From the Visitors Book,

Leake St Mary August 17th William Roberts, Bulawayo, Zimbabwe Visited for the stained glass window in memory of great grandfather.
August 18th Wood family reunion - Yorkshire, Bromley and America.

From the Registers

Baptism
August 12th. St.Mary, Leake. Arthur Hugh Bell, infant son of Tom and Penny, Wood House, Landmoth.

(Note that the long run of a baptism every Sunday, all through July, has at last been broken! The grandchildren of your editor were baptised, too, in Southwark diocese, London, on August 5th!) 

Funerals

Friday 3rd August. St Wilfrid, Kirby Knowle. Peter Deuchar, 80. Be-loved husband of Irma. Peter's parents had the Post Office in Upsall, and he and Irma were married at Kirby Knowle. Cremation at York, after church service.

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven: ...... a time to break down and a time to build up. Ecclesiastes 3.

While this commentator may highlight the vanity of this world, and the folly of empty activity, he is aware of the presence of God and the need to trust in the living. Strange wisdom, it may seem, but if there is a season and a place and a right time we need to cultivate patience. A time to break down and build up seems to hint at dry stone walling, building barns and general maintenance of property. In the aftermath of FMD perhaps we should not be too hasty, but practice patience and take stock of what the future might hold and where farming needs to go ..........

 Set-aside never had the right image as fallowed land. Somehow it seemed abandoned, and, ironically, when the system decreed it should be ploughed or maintained it seemed at its fullest of nests and wild life. It was a good case of bureaucracy being out of touch with reality. Now it seems that, what the Pharisees were to the practice of religion and faith in Christ's time, so is DEFRA to farming now. Bureaucracy, red tape, books of rules and regulations blind to common sense and sane practice are no help to farming after FMD. Because Christ's teaching touched the chords of common sense he appeared to teach with authority. His message may have been different and challenging but it was palatable. Recently even the vets out in the field have been at loggerheads, or at their wits end, with decisions made in the confines of an office some 80 miles away maybe. "It's all bloody political" is their frustrated response. Practical and pragmatic activities like veterinary care and farming need to have the space to make their own decisions and get on with it, otherwise over-regulation makes the doing of jobs that need to be done impossible.

Apparently the eagerness to restock and continue after infection, culling and cleansing has already proved equally disastrous for some. They have been re-infected, which suggests the fortune spent on cleansing is not worthwhile. Surely, patience, fallowing the land and the farm for up to a year, is the answer. During that time nature can do some of the necessary cleansing with heat and frost, so giving the farmer a chance to clean the troughs, maintain the walls and build what is needed. During that fallow time a way forward, and its costs, may become more apparent. Maybe we should look afresh at the biblical concept of sabbatical and rest to find a fresh direction.

Few farmers would agree that FMD has been handled well. Indeed, the experience and advice from the 60s has been totally ignored. What is clear is that farming is over-regulated and needs to change. Farming is a pragmatic occupation and does not function well if confined to form-filling. Lord Haskins may applaud the French way while on holiday, but all too often such initiatives over here are stifled by Health & Safety and other E.C.rules. Locally, in Tesco for instance, you can find local cheese and sausages. Niche markets will always exist. However, the system needs loosening up, and common sense needs to reign. Open up more local abbatoirs so that we can buy and eat local meat properly hung, and cut out the army of vets that fall over each other while trying to inspect every move that the butcher makes. When I worked in the hotel trade I used to laugh at the Rabbi inspecting everything to be Kosher for a banquet (having made sure your pot or knife was clean, or your sauce fresh, he licked a label and stuck it on). I suppose it could get no worse than if you caught only what the Rabbi had!

 Farming should not become the kitchen garden or the house cow of the supermarkets. As we approach the Harvest Festival season we should consider again that we are celebrating our stewardship of God's creation and His providence. Let us move more in tune with that, and at nature's pace. We should not have to import so much food - but we might consider how many communities, apart from the West, spend much of their combined effort in producing and gathering their food. We are in danger of losing our roots, our rythym and the natural pace of life along with the enjoyment and ability to cook our own food. Television has many cooking programmes, but the best must be to sit down with one's own friends and enjoy a good meal ...... that IS celebration! And so much else in the countryside depends on the good health of farming.

