Go online to help All Saints'
My weekend was fraught for a variety of reasons. The stress began building towards the end of last week and worked its way up to a crescendo at about 2.20pm on Sunday.
For that was about the time I stepped out of the angry wind of an untypical mid-June day and into the cool, quiet serenity of Lynn's All Saints' Church.
I'm not a deeply religious person. I am inquisitive by nature and, like many I suppose, have a wonder about the big mysteries which probably stops just short of faith. As a christened and confirmed former choirboy just putting that down in print and reading it back, there, in black and white, unsettles me.
I've never forgotten my mother's chastisement that bad deeds, even bad thoughts (and that would certainly include those that incriminate by being laid down in print) would be entered in "the big book" and be referred to again, each and every one of them, on judgement day. It was enough to make sure my mother never heard me swear (that, and the threat she would wash my mouth out with soapy water).
For a long time the image of a long, white-bearded God at the end of time turning all the many pages with my name at the top of them was enough to ensure I led a fairly innocent and blameless childhood.
Despite all I say there is something especially different about places of worship. It's not only that they are among the oldest and grandest of our historical buildings – stately homes and castles do not have the same effect.
It is the quiet inner coolness, but there is something more than simple air tinged with calm.
So I was not out of the wild world and into All Saints' for worship. I had gone only because it was hosting a concert I wished to hear. But at that moment, cloaked by the serenity, finding shelter from the Fen gale and bathed in a warm glow of sunshine pouring through stained glass there was no better place I wished to be.
It could just as easily have been St Margaret's or St Nicholas's, but it was All Saints', where I have attended for the past 14 years, and never once for worship. On this occasion beautiful music for a "summer's day" by the church's orchestra-in-residence, Anglia Concertante, only added to the magic.
I have written before about this little gem of a building and applaud the efforts of today's clergy and congregation to maintain it in fit repair to hand on to the next generation.
While there on Sunday I was handed a restoration appeal leaflet "How a mouse is helping to repair the roof". I recommend this Internet scheme
to you.
Raise funds for this deserving little church when you shop online, without it costing you a penny extra. easyfundraising.org.uk lists some of the top online stores – Amazon, Next, Debenhams, John Lewis. Toys R Us, HMV and more than 500 others.
When you shop online using the easyfundraising site you can generate a free donation for All Saints' of up to 15 per cent of the purchase price every time.
It's free to register and will not add a penny to your online shopping bill.
You could even save money as many retailers give discounts and special offers to easyfundraising.
Register for free at www.easyfundraising.org.uk/allsaintskingslynn and start helping a worthwhile local good cause.
And instead of Google try the search engine www.easysearch.org.uk and help out every time you surf the 'net.
You could also help All Saints' by visiting historic Clifton House in Lynn when its owners open it to the public from 11am to 4pm on Saturdays, July 19 and 26 and Sunday, September 14.
There are also fundraising concerts at the church on Sunday, July 6, 3pm, music for voice and organ by The King's School, Peterborough; Monday, July 14, 7pm, Purcell, Gabriele, Holst and Vaughan Williams, The King's School choir, orchestra and brass; Saturday, July 19, 11am, Lynn Festival Concert "Hosepipes, Hornes and Trumpets" by Crispian Steele-Perkins, and Sunday, September 28, 3pm, Anglia Concertante play Mozart, Weber, Albiononi and Haydn.
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Weather for King's Lynn
Saturday 11 February 2012
Today
Sunny
Temperature: -5 C to 0 C
Wind Speed: 5 mph
Wind direction: South east
Tomorrow
Cloudy
Temperature: 0 C to 4 C
Wind Speed: 10 mph
Wind direction: North west
