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July 2021 July 2021

Hopefully it will then be possible to open more frequently and run some of the DEAN’S LETTER
regular events such as Pie and Pint nights, and quizzes that took place before
Covid-19 affected all our lives.

A street art installation in Salisbury’s High

The Annual Horticultural show Street features the words “WHAT IF WE…”
emblazoned across the top of a
The good news is that the 2021 Bladen Social Club Horticultural show has been blackboard. Passers-by are invited to
scheduled for Saturday 7th August. chalk their hopes and aspirations
beneath. I read through the responses this
This year’s Horticultural show will have 39 classes of exhibit and the Best Kept
Garden competition. Details about the exhibit classes and entry conditions are morning and some of them made me
currently being finalised so please keep an eye on the Briantspuddle Community smile. One reads “What if we… all had more ice-cream”. That gets my vote.
website www.briantspuddle.info, or the Bladen Social club noticeboard, where Another reads “What if we… had an underground skate park”. Niche. Many more
further details will be available shortly. are really heartening, the sorts of pleas for peace, reconciliation and
environmental sustainability that are a feature of most church intercessions
Show schedules and entry forms will be available in July once it is known for boards.
certain that we have moved out of lockdown and the show can take place. This year I have had the privilege of chairing the Diocesan Vacancy in See

Committee. We have now produced our statement of what we believe we need
in our new Bishop. I am hugely grateful to the Committee’s members for their
Peter Talbot, Secretary strenuous efforts in its compilation. One of the disciplines we had to learn as we
worked was that of reminding ourselves that we were not embarked upon a
churchy version of that piece of art. We were not setting out a wish list of
LAWRENCE OF ARABIA AND everything that would be “nice to have” in a new Bishop.

TURNERSPUDDLE No: our task was to discern what we might need in a new Bishop. That is a very
different exercise because it starts from a very different place. It starts not with our
agenda, but with God’s. “He measures us by our needs, and we must not
Lawrence of Arabia and my great-great-great uncle measure Him by our impatience”, as Jeremy Taylor writes.
Following on from Ivor Bryant’s article (June 2021), I’m reminded of a family story Accordingly, after much prayer and widespread consultation, we have prioritised
which said that Lawrence of Arabia had stayed at the house of my great-great- five qualities. We believe we need a holy bishop, a visionary bishop, a
great uncle, Alexander Knesevich*, in Gaza. courageous bishop, a unifying bishop, and a visible bishop. Yet because the
agenda is God’s and not ours we know that when our new Bishop is appointed s/
Sure enough, I found the he may be all of those things – and may still tell us things we don’t wish to hear
following extract from and lead us down paths we have not yet followed.
Anthony Sattin’s “Young
Lawrence”, telling the We pray that the six Diocesan representatives who will serve on the Crown
story of Lawrence and his Nominations Commission will work effectively with their colleagues from the
companion Woolley: national Church to realise God’s will for our needs. And if the next Bishop of
Salisbury gives us all more ice-cream then I for one will not be complaining…
On 29 December they left
for Gaza...
Alexander Knesevitch, the
British consular agent in
Gaza (whom Lawrence

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