Eastry Benefice Flower Festival 2006
Eastry Parish Church, 13th - 15th July.
"The Benedicite"
- from the Latin: "Bless ye (the Lord)"
This festival theme is taken from the Canticle (or song) put into the mouths of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego as they stood in the "fiery furnace" before King Nebuchadnezzar.
The song has been called "an expansion of Psalm 148", a Psalm which it closely resembles in its general layout. The invitation to praise, which is its simple theme, is worked out in great detail. First, the heavenly powers are invoked (verses 1-5), then the heavenly bodies and atmospheric phenomena (verses 6-17), then the earth and sea (verses 18-22), then living creatures (verses 23-35) and finally man (verses 26-32), progressing from humanity in general, through the Chosen Race and its inner circle of devout souls, up to the Three whose wonderful deliverance is supposed to have called forth the outburst of rejoicing.
It has been used in Christian Liturgical worship from early times. Rufinus, writing in c.406, says that it was sung by Christians throughout the world; and the Fourth Council of Toledo (633) decreed that it should be said before the Epistle at every Mass in Spain and Gaul. It is used at Lauds on some Sundays and Festivals in the Roman Catholic church. In the book of Common Prayer it is an alternative to the Te Deum at mattins: the 1549 Book having expressly ordered the use of this alternative in Lent.
The position of the Benedicite is scarcely less dignified in the modern than in the Medieval use; for it is (1) the climax of the morning act of praise, (2) the thankful acknowledgement of the fulfilment of God's promises in the New Testament, from which the second lesson has just been read.
A big "thank you" to everyone who made a donation towards the cost of the flowers for the festival and, of course the flower arrangers themselves who produced such wonderful displays:
|
Ruby Atkins |
Judy Hambrook |
|
Betty Bottle |
Sandra Hooper |
|
Brenda Burton |
Sue Kemp |
|
Jenny Charman |
Anne Kent |
|
Sue Cook |
Jean Lyon |
|
Sheila Dixon |
Betty Mitchell & Jinty |
|
Eileen Forwood |
Joan Ratcliff |
|
Liz Neeves |
Lizzie Wilkinson |
all photographs © David Carr 2006
O Ye Fowl of the air
O ye beasts and cattle
O ye whales and all that move in the water
O ye showers and dew
O ye servants of the Lord
O ye seas and floods
O all ye green things
O ye mountains and hills
O ye winter and summer
O ye light and dark
O ye night and day
O ye fire and heat
O ye ice and snow
O ye priests of the Lord
O ye sun and moon
O ye angels of the Lord and O ye stars of heaven