SITEZINE: Holy Island's E-Mail Newsletter: June 2022

Dear Subscriber,

Welcome to our June newsletter.

There can be few unaware of the impending 'Platinum Jubilee' of our Queen. Indeed, like ourselves, many communities will have scheduled celebrations between Thursday 2nd and Sunday 7th of June. Here, aided by a 'Cherry-Picker', Dick from the Island's Development Trust and Mick can be seen putting up our bunting. We wish you well with your plans too. Thank God for our gracious Queen Elizabeth II. We are grateful for her years of dedicated service for us, our families and throughout the Commonwealth.

For a second month, I again reproduce below Kate's editorial from our latest issue of 'Holy Island Times'. 'Holy Island Times' is our Parish Church newsletter introduced by the late Rev David Adam, parish Vicar, author and poet. Following his retirement Kate took over as editor incorporating specialist articles written for the island website's 'Stay-In-Touch-Ezine'.

This month we again welcome a URC input from Ann Tunnard - Faith too on behalf of the CAH. Undoubtedly the Swallow is my very favourite 'brilcreem boy' of the birding world - see Ian Kerr's report later. I suspect Ian Jackson's article will capture the interest of many who wonder how future energy supplies be engineered into the geology of our miniscule portion of the earth's surface. Last month, maybe you too followed Heather's link to discover how advancing technology is being incorporated into the education of our youngsters. After reading her article this month I will again be tempted back to their website. Nick's article treats us to a photocopy of a 1900s castle layout drawing reminding the arduous manual record methods used by our forefathers. Then Andy's report on the nature reserve brought to mind that here there is a 'down side' to increasing bird numbers... Bird mess and ever-increasing bird-mess is a problem faced by residents in daily life. Increasing visitor numbers and the growing amount of their accompanying waste attracts results in ever-increasing Seagull numbers. Please, if the council's waste bins are full take it home with you...

Thank you to all our writers and the articles from AONB.

We hope that you enjoy our newsletter and look forward to getting in touch again in July.

God Bless,

Geoff Porter
editor@lindisfarne.org.uk
www.lindisfarne.org.uk/ezine

First of all, we have some more very good news! We are delighted that Heidi has joined us at our island school. We'd like to welcome Heidi and her family to the island - we had Thea join us a little earlier in the year so it's lovely that the girls are together. Can you believe that this means we now have five children at our school! Their ages range from two to eight with our very young children just attending some of the time. It's so wonderful to have our numbers increasing.

It's always a special occasion when we have all the children from Lowick School join us here on the island. This month, we've had two super days where we've been here all together.

We've been learning about Anglo Saxons and we were very excited to have Chris Hudson join us for a day. Chris used drama, story-telling, props, touring the Island, pictures and books as well as music to introduce the Northern Saints and the Lindisfarne Gospels.

The children thoroughly enjoyed re-enacting the events of the four refugee Saxon children (Oswald and his siblings) who fled to Iona. Their return, the Battle of Heavenfield, was conducted in slow motion to dramatic music. The children really enjoyed this part of the day! We then did a walking tour of the Island to find out more about the links with Iona and St Aidan's life and work in Northumbria. We also found out more about St Cuthbert and his life and his love of animals. It was a great day with so much covered in an entertaining way. There are lots of videos and photos on our website. http://www.lowickholyislandschools.org.uk/ Thank you Chris for such a memorable experience!

Last week we had another day on the island. We had a variety of activities planned which included a geographical survey asking - Is Holy Island a busy place all the time? The children counted cars and people at different times of the day. We took some photos of the island when the tide was closed to compare our findings. The children will use their data to make charts to show their conclusions. Our younger children enjoyed their time on the beach looking at coastal habitats and what might live here. They found and identified some different types of seaweed and thought carefully about how this might fit into food chains. And of course there was a bit of sand castle building too!

