The Chapel

Those who expect "the Church" to retain what is beautiful and old (in fabric, language or liturgy) and who wish to lean on the Church as a refuge for their nostalgia will have had a thin and disappointing year in our Chapel. I make no apologies for this. My aim (not always successful) throughout the year has been to make the daily and special services as varied and as relevant as possible. If we use archaic and obsolete forms of worship and of language, then religion is seen as archaic and obsolete. Christianity is neither.

Some of the special services this year (starting with an Advent Carol Service) have been voluntary and proved very successful as regards numbers and atmosphere. This, I am sure, is a step in the right direction.

The final service of the year was the Commemoration Service. The "Te Deum" was moved to a more suitable place earlier in the service, but was still not sung well. The Provost of Blackburn gave a tremendous sermon with the theme of "semper fidelis" (always faithful) and it was good to hear the place roll with laughter.

My thanks to all who have given help and constructive criticism. A special "thank you" to the chaplain of St. Olave's, Arthur Ellery, now "translated" to be vicar of Great Ayton. We wish him well and look forward to welcoming his successor, the Revd. Raymond Hargreaves. J.M.R.

CHAPEL DECORATING

It has been a year of changes, beginning perhaps last year with the installation of John Brown's blue hanging cross and the final demise, therefore, of the brass altar cross and the brass altar vases. Without a cross on the altar vases don't look quite right, do they? Generations of us have battled with those infuriating narrow necks! Yet now they've gone we think nostalgically how bright they shone when newly cleaned, and we sneak them back on festivals!

We miss Maisie. She cleaned the chapel and she loved the flowers. So it was a stroke of inspiration as well as generosity when Ronnie offered to give new vases in her memory. He found us four cream, urn-shaped vases which are excellent for plants as well as for flower arrangements. Thank you, Ronnie, very much.

Following this we decided it was time we also had some more stable flower stands, to replace the two originally made in T.A. classes and now a mite wobbly and rusty! We are grateful to Mr. and Mrs. Bough for their expert help in choosing new ones, light but firm, and adjustable for height. These are the Chapel's own gift in memory of Maisie.

Our next thanks are due to John Hall and the gardeners who tend the greenhouses. An emergency shortage of flowers one weekend led to an offer of a pot plant or two. What began as a stop-gap proved so attractive that it has rapidly become a staple part of the decorations. Indeed, the chapel would sometimes have been very bare this last twelve months without them!

But how many people would mind much if it were bare? I wonder. So many say they admire the flowers but we have reached an all-time low in helpers and contributors! A few — a very few — faithful, loyal `old hands' and one or two most welcome new ones. If YOU enjoy the 22