The Church-in-Abingdon’s Lent Lectures 2020 will be held each Monday in March at 8.00pm at St Helen’s Church.

The five public lectures by The Revd Dr Charles Miller look at the Chapel of the Rosary, designed and decorated by Henri Matisse. The lectures will be art appreciation, and spiritual lessons drawn from the chapel

In 2015, Revd Dr Charles Miller led a similar art-inspired series of lent lectures on the frescoes of Fra Angelico in the San Marco Dominican Convent in Florence.

Lent is a period of reflection and preparation in the run up to Easter. Easter Sunday is 12th April this year.

Lent begins today on Ash Wednesday. St Helen’s join for an Ash Wednesday service at St Michael & All Angels Church at 7.30 pm. There is a Mass at Our Lady and St Edmund Church at 7 pm. Christchurch has a 8 pm service.

Look closely at this scene from the annual Troutbeck Shrove Tuesday Pancake race and you will see a green figure back along the road (Thank you to Smooth Radio Lake District for this picture.)

Then look at this picture and you will see a uniform identical to that of an Abingdon Town Crier practising his ‘Hear Ye, Hear ye’ in The Lakes. (Thankyou to Roger Davies for this picture).

For twenty years an Abingdon Town Crier has been travelling to Troutbeck to assist in their pancake race, and this year will be his last.

Read all about it in the Westmorland Gazette at https://www.thewestmorlandgazette.co.uk/news/18255559.one-last-hurrah-town-crier/

Thank you to the Westmorland Gazette for the picture. I did speak to a reporter who said I could use the picture if they owned it and he would check. So all rights reserved to the original owner. He never got back to me.

Also to mention that during half term there is a ballet open day this Saturday. Apologies if this is too late. I was sent it a while back.

Richard sent me some pictures of the Repair Cafe last Saturday. They were provided by Feng,  an Ethical Fashion Designer, and Marketing Manager for Fairtrade at St Michael’s in Oxford.

Feng said ‘ It was great to pop into the Repair Cafe earlier, it was certainly busy! Here are a few photos of ‘hands at work’.