The older children have begun a topic on rocks so we spent a long time searching for and identifying different specimens on the beach. We looked at the geology of the island and discovered that the Heugh and St Cuthbert's Island are parts of the Whin Dyke. I was very impressed with the interest and enthusiasm which didn't wane even during a sharp rain shower! We spent a little time looking for fossils and found some brachiopods in the limestone rocks. Very exciting!

The children are really enjoying fencing in PE - we are one of the very few schools to offer fencing and the children get a lot out of it. We take our equipment up to the Swan Centre in Berwick where Mrs Strangeways coaches the children. It is a way for them to learn strategy and defensive skills and apply these to a new way of moving and being active. I have a sneaky feeling that some of the children may have been re-enacting their battle of Heavenfield scenes that they practised with Chris whilst working on their fencing!

We are getting ready for our Jubilee picnic this coming Friday - we've invited parents to join us at Lowick for the afternoon. We have lots of jubilee activities planned - the children have been sewing designs onto bunting to display around the school and we've been learning the national anthem. We have a memorial gift for the children to commemorate this historic event. I hope the weather stays fine for the actual jubilee next week - fingers crossed for some sunny days!

Heather Stiansen
heather.stiansen @ lowick.northumberland.sch.uk

By the time you read the magazine the Queen's Jubilee Celebrations will be upon us. The hall has hosted a few meetings of the "Jubilee Committee" to discuss "what to do", "where to do it" and "when to do it".

Much thought has gone into organising the various activities also hoping the many visitors to the village will join in our sports day and sand castle competition days.

The hall is ticking over with bookings, not a great deal at the moment but old faces are starting to reappear after the pandemic which is encouraging.

I hope you all enjoy the Jubilee week.

Sue Massey

WELCOME BACK, SWALLOWS!

Isn't it wonderful to see the Swallows back skimming the rooftops, gardens, beach, farm and fields around the village in the relentless search for insect food?

They were certainly late in arriving this spring and, little wonder, with the run of chilling northerly air we had for most of April. That caused a lack of flying insects and the Swallows and other normal early spring migrants which rely on them for survival very wisely hung back, many of them far away to the south in slightly warmer climes.

The earliest I've ever seen a Swallow on the island is April 5th but this spring it was mid-month before I saw my first early birds and none of them were lingering for long.

Those early pioneers went whizzing across the flats heading low and fast to the north, no doubt bound for nesting sites in Scotland or perhaps much further on across the North Sea in Scandinavia.

Swallows, of course, breed as far northwards as they can find breeding sites, almost always in man-made sites.. Their northern limits seem only to be met when human habitations peter out into the high Arctic.

The first birds didn't appear to settle in their regular nesting sites around the village until late in the month when, firstly, one or two started to explore, quickly followed during May by many other new arrivals.

By mid-month I got the distinct impression that there were more Swallows around the island then last year which, admittedly, was a very poor one for the species, in fact probably the poorest I can recall.

Because of the various coronavirus restrictions last year I didn't get to check many nesting sites. But the numbers of breeding pairs seemed very low with many folk reporting that regular sites where several pairs would normally breed had attracted just single pairs. Many regular sites used over the decades were left vacant.

Hopefully, this year will be a better for them. Within days of arriving many males were singing their delightful little twittering songs on the wing while females were excitedly flying around regular nesting sites.

I noticed my first signs of nest-building on May 9th with birds collecting short pieces of straw and dead grasses around the stable at the beach. Others were busy taking beaks full of mud from along the main drain and from the little puddles at the roadside near the Coastguard building. Soon afterwards, I noticed the first House Martins using the same muddy building resource.

By the time you're reading this many pairs will have eggs and a few of the very early breeders will probably be feeding small young. If the weather stays favourable with enough warmth and rain to keep insect populations high, they'll hopefully have a better season.

As many of you know, I've been monitoring the Swallow population on the island for many years and, with the help and co-operation of many people around the village, have managed to ring hundreds of chicks some of which have been recovered back on the island in subsequent years or abroad during migration or on their main winter grounds in South Africa 10,000 miles away.

