St Philip's celebrates St George |
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For the
second year Running, St Philip's Church and Centre held a
varied and informal social evening upstairs in the coffee
lounge on the evening of
The evening began with prayers at 7.30, then the
organiser, Janet Dredge gave an outline of the work
carried out by the RBLI in aid of British ex-servicemen
and women.
The Reverend Canon Christopher Morgan Jones gave us a
brief history of how St George came to be the patron
saint of England, and how the his standing had waxed and
wained over the past six hundred years or so. He
showed how the story of St George and the dragon was as
much as anything a re-telling of the story of the battle
between good and evil.
By way of stark contrast, Janet Dredge, accompanied by
Clive Lever on keyboards, led the audience in a rendition
of Puff the Magic Dragon, the Pete Seger song which is
becoming a standard part of these evenings. Then Joan
Bull read a moving story about a boy who was brought up
with dragons. They were supposed to fight each
other to the death when they grew up, but they
refused. The story, which bore some resemblance to
Androcles and the Lion, read in Joan's unmistakable
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April 23 is of course, not only |
Last year, Joan Bull had read a Marriott Edgar monologue
on the theme of St George and the Dragon. This
year, it was the turn of Clive Lever to find another by
the same author on the same theme, though perhaps a
little less politically correct than last year's poem.
Diane Raffle had written a witty playlet with a happy
ending and a few twists along the way, about a
poetry-reading dragon. This was performed by a cast
assembled from St Philip's regulars, including Diane
Daniels, Janet Dredge, Paul Fletcher and Barbara
Cook. Barbara had had to step in at the last minute
for Anne Lever. Anne was due to take the part, but
her throat had troubled her during much of the evening,
after she had swallowed a fish
bone.
The play was followed by the fastest raffle I've ever
heard called out anywhere, by Janet "quick
draw" Dredge, and the evening was brought to a
conclusion by the singing of some of England's favourite
stirring hymns, including "I Vow To Thee My
Country" and "Jerusalem", and the evening
ended in the only way it could, with the national anthem.
A good time was had by all, and we all learned something
new about our English heritage and culture. The
challenge is on to make next year's St George's Day
celebrations as educative, informative and entertaining
as the two evenings that have taken place to
date. There were too many people to thank for the
parts they played in the evening's proceedings, but
special thanks must go to Janet Dredge for putting the
programme together, and for having had the idea for a
Clive Lever