Socratic irony, according to Kierkegaard, is essential for human fulfilment

After a glorious April and a good start to May in comes June. Wet, Windy and Wearisome.

But on June 22nd. The longest day plus one there is a great event planned at St Andrew's, the first parish church now in the care of The Churches Conservation Trust.

We are calling it a Son et Lumiere.

The very name itself is an act of faith.

Plus we applied for a grant from the wind farm fund which was turned down because the building is 'inaccessible'. A slight erring from the facts of the matter. Yes it is across a bridge. Over a field and up a Hill.

But inaccessible? No!

Not at all. So far there have been two events this year, a walk up to the Church on Good Friday and a Dawn Vigil on Easter Sunday. Both events supported by over forty people, so 'inaccessible'? No!

It will be great event.

There will be music especially composed by a local musician, the Church band from the current parish church, there will be drama as people imagined from the past history of the church and memorialised either on its walls or in the fabulous Mausoleum in the church grounds.

So Christopher Hunter will continue his discussion with Humfrey Hopper and the ladies will try to ensure that common sense prevails.

There will be music, singing, and poetry:

The Hare, sacred and mystic Lepus

Benign, cunning, romantic
Famously, in courtship rituals, mad
Brought here like baths and roads and ground elder
By Romans, for food. Hares as symbols of lust, fecundity
Abundance. Eating Hare increased attractiveness
Cured sterility, bred strong babies, so said Pliny the Elder

Largely silent, night feeder, seen by day
Two, three, four, five Hares in a field
Adrift in green oceans of wind blown corn
In summer, as the last light fades from the day 
Shadowy, existential, mysteriously mythological
The Hare, sacred and mystic Lepuswhose still warm ‘form’ 
Is telling of a just gone presence, here and not

Ancient warrior Queen consulting entrails of Hare
Auguring victory against the Romans, AD61 
Hares had established themselves quickly
Been taken to heart, enfolded in Gospel stories
Three running hares formed into a circle 

Separated by trefoil vegetation, ears joined at the tips
A triangle suggesting the indivisibility of the Trinity 
Hermaphrodite Hares suggesting Mary Queen of Heaven 
Her miraculous birthing of Christ, without loss of virginity. 

Creatures of myth and magic circling this ancient Church casting spells and prayers
To a God whose presence is also felt in dim light, as here and not

 There will be images projected onto the walls, beautiful illustrations of the church taken from the year around with showing the changes in weather and atmosphere, highlighting the spirituality of this remarkable and special place high on its windswept hill above the fields of blue Linseed.

In fact the only spoiling that can be seen from miles around are the pylons of the wind turbines as they rise and turn and generate power sadly not only do they not power the Church but ironically for our 'inaccessible' event to take place we have to hire a generator!

Barnacle Geese touch
Down on the water
Beneath the skyline 
In a hidden valley 
Walking beneath Grey Mare Hill
Below St Andrew’s Church
Under the Mausoleum 
Shapes edged against winter skies
In the changes life has forced
Upon me, burying my dead
In soft earth, finding new
Ways of living life courageously
I sense the presence of angel’s
Wings beating above as I walk
Air trembling as spirits do, and
Rising over all, the silent presence
Of a Red Kite’s ethereal majesty
Resting gloriously on rising thermals
As it soars and falls in constant flight
Reassuring me that despite risks
Despite dangers, despite loss, life 
Needs to be lived, risks need to be taken
Each day dawns with new challenges 
Each night falls with a promise of rest
The ironies of the  modern world.

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