Until a decade ago it was normal to have anything up to 60 or 70 breeding pairs around the village. Others were at the Castle lime kilns and other buildings, the Lough hide and, further away, at the Causeway refuge box and the old Second World War bunkers along the South Low beyond Beal Point.

Since then Swallow numbers on the island have certainly declined, reflecting a trend across Britain and, indeed, across the whole of Europe. There seem to be multiple causes for this decline.

Certainly, there are far lower numbers of flying insects on which Swallows, House Martins and other allied species are totally dependent. You only have to look at your car windscreen after a summer drive to realise that. Not so long ago the glass would be covered in dead insects. These days you seldom have to bother cleaning it.

We humans seem to be very good at getting rid of insects, whether through more efficient farming involving the use of many pesticides, tidier gardens and other similar places and, perhaps, lower stocking of cattle, sheep and other animals whose simple presence - and what they leave behind - provides an feeding bonanza for millions of insects. That's why you so often see our Swallows feeding around the sheep and horses on the island.

But Swallows are facing other pressures, not least our old friend, climate change. Summers in southern Europe have been getting hotter, as anyone who has been to Spain in autumn and seen its scorched brown landscape will know. That landscape holds comparatively few insects which makes it difficult for birds migrating through towards Africa.

Then, having got over that threat, once they are in Africa the conditions are also getting progressively drier, also affecting the number of insects available. Even in areas in which farming is worthwhile there is also an increasing use of chemicals, some of them now banned in Europe, again reducing insect populations.

Our Swallows and other migrants certainly face a lot of problems. Let's hope that this summer proves better for them while they are with us for an all-too-short stay.

Many years ago, an anonymous visitor left an unmarked envelope at the castle containing some photocopied paper. Shown on these pages was a plan of the castle dated March 1902 in the hand of Edwin Lutyens, the 33-year-old architect whose friend Edward Hudson had recently taken on a lease on the place. The only snag was that the pages - a modern photocopy - was incomplete and only showed one end of the castle.

In early April this year, I got an email notification from one of the many internet auction sites I'm signed up to; basically, when anything that has 'Holy Island' or 'Lindisfarne' or 'Lutyens' or 'Farnes' in its description comes up for sale, I get to know about it. That means I see a lot of irrelevant stuff; from island souvenir thimbles on eBay to records by popular folk bands from the 1970s. But every now and again it yields results. For example, earlier this year I managed to get hold of some photos from the 1965 filming of Polanski's Cul-de-Sac, which had been taken on-set by one of the producers. In early April though, I got the Holy Grail of auction notifications; 'Holy Island', Edwin Lutyens', 'Edward Hudson'. There were two lots in an upcoming sale. One was a contemporary of the original plan we had on our bits of paper, and the other was the original accompanying elevations (which we hadn't seen before). The sale was due to take place slap-bang in the middle of a week I had booked in the Dales, so knowing I wasn't going to be around complicated things. Having mobilised a load of colleagues and secured a reasonable budget, I went off on holiday with my fingers-crossed. Inevitably I couldn't resist logging in on the day and watching the auction live, where we managed to secure the plan but missed out on the elevations. I am hoping that the buyer of the elevations might be persuaded to share some images with me, but never mind that for now; I've got my work cut out combing the plan for details. Something that didn't come across in the photocopies was Lutyens' own scribbles, which litter the document, so we should be able to clean something about his design ideas. I mentioned last month about Lutyens altering the flagpole support too, and that is all shown on here. It is a tremendously important document and I'm delighted to have secured it.

While we're on Lutyens I had a fascinating visit from a group of Dutch architects last weekend, led by the Lutyens scholar Jeroen Geurst. Jeroen's work focuses on Lutyens own involvement with the cemeteries on the Western Front in France and Belgium. We talked a lot about how the castle and island influenced him with his later work, probably most intriguing was how much the Jekyll Garden bears a striking similarity to the layout of those tiny cemeteries which are scattered around the landscape over there. It could well be that this little garden provided the some of the inspiration for them. There is another theory that the lime kilns resemble the vast Memorial to the Missing on the Somme at Thiepval, which is a difficult one to prove but interesting none the less. Several other features at the castle seem to reappear across the cemeteries but more work is needed to make sense of it all.

