WINCHELSEA FILM NIGHT presents the 1998 comedy ‘Waking Ned’ on Saturday, May 24 at 6.30pm for a 7.30pm screening. Admission is free, refreshments will be served and there is a Pay Bar.
The film stars David Kelly, Ian Bannen and Fionnula Flanagan and is set in an small Irish village. Fun and intrigue are in store when best friends Jackie O’Shea and Michael O’Sullivan discover that an elderly man has won the lottery and died from shock. They soon devise a plan to benefit from his lotto ticket.
LIFE DRAWING class will be held in the New Hall this Saturday, May 24 at 11am to 1pm. The cost is £10 for the session and please ring 07923 494415 for details or come along on the day.
OPEN GARDENS annual event is next Saturday, May 31 in aid of St Michael’s Hospice and all are invited.Five Winchelsea Gardens will open between 10.30am and 4pm and these are: the Kent Close Communal Garden, King’s Leap, Cleveland Place and White Cottage in Friars Road, and South Mariteau. Tickets cost £7.50 and can be bought online or at the Court Hall where teas will also be served.
IPC ANNUAL PARISH MEETING this year will take place on Friday, May 30 at 7pm in Rye Harbour Village Hall with Icklesham Parish Councillors. The first speaker is East Sussex County Council Leader Cllr Keith Glazier who will give a presentation on the upcoming plans for Devolution and Local Government Reorganisation.
Also speaking is Phillip Merricks MBE and he will be discussing recent archaeological work in Icklesham. There will be the usual Community Awards for residents who have gone above and beyond and this will be followed by light refreshments. Local residents are invited to come and meet the councillors and hear what has been achieved this year.
ARCHAEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SOCIETIES jointly with the Conservation Society will meet at 2.15pm on Saturday, May 24 at the end of Mill Road by the Stables. All are welcome to join the walk which is called “Beating the Bounds around Petit Iham”.
The ancient tradition of Beating the Bounds is held five weeks after Easter in the week before Rogation Sunday which is an ancient church festival that asks God for his blessing and protection over the community.
Beating the Bounds is described as “a way of noticing local details and protecting open spaces and wildlife”. The walk will be looking in particular at the remains of the old village of Petit Iham which is a Cinque Port limb of Hastings. As some of the boundary stones around Petit Iham are eroded and not always vertical, the stones will not be beaten with willow sticks nor will the mayor be bounced on the stones as was the tradition in Hastings.
The walk will be of special interest to new residents of Winchelsea to learn about Iham Hill (New Winchelsea) before Old Winchelsea was washed away in a storm at the end of the 13th Century. Please arrive wearing sensible shoes and the email address is andrewscottb@aol.com for more details.
ABBA NIGHT is June 21 in the New Hall at 6.30pm for 7pm. The team that recently organised events that took you to Bollywood and Holyrood are back again and this time it’s the 1970s Swedish pop group. Tickets are £15 each now on sale by phoning 07958 251742 and proceeds will go towards saving the Little Shop.A delicious appetiser called Swedo-Greek Mezza will be served and you will need to bring your own bottle of drink.
ALGEBRA TO ADVENT may have been a hard choice for Anglican clergyman Lewis Hensley who was born on May 20, 1824 in Bloomsbury, London UK. He was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge and in 1846 he graduated as Senior Wrangler which is the highest achievement in mathematics and also was the first Smith’s Prizeman for maths research.
Similarly the mathematician and Bletchley Park codebreaker Alan Turing received these same top awards during his time at Cambridge from 1931-34.In the late 19th century when Hensley was at Cambridge mathematicians made important advancements in fields such as algebra, calculus and set theory logic including infinity or eternity. With this background Hensley could have worked in engineering, academia or insurance but instead he invested in the church as he hoped for the future reign of Jesus Christ.
From 1846 to 1852 he was an Assistant Tutor at Trinity College before taking Holy Orders in 1851. He served as curate in Buckinghamshire then vicar and rural dean in Hitchin, Hertfordshire for almost fifty years. In 1864 he published a number of hymns and in 1867 he wrote his popular Advent hymn which is printed in modern hymnals. Advent refers to the arrival of Jesus on earth as Immanuel meaning God with us, and Hensley’s hymn begins, “Thy Kingdom come, O God, thy rule, O Christ begin; break with thine iron rod the tyrannies of sin.
Where is thy reign of peace and purity and love? When shall all hatred cease, as in the realms above?” The Bible proclaims Jesus’s second coming when he will establish his millennial kingdom on earth. “When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory: And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats.” (Matthew 25:31-32) One facet of His coming kingdom is the rule by a rod of iron.
“And he shall rule them with a rod of iron; as the vessels of a potter shall they be broken to shivers: even as I received of my Father.” (Revelation 2:27) This indicates Jesus’s absolute authority, and the shattering of the pottery underlines the frailty of human rebellion and the certainty of divine judgement. The Bible is clear that man was not made to rule himself but to be ruled by his wise and Holy Creator and this will be fulfilled in Jesus Christ’s kingdom.
Hensley died unexpectantly while travelling in a train on the Great Eastern Railway on August 1, 1905. He died aged 81 of natural causes and was buried in Hitchin. Hensley’s well-known publications include Hymns for the Sundays after Trinity (1864) and Hymns for the Minor Sundays from Advent to Whitsuntide (1867).
WINCHELSEA BEACH Fellowship Lunch takes place on Friday, May 30 in Winchelsea Beach Community Hall at 12.30pm for 1pm. The lunch consists of a selection of homemade dishes and often there is a speaker. There is no charge for the lunch but donations are welcomed and all proceeds after expenses are given to local charities. Please phone 07927 107678 to book your place.