Author: Jo Dawes

Your Becket News editor writes: We are already into June and it's time again to think of Becket News, as the next issue is due at the end of this month. What's planned for the next quarter? How are activities and groups progressing? Do you want to promote/share/just let people know what goes on?

PLEASE send your articles, event news, reports on activities and information by Saturday June 21 at the latest to becketnews [at] aol.com.

You can e-mail as early as you like, the earlier the better to organise the content and layout. Photos are great, and a few words to go with them even better. In any case, please let the editor know if you will be submitting anything so space can be planned.

Not in church to pick up your copy of European Anglican? You can read it online and download it from the Diocese in Europe website. The current issue features an interview with our new bishop, a focus on church music and lots of news and views from around the diocese.

Stuart Cooke has kindly planned the Church Wanderers' next outing to Ratzeburg this Saturday, 14 June.

Meet outside the Reisezentrum at Hamburg Hbf at 10.15 to catch the 10.27 R20 train towards Rostock. Get off at 10.58 in Büchen and change onto the R21 (direction Lübeck) dep.11.10. Arrival time in Ratzeburg 11.29. From the station, take a bus towards the city centre, alighting at Lüneburger Damm where there is a choice of a longer or shorter walk.

The longer route (10 kms) goes around the Großer Küchen See with a stop for a picnic lunch by the Fachauer Mühle and ends up at the cathedral, where there is a new café, the Bischof's Herberge, for K. u. K.

The shorter walk (with the possibility of a boat trip and/or a stroll through the city centre) follows a lakeside path and also ends up at the cathedral. Please bring a picnic lunch and be prepared for some light rain showers.

Important
The journey is part of the HVV network, so if you have a season ticket, please make a point of finding out whether your particular ticket is valid for the Gesamtbereich at weekends or not and whether you can take another person for free. Please let Cicely know by 6pm on Thursday 12 June if you plan to come, including what ticket you have, if any: cicely-hollingsworth (at) t-online.de, tel: 040/86 07 90, mobile: 0162 635 93 98.

STB needs items to sell at the Summer Flea Market at church on 16 August. We welcome donations of furnishings, household goods, games, porcelain, you name it. No fleas, please. Please bring things to church on Sunday or ring to arrange a time to drop them off.

Father Matthew is arranging a parish retreat at Ansverus Haus in Aumühle on 19-21 June on the theme of prayer. The cost per person is EUR 112. Please add your name to the list by the church door if you would like to attend or speak to Fr Matthew.

A first meeting on the planned Church Recording Project will be held in the church on Thursday 15 May, 2014 at 6pm – all welcome. In this joint project between BRIDFAS Hamburg and the Anglican Church of St Thomas Becket, groups will work together on different areas of the church, such as metalwork, stonework, textiles, paintings, windows, library, compiling and photography. We need as many hands as possible, including people who can offer some sort of expertise in these areas. Participants will be able to offer as little or as much work or help as they wish and the recorders will be a mix of those from within BRIDFAS and the church community, as well as anyone outside who wants to get involved. For further information, see the BRIDFAS website.

Don't forget it's the Hafengeburtstag this weekend, 9-11 May. The roads will be busy and parking near the church will be scarce. Maybe it's yet another Sunday when public transport would be better.

The Church Wanderers' walk for tomorrow, 10 May 2014, has been cancelled.

The next Bishop of Gibraltar in Europe will be the Reverend Canon Dr Robert Innes, currently Senior Chaplain and Chancellor of the Pro-Cathedral of Holy Trinity Brussels. For details see the Diocese in Europe website. You can find an interview with the new Bishop by Diocesan Communications Officer Paul Needle here.

Our very own St Thomas Becket Consort is singing choral evensong on Thursday, 8 May at 7pm. All the music is from the great Tudor period of English choral composition, with the introit by Tallis, the canticles by Gibbons and the anthem by Byrd. You can find more information on STB's Facebook page.