Lastly, I had a nice visit from a gentleman last weekend who spent a good deal of his childhood at the castle, as he was a relation of the Lilburn family (he is descended from Rachel Douglas, whose daughter Hannah Kyle married Jack Lilburn). He left me a load of photographs and plenty of stories, but I said I would share one from a letter dated 1973 here in case it rings any bells for anyone:

"Jimmy the Groom passed away just before Christmas (1972); Thomas (?) passed on "last week". It was a happy release for him.
Lal Allison is very ill in hospital, they are coming out of the Crown as both George and Selby have had hip operations and can't manage.
Linda keeps well and we are looking forward to the 23rd March God willing (no explanation of why)"

I certainly recognise a few of those names but some readers will remember these people well.

Best wishes

Nick Lewis - Collections and House Officer
Lindisfarne Castle nick.lewis @ nationaltrust.org.uk 
07918 335 471

It has been a strange Spring with the weather flip flopping between summer like temperatures before the wind veers to the north and we are plunged back into cold but it has stayed relatively dry throughout. This has played havoc with the natural cycles of the Reserve.

It's that time of year again when the dunes are bursting with the sound of bird song and the amazing array of botany is beginning to push its way through the sandy loam. Masses of Cowslips have been observed in full bloom on the Reserve amongst the Dog-Violets, Primroses and Bird's Foot Trefoil. The first Orchids are now finally making their appearance taking full advantage of the shorter sward created by the cattle over winter.

Shorebird season is now in full swing with all breeding species now on the Reserve and busy establishing territory. The Shorebird refuge at the northern half of Ross Sands is now in place until early September. This area doesn't just benefit shorebirds, it allows many other species including Grey Seals to rest, feed and breed without human and dog disturbance. Additional fenced off Shorebird Protection Areas can be found across the Reserve in areas such as Budle Bay and Goswick. Please do not enter these areas, they are likely to contain breeding birds. It is important to remember that shorebirds can nest anywhere along the coast so please be careful when walking on the Reserve and keep dogs on a short lead or at close heel and prevented from disturbing wildlife at all times.

We have a packed schedule of events this year with lots of walks, talks and wildlife experiences to sink your teeth into. The formal events list is available on our blog website and posters in the Chare Ends car park and bird hides across the Reserve. There will also be pop-up events regularly occurring throughout the year so keep up to date with all our social media feeds for more information. Natural England are celebrating the 70th anniversary of first National Nature Reserve designation this year so look out for a special event this summer celebrating the NNR and the amazing nature that thrives within Lindisfarne National Nature Reserve.

Andy Denton - Reserve Manager
Lindisfarne & Newham NNRs

Loyal readers of this column may recall occasional mumblings about a book I have been hard at work writing here on Holy Island over the past several years called The Visible Universe. Well - wonder of wonders - at long last the project is completed. The first copies have arrived from the printers. The title is about to be published both here in the UK and in the USA.

I have written The Visible Universe in close collaboration with my co-author Charles Bracken. The two of us have set out to produce the equivalent of one of those natural history "field guides" - but for galaxies, nebulae and star clusters rather than birds, butterflies or plants. The idea is to show and describe all the best deep-sky objects that can been seen and photographed in the night sky in the full course of the year. Altogether we took more than 20,000 individual exposures that have been processed to create around 300 finished images in the book.

Our book covers the 110 best deep-sky astrophotography objects visible from both the northern and the southern hemispheres. Some of the northern hemisphere targets were photographed from Skylark Observatory at Chare Ends here on Holy Island. Others were captured by Charlie from his backyard observatory in Pennsylvania, USA. The majority of our images of the northern targets were acquired using a remote telescope that I installed at the astronomical hosting facility E-EyE, high in the hills north of Seville in Spain.

