Celebration

Swanvale Halt church has made it to the age of 175. Back in 1849 (or some time before) the curate at Hornington, Mr Bellman, took up a hint that had been made a few years earlier that the railway might well bring a station to the scattered hamlets that existed north of the town and thus many new residents, and began raising the money to build a church. And here we still are, though how far we have, as Mr Bellman hoped, 'counteracted the notorious and manifold evils' of the churchless settlement, I am not sure.

There have been some newcomers to the church lately, so on Saturday last I invited them to the Rectory for tea, and the evening afterwards, the closest Sunday to the date of the church's consecration, we had a celebratory Evensong. An augmented choir was assembled (Il Rettore joined it), a visiting organist was procured, and a particularly challenging set of settings for the Mag and Nunc was rehearsed. 'We haven't quite managed to make a mess of it yet', Robert the choir director told me in the week; 'Good', I replied, 'that's what I'll tell everyone at the start'. Friends from neighbouring churches came, wine was drunk, and I think we even managed to give proper thanks to the Lord for all that has gone before us. And then I managed to go on leave for a week!