Purple Candlemas

IN FEBRUARY 2012, when the General Synod was due yet again to debate the issue of women bishops (the Archbishops having submitted an amendment to the Draft Measure), the Rector of our parish, Mark Bennet - then vice-chair of WATCH - asked his colleague Marion Fontaine to make a purple candle. It would be placed in our St Anne chapel, and remain unlit until finally the first woman bishop was appointed.

Marion, one of whose subsidiary skills is recycling melted wax into new candles, went further, and made three. They remained there, silent reminders of people's hopes and prayers, until this February, when it was decided that our Candlemas eucharist would be the right occasion to light them to celebrate the consecration of Bishop Libby Lane. 

The midwife's call

THE president at the service was our Archdeacon, the Ven. Olivia Graham, and the preacher was the former Archdeacon of Northampton, the Revd Christine Allsopp. But, in many ways, Marion herself was the epitome of the occasion.

A midwife by profession, Marion worked in a clinic in Africa before coming to live in Thatcham, where she served for half a lifetime as community midwife, bringing children into the world and then, 20 years later, recognising them when they brought their own children to baptism. She began her ministry in the church as what we used to call a Lay Reader.

Her speciality was funerals, at which her intimate knowledge of local family history was tellingly employed. Eventually, when it became possible, she was ordained, and has been our non-stipendiary curate for 15 years.

There are many "Marions" in our churches, including some who, for various reasons, never finally made it to ordination. As we celebrated (and it was quite a party), we also remembered them, faithful like Anna in the Temple; but, unlike her, never seeing with earthly eyes the fulfilling of their hopes. 

Early departures

AMONG a group of old friends and colleagues whose deaths occurred during the bitter days of January was the redoubtable Michael Saward, whom I first met when he was curate at a neighbouring parish in north London. He ended his clerical career as Canon Treasurer of St Paul's Cathedral. I am godparent to his son ("the worst godparent I have ever known," he observed recently), and a lifelong admirer of his manifold if occasionally eccentric talents.

It was not the bitter British winter that brought about his death, I learnt. Typically, he died on holiday in Switzerland. Obituary, Canon Michael Saward. 

Is this really the word?

ALSO among the January departures was Hester, a remarkable member of the congregation in my last parish. She died aged 102, and must have been in her eighties when I first met her.

My most treasured memory is of her reading the lessons in church, which she did with true thespian style and emphasis. On one occasion, at the end of a rather bloodthirsty Old Testament passage (I think the wretched Amalekites were involved), she waited, and then proclaimed, interrogatively: "This [long pause] is the Word of the Lord?"

I also lost a one-time BBC colleague and friend, Sandra (Sandy) Chalmers, sister of the TV holiday expert Judith. Sandy was editor of Woman's Hour in the '70s and '80s, reshaping it as a forum for feminine issues, while, despite its title, keeping a loyal male following. She was a marvellously positive woman, and was the life and soul of our annual reunion lunch for BBC editorial "heads" of our day.

I was going to say that the Grim Reaper was busy last month, but I think "grim" is the wrong word. I prefer the image of Father Time, as depicted above the stands at Lord's cricket ground, leaning over the stumps and removing the bails at close of play. That's it, I think. The end of an innings, but there will be laughter and joy in the pavilion afterwards. 

Game of Consequences

ONE of the parishes in the neighbouring town of Newbury is St George's, Wash Common, where my friend Paul Cowan is the Vicar. After much hard work and fund-raising, they have been able to carry out some wonderful improvements to the church and its facilities; they aim eventually to be the "greenest" church in the country.

The work has included a splendid new stone floor - a real joy to behold. As we all know, however, every action has consequences, and this improvement to the eye-appeal of the building has rather upset its ear-appeal. Acoustic panels will now have to be installed to absorb the new echo: splendid for music, disastrous for sermons.

Thanks to a generous donation, the improvements have also included a refurbishment of the church organ. Paul was interviewed on BBC Radio Berkshire about all this bounty, and found himself confessing that, at the present, he had "a sad little organ". Some of the less respectable among his friends and congregation are not going to let him forget this unusually frank public confession.

Canon David Winter is a retired cleric in the diocese of Oxford, and a former head of religious broadcasting at the BBC.