MONTHLY UPDATE FROM SIMON

November 2026

Dear Friends

During the summer Fiona and I visited Oswestry in Shropshire, where there’s a memorial to Wilfred Owen, the poet.  He was born in 1883, just up the lane from the farm where my grandmother spent her own childhood a few years earlier.  He is generally regarded as the greatest poet of the First World War, and Oswestry remembers him with pride, even though his family moved away when he was still young.

As a young man he had a devout evangelical faith and spent some time as a lay assistant in a parish outside Reading.  He was considering ordination.  But he became repelled by what he saw as the hypocrisy of the Church and abandoned the practice of his faith just before the outbreak of war.

He enlisted in the Artists’ Rifles in 1915, and after basic training in Essex was duly dispatched to France.  A year later he was sent home suffering from shell shock and convalesced at Craiglockhart Hospital in Edinburgh, alongside fellow-poet Siegried Sassoon.  He was well enough to return to the Front in July 1918.

The circumstances of his death were particularly poignant.  He was killed in action on 4th November, a week before the signing of the Armistice, and the telegram announcing his death was received by his mother on Armistice Day itself.  The church bells were ringing to celebrate peace.  His poetry was still almost unknown outside a small circle of his friends, but a collection was published by Edith Sitwell in 1920, and his fame rapidly spread.

Owen’s poems are often read on Remembrance Sunday, and they dispel any illusions we may have about war.  He saw his vocation as being not to glorify it, but to expose its heart-breaking suffering, loss and horror.  He gave expression to the feelings of his fellow soldiers, and he famously wrote, ‘My subject is War, and the pity of War.  The Poetry is in the pity.’ 

I know that many of you will wish to join us at the Parish Church on Sunday 8th November for our Ecumenical Remembrance Sunday Service, starting at 10.30am.  As usual, we will try to observe the Two Minutes’ Silence as near to 11am as possible, and will then process out to the War Memorial, where the fallen dead from both Harting and Elsted parishes will be commemorated.

At a time when war is again such a terrible reality in Europe, it is even more important that we recognise its savage cost and guard ourselves against it.  And it remains our duty to remember with gratitude the many young men who, in the two world wars and later campaigns, left the peace of these villages and laid down their lives in the service of King and Country.

With my prayers and best wishes

Simon

Pop Up Church

During the week beginning Monday 9th November, Harting School will be involved in a wonderful initiative led by a Church of England organisation called Pop Up Church.  It will involve daily singing workshops at which all the children will learn seven fun action songs.  On Thursday 12th November they will then come to church for a celebration service at which the songs will be sung.  The service will start at 4pm and everyone is warmly invited.  It would be lovely to see you there to support and encourage the children.

Christmas Tree Festival

This year Harting’s Christmas Tree Festival will be at the Parish Church.  The trees will be decorated by local organisations and businesses and will be on display from Thursday 4th December until the evening of Monday 7th December.  On Saturday 5th light refreshments will be available in the Law Room, and on Sunday 6th services will be held as usual among the trees.  We shall be inviting donations, all of which will be given to the Rosemary Foundation.

Safeguarding Sunday

Safeguarding Sunday this year falls on Sunday 15th November.   The theme is Love Protects, and the aim is to help churches explore safeguarding as an expression of care, protection and love.  It’s a reminder to us all to play our part in ensuring that our churches are places of safety for everyone.

Sunday 29th Sunday

Please note the pattern of services on 29th November.  Our main morning service will be at Didling at 10am, celebrating its Patronal Festival (St Andrew’s Day).  In the afternoon, we shall mark the start of Advent with our traditional Candlelit Service at Harting, led by the choir, at 4pm.

Faith Seeking Understanding

We shall meet for an hour’s open discussion at 6pm on Wednesday 18th November.

A read-through of St Mark’s Gospel

Over the course of the next year, starting on Advent Sunday, most of our Sunday Gospel readings will be from St Mark’s Gospel (Year B in our three-year cycle).  Do come to the Law Room on Saturday 28th November for a read through of the entire Gospel.  We shall begin promptly at 10am and will be finished by midday.