(And, from BBC1 Ceefax, August 18th: "Dr Neil Ferguson, of Imperial College, London, said on Radio 4 that the failure to maintain movement restrictions and bio-security measures has allowed FMD to drag on and on ............. and into the winter of 2001/02? Ed.) Best wishes. TH

 

FARMER'S FUND  

The exhibition held at West End Farm on August 1st and 2nd raised £837 for the Parishes' Farmers Fund. £500 has been added to this fund from a trust in Harrogate following an article, about the Hillside farms struck by FMD, in the Yorkshire Post.
Any farmer or farm worker with special circumstances in need of help can apply to T.H.
One farmer, when asked if he was OK, said: "Thank you, but when I can't afford a beer I'll come running"!

FARMERS, FARMERS, FARMERS , FARMERS - late notice! I understand that those of you who have had stock culled are entitled to five days free advice, which you can upgrade. I have spoken to the Y.A.S., who would prefer to sponsor smaller local/parish initiatives. Can I help in some way? I would propose a day when we meet at Leake Vicarage, or in a village hall (perhaps with one of Janet's lunches!!). I am open to suggestions of topics, or speakers, and a date. The possible fruit of such meetings would be closer co-operation, a consideration of the future direction of farming and local response, pooling of resources and any feedback for a future enquiry whether publicly or privately initiated. Toddy (01845 537277).

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The Hillside Music in Worship Group
Rehearsals: Friday 21st September, 7.30 p.m. at Cowesby Church.
Friday 28th September, 7.30 p.m. at Cowesby Church.
Engagement: Sunday 30th September, 10.30 a.m. Cowesby Church -
Joint Hillside Parish Harvest Thanksgiving and
Communion Service.
New members always welcome - do please come and join us!
David Frith (537008)

 

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For our younger readers

With the coming of the autumn, the start of a new school year, here are some thoughts from those "wiser than I":
Professor Sir Antony Hoare, FRS, writing in a school magazine -
"If there is any lesson for younger readers to be derived from the story of my ca-reer, it is this: do not follow in my footsteps or in the footsteps of anybody else. Make a path of your own choosing in the directions which interest you most at the time. If you feel most comfortable with the established curriculum or the conventional career, I wish you the best of success in it. But if your interests lead you in unusual directions, do not be afraid to stray from the general norm. Do not be afraid of change, no matter how dramatic the contrast; if you think hard how to generalise your learning and experiences, you will profit from them in the most unexpected ways. Everyone in this wide world has a different background and different interests and a different personality. It is this unbounded variety that we need to foster and develop, to ensure the continued progress of our knowledge, the continuous renewal of our various cultures and the ultimate pros-perity and happiness of our human race."

Michael Atherton, cricketer, on 13th August -
"When you start your Test career you come in and the opposition can find you out a bit. You just have to go back and work hard at your game and try and put those technical faults or frailties right."

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Women of faith: Some familiar, many obscure

My curiosity was aroused by the title of an anthology, recently published by Paula Clifford. The title was "Women Doing Excellently". I realised this was a quotation, but I could not place it in scripture without the help of a concordance. I hope you can do better than I did - the reference is given below! Paula Clifford's theme is illustrated from across continents and centuries.
There are short, vivid accounts of internationally-known lives, and of others less in the public eye, which will surprise and delight - possibly you and I have met some whose lives of love and witness were very like those mentioned. In other words, this is not an elitist group that we meet, but a representative family of faith drawn from many centuries and continents and situations.

We meet some women encountering national crises, some suddenly seeing a dull despondent landscape transformed by the love of God - which transformed them too! They are not all triumphant winners, certainly not initially, and many meet self-doubt as well as opposition. "Have I really seen a new vision, or have I got things out of proportion and should keep quiet?"

Our earliest records in Old Testament scripture go back in time well before there was an agreed canon of scripture for the Hebrew peoples. From the desert of Abraham's journeyings come the voices of Sarah and Rebekah, and the land of Canaan preserved the names of warrior leaders coping in the ir situations, and the music of the tribal Exodus from Egypt brings forward my namesake. None of these were saints in the sense that is associated with that word now, but they could still be leaders and deliverers of those people, set on a path with centuries of love and suffering ahead ......................
And the Bible reference? Proverbs 31:29, to an unknown.
Next month: in 14th Century Europe. MIRIAM HANSON