VICAR'S LETTER.

My dear People,-

We have now reached the end of the first half of the Christian year with its round of Festivals and Fasts. Following this we enter upon the Trinity Season when we have the general teaching of Christ's Church placed before us. A right observance of the calendar must prove very helpful to our Churchpeople, and forms a mode of ordered instruction whereby the chief events and doctrines of our Mother Church are regularly brought to remembrance each year.

Members of the Youth Council are getting active and I hope soon to announce some forward movement on their part. Time flies, and soon the youth get middle-aged, when they should provide the officers of the parish from their ranks.

Hearty thanks go out to the church decorators for their loving labours in connection with the beautifying of God's House in our midst. I do so wish that all will give flowers, however small in quantity on these occasions, and thus take their share just in the way people put their flowers round the War Memorial, or on the graves of their loved ones.

Our Worshippers were pleased with the efforts of the Organist and Choir on Whit-Sunday.

The Diocesan Conference, which is the Synod of the Canterbury Diocese, will be held in Croydon this month. It has generally been held in Canterbury on previous occasions.

Dr. Cosmo Lang, the Archbishop, paid his first visit to this Rural Deanery on Monday, the 18th ultimo, when His Grace conducted a Confirmation Service at the Rainham Parish Church. I was able to present one adult candidate on this date, and I am hoping soon to start classes for this parish. Anyone desirous of being confirmed should inform me of their wish as soon as possible. The Rev. Gilbert P. L. Turner, Vicar of St. Paul's Church, Cape Town, South Africa, was the evening preacher on Whit-Sunday. I expect he will be coming here again, and we shall be pleased to hear him once more.

The Diocesan Religious Examination Report for our Day Schools has just come to hand. It is most satisfactory, and the parents as well as the staff will be pleased to know this. When the Schools were endowed by the late Mary Gibbons, it was with the idea that sound religious teaching should have the first place in the curriculum. It may interest some of you to know that Mary Gibbons was buried in a linen shroud, and her executors were fined for this because a law had been placed upon the Statute books ordering people to be interred in woollen. The origin of this, I believe, was to help revive the woollen trade of Yorkshire, which was in a low way. There is a, lot of quaint history wrapped up in the old Registers of the Parish, and I hope to get some of this made more accessible to those who visit our Church.

Yours sincerely,

CECIL G. MUTTER.

PARISH HALL.

Mrs. Denson, a very real friend of Hartlip, has forwarded £100 to Colonel Locke toward the erection of the new Parish Hall. This gracious act has heartened the Committee, and makes it possible to start operations very soon. By this time next year we ought to see the building in use.

THE VILLAGE BAND.

The members of the Band went to Dover on Saturday, May 16th, to take part in the, Kent Musical Festival. A breakdown on the way delayed the arrival of the party, but as soon as the members got there they took their part, and, quoting from the "Dover Standard," evidently acquitted themselves well. Dr. Hull said, "In regard to the Hartlip Orchestra, it was perfectly splendid of a lady to devote her time to teaching men as Miss Faussett-Osborne was doing. It was one of the finest things he had come across anywhere, and the only other place he had heard of it being done was in the North of Ireland. The Band was working on the right lines; they played sincerely, and with feeling." Dr. Hull also added "that orchestra playing was deserving of great encouragement because to be a good player meant hours of hard work. Would that every village encouraged this type of work!"

Baptism. — May 24th, Joan Dorothy, daughter of Albert John and Louisa Frances Cork.

Confirmation. - May 18th, George James Mabbs.

Our sympathy goes out to the family of Mrs. Woodcock in the loss she has sustained by the rather sudden death of her brother. The deceased was in precarious health, but the end came unexpectedly. The funeral took place at Streatham, in south-west London. — R.I.P.

Summer Outing. - The members of the Mothers' Meeting and the Children of the Sunday School are to go, we hope, to Deal this year for their annual picnic, on Tuesday, June 23rd. The 'bus will ,start early in the morning so as to give a long day at the seaside. Further particulars will be advertised later.

Mothers' Union. — Some of out members went to Sheerness, to the Annual Ruri-decanal Festival, on Tuesday, May 19th. We are delighted to hear that, Mrs. R. G. E. Locke has profitted by a sea trip to the Black Sea. We trust the result will be a complete recovery of health, and that she will soon take her place as our active presiding member.