ROUND THE SOCIETIES

Mothers' Union

The new year began as usual with a service in church. As our preacher we welcomed the Vicar of Upchurch. In this Week of Prayer for Christian Unity he reminded us of the continued need for tolerance and humility in our relations - "Christ's Body is cut in pieces. How can it work?". He reminded us, too, that so often any change is resisted, simply because of prejudice and intolerance. It was a sincere, valuable talk spoken from the heart and from experience. There followed the usual tea and informal meeting at the vicarage.

A.G.

Young Wives' Fellowship

"The average, home is badly lit" - so asserted Mr. Cowan, of the Swale Division of Seeboard. And we all went over in our minds the lighting in our own homes and then looked for ideas for improvement. We had many. We learnt about the new, silicone bulbs for softer light - tubular lighting for efficiency in the kitchen, spot-lights for our floral efforts and fluorescent pelmets to show off our velvet curtains to their best advantage. Yes - we were given many ideas for our own homes and leaflets to help us with our choice, but the one thing that I think many of us would have liked to take home was the lamp which could give us a 30, 60 or 100 watt light at the touch of a switch. We are most grateful to Mr. Cowan and his assistant for his interesting and entertaining talk.

Next month begins, on 2nd, with a domestic Social Evening - a wine and cheese party, flavoured with the showing of holiday slides of individual members, and later, on 16th, we widen our horizons to hear Mrs. Elsie Olsen talk on the "European Union of Women".

A.G.

Christian Fellowship

Objective attained! - in fact, more than attained! In the December magazine we set ourselves a target of £20 for the "Save the Children Fund" through our New Year Party. In fact the Fund has been sent a cheque for £23 10s. d. For this wonderful result thanks are due to a great many people in Hartlip. For their generosity in respect of food supplies we must thank Mr. and Mrs. B. H. Smith. For the raffle prizes thanks go to Mr. and Mrs. Andrews, Mr. and Mrs. Bone, Mr. and Mrs. Ferret and Mr. and Mrs. Shellock. To all those people who bought tickets, although they knew they would not be able to come - thank you. Thanks also to those who came and enjoyed themselves, we hope, and bought raffle and supper, tickets. Lastly, but very important, thanks to those who worked so hard in the kitchen and to Mr. Brown and his band.

And - looking ahead into February - on the 11th we have a chance of learning more about the Holy Land - from Dr. Chalmers in an illustrated talk, and on the 25th we are staging a Mock Trial - something of a change in the way of entertainment in Hartlip. Both of these will be in the Methodist schoolroom at 7.30 p.m.

W.C.M.