Wateringbury Shrine (1916)

Post date: Jan 27, 2014 3:18:20 PM

Extract from Parish magazine of November 1916

NOTES.

A Special Service for Men will be held on Sunday, 12th inst., and also on the 26th inst., at 3 p.m.

The Little Hoppers' Hospital furniture, for which (so far as relates to an in-patients' department) we have no use at present, has been sent to the V.A.D. Hospital at Hayle Place.

There are a few parish blankets, the loan of which for the winter months may be applied for at the Vicarage, on condition that they be returned clean early in the spring.

The Rev. W. E. Williams (Org. Sec. Waifs and Strays) will deliver a War Lecture in the Church Rooms on January 17th.

It is proposed to send to each of the men serving a small Christmas present (from the parishioners of Wateringbury), and to defray the cost by an entertainment, to be held after Christmas, which is being organised by Mrs. Southwell-Sander and Miss Dorothea Livett. With the present will be sent a copy of the service of dedication of the shrine, and a copy of the Parish Magazine containing the names on the shrine's Roll of Honour.

Rainfall for October, 2.46 inches.—A.L.

THE SHRINE.

A WATERINGBURY SHRINE.—There are different kinds of shrine: one may be an altar or chapel of special associations; another may be a tomb or burial-place of a saint; another may be a casket containing sacred relics; another may be a place hallowed by some memory. The war has invented yet another kind of shrine: a Roll of Honour displayed in some public place containing the names of parishioners who have served or are serving their King and country in the Navy or Army, and of those who, having fallen in the fight, are still serving by the example of the sacrifice they have made; and, underneath the Roll, a ledge on which may stand vases of flowers, constantly renewed, as a symbol of the risen life of the departed. Shrines of this kind are being erected in many streets of London, and our great cities, and in many other places, throughout the country². And such a shrine is being prepared by Mr. and Mrs. T. Brocklebank for erection upon the roadside door¹ in their garden wall near the churchyard. It is to be unveiled and dedicated by the Bishop of Rochester on Monday, the 20th inst., at 2.30 p.m. A short service will be held. If the weather is wet part of the service will be held in the church, and the function at the roadside will be made as brief as possible. If it be fine the whole of the service will be held in front of the shrine. Thereafter, wayfarers will doubtless pause for a moment of prayer and thanksgiving; or if they cannot pause the sight of the shrine will suggest to them thoughts of prayer and thanksgiving as they pass on their way. Many ladies have been busy helping the clergy to collect the names that will appear upon the Roll of Honour of this shrine, with such further particulars as will serve for a permanent memorial that we propose to erect in the church after the declaration of peace. The names that will appear on the shrine are those of parishioners or of men who have been parishioners at any time during the war, and of the sons-in-law of parishioners together with the names of others who, though not parishioners, were educated at the schools, or have been otherwise closely connected with the parish, and whose names the parishioners would wish to see included in their Roll of Honour.

Readers, please note the date and time of the dedication of the shrine by the Bishop of Rochester : Monday, 20th Nov., at 2.30 p.m.

Notes:

1. The outline of the location of the roadside door referred to can still be seen although filled in with ragstone.

2. A shrine in West Malling in the High Street against the wall of Arundel House was opened on 24 January 1917 (Source: Rochester Diocesan Chronicle).