Vicars Cross United Reformed Church

Sheila’s Chat.

By the time you read this you may be on an Easter break or maybe just sunning yourself in the garden (I wish) As I am writing this before the Easter break, I can say I am really looking forward to the services we are having in the church and really do pray you managed along to some of them.  On Easter Saturday, as seems to be the tradition now, we will be decorating the cross with flowers. Refreshments and hot cross buns will be waiting for you. Come along between 11.00 and 1.00p.m. Bring your own flowers but flowers are available too.    

The Wednesday Club are busy with their Easter crafts. I know you appreciate seeing them on display in the church windows. Thank you to our Wednesday Club children and leaders.                                           

 We will be holding our usual Coffee Morning on the first Saturday of the month and look forward to seeing as many of you as possible. A warm welcome awaits you.                                                                                       

 On behalf of the Elders may I wish everyone reading this a wonderful Easter and if you are on holiday a wonderful restful time.

While we are without a minister the work in the church still goes on. If there is anyone you know who would like a chat with someone from the church please let us know. 

God Bless you all.

Sheila

Secretary.

Tinned meat/fish

 Long life milk/juice

Tea/coffee

Tinned veg/potatoes

Instant mash

 Desserts/custard/rice pudding

Sugar

Biscuits

Soups/cuppa soups

Toiletries/toilet rolls even!

All in the month of April

 
It was:
 
300 years ago, on 7^th April 1724 that the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion was performed for the first time, at a church in Leipzig.
 
Also 300 years ago, on 22^nd April 1724 that Immanuel Kant, the German philosopher was born. One of the leading philosophers during the Age of Enlightenment.
 
200 years ago, on 19^th April 1824 that Lord Byron died. One of the greatest British poets and a leading figure in the Romantic movement, he died of sepsis/fever while fighting for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. Aged 36.
 
175 years ago, on 10^th April 1849 that American mechanic Walter Hunt was granted a US patent for his invention of the safety pin. He immediately sold the rights for $400, which is about $12,000 today. The company he sold it to made millions from it.
 
150 years ago, on 5^th April 1874 that Johann Strauss II’s operetta Die Fledermaus was performed for the first time, in Vienna.
 
125 years ago, on 29^th April 1899 that Duke Ellington, American jazz/swing pianist, composer and orchestra leader, was born.
 
100 years ago, on 17^th April 1924 that Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios (MGM) was founded when Metro Pictures, Goldwyn Pictures and Louis B Mayer Pictures merged.
 
Also 100 years ago, on 23^rd April 1924 that the British Empire Exhibition opened in Wembley, London.
 
90 years ago, on 3^rd April 1934 that British inventor Percy Shaw patented the Cat’s Eye reflective road stud.  He set up a company to manufacture them in 1935 and in 1937 he was awarded a government contract to mass produce them for national use.
 
75 years ago, on 4^th April 1949 that the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) was founded.
 
Also 75 years ago, on 7^th April 1949 that the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical South Pacific was opened in Broadway.
 
70 years ago, on 7^th April 1954 that in a news conference about Communism in Indochina, US President Dwight D Eisenhower explained his ‘domino theory’. He said that if one country in a region came under the influence of Communism, then the countries surrounding it would follow. He and later presidential administrations have always believed this. 
 
Also 70 years ago, on 26^th April 1954 that the Soviet Union transferred Crimea from Russia to Ukraine. In 2014 Russia annexed Crimea, but it is not recognised internationally, and a number of sanctions were imposed on Russia as a result.
 
65 years ago, on 9^th April 1959 that Frank Lloyd Wright, American architect and writer, died.  Regarded as ‘the greatest American architect of all time.’
 
60 years ago, on 15^th April 1964 that twelve men convicted of carrying out the Great Train Robbery in England in August of 1963 were jailed for a total of 307 years. They were given some of the longest sentences in British criminal history.
 
