“The voice of prayer is never silent, not dies the strain of praise away” – not even over the summer! The worship of God is not a seasonal activity and St Paul’s has been able to maintain its regular pattern of worship with the support of Fr Josh Gaskell and Fr Huw Thomas who came from England to preach and continue the sacramental worship on the two Sundays when the chaplaincy family were on their holiday. Lara Castiglione played the organ whilst our Director of Music, Errol Girdlestone ran his music academy in a former monastery in Lumiere – more in his notes in this Clarion! In August the Church was well represented at a memorial service in Le Muy commemorating the lives of nine brave men from the Parachute Regiment who secured a vital position as part of Operation Dragoon, that saw the start of the liberation of Provence in 1944. August is of course, “Mary’s Month,” the Thetokos, who faithfully responded to God’s call.
During the months between September and December there are many events to look forward to at St Paul’s. In September Sung Evensong will take place for The King’s Accession. In early October many members from St Paul’s will take part in a pilgrimage to the Battlefields of the Ypres salient in Belgium, including a service at St George’s Memorial Church, Poperinghe Chapel and the Last Post Ceremony at the Menin Gate. Later in the month members of the choir from King’s School Canterbury will be with us with the most recently consecrated Bishop Suffragan in Europe, the Rt Reverend, Andrew Norman. Harvest Festival will be held on the 26th of October when Fr Roger Preece from the Royal Foundation of St Katharine will be our guest preacher after this Evensong for All Souls on the 30th. In November a full Remembrance Sunday will be followed by Sung Evensong for Armistice will take place on the 11th. Nine candidates from St Paul’s will be conformed will be confirmed at Holy Trinity, Nice and fast on the heels of that special occasion will be the annual performance of Handel’s Scripturally inspired Messiah. The British School will be holding their annual carol service just prior to Nine Lessons and Carols in December, at which a marble plaque will be dedicated, marking the centenary of the consecration of St Paul’s and an Olive Wood Proto Cross funded by the BSM. Reminders and more information will be promulgated in due course and “all good stuff” I hear you all say. As we continue to find positive and imaginative ways of serving and contributing to the wider community in the Principality let us not lose sight of the reason why we do what we do – quite simply, “To the glory of God and to the praise of his holy name.”.
Advance! Chaplain
The Queen’s School, Chester
On June 28th, St Paul’s chaplain had the pleasure of welcoming pupils from The Queen’s School, Chester to the church whilst on their school trip to Monaco. The girls were given a tour of the church and insight into its work in the Principality and beyond.
Prayer Bears – Early Essentials
Early Essentials is a charity started by two Manchester mums with young children who were inspired by a project in a nearby city. This church-based project aimed to provide practical help for new mothers who could not afford the basic essentials necessary to look after their newborns.
Fr Joshua’s visit to St Paul’s
I would like to offer my sincere thanks for the warm welcome I received whilst covering for Fr Hugh at St Paul’s last month (warmth from the fellowship, and warmth from the temperature! There really should be a tropical clerical uniform other than black, black or black!).
Music Matters – Notre Dame de Lumière
The name aptly conjures up the atmosphere of our venue in deepest Provence, where the annual week-long Ristretto Summer Academy is held.
So, what exactly is the Academy all about?
Well, I could possibly respond by citing walks in the surrounding hills, adorned as they are with statues of the Madonna, shrines to Joan of Arc, and tiny historic chapels. Or indeed, simply lazing by the pool, enjoying dinner in the cloister, quaffing wine from the vineyard next door, and taking a picturesque drive through the myriad lavender and sunflower fields in the vicinity.
Actually, the above picture taken by Nick Birnie gets nearer to the heart of the matter – five hours per day of intensive rehearsal, involving a programme of demanding choral music, culminating in a concert given on the Saturday evening. Pictured above is the octagonal art-deco chapel where we rehearse, in the midst of what is now a hotel, but was previously a 17th century convent.
On the right is the overall view of the establishment as it stands today. The village itself consisting of a single street, dominated by the ancient convent, but including essentials such as a restaurant, a small supermarket, a post-office, and a winery. Best of all is the bus which takes you directly from Lumière to the station at Avignon, where you can catch the TGV/Eurostar to London. Most of our attendees coming from the UK, this is extremely advantageous.
We also welcome singers from Sweden, Germany, France, and even the USA and Canada, so our programmes embrace composers from many lands, languages, and periods. We have even tackled works in Russian, Swedish, and Danish, the most challenging of which was Schnittke’s Concerto for Choir, lasting over 40 minutes and extremely demanding musically, being sung in Russian of course.
Another huge challenge – and one of our deeply memorable experiences – was Figure Humaine by Francis Poulenc. Composed during 1943 under the Nazi occupation, the work could not be premiered in Paris because its text by Paul Eluard graphically mirrored the suffering of the French people, finally giving way to an explosion of hope and the ultimate triumph of freedom over tyranny, with the sopranos soaring to a stratospherically high E flat on the word “Liberté!” at the end.