For the southern hemisphere, we set up another telescope at Deep Sky Chile, a remote observatory in the Andes. This is one of the best locations in the world for astronomy with exceptionally clear skies and very few clouds. On Holy Island we are lucky to enjoy perhaps one clear night in seven. In Spain the figure is more like four nights out of seven. At our observatory in Chile there are, on average, an astonishing six clear nights per week. Throughout the long months of lockdown, I was able to operate our telescopes both in Spain and in Chile from here on the island via the internet.

These remote observatories also made possible a special feature for The Visible Universe: namely the ambitious project I described in a previous Heavens Above to photograph the complete celestial sphere. To this end, we combined over 11,000 individual exposures into a single monster mosaic of the entire night sky, as seen from both hemispheres across all four seasons. In other words, we captured a photograph of the entire visible universe as seen from Earth. Our all-sky mosaic is presented on two double-page spreads in the book: one in colour and one in a special monochrome version showing regions of hydrogen gas nebulosity.

I never cease to be amazed that these beautiful and extraordinary deep-sky objects can be photographed to a high standard using relatively modest cameras and telescopes. The aim of The Visible Universe is to show the range of astrophotography that can be achieved with relatively affordable modern equipment from your own garden or local open space. We hope that by demonstrating what is possible, we will inspire more people to take up this rewarding activity.

The Visible Universe is a hardcover book 250x250mm with 252 pages, almost all of them in full colour. Alas this has made printing very expensive, so at a list price of £55 the book is likely to appeal mainly to a specialist audience. If anyone from Holy Island would like a copy, I can offer a special islanders' discount of £20 off. Please call me on 07971 962694 or email me (max@natureguides.com) to arrange collection from Chare Ends. More information about the book is available at www.thevisibleuniverse.com .

What use is that rock to me?

More than once I've claimed in this e-zine that Holy Island owed a lot to its rocks. Without the Whin Sill there'd have been nowhere to site the Hermitage, Heugh, or castle. There would be no limestone quarries at Snipe Point, or limekilns. The truth is that every community in the world depends absolutely on its rocks. Sometimes that dependence is obvious, sometimes it's less so ... and sometimes it's tricky.

For example our use of the subsurface to store/dispose of stuff. Putting things in the ground isn't new. We've been exploiting the "geosphere" for a long time - although our practice of consigning our domestic and industrial waste to landfill has often been careless and less than successful.

In 2001 the foot and mouth epidemic saw us look beneath the surface at a time of crisis. Burning carcasses had failed, burial was the solution. But it couldn't be done anywhere, we had to make sure that water supplies and the environment weren't polluted. That means that we continue to monitor those sites today and will for a long time. Out of sight should never mean out of mind.

And then there's the link between rocks and climate change. Nuclear power is one of the options to address our energy crisis. But we still have the challenge of what to do with existing (and future) nuclear waste. Presently it sits on the surface at Sellafield, that's not a sustainable solution. So we (the UK government) are about to look again at storage deep underground and evaluate the rocks that may be able to contain the material safely and reduce the risk. It's worth bearing in mind that there is no risk-free solution here, or in most other areas of life. Risk is relative and not absolute.

More positively can we use the underworld (more precisely the pore spaces between the billions of grains in sandstones deep underground) to store excess CO2 and stop our planet warming further. It's called carbon capture and storage, or carbon sequestration. The idea has been around for at least 2 decades, but there has been a political reluctance to embrace it.

But back to more obvious uses of rocks. Look around you. How many things do you think are dependent on the world beneath your feet? The iron for the steel of your knife and fork. The salt on your table. The metals in your car and the fuel in its tank. The water from that borehole. The sand that made the glass in your window. The limestone that makes up a big percentage of your toothpaste. And if you're reading this on your mobile phone or iPad then how about the lithium for its battery?

The fact is that if we can't grow it, we have to extract it from the ground. And that leaves us, society, with some pretty difficult decisions at times. We all want energy supplies to be available at a reasonable price, or to travel on the A1, but far fewer want a shale gas well, or a road stone quarry in the neighbourhood. There are choices to make. Science must inform those choices, but the decisions are everyone's.

