The Clarion
The Clarion is the monthly magazine of the parish of St.Mary the Boltons.
The magazine has news about the month ahead in the parish, and occasional articles by the priest-in-charge and members of the congregation.
We discuss the future, and how we can use the Church for God’s purpose.
The church is open during the day on most days – but please call to confirm if you are making a special journey. You'll find contact numbers on the Contacts page.
To see the Clarion issues in detail, please click on the links below. All are in the PDF format. Most modern web browsers can read these. If necessary, download a free reader from the Adobe website.
February 2012: Mindfulness and Lent; Lent Course 2012: Exploring Prayer; Fairtrade Fortnight; Women's World Day of Prayer; Planned Giving Programme 2011; Thursday Lunch Meeting Report: Remembrance of Christmases Past; Remember: the Crib Service, Christmas Nine Lessons and Carols Service; The Tables of the Moneychangers; My Christmas Morning Swim; February Top Tip; Art Exhibition; Street Pastors; Report from the PCC.
December 2011 / January 2012: Rethinking Christmas: what does a ‘good’ Christmas look like in 2011?; Winter Fuel Payment; A Sermon in stone; Quaint Saints; Banking on hunger; The Big Give; ‘Storybook Dads; The Lifeboats Come to St Mary’s; Old Mobiles for a New Sound System; Sustainability Group Top Tip: Gas versus Electricity; Art Exhibition: June 2012.
November 2011: What price love? - the sermon preached on 23 October; ‘The Padre’. A brief recollection and appreciation from a Thursday lunch guest; The Prayer Network; Trials of a Halo; Kaija Lukas, the soloist at the Remembrance Sunday service; Letters of Thanks; Sustainability Group Top Tip; St Mary’s Quiz Night report; Art Exhibition next June; Advent Discussion Groups: Rethinking Christmas.
October 2011: The Grace of Giving: Planned-Giving Programme 2011; Obituaries: Betty Greenland and Patricia Vincent; Life Inside: the work of the Independent Monitoring Board; Meaningful Chocolate Fair Trade Tree Decorations; Art Exhibition; New Horizons: The Multi-Activity Centre for the Over-50s; A favourite Bible passage: Romans 8. 18-39; A thank you from the International Centre for Nursing Ethics.
September 2011: Emergency4London; Anne Swift explains “Why I love St Mary’s Church”; Housing Benefit Caps – the local impact; Celebrating the King James Bible; Debates and Talks at St Paul’s Cathedral and St Martin-in-the Fields; Does God approve of genocide?; Be Still Before God: more about Taizé Storybook Dads; Charitable Giving: nominations for our 2012 programme.
July-August 2011: The Big Society: Theological, and Quarries, and life in SW10 and SW5; Accounting rules or investment principles: who wins? Can you be a Christian and also believe in Just War theory? Thursday Lunch Meeting Report: ‘Allotment Notebook’ by Edwina Sassoon; Moving on: Mari, Angham, Uola, Masara and Salam; Celebrating the King James Bible; The Boltons Little Big Lunch and recipe for Robin’s Swedish Bread; Summer Fair report and photographs; The University of Life; Sustainability Group Top Tip for July and August; Summer Fair Profits, Charitable Giving in 2011, and Nominations for 2012; Faith, Fellowship and Friends; The Great Garden Adventure Report; Chopin, Nine Years with Sand.
June 2011: From Easter to Ascension Day to Pentecost; The Summer Fair; Christian Aid Week; The Boltons Little Big Lunch; Confirmation; PCC Report; Age Concern and what ir does; Celebrating the King James Bible.
May 2011: Christ is Risen – Life is Made Free!; St Mary The Boltons Summer Fair; Christian Aid Week; Report of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting; The Great Garden Adventure; What did you do in Lent?; Luca Pacioli and the Credit Crunch; The Boltons Little Big Lunch; Confirmation.
April 2011: Looking forward to Easter; St Mary The Boltons Summer Fair; Community Engagement Lunch; Report of Fairtrade Wine tasting; Earl’s Court Festival 2011; Sir Jeremy Morse at the Thursday Lunch Meeting; Sustainability Group Top Tip; Lent Poems.
March 2011: I Count! – the 2011 Census and Counting as citizens of the Kingdom of God and members of the Church; Lent Course; The Crown, the Church and the State; Taizé Prayer at St. Mary’s; ‘An Anglican Abroad’ with Anita Dowbiggin (report of Thursday lunch talk); Hildegard of Bingen; St Mary The Boltons Little Big Lunch; ‘Out of the Box’ – the drama group from the New Horizons Activity Centre.
February 2011: Bicycling with God; Fairtrade fortnight; Lent Course; An Introduction to Praying the Ignatian Way; The King James Bible; Marcus Smith at December’s Thursday Lunch Club; Impressions of Afghanistan; Quirky Things in ‘A Picture of Our Community’; Gift Aid; Anita Bowbiggins’ 90th Birthday.