Unable to receive its first performance in France, the work was premiered in English by the BBC Singers during 1945, the first performance in French being given in 1947. Somehow, the finger from above is always there to guide us, and Ristretto was invited by the Nice cultural authorities to perform the work in the Cathedral Sainte-Réparate two years later. The contract was signed in Spring 2016, not very long before the massacre on the Promenade des Anglais, which resulted in the deaths of 86 people, and the severe injuring of 450 others.
In the event, several survivors of the massacre managed to attend our concert, some of them in wheelchairs. In addition, a few members of the BBC Symphony Chorus joined us, intensifying (if that were at all possible) the poignancy of the occasion.
Getting back to this year’s Lumière, we tackled works by Verdi, Mendelssohn, Bruckner, Purcell, Gershwin, and yours truly – not to mention revisiting a movement from the previously mentioned Schnittke Concerto for Choir.
The concert at the end of the week was given in the adjoining Sanctuaire Note Dame de Lumière, whose crypt contains a magnificent wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, embossed with gold.
Crossword N°11 – by Patricia Cerrone
One or two people have said to me lately that they don’t understand cryptic puzzles. It’s true that finding help to solve them can be tricky. However, now is the chance to get to grips with them! The tips I write for each puzzle should have been guiding you through the basics, but here is a résumé of the most relevant points to bear in mind from the start.
- Apart from quotations and purely factual statements, all clues contain a definition of the answer plus a means of finding it. The DEFINITION is always at the BEGINNING or the END of the clue.
- Once you’ve decided on the definition, work on the other information. For example, an anagram: “Versatile Sid made crowns (7)”
| VERSATILE | SID MADE | CROWNS = DIADEMS |
|---|---|---|
| Anagram indicator | 7 letters of anagram | definition |
- Look out for hidden words – CATCH in “music at church”; PEWS reversed in “swept”.
- Compass points, Roman numerals and everyday abbreviations often suggest single letters. For example “L” can be indicated by Fifty, Lake, Latin, Left, Length, Line or Learner (novice, student).
- Clues containing “the French” (or other nationalities/languages), usually refer to LE, LA or LES etc.
I do hope this is helpful, cryptic puzzles are such fun. Please do ask me for any aid or advice……. PMC
ACROSS
1. Fellow going to the Spanish place of worship (6)
4. Saga that’s written about Sicilian saint (6)
10. Figures indicating OT Book (7)
11. Cabinet-maker producing strange noise with tips of burnishing tools (7)
12. Venues where djinns scare away the DJ! (4)
13. Bearing West in Chester will lead to cathedral city (10)
15. Bermondsey church dedicated to endless follower of Jesus (4,8)
18. Did sweet ring somehow evoke marriage service? (7,5)
23. Screens creating divisions (10)
24. Makes appearance in Bible – a humble wife of Jacob (4)
26. Aptitude with alien cooking utensil (7)
27. Unbeliever in field, wandering about (7)
28. Balance between READY and GO! (6)
29. Clergyman peers into entrance of tower (6)
DOWN
1. Gives approval as Bishop administers sacrament (8)
2. Evolution of man’s role among hospital social workers (8)
3. Need to change and get into the garden (4)
5. Fruit brought by uninvited third party (10)
6. Number of psalm starting “I will extol Thee, O Lord, for Thou hast lifted me up” (6)
7. Gibraltar said to be concealing church furniture (6)
8. Seeking answers, like monarch (6)
9. Crimea unexpectedly resembles historic kingdom in England (6)
14. Worried leaders of enormous liberation rally implied they were in danger (10)
16. Observer mentioned in Mountbatten deed (8)
17. Rearrange each lot to include small type of onion (8)
19. Pretty little delicacy (6)
20. Papal legate accompanying Sister Clio – no novice! (6)
21. French animal protection society sending text message in short bursts (6)
22. “His ………….. may thither fly” – from hymn N°704 [A&M] (6)
25. A long way away, taking part in safari. (4)
Answers to Clarion Crossword N°10
ACROSS
1. ORANGERS 6. SUISSE 9. AQUA 10. IDA 11. NOODLE 12. FEASTS 13. GABIAN 15. AIRBORNE 18. RUEFUL 19. ALBERT 20. ASSISTED 21. DEVOTE 22. BIOVES 25. GRIPES 26. ALB 27. FETE 28. SPARSE 29. DOLOROSO
DOWN
2. ROQUEVILLE 3 NEARS 4. ELIAS 5. SPANGLE 6. SONGBIRDS 7. IDOLATERS 8. SOLE 14. SUPERETTES 16. BEEKEEPER 17. RETROUSSE 20. ABELARD 22. BABEL 23. OFFER 24. DROP