The thing we definitely can't bury are our heads in the sand.

Accessing Aidan

Bamburgh Bones is delighted to present the grand finale for the 'Accessing Aidan' project. This three-year National Heritage Lottery-funded project will culminate in an entertaining and informative conference in Bamburgh over the weekend of Friday 20th and Saturday 21st May. The conference is free and open to all.

Accessing Aidan is a remarkable partnership project that has seen the development of the crypt of St. Aidan's Church, Bamburgh into a beautiful community and interpretation space telling the story of Anglo-Saxon life in the village, having been awarded a grant of £355,600 by the National Lottery in 2019.

Patrick Norris, Chair of the Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, one of the lead partners of the project, said "This conference marks the culmination of the project and is a celebration of everything that has been achieved. It begins on Friday evening with a 'poetry, pies and pints' evening and the launch of 'A Hut A Byens' - a collection of new poems written by nine local poets; the title - meaning 'a heap of bones' - referring to the ossuary created in the crypt of St Aidan's that houses over 100 skeletons from the 7th century."

On Saturday morning, there is the opportunity to take part in a series of workshops looking at several aspects of Bamburgh's Anglo-Saxon history, plus tours of St Aidan's Church and of the archaeology of the Castle.

An afternoon of talks and tales then follows all about the Bamburgh Bones project and Anglo-Saxon Britain. Guest speakers include archaeologist Sarah Semple, architectural historian Robert McKibbin and author and historian Max Adams.

The grand finale of the conference will take place in the Kings Hall in Bamburgh Castle, where archaeologists Professor Charlotte Roberts and Graeme Young will be talking about the discoveries from the Anglo-Saxon graveyard hidden within the sand dunes a few hundred meters south of the castle walls, followed by Professor Clare Lees and Tom Clark - both of whom appeared in the recent BBC series 'Art that made us - who will explore the Old English language spoken in Bamburgh at that time, as well as giving a reading from 'Beowulf'.

The event is free, and refreshments will be available over the weekend. Booking is essential and the full programme can be found on via Eventbrite website by searching 'Bamburgh Bones Conference'.

For more information, visit the Bamburgh Bones website: https://bamburghbones.org/visit/events/ or call 07966 330465

Media Contact: Catherine Gray
Tel. 01670 622644 // catherine.gray@northumberland.gov.uk

One rare, warm May evening I sat under a full moon with a group of people here on retreat. When we weren't sharing jokes and stories we listened to the birds, the seals and the silence in between. I have only lived here just over a year, but already I'm starting to take these things for granted. The feedback from people on retreat and the guests staying in the holiday homes around me reminds me how special Holy Island is.

Comments from some recent guests:

"When I reach Beal and see the causeway and the posts, I'm sure my blood pressure drops. I've been coming for years and being on the island brings me such peace."
"I remember when the Gospel Garden was a piece of waste ground. Now it's the most beautiful garden, such a pleasure to sit in." "I love it here."

ADOMNAN 2

Last month we dealt with one aspect of the work of Adomnan, the extremely talented Abbot of Iona. We saw that he was the first, and that for centuries he was also the last, leader to care about the fate of the non-combatants in their endless wars. Today we deal with his written life of Columba, founder of the monastery of Iona.

He was ideally placed to write this. Exactly one hundred years had passed, and now Adomnan as Abbot was in the same position as Columba. He was also related by family: he and Columba were both members of the dominant Irish clan known as the Uí Néill, and were cousins. Adomnan could well have thought that he could and should promote Columba's reputation, not just as a local saint but as having wider powers. There was plenty of local story material for him to use.

But we have to understand what this early medieval age thought about saints. They were immensely important. Living and dead their power was everywhere. What was their function? They provided contact with God: God would listen to them. Although the Christian faith taught that all Christians were God's beloved children it was easier for people who lived in a society firmly divided into social classes to think that some, not everyone, had the ear of the powerful. They expected that God would work through his saints, and it was better to have a friend in high places.

