Winter 1997             Issue 68

Sandford Christmas Party December 20th - see p.3

CHURCH NEWS

to St Andrew's Church at 6.30 p.m. on Sunday December 21st for the CHRISTMAS SERVICE OF CAROLS AND READINGS

CHILDREN'S CAROL SERVICE     11.30 A.M. ON SUNDAY 21ST DECEMBER

Youth Club

SPORTING CONGRATULATIONS

WELCOME TO THE WORLD

WELCOME

Police news

Chris and Dave are now both back covering the Littlemore and Sandford areas, so hopefully you will be seeing a bit more of them in the future.

There have been no major problems in the area other than a spate of thefts from shed and garages. Unusually these have been happening during the day as well as at night. They advise people to ensure that their garages and sheds are secure, and suggest that high value items should not be stored in them.

If you do have any problems you would like to discuss with Chris or Dave they are more than happy to be approached in the street, or you can contact them by phoning 266411.

Activities in the past year have included camping, map creation with the Ordnance Survey team, and trips to a fire station and swimming pool. Some boys have appeared in the Oxford Gang Show, including my youngest son. Cubs are told about the Scouting movement in a relaxed but informative way, and the emphasis is on fun and thinking of others.

If you want to know more, either contact the Cub Scout Leader, Dave Shaw, on Oxford 452809, or myself on Oxford 454629. Younger children from age 6 may be interested in becoming Beaver Scouts, and girls are also welcome, not just boy scouts!

Rest in peace

The Porch

By Law established?

Others realize life is less black and white. Having a large fringe membership of people who think of themselves as Christians but only seldom go to church is not stupid because by its nature the church is inclusive, not exclusive. God is God of the world, not of a sect - so Christians have a responsibility to serve a world that does not share its faith, hope, and love. That has its cost, but is also a privilege. Most clergy for example spend more time trying to help non-members than paid up ones - obviously, because there are more of them and all are all equally loved by God, whether they believe it or not.

Another example is finance. The medieval church was rich. The state confiscated (or stole) most of its assets but allowed some to remain, partly controlled by parliament, to pay established church clergy and pay some of them very well. As the real value of that declined to about a fiftieth in real terms the church members contributed - and are now paying nearly all the salary bill - to field clergy, youth workers etc. to serve the wider community. In Wales in 1920 the Anglican church was disestablished and what inherited money remained was redirected to pay for its universities (a good thing).

Another example is church buildings and churchyards - maintained mostly by a few for the sake of the whole village - anyone can be buried in them (where there is still space) and most of the departed are not paying (i.e. contributing) members. The fees are low and cover a small proportion of the costs. In some places fairness prevails and the Council contributes e.g. to cutting the grass. A few individuals also see the problem and make a regular contribution without being active members. And the annual raffle helps. The church bottle in the Fox (that's the one with no beer in it) realised £88.07 when full the other day. It all helps - villagers will have seen the scaffolding around the north side of the church in July and guessed it will mean a bill into the thousands. Who pays what is a question worth sharing with readers of the Link.

Park Homes Residents Association

Meanwhile in Parliament the new Housing Minister has initiated a review of the Homes Act and plans to improve conditions for park home-owners (surcharges, pitch fees, etc.). This is a victory for social justice and the rest of the village is very pleased for all concerned.

The lunch for senior citizens took place on the 10th December in the Catherine Wheel and a good time was had by all. Thanks again to Barry and Barbara for supporting and hosting this.

Preserving Village Heritage

We have been warned to expect bills of about £100,000 in the next ten or twenty years for roof, tower, masonry, etc. apart from any unexpected problems. Budgetary policy is to aim to set aside £5,000 p.a. into the Building Fund towards these costs, but this presupposes a much larger than at present income, especially as local contributions to clergy salaries and pensions are about to increase. Salaries and running costs are the existing congregation's responsibility, but the PCC hopes that a larger section of the village will want to maintain the building. As a first step it invites as many as are willing to make their views known to a member of the ministry team or PCC or Church Warden.

Council minutes

Language School

We are all such literalists in the West today that our skills for handling symbolic language are sometimes light. Like any extra-mural class you meet a surprising range of people with an amazing range of opinions - political, moral, religious - and interests. But they come together united by a few basic questions about the meaning of life and the future of the world, including themselves, and by a few basic convictions that life is worthwhile and Jesus is a reliable guide - or at least a willingness to give that claim a chance to prove itself by illuminating their own experience over a period of time.