December 2010 – January 2011: No Room in the Inn; Advent Discussion Groups; Eco-Congregation Award; Advent – We know who is coming, but where are we going?; Behind the hymn O Little Town of Bethlehem; PCC Updates
November 2011: Coming back from sabattical; The Institution and Induction of Ginny as Vicar; The Camino de Santiago - The Way of St. James; Advent Discussion Groups; report; the Al-Ahli hospital in Gaza, an update; Will aid scheme; Four years as verger; Music for Remembrance Sunday.
October 2010: All Things Bright and Beautiful; One year in: a reflection on training for ordination by Jack Dunn; The Oberammergau Passion Play; Life as a member of the Third Order of the Society of St Francis; A day trip in Greece; Thursday Lunch with Jonathan Aitken (report).
September 2010: Ruth Lampard’s sermon on Women Bishops; The Church Garden; The Smart Meter; The Great Garden Adventure; Prison Fellowship; Franciscan Tertiaries at St Mary’s; Salisbury Impressions.
July/August 2010: Summer Holidays – Rest and Recreation; Confirmation; sermon preached by Rev Dr Marsha Fowler on the theme of Redemption; Spring Art Exhibition; Summer Fair report, and where the money goes; Farm Sunday; Samantha Smith’s Memories of St Mary’s;Franciscan Tertiaries at St Mary’s.
June 2010: Ginny takes a sabattical; Summer Fair; Art Exhibition; Edward Reynolds and the General Thanksgiving; the Metro Bank — report of the May Thursday Lunch; Psalm 107; Franciscan Tertiraies at St Mary’s; Parish Outing to Salisbury; PCC Report; Treasures Lambeth Palace Library.
May 2010: Annual Parochial Church Meeting; Ginny to become Vicar of St Mary’s; New members of St. Mary’s PCC; Christian Aid Week at St Marys; Summer Fair; Art Exhibition; Sustainability Group Top Tip for May; Open Farm Sunday; Parish Outing to Salisbury; Edward Reynolds and the General Thanksgiving; Poems from St Cuthbert With St Mathias School.
April 2010: Easter Joy - becoming messengers of God’s comfort!; Advance notice of Art Exhibition and Summer Fair; Sunday School: Mothering Sunday poems; Christian Aid Week at St Marys, and Katie Seal, our preacher during the week; Earthquake in Chile, a report from Camila Ruz; Farm Sunday; Up Before the Lark; Admission of Patricia Vincent to the Order of Bernardo O’Higgins.
March 2010: Journeying through Lent; On retreat; Rev. Dr. John Hughes and Holy Week; Where do you come from?; Environmentalist of the Year’ Award to ex-curate Geoff Davies; In a Foreign Land; Green Group Top Tip; What’s on in the natural world?
February 2010: Our Lent Course Comfort for Lent, Books to read in Lent; The Revd Ian James, visiting preacher; What's in a Will; Just War?; Reports of PCC meetings on 26 November and 21 January; Sermin: The Baptism of Christ; Rev. Dr John Hughes, our Holy Week preacher; Charities Committee recommendations.
December 2009 / January 2010: Our Christmas services - Touching Heaven, Changing Earth; Babette's Feast; Malcolm Goddard’s lunch talk ‘What have I learned as a member of the Fabric Group’; Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza update; FairTrade; Confirmation at St Paul’s; Collection bags and Gift Aid.
November 2009: Caring for Creation; Advent Discussion Groups; The Environment - Top 5 Tips; Recent work at St Saviours; John Donne – poet and preacher; Charitable donations in 2009; A Christian Response towards Global Warming and Climate Changing.
October 2009: Harvest Festival; Deanery Synod meeting and the Chelsea Academy; Miles Coverdale, the psalms and prayer; Malcolm Connell's talk about the Earls Court Festival; Why do the clocks go back?
September 2009: St. Mary’s: Past, Present and Future; Jack Dunn: an Ordinand at St. Mary The Boltons; ‘Leading Change, Building Healthier Nations’ conference report; The Big Lunch (report); Praising God in the sound of the hang drum and acoustic guitar; Community Audit; Back to Church Sunday.
July/August 2009: An Opportunity to Think about Lying and Cheating; St Mary's Pilgrimage to Umbria; Result of our Stewardship Campaign; Shrinking the Footprint; ‘Peace offerings’; Pilgrimage to Winchester Cathedral; The Calming of the Storm and Summer Fair report.
June 2009: Stewardship Campaign report; St Mary's Summer Fair; The Festivity of Jesus; PCC Report; Evan Davis; The St Mary's Children's Party; Treasures at St Mary's; and Ready, Steady, Grow! for The Big Lunch.
