Page 49 - BR December 2023

December 2023 December 2023

SPOTLIGHT ON …….. range of talents in our group. Some of us have
done flower arranging courses and a few of us go
to the Winterbourne Kingston Floral Group.
The Sanctuary Flower Guild Anyone who is a beginner is paired up with an
experienced arranger to guide them. But we
By our roving repoarter, Janey Gordon always say to anyone who is interested in joining
the group and has not done flower arranging

before, there is no need to be an expert, just love
In the parishes of Bere Regis and Affpuddle with flowers!
Turnerspuddle, and the villages these parishes
include, there are a number of people who give their time and energies to Janey: Where do you get your flowers and foliage
support and enrich the local communities and individuals who live here. They from?
contribute freely to the villages either as individuals or as groups and teams. Diane: The people doing the arrangements bring
The parish magazine is running a short series to “Spotlight” some of these, and this in the flowers, sometimes from their own gardens
month we are featuring the Sanctuary Flower Guild, which is the group of or sometimes they will buy them. Adrian Standfield
volunteers who look after the floral displays and decorations in the Bere Regis helps with collecting foliage. He also helps with our display fittings, getting them
parish church of St John the Baptist. The group is led by Diane Edmonds who out of storage and putting them up. He’s here today!
organises the rota of twelve members. We have three other village organisations that support us, the WI, the Bellringers

I went along to the church to meet Diane on Friday 10 November, when the and the Forresters. They each have a two-week period in the year when they
th
group were decorating the church in paper and fabric poppies, along with cover the cost of the flowers and provide the arrangements.
masses of green foliage, ready for Remembrance Sunday. I asked Diane, what We offer to do arrangements for family services such as weddings, christenings
the plans were. and funerals. We’ll liaise over colours and so on. If the family have their own florist,
Diane: This year we have even more poppies than we usually do as we were we‘ll take our arrangements out and then put them back afterwards.
given some extra by the local Royal British Legion. So, hopefully, we will cover the Over the years we have also had quite a number of Flower and Quilt Festivals in
church in poppies. We will have our two “whirly-gigs”, which are free standing the church, usually to raise money for a local charity. I am a member of the
units, with five small shelves each. They will go either side of the aisle in the Kingsbere Quilters and it seemed a natural move to include quilts into the flower
chancel and wreaths on the chancel steps. There will be a display on entering the festivals.
church and another at the entry to the choir. The pulpit will be covered with small
poppies and we will have our other shelves hanging on the pillars in the nave, Janey: Do you have flowers in the church every week of the year?
each decorated with poppies.
Diane: No, there are no flowers during Lent and Advent. But we all really enjoy
We normally just have two flower arrangements, one at the altar and one at the doing the special arrangements afterwards for Easter and Christmas.
front pillar near the door. We are keeping the altar arrangement this week as it is
still fresh. The church is a nice cool environment for flowers, so they usually last two Janey: What are your plans for the Christmas arrangements?
weeks. Diane: I put out a call for volunteer arrangers in early December and liaise with
Janey: How did you get involved with the Sanctuary Flower Guild? Reverend Sandra. We need to be ready for the first Christmas Carol service. We
do arrangements in Christmas colours - red, green and white - and we have extra
Diane: Several of us went to an evening class and then got the teacher, Bunty, floral displays by the font, the vestry and possibly in the ‘squint’ (the window
along to some sessions in the Bere Regis Scout Hut. That got us into church flower between the nave and the chancel). The arrangements often will be seen from
arranging. I have been doing it for over ten years now. the front and back, so we have to take that into account.

Janey: How do you rota the members of the group? St John’s is a lovely church to decorate. There are lots of places to put flowers
and it is such a nice thing to do. The church has such a calm, quiet atmosphere. I
Diane: We work in pairs, two weeks at a time, so about two fortnights a year. Each especially love it when I am here on the hour and the church bells ring!
pair brings in the flowers and does the arrangements. We have quite a wide

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