50 years ago, on 6^th April 1974 that the Swedish pop group ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with their song Waterloo. It was the first time that Sweden won the contest. ABBA went on to be one of the most successful groups in music history.
 
40 years ago, on 17^th April 1984 that British police officer Yvonne Fletcher was shot dead during a demonstration outside the Libyan Embassy in London. This led to an 11-day siege by the police.
 
30 years ago, on 6^th April 1994 that the Rwandan genocide began, when a plane carrying Rwandan president Juvenal Habyarimana and Burundian president Cyprien Ntaryamira was shot down by extremists. Civil war broke out the following day, and between 500,000 and one million people were massacred during the next 100 days.
 
Also 30 years ago, on 26^th April 1994 that the first post-apartheid multiracial elections were held in South Africa, with 18 million blacks eligible to vote for the first time. Nelson Mandela was elected president, and took office on 10^th May.
 
25 years ago, on 5^th April 1999 that Libya handed over to the United Nations two suspects in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie. They were taken to the Netherlands to face trial.  One was found guilty, and sentenced to life imprisonment, only to be released in 2009 because he was dying of cancer. The other suspect was acquitted.
 
20 years ago, on 1^st April 2004 that Google launched its free email service, Gmail.
 
10 years ago, on 14^th April 2014 that the Boko Haram Islamic terrorist group kidnapped 276 female students from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. Some of the girls escaped, some were rescued, or have been reported dead. But over 100 are still missing, fate unknown.
 
**
 Where are the Chibok schoolgirls now?
 
Ten years ago, on 14^th April 2014, the Boko Haram Islamic terrorist group kidnapped 276 female students from the Government Girls Secondary School in Chibok, Nigeria. Some of the girls escaped, some were rescued, or have been reported dead. But over 100 are still missing, fate unknown.
 
The girls, who lived in surrounding areas, were seized at gunpoint at night from the boarding school, where they had gone to take important final exams. It was believed to be safe because Chibok had never been attacked before. Many of the girls were Christian.
Boko Haram is opposed to western-style education, because they say it corrupts the values of Muslims. The name Boko Haram in the local Hausa dialect means “Western education is forbidden”.
 
Some of the girls escaped within hours – many of them by jumping off lorries – but a total of 219 girls were taken away. About 100 have been exchanged for Boko Haram militants, following negotiations arranged by the Red Cross. Two others escaped in 2016 and 2017, and one was found hiding in the forest with a child.
 
Meanwhile the Nigerian army launched a major offensive against Boko Haram, with help from the US, UK and France, and were said to have regained nearly all the occupied territory in north-east Nigeria. But no more of the Chibok girls were found, and in the years since then, many more reports of atrocities have continued to come in.
 
**
 50 years of ABBA!
 
Fifty years ago, on 6^th April 1974, the Swedish pop group ABBA won the Eurovision Song Contest with their song Waterloo. It was the first time that Sweden won the contest. ABBA went on to be one of the most successful groups in music history.
 
The victory, in Brighton, was just the first step on the road to conquering the world, as far as pop music was concerned. The songs, written mainly by Björn Ulvaeus and Benny Andersson, were matched by the passion, exuberance and good looks of singers Agnetha Fältskog and Anni-Frid ‘Frida’ Lyngstad, who later married them – and even later, divorced them.
 
The name of the group came from the initials of the four Christian names. Some have suggested a link to the biblical Abba and looked for Jewish themes in their songs, but this is wishful thinking. While Anni-Frid (who was born Norwegian) may be Christian, Björn is definitely an outspoken atheist. In fact, ABBA is the name of a Swedish canned fish company that had to give permission for the singers to use it – a decision they are unlikely to have regretted.
 
Both Waterloo and ABBA achieved worldwide superstar status quickly – no small feat for a group performing in a language that is not their own. The film ABBA – the Movie and the musical Mamma Mia and its sequel, featuring their compelling songs, were huge successes. It is estimated that the musical has been seen by more than 60 million people worldwide.
 