May 2009: Stewardship Campaign; extract from Ginny’s report to the APCM; The Lord’s Prayer; Risk takers needed in the City; Christian Aid Week at St Marys; Welcome Sermon from Bishop Paul Williams; Vincent Van Gogh: A Stranger and a Pilgrim.
April 2009: St. Mary’s Stewardship and Financial Campaign 2009-2012; The Empty Tomb: The Triumph of Easter; Thomas Traherne: a little-known metaphysical poet; Year's Mind; What Easter means to me.
March 2009: A Pilgrimage to the Holy Land; What Lent means for me; Deanery Synod; The Abbot of Brno; Grow your own and more to share; Mojakwamoja; Stewardship Campaign Update.
February 2009: Counting down to Lent; A Christian Service in Turkey; Thursday Lunch Club; Sunday School News; PCC Update; Back to school; charitable donations
December 2008/January 2009: Science and Religion; Gerard Manley Hopkins; PCC Update.
November 2008: A welcome to Ruth Lampard, Associate Vicar and she introduces herself; Report on the Images of God sessions; a letter of thanks from Audrey Pine.
October 2008: Ruth Lampard appointed Associate Vicar; Update from Rose Wrigley; Behind the Hymn Dear Lord and Father of Mankind.
September 2008: Opportunities for Discussion; Images of God; Virtual Giving; Christians in Iraq.
July/August 2008: Summer Fair report; the poetry of Blake; John Ellerton, composer of The Day Thou Gavest; a new framework for our charitable giving.
June 2008: Pilgrimage to Toledo, Avila and Salamanca; Sunday School to sponsor a child; St Jude’s Update.
May 2008: Ginny Thomas's remarks to the APCM; Gift Aid tax relief; Summer Fair, call for help.
April 2008: Gerald Beauchamp's Sermon.
March 2008: Easter - A Champagne Event; The Bishop od London's Lent Message; My sister Mari, an Iraqi refugee.
February 2008: Lent; Christian Zionism,
December 2007/January 2008: Preparing for Christmas; It wouldn't be Christmas; report from Al-Ahli Hospital in Gaza City.
November 2007: a month for remembering; Lace and Faith; Just This Day; Gerald Beauchamp
October 2007: How Good is Your Hebrew?; For Creed and Creation.
September 2007: September: a new start; Harvest Festival; St Paul's Institute.
August 2007: Summer Reading; Update on Al Ahli Hospital, Gaza; God's Waiting Room? - a visit to Mary Smith Court.
July 2007: Summer Fair a great success; St Mary's Pilgrimage holiday; Confirmation classes; A wedding in Zinbabwe; Change of Parish Administrator and Kensington Area Conference.
June 2007: Articles about Al Ahli Hospital in Gaza and the Arthritis Research Campaign, which are beneficiaries of the Summer Fair (Saturday June 23rd); Reading at St Cuthbert's and a letter from Carole Sharpe.
May 2007: Report of the Annual Parochial Church Meeting and articles on William Tyndale and Zero - Hans Schleger.
April 2007: Includes The Challenge of Easter by Ginny and advance notice of the Summer Fair (June 23)
March 2005: contains a piece from Suzanna Rust explaining how the icon of St John the Evangelist was prepared. This is the icon we will be sending to Gerald with our love and prayers.
February 2005: includes an update from Gerald which tells more about the new life he is leading
January 2005: includes Ginny's review of Christmas and an article on the Magi by Mary Blanchet
December 2004: has notes on Ginny's sermon on the first Sunday in Advent, and a report on a first at St Mary's - a youth service, in which the whole service was presented by the teenagers in our Sunday Club. It also announces the publication of a new book about St Mary The Boltons.
November 2004: includes news of our prayer network and the theme for World AIDS day.
October 2004: includes Gerald's farewell.
September 2004:includes John Harris' obituary and a letter of thanks from Anne Swift for all the support she has received during her mother's final illness. Also, as there are so many new contacts this month, we have included the back page to this month.
August 2004: includes more memories of the Russian pilgrimage and a report on money raised for the Children's Society through our summer fair.
July 2004: includes news of the Russian pilgrimage and Richard Dowbiggin's obituary.
June 2004: includes news of the appointments of a new Associate Vicar, the Revd Ginny Thomas, and our new Director of Music, Mr Graham Caldbeck.
May 2004: contains the news from our vicar, Gerald, that he is to leave St.Mary's to test his vocation to the religious life at the Society of St.John the Evangelist in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Gerald explains how he has come to this decision. May's issue also contains Aida Gowan's obituary and a pastoral letter from the Bishop of London.
April 2004: information on the1400th anniversary of the diocese of London, an update on the search for a new director of music, and more comments on the 'inclusive church' vote.