MONTHLY UPDATE FROM SIMON

June 2025

Dear Friends

When, some years ago, I first became the vicar of a parish that had several large churchyards, I remember the rural dean looking at me with pity and asking me whether I was up to the challenge of looking after them.  Then, in my naivety, I didn’t really understand his concern.  Now, many years later I certainly do.

Churchyards are a big responsibility.  They require special care.  Their sanctity must be upheld.  The memory of those buried in them must be respected.  Their grass must be mown.  Their walls must be repaired.  Their gravestones must be kept safe.  Trees and hedges must be trimmed.  A lot of time and money goes into their maintenance.

Sometimes, sadly, they are places of conflict.  Regulations govern many aspects of their care, particularly in relation to the kinds of memorials that are permitted within them, and clergy have a legal duty to uphold them.  But this not always understood, and grieving relatives understandably become angry when they feel that their pastoral needs are being overridden.

But in many cases they are places of sanctuary and havens for wildlife.  They have often remained secluded (and free from pesticides) for many centuries.  Lichen and moss cover their monuments and gravestones.  They are homes for countless small animals – sloe-worms, hedgehogs, field mice.  Birds roost in their trees.  Bats and owls frequent them at night.

In this benefice we have four churchyards still in use, at Harting, Elsted, Didling – and at Treyford.  Many of you visit them regularly to tend the graves of your loved ones.  Their capacity for burials, except at Treyford, is now severely limited, but they are still available for the interment of ashes.  As you walk through them it is not hard to feel the companionship of those whose mortal remains they contain.

I am enormously grateful to those of you who care for them and maintain them so beautifully.  Harting, in particular, depends upon a devoted team of volunteers who take extra care to make it look lovely for weddings and special occasions.  Thank you, all of you, for the trouble you take.  Your mowers and strimmers are certainly kept busy, but your work is much appreciated.

I’d like to encourage all of you to take an interest in our churchyards and to enjoy their tranquillity during these summer months.  In particular you might like to take part in an initiative called Churches Count of Nature, which runs from Saturday 7th June to Sunday 15th June.  Its aim is to record the wildlife which is to be found in burial places all over the country (please see the details below).  I suspect we’d be surprised by the rich variety of flora and fauna that our own churchyards contain.

With my prayers and best wishes

Simon

Love your Burial Ground Week & Churches Count on Nature

Love your Burial Ground Week (Saturday 7th June to Sunday 15th June 2025) is a celebratory week which has been running for many years. Caring for God’s Acre has been encouraging all who help to look after churchyards, chapel yards and cemeteries to celebrate these fantastic places in the lovely month of June – in any way you choose.

Churches Count on Nature 2025 runs at the same time as Love Your Burial Ground Week, and focuses on the brilliant wildlife to be found in churchyards and chapel yards. It is a joint initiative promoted by Caring for God’s Acre, the Church of England, the Church in Wales and A Rocha UK.

Full details can be found on the website of Caring for God’s Acre.

Churchyard Regulations

If you would like to see the regulations that govern and protect churchyards here in Sussex, you can find them on the Diocese of Chichester website.

Pentecost

Sunday 8th June is the Feast of Pentecost, or Whitsunday.  It’s a time to thank God for the life-giving power of the Holy Spirit and to pray for our own renewal and healing.  Here is a sonnet for Pentecost written by the priest and poet Malcolm Guite:

Today we feel the wind beneath our wings
Today  the hidden fountain flows and plays
Today the church draws breath at last and sings
As every flame becomes a Tongue of praise.
This is the feast of fire, air, and water
Poured out and breathed and kindled into earth.
The earth herself awakens to her maker
And is translated out of death to birth.
The right words come today in their right order
And every word spells freedom and release
Today the gospel crosses every border
All tongues are loosened by the Prince of Peace
Today the lost are found in His translation.
Whose mother-tongue is Love, in  every nation. 

Bible Reading Resources

If you would like encouragement in reading the Bible, the Bible Reading Fellowship (BRF) produces excellent daily notes.  The most widely used is called New Daylight, each issue of which provides four months of daily readings and comment, with a team of regular contributors drawn from a range of church backgrounds. 

If you would like to read a wise and balanced introduction to the Bible, I can recommend a book called ‘How to Eat Bread’ by Miranda Threlfall-Holmes, who is the Archdeacon of Liverpool.  Its three sections explore the different ways in which the Bible has been read and interpreted down the ages.  Perhaps a few of us could form a group to read and discuss the book together in a relaxed way.

Confirmation/First Communion

If any of you, adults or teenagers, would like to be prepared for Confirmation at some point this year, please do contact me.  Alternatively, you may have children (Key Stage Two and upwards) who are too young to be confirmed, but who would like to receive Communion.  If so, they can be prepared accordingly.  God’s table is open to all!