Dear Ringers,
I think I can safely say that we are well and truly back! A huge thank you
to e veryone w ho h as o rganised a n e vent r ecently a nd t o e veryone w ho
attended them – everyone who has been able to attend has said how
wonderful it is to be back ringing together again. It took a while at every
rally t o g et e veryone u sed t o r inging i n a large space a nd w atching the
conductor again (and I’m not quite sure everyone managed the latter!), but
as each day went on, the ringing and the sound improved – people were
even seen smiling while ringing!
In addition to the regional rallies, we have also had a very successful Guildford Cathedral Festival Service. The Cathedral staff were delighted to have us back (and told us this many times!) and approximately 80 ringers and a small congregation (made up mainly of fellow ringers and supporters) enjoyed a lovely service.
Unfortunately, alongside all this, comes the sadness of losing some of our much-loved members – Viv Sinden (Headcorn), Jeanne Turner (Cookham and an Honoured Member of the South East Region) and George Francis (Honorary Life Member of HRGB). It has been particularly poignant for me to be able to both ring and conduct George’s arrangement of ‘The Heavens are Telling’ at many of our recent events – a fitting tribute.
As well as ringing together, every event has provided time to socialise with each other – we should never take for granted the opportunities to chat over a cup of tea or coffee, or even just standing in the car park. Many of our future events come out of some of these conversations! Talking of future events – our diary is once again looking very healthy, but there is always space for more. So if you think you would like to host an event (or have an idea for running something new) – please do get in touch.
Events coming up in the Autumn include Ring Something Simple Again! - for those new to ringing, Together – a celebration of friendship and handbell ringing (originally planned for 2020!) and the audition day/1st rehearsal of the South East Region Bell Orchestra. Fliers for all these are included in this mailing. If you are an advanced ringer and are wanting more of a challenge, then there is also a flier for UK Bronze which takes place over 4 days at the end of October – hard work, tricky music, but always good fun – spaces are still available. If you are thinking – well that’s all very well, but what about Christmas? Then read on to find the article by Martin about our ‘Christmas Together’ challenge. It would be great to have as many teams taking part in this as possible. Please contact Martin to register your team’s interest. Following the successful trial of BACS payments for Guildford, we are now rolling this out to all future events. You can still pay by cheque, but
if, like me, your bank no longer provides a cheque book, events can now be paid for direct into the region’s bank account. We are also currently looking into getting a card payment machine, for use at events and on the Sales Table.
As I sit in my garden finishing this off, I wish you a safe summer and look
forward to seeing you at an event soon.
Yours, Helen HELENLSECKER@GMAIL.COM