ABBA hit the jackpot again when their revolutionary new project, ABBA Voyage, launched in 2022. In it, Agnetha, Björn, Benny and Anni-Frid perform their love-songs digitally with a live 10-piece band, in a purpose-built ABBA arena at Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park in London. Not bad for four divorcees in their 70s.
 
**
 Remembering Lord Byron, the ‘gloomy egoist’
 
It was 200 years ago, on 19^th April 1824, that Lord Byron died. One of the greatest British poets and a leading figure in the Romantic movement, he died of sepsis/fever while fighting for Greek independence from the Ottoman Empire. He was 36.
 
Byron was born in London but brought up in Aberdeen and relished the Scottish connection. His childhood was impoverished, and to a certain degree abusive, but at the age of ten he inherited his great uncle’s title and went on to Harrow and Cambridge.
 
After early rejections, his poetry was widely admired in England and in Europe, initially through Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, which was autobiographical and presented him as a “gloomy egoist”. His character fluctuated between kind and gentle on the one hand and selfish and cynical on the other. Early exposure to Calvinism combined with the extremes of his later life – multiple affairs – made him antagonistic to Christianity but tormented by it. He once described man as “half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar.”
 
Partly because of criticism of his scandalous lifestyle, he left England and eventually lived in Switzerland and then Italy with his fellow poet Shelley – having an affair with Shelley’s wife’s half-sister. Earlier he had married Anne Isabella Milbanke, by whom he had a daughter who achieved fame as Ada Lovelace, a mathematical prodigy regarded by some as the first computer programmer.
 
His wife eventually left him, possibly because of his incest with his own half-sister, Augusta Leigh.
 
Lord Byron moved to Greece to support the Greeks – whose attitude to life he found refreshing – in their struggle for independence from Turkey. He is widely admired in Greece as a result.
 
**
 Appreciating Johann Sebastian Bach
 
Three hundred years ago, on 7th April 1724, the German composer Johann Sebastian Bach’s St John Passion was performed for the first time, at a church in Leipzig.
 
It was put on as part of Good Friday Vespers at St Nicholas Church, having been transferred from St Thomas at the last moment by the music council. Bach, who had just turned 39, agreed to the move, while pointing out that the booklet had already been printed, there was no room immediately available for the musicians, and the harpsichord needed some repair. These problems were overcome.
 
Bach was already highly regarded, but primarily as a harpsichordist and organ expert. Later seen as one of the best composers of all time – renowned for such works as the Brandenburg Concertos and his Mass in B Minor – he was one of a large family of north German musicians. He is widely praised as a great synthesiser of styles and traditions.
 
The St John Passion, written during his first year as director of church music in Leipzig, was designed to be used as part of a church service. It follows John 18 and 19 in the Luther Bible, but the writer of the libretto is not known. A possible earlier Passion, written in Weimar, is lost.
 
Nowadays the St John Passion is heard mainly in the 1739–1749 version, which was never performed in Bach’s lifetime, though he made many revisions to the original before his death.
 
**
World Autism Acceptance Week, 2^nd – 8^th April 2024
 
Autism is on the rise. Or at least, the recognition of it is. According to the website psychcentral.com, there was a 787% exponential increase in the number of people who were diagnosed with autism between 1998 and 2018 in the UK.
 
The National Autistic Society says that in the UK, more than one in every 100 people are now on the autism spectrum. It reckons that around 700,000 adults and children in the UK suffer with the condition to some degree.
 
All of which means that you probably know of someone who has autism, to some degree. And you may know that, as it says on the NHS website:
 
Autistic people may act in a different way to other people, … and find it hard to understand how other people think or feel. They may find things like bright lights or loud noises overwhelming, stressful, or uncomfortable. They may get anxious or upset about unfamiliar situations and social events and take longer to understand information.
 
To help people with autism, you may wish to support this ‘acceptance week’, by going to the National Autistic Society’s website, https://www.autism.org.uk and taking part in some way in their fundraising campaign.