How did they identify the saints? By the spiritual gifts God gave them. These included the gift of spiritual healing (very important in a society without doctors, where most people were dead before the age of 40!), the gift of prophecy to tell the future, the gift of second sight to know what was happening elsewhere, the gift of friendship with animals and of insight into human minds and souls. Of course it was expected also that the saints would be morally exceptionally good people.

So the saints would always be willing and able to help. Adomnan paid two visits to Northumbria, where he was friendly with the king. One of these visits was during a very bad plague year in that kingdom but he believed that he was protected by Columba. So he wrote the saint's life-story, and it is now available in paperback. Do read it if you can.

Editor: Revd Canon Kate Tristram MA (Oxford) MSC (Edinburgh) and honorary Canon of Newcastle (emerita)

There is a lot to celebrate this year on June 5th.

It is the Sunday of the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend and also Pentecost

Most of us do not remember a time when the Queen was not our monarch. She has been a symbol of stability and reassurance throughout most of our lives.

On this Sunday we also celebrate the coming of the Holy Spirit to give us help and reassurance.

Jesus told his disciples that He was sending the Holy Spirit, the Comforter.

This gift was not only for the disciples but for each one of us.
The Holy Spirit lives in us, keeping Jesus' message alive and guiding us to live as He taught us.
We are protected from fear and worries.
As the world gets more and more distressing and difficult, the Holy Spirit is with us to comfort us.
We are not alone. We always have the Holy Spirit with us
We think of Pentecost as the Birthday of the church.
Appropriate to a birthday, we are given gifts.
Gifts of the Spirit empower us to do what God calls us to do.

We all have different spiritual gifts, for some it's knowledge, faith, wisdom or prophesy, for others its hospitality, administration, or service.

The list of these gifts varies, but I think that anything that God has made us good at or interested in can be our spiritual gift and used for God's work.

Prayer
Lord Jesus Christ, thank you for sending us the Holy Spirit to guide and comfort us.
Help us to be aware of the Spirit working in us.
Help us to allow ourselves to be guided by the Spirit
Help us to use our gifts in your service.
Thank you that we are never alone.
Amen

Dear friends

We are just entering the Queen's Platinum Jubilee weekend! On the island, a group of people have been very busy organising, putting up a mile and a half of bunting, cooking, selling tickets, and planning all the events that will take place here over the weekend. I'm sure great fun and joy will be had by all! The Queen has given us all a long lifetime of service, gracefully performed.

This is what she said while still a princess:

'I declare before you all that my whole life whether it be long or short shall be devoted to your service... But I shall not have strength to carry out this resolution alone unless you join in it with me, as I now invite you to do: I know that your support will be unfailingly given. God help me to make good my vow, and God bless all of you who are willing to share in it.'

Princess Elizabeth 21 April 1947

And on becoming Queen:

'When I spoke to you last... I asked you all, whatever your religion, to pray for me on the day of my Coronation - to pray that God would give me wisdom and strength to carry out the promises that I should then be making... I have been uplifted and sustained by the knowledge that your thoughts and prayers were with me.'

Her Majesty the Queen, Coronation Day, 2nd June 1953

And I'm sure that these thoughts and prayers for her Majesty will continue as we join in the celebrations, including the Songs of Praise at St Mary's at 5pm on Sunday evening, followed by a bring and share picnic in the vicarage garden.

In the church's year, June is also a time of celebration. Pentecost, the church's 'birthday' is on June 5th; and then we have Trinity Sunday on 12th, when we give thanks for the relationship of God as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

Do come along and join in the celebrations!

With every blessing

Sarah

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ST. MARY'S NOTICES Current Worship Times Holy Week and Easter Worship Times 1045am Sunday Parish Eucharist 8am BCP Sunday Eucharist - first Sunday of the month 5pm Evening prayer - Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Friday (Updates or changes will be posted in the church porch and online) Lord, help us to be with one another... even if at a physical distance. Help us to build a kinder world. To reach out. To love and to care. To be sensible and not to panic. Help us, Lord, to hope. Because together we can. Amen. Revd Dr Sarah Hills