Winchelsea

Famous Belgians: The Second Wednesday Society is committed to meeting every second Wednesday and this will be on November 9th at 2.30pm in the New Hall. Melanie Gibson-Barton will be giving this month’s talk which is entitled ‘Ten Famous Belgians’. The talk will be followed by a very appetising tea and the total cost for non-members is £4. Within the talk Melanie will be explaining why there are more reasons to be grateful to Belgium than simply for the quality of the chocolate, art and beer.

Month of Remembrance: Armistice Day which marks the end of the First World War will be commemorated on Friday November 11th. All are invited to gather at the War Memorial next Friday at 11am in the churchyard for a period of silence and prayer. On Sunday November 13th the Remembrance Day service begins at 11am by the War Memorial for the two-minute silence and the poppy wreath laying ceremony. This will be followed by a non-denominational service of Remembrance in St Thomas’ Church for about 45 minutes which will be attended by the Mayor John Spencer and Corporation. Also in the morning there will be a short Holy Communion service at 9.30am.

Arcana Ensemble: The next concert sponsored by Winchelsea Arts features the Arcana Ensemble and will take place on Friday November 11th at 7.30pm in St Thomas’ Church. Tickets are £13 each and £6.50 for under 18s from the Farm Kitchen and any that remain will be available on the door. The Arcana Ensemble is a family group of classical musicians with a varied programme of string duos, piano duos and trios. The family trio graduated from the Royal Academy of Music and have performed in the UK, USA, France and Rumania. During the concert they will be playing trios by Haydn, Beethoven and Smetana.

Next Saturday: November 12th is the pre-Christmas Fair from 10am till 3pm in the New Hall. Everyone is invited to come along and choose festive gifts from the many stalls selling chocolates, children’s clothing, glass, pottery, cards plus more; also refreshments, wine-tasting, tombola and raffle. All proceeds are in aid of the New Hall renovation.

Bookshop events: The Literary Society’s next event is on Saturday November 12th at 3.30pm in Rye Bookshop and thanks to the Manager Lizzie Lee for helping with the arrangements. Members of the Society will be welcoming Hugh Fraser (AKA Captain Hastings from TV’s Poirot!) and Guy Fraser-Sampson in to sign copies of their books. Then as part of the Rye Christmas Fair on December 10th, Rye Bookshop will host Lecturer and historian Gillian Draper from 11am-2pm, and she’ll be signing copies of her book ‘Rye: A History of a Sussex Cinque Port’.

Life of Ministry: The peaceful town of Winchelsea is often considered to be the place for retired doctors with approximately 1 in 20 to residents. Compared to the overstretched NHS this is not a bad ratio when a doctor is needed, even though they are no longer insured after retirement. That being so Bexhill-on-sea appears to be the home for retired clerics. This was suggested by Barry Turnwell as he glanced around the audience in the Wesley Chapel last Saturday morning where the Rector, Robin Whitehead was about to give his talk on ‘My life of Ministry’. In the audience there were a few retired Methodist ministers from Bexhill and Robin was assured he would be in good company on his retirement. In his talk Robin explained how his vocation in the ministry had led to him travelling across most of southern Britain from west to east. Had it not been for the M25 which was built around the same time in the 1970s he might have journeyed less and not had such interesting and challenging experiences. Some key memories were his time in Colney Hatch visiting the psychiatric hospital which was a huge impressive building with a bustling atmosphere. After its doors closed in 1993 it was boarded up and left abandoned. The inmates were moved out of what was their home and are now having to rely on ‘Care in the Community’. Since then the building has been converted into luxury apartments. Less successful conversions were during his time in Leicester working in a multi-cultural community of mainly Hindus and Muslims and endeavouring to teach the values of a Christian society. Out of the 5 churches in the area 4 eventually closed, including an outstanding medieval building, and at least one became a Hindu temple. His next move was to the Boston Stump (St Botolph’s) in Lincolnshire where he ministered within a large community of Rumanians and other East European shop owners. After 10 years as Vicar of Boston Robin took early retirement following his cancer diagnosis but came out of retirement to work in Winchelsea where he has stayed for 3 busy years as Rector for the 3 parish churches. We thank him for his hard work and commitment and wish him well with God’s blessings for the future.

Winchelsea Beach

Candles service: The annual Candles of Remembrance Service will be held at St Richard’s Church on Sunday November 6th at 3.30pm. This is a community service to remember loved ones who have passed away and includes those who died during the wars. Anyone who would like to join this service is very welcome to attend.

Joint services: Please note in your diaries the alternative arrangements for church services. There will be fewer meetings at St Richard’s over the next few weeks owing to the joint services which will be held in St Thomas’ Church. These are: Remembrance Sunday on November 13th, a service to mark the start of Advent on Sunday November 27th and a ‘Lights of Love’ service at 3pm on Sunday December 4th.

Don’t miss out on all the latest breaking news where you live.

Here are four ways you can be sure you’ll be amongst the first to know what’s going on.

1) Make our website your homepage at www.ryeandbattleobserver.co.uk/

2) Like our Facebook page at www.facebook.com/RyeandBattleObserver

3) Follow us on Twitter @RyeObs

4) Register with us by clicking on ‘sign in’ (top right corner). You can then receive our daily newsletter AND add your point of view to stories that you read here.

And do share with your family and friends - so they don’t miss out!

The Rye and Battle Observer - always the first with your local news.

Be part of it.