St.Mary The Virgin Ewell Parish Church

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Ewell Giving And Yule Receiving
(Thoughts on the Gift Day and the unday round of services ? the Gift Day on 24 November and the ?Christmas Cracker? Party on 8 December.

For many years, part of St Mary?s outward giving has been a Christmas (or in 2006 a Michaelmas) Market where proceeds go to four different charities each year. This year we have had instead a Gift Day where the prime object was for monetary gifts to be brought to the Vicar in the church on a Saturday. Those chiefly concerned with arranging this approached the task with some trepidation but in the event, the day was a success.

It took place entirely in the body of the church. The gift-bearers were greeted by a warm, well-lit building with balloons and secular ?mood music?. Immediately inside were tempting stalls selling cakes, honey from hives in the churchyard and ?bring and buy? gifts, as well as a raffle for a home-made Christmas cake. The centre aisle contained information boards about the four chosen charities ? the YMCA, the Royal National Lifeboat Institution, John Grooms (working with disabled people in the UK) and the Brooke (dealing with the welfare of working animals overseas). At the crossing, there was an attractive display of raffle prizes and a caf?, with orange tablecloths and balloons ? serving light refreshments; this proved a popular meeting place.

All these were preliminaries to the central object ? the Vicar sitting in the chancel receiving gift envelopes. The specific events concluded at 1 o?clock but the Vicar stayed in the church until 2.30 pm to catch latecomers. The result of the Day was that ?1418 was raised, which means that each of the charities will receive ?355. This is broadly the same as raised at recent Markets ? a satisfactory result for a new venture. About two-thirds of the total came from the gifts themselves and about one third from the stalls and raffles. The gifts ranged widely in amount, and were presented at the 9.30 offertory on the Sunday. The External Affairs Committee, which deals with charitable events, would be glad to have any comments on the Gift Day; subject to these, it seems likely that the event will be repeated next year with the aim of increasing the number (and if possible, the amount) of gifts!

Two weeks later, it was the turn of the Church Hall to be decorated, this time in Christmas style, for the ?Christmas Cracker? Party (organised by the Social Committee under their Chairman, Rosemarie Henson). It was striking how well the decorations complemented the new colour scheme in the Hall. The assembled company, in paper hats from the crackers, sat down to a French-style menu, with a smoked salmon and prawn starter, and a main course of ?Saucisses sauvages au vin rouge, servis avec les pommes duchesses et des l?gumes vari?s?, which was a delicious up-market version of sausage and mash!

As is now customary at these events, the courses were interspersed with musical and other diversions ? the first being communal carol singing vigorously conducted by Jonathan Holmes, our Director of Music. The second was a hilarious rendition of ?The Twelve Days of Christmas? in which the hapless lady recipient of the increasingly onerous daily gifts moved gradually from pleasure at her admirer?s generosity to concern, exasperation, and eventually despair and fury at the effect which assorted animals and noisy groups of performers had on her domestic and family life. We were grateful to both the Churchwarden, David Crick and his wife, Mel, for the singing and to Gilda Everson for her ?tour de force? as the increasingly put-upon lover.

As our laughter subsided, we settled down to a wide choice of desserts where the French language failed to disguise a basically English selection of creamy delights and rich seasonal puddings. Coffee or tea were accompanied by ?les chocolats apr?s huit heures?, which assault on the French language readers can work out for themselves as a famous English sweetmeat. This part of the evening was enhanced by a quiz devised by our comp?re, David Dance. We had to unscramble hidden Ewell places and streets, realise that some famous people were born or died on Christmas Day and answer complex questions. We also had to identify various bearded gentlemen of past and present (referred to as ?Father Christmas impersonators?); the catch here was that cheek by jowl (if the expression may be forgiven here) with such as Karl Marx, Brahms and Charles Darwin was our very own Ian Burgess!

It will be apparent that a good time was had by all. We were very grateful to the planners, cooks servers, washers-up and performers who made it possible. It was indeed, as the Irish would say a cracker of an evening.

N.M.H.