Church letter

August 2025

Click for the church letter from July 2025

For what will we each be remembered?

In the fulness of time, as we each pass on from this life - or maybe even just as we move on from the village to live somewhere else - I wonder what we will be remembered for? What will our family, our friends, our community hold on to as our history, if you like?

At the time of writing this, St Swithun is about to be commemorated in the Common Worship lectionary for the Church Year. Tuesday 15 July is St Swithun’s Day; and we all know the fable that if it rains on St Swithun’s day, we are in for 40 days of rain. There is even a folklore proverb associated with the day:

Julian Smith, in the Sunday Link, writes: “Immortality is assured when a rose is named after you. St Swithun has “large, strongly scented, soft-pink blooms of more than a hundred petals”. But Swithun’s fame does not depend upon a rose. Nor does it depend upon knowledge of his holy and humble life, nor his 10 years as Bishop of Winchester in the mid-ninth century, nor his time as an adviser to King Egbert. Swithun is remembered for the legend that attends the moving of his body. According to his wishes, after his death on 2 July 862, Swithun was buried in a simple grave outside the cathedral in Winchester rather than in some grand shrine inside it. When a new cathedral was being built, it was planned to exhume and move his remains to a new resting place within the building, despite dire warnings that to move his bones would bring terrible storms and tempests. Swithun’s remains were moved on 15 July 971 - and 40 days of storms ensued!

St Swithun is regarded as one of the saints to whom we should pray in the event of drought.

At the moment the forecast is looking dry on 15 July; and South East Water have also just announced a hosepipe ban from 18 July. Now you know who to pray to, and what to pray for. Never mind the rose, or his good work and advice to the monarch, or his work as a priest and bishop, Swithun is remembered for his link to the weather, and his day is anticipated with a degree of trepidation. It’s strange what we can be remembered for. I wonder what family history will say for each of us?

Revd David Commander, Rector and Area Dean