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It's Ash Wednesday on 5 March. There will be two services of Holy Communion and Imposition of Ashes: at 10.30am and 7pm.

If you've signed up for the Lenten study course, don't forget that the first session is on Wednesday, 12 March at 7pm in Fr Matthew's flat. The group will be looking at the film “Chocolat” and using the study guide “Christ and the Chocolaterie”. Please speak to Fr Matthew if you haven't put your name down but would still like to attend.

Lent Appeal
We will be collecting during Lent for the Bishop's Lent Appeal. This year's appeal is in partnership with Christian Aid for money to support the education and empowerment of over 1,000 women in Afghanistan. Read more on the Diocese in Europe website.

Servicegoers yesterday (23 Feb) got a sneak preview of Rachel Harris's coming concert when she provided solo violin meditations during the parish eucharist. She will be playing works by J.S.Bach, Telemann and Pisendel in a programme entitled “à Violino Solo” on Saturday 1 March at 7.30pm in the Anglican Church of St Thomas Becket – admission free. We're in for a treat!

Would like to join the parish choir to sing The Crucifixion by John Stainer on 10 April? If so, our choir director, Yotin Tiewtrakul would like to hear from you. You can find details of the project, rehearsals, and how to reach Yotin here.

The General Synod of the Church of England has voted to pave the way for the legislative process to enable women to become bishops to be completed this year. The legislation now goes to the dioceses for approval. An audio interview about the latest approval of legislation with the Bishop of Rochester, James Langstaff, who chairs the steering committee on the issue, is available here.

The 50th Ecumenical St Ansgar Vespers take place on Monday, 3 February at 7pm in the Hauptkirche St. Petri. Organised by the ACKH (Arbeitsgemeinschaft Christlicher Kirchen Hamburg), of which STB is a member, the service honours Ansgar, the first Bishop of Hamburg, and gives thanks for the bringing of the Gospel to this city. Further details on the ACKH website.

The Church Wanderers will be going once round the Außenalster on Saturday, 8 February, a short walk (7km) so as to be back in time for the Altobasso concert in the evening. Meet at Dammtor station by the exit facing the bus stops at 11 am and bring a packed lunch, though a visit to Bobby Reich for a bowl of soup may be tempting as well.

Please let Cicely know by midday on Friday, 7 February if you are planning to come: cicely-hollingsworth (at) t-online.de, tel: 040/86 07 90, mobile:0172 635 93 98.

BRIDFAS (The British Decorative and Fine Arts Society of Hamburg e.V.) welcomes guests to a lecture by Jon Cannon on English medieval cathedrals on Thursday, 20 February.

Entitled “A Thousand Years of History: Medieval Cathedrals”, the lecture uses the English cathedrals as “time machines” to the medieval period, tracing their story from the revolutionary birth of English Christianity in about 600AD, through the great rebuilding that followed the Conquest of 1066, to the decades around a century later when gothic was invented in an atmosphere of febrile change and political tension. See full details on the BRIDFAS website.

Venue is the DESY Hörsaal (Notkestrasse 85, 22607 Hamburg). Doors open at 7.30pm and the lecture begins at 8pm. Guests pay an entrance fee of €12 (students €5).

BRIDFAS is planning to start a Church Record for our church. This will be a joint project with volunteers from within the church community and members of BRIDFAS. If you're interested in getting involved, you can find out more by clicking on the logo on the right of the page or following this link.

With barely six months to go till the Commonwealth Games open in Glasgow, Pause for Thought focuses on running to win. Click on “Pause for Thought” on the left of the page or follow this link.

Traditionally the poetry of the 'Song of Songs' has been interpreted as expressions of the relationship between Israel and God or the soul and God. But why not discover it again as erotic poems similar to the Arcadian poetry of the Greco-Roman world? Ensemble Altobasso (Ralf Grobe – Bass, Elisabeth Schwanda – Recorder, Katrin Krauß – Recorder, Barbara Hofmann – Viol and Isolde Kittel-Zerer – Harpsichord) will be doing just that on Saturday, 8th February 2014 at 7pm in the church, performing music by Monteverdi, Buxtehude, Bach and others, including the premiere of a composition by Hans-Dieter Renken. Admission costs €18 (concessions €15).

Issue 57 of Becket News is out now. Click on the link to catch up with the latest news, reports and previews.

Becket News needs roving reporters
Your Becket News editor does a fantastic job of putting together each edition, finding photos and laying out the text. However, an editor's job is to edit, not write all the original material! There are many exciting things going on at STB of interest to BN readers, many of whom are not resident in Hamburg or can’t come to church as much as they would like. But readers can only find out what is going on if someone writes about it. This is an appeal to anyone who is responsible for an activity or feels they have something interesting to say to provide short articles for BN. A good tip is to do this immediately the event has taken place and not wait until the copy deadline – it really does help to reduce the workload of the editor and make the job more fun if he doesn’t have to keep chasing people at the last minute.

And while we're on the subject, your webmaster also would like to issue a plea to remember to send announcements of events for her to include on the website. The ideal is a short text with essential details and, if required, further information provided either as a PDF or link. Many people coming to STB for the first time say they are encouraged to do so by the ‘up-to-date’ website: the website is often the very first contact someone has with our church community, and it includes the latest edition of BN. But like the editor of BN, the webmaster’s role is to disseminate information, not to be the producer of it all.