began to move, I turned the key and nothing happened! But with Harry and another volunteer pushing I managed to bump start the thing and we got on the boat. We then spent two very long hours wondering if it would start when we tried to get off. I'm happy to say that it started without any problem. So, one up for the power of prayer!
Jamie
Services at Holy Trinity Church, Utrecht
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