Palm Sunday
The weather was fine this year. We gathered outside the Heroes Pub and then set off down the precinct, with band, servers, choir etc and Dexter the horse who behaved very well, but I thought began to look a little impatient when we stopped on the way to have part of our service. Perhaps we had run out of carrots to bribe him with! At St George’s we said ‘goodbye’ to Dexter and his ‘companions’ and joined other members of the congregation for the rest of the Service.
Walsingham, 22nd - 24th April
We hadn’t been able to visit the Shrine at Walsingham since 2019 due to COVID. Our Lucketts coach picked us up at St George’s Church at 8am and we stopped to ‘gather up’ the rest of our Pilgrims at Rowlands Castle.
There was a coffee break at Mimms Services and our lunch stop was at Newmarket where several of us headed to our usual (Wetherspoons) pub, the Golden Lion, for lunch.
On arrival at Walsingham, after our “First Visit” to the Holy House, we collected our room keys and went to unpack and settle in.
There were the usual and much loved services throughout the weekend: Eucharists in the modern Barn Chapel, with its impressive figure of Christ, Stations of the Resurrection around the gardens, Saturday evening the lovely candlelit outdoor procession (this year I even managed to keep my candle alight!). The Sprinkling at the well was only onto our hands due to COVID restrictions.
On Saturday and Sunday there were services in the Shrine Church, the Procession of the Blessed Sacrament and the Last Visit to the Holy House.
On Saturday morning we walked or took the coach to the nearby Catholic Shrine and after lunch Lee, our driver, took some of us to Cromer where we looked around the Parish Church of St Peter and St Paul, browsed in a couple of shops, had coffee, and later an ice cream, before returning to Walsingham village.
As usual the busy weekend went all too quickly, but left us with lasting memories of this beautiful and peaceful Shrine.
Fete Day, 11 June
The weather for our fete day was fine but so windy my bookstall gazebo threatened to blow away and had to be taken down again; it was a case of “if it’s fairly light and not tied down it will be flying away in the next gust of wind”.
We had our usual selection of stalls including bottles, books, plants, crafts, jams and pickles, the ever popular cakes and tombola, and a large rtaffle.
There was a barbecue and teas and coffees were served.
A total of £1,709.07 was raised.
Parish Outing, 25th June
The Parish Outing this year was to a performance of the Passion Play, “The Life of Christ” at Wintershall. The weather was kind, and everyone much enjoyed it.
Janet Johnson