Language school is a minority option nowadays, and not everyone wants to speak of matters beyond their basic needs and pleasures. But some find that their basic needs and aspirations include finding a way to express their sense of wonder, their thankfulness, their hopefulness, their recognition of imperfections (to put it mildly) - and they see that community is important, so we can best do some of these things together.

But what of the silence? Why be there at all? For some of us it's a matter of waiting and waiting for a revelation. It's a matter of being attentive, so that when/if the revelation comes we shall hear it and maybe even act on it. But until that happens, or at least until they are persuaded that it might happen, why should anyone bother?

There are good human reasons for learning a religious language. Our human world depends on us having a morality and a culture. That is for some not reason enough to make the effort of religious observance. We have some freedom to choose and the freedom to think for ourselves - and to share it with others.

The Village Constable

The parish constable was usually elected at the Easter Vestry, along with the surveyors of the highway and the overseer of the poor. The Easter Vestry meeting was composed of the village rate payers, usually in Sandford one consisting of eleven persons, all coming from the landed families such as farmers and business people, which in Sandford were few. The constable was distinct from other parish posts in that he had to be sworn in by the local justice of the peace, which meant a journey to Wheatley (for which expenses were always claimed, as quite often a horse had to hired).

The constable's duties were in the main that of keeping law and order in the parish. This was in an earlier period called watch and ward. The extant constables' records for the parish show that real crimes were few, for with a population varying from 178 persons in 1901 to 229 by 1831, with fifty homes, the constable would have known all the parish personally, and law breakers would have been known by all.

Nevertheless the extant constables' records for the village running from 1788 to 1836 show that there were many parochial duties such as swearing a pauper to his own parish when he or she became dependent on the parish poor rate, which in one case meant a journey to the Bristol area with the offending person. He also had to raise the militia in times of need. Keeping the stocks and pound in repair was a regular appearance in his accounts, as the following extracts from his accounts will show:

1785	April, paid expenses for militia £0-2-6 Paid Roberts for mending the pound £0-3-4 Paid four pounds for two years mile way due at midsomer
1788	Paid for mendin the stocks £0-0-4 Paid Hedges for mendin the pound £0-5-10 July 17th mendin the stox £0-0-9 Paid at Wheatley for the warrant
1790	Expenses with a man swearing him to his parish £0-10-6 Paid for new instructions for the window tax

On the establishment of the Oxford constabulary in 1857 villages lost their ancient parish constable, and keeping law and order passed to a central body. We still had a constable, but he covered a much larger area, later usually on a bicycle. Amongst the best known of these prewar keepers of law and order must have been Sgt Jeffie Davis, who remained here for many years, and served as a sergeant in the local home guard during the last War.
Kingcup       [Kingcup - more info]


Towpath
What's going on? Thames Water are replacing a rotten wooden footbridge with a steel one. It should be finished soon.

Parish Council vacancies

The Electoral Registration Officer gave official notice, dated 16th October, of the three vacancies, with the information that an election would be held if, within 14 working days, ten people on the Electoral Register so requested. In the absence of such a request, the Parish Council would be empowered to co-opt three qualified people. In the event, a lawful request was made for an election to be held, and a Notice of Election was published on 6th November, with an invitation for nominations to be submitted in the names of a proposer and seconder, by 14th November. On 19th November the Electoral Registration/Returning Officer published a Notice that Mr M. Inston had been elected Parish Councillor without a contest. This has now been displayed on the parish noticeboards. Elections may be held to fill the two remaining vacancies, if nominations were received by 9th December.

Link report for 1997

Who can bring back the magic of that story,

the singing seraphim, the kneeling kings,

the starry path by which the child of glory

'mid breathless watchers and through myriad wings,

came, with the heaven behind him slowly waning,

dark with his loss, unto the brightening earth,

the young enabled star, that he so deigning,

chose for the heavenly city of his birth?

What but the heart of youth can hold the story,

the young child's heart, so gentle and so wild,

it can recall the magic of that glory

that dreamed itself into a little child.

Susan Mitchell