Plant and Cake Sale
with Chocolate Tombola
Saturday 21 May – 9-12 noon at Wye Parish Church
Preparations are well under way, so do join us on Saturday and stock up on plants and cakes and preserves. This year we also have a beautiful handmade Green Shoots Blanket that you can win…
©woolthreadpaint, 2021.
It has been written and designed by Marion Mitchell.
An image of this beautifully crocheted blanket, measuring 150cm x 112cm, has been divided into 100 squares. ‘Choose’ a square (or squares) for £2 a square, and you might win the blanket. You’ll have to hurry though as they have been going very fast! (see instructions below).
The winning square will be drawn at the Sale on Saturday 21 May at 12 noon and if your number is drawn – the blanket is yours!
All proceeds from the sale of squares will raise funds for The Wye and Brook India Trust, enabling some of the poorest children in Delhi to have an education and a better chance in life.
There are very few squares left but to reserve a square before 21 May, text your name to Wendy 07473 516636 and pay £2 per square to The Wye and Brook India Trust. Payment details will be provided in a reply to your text.
Christmas Street Party – a sellout!
It was a wonderful community event last night and our stall was very well supported.
We sold almost all the cuddly toys so generously donated by children of the village. It’s great that children here give of their precious possessions so that children in Delhi can have much better life chances. Thank you all.
We almost sold out of biscuits and handmade Christmas decorations too – and in the end made £265 to send to the schools in Delhi in a couple of days.
If you want to become a regular donor, or sponsor a child or just want to know more, do get in touch.
Email: wandbit@aol.com.
Your involvement helps change the lives of children and young people across the other side of the world!
Results!
The Online Quiz was a great success.
Many congratulations to the winning team – the Why Nots? who managed full marks on the section on India – and had put their Joker on that section gaining double points!
We are grateful for all the donations coming in from the Quiz and so far have made £239.66 which will be sent to Delhi in early December as part of our final transfer of the year.
Spring sale results! Beyond our dreams…
Last month trustees held a Spring sale of plants, cakes and preserves to raise support for the schools in Delhi. We were excited, not to say staggered, that sales on the day and subsequently raised a total of £1978.03 and donations on the day and subsequently reached £949.79. This gave us a massive total of £2927.82, much more than the usual ‘Coffee Morning’.
We would like to thank the many people involved who provided plants, cakes and preserves, those who bought the many excellent goods, and those who contributed the extremely generous donations. This is enough to support the education of about 30 children for one year.
We know that awareness of the COVID situation has boosted people’s interest in India. We know that the effects of COVID will be long-lasting.
Anyone interested in becoming a regular donor to enhance the sustainability of children’s education in Delhi can contact us through these pages. Regular donations and legacies are immensely helpful – thanks again.
COVID in India: the Lancet medical journal
Information about COVID in India was published in today’s Editorial of the Lancet medical journal (07 May 2021). We quote below a small section:
“The scenes of suffering in India are hard to comprehend. As of May 4, more than 20·2 million cases of COVID-19 had been reported, with a rolling average of 378 000 cases a day, together with more than 222 000 deaths, which experts believe are likely to be substantial underestimates. Hospitals are overwhelmed, and health workers are exhausted and becoming infected. Social media is full of desperate people (doctors and the public) seeking medical oxygen, hospital beds, and other necessities. Yet before the second wave of cases of COVID-19 began to mount in early March, Indian Minister of Health Harsh Vardhan declared that India was in the “endgame” of the epidemic. The impression from the government was that India had beaten COVID-19 after several months of low case counts, despite repeated warnings of the dangers of a second wave and the emergence of new strains. Modelling suggested falsely that India had reached herd immunity, encouraging complacency and insufficient preparation, but a serosurvey by the Indian Council of Medical Research in January suggested that only 21% of the population had antibodies against SARS-CoV-2… The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that India will see a staggering 1 million deaths from COVID-19 by Aug 1.”
Editorial (2021). India’s COVID-19 emergency. The Lancet 397(10286): 1683 DOI: 10.1016/S0140-6736(21)01052-7
You can read more by searching for the DOI above or searching for the following web address in your browser:
https://www.thelancet.com/journals/lancet/article/PIIS0140-6736(21)01052-7/fulltext
Delhi update
Many of us are aware of the dramatic and tragic situation that has emerged in India regarding COVID. This second wave has taken almost everyone by surprise. We heard a while ago that everyone has friends, colleagues or family members who have been ill.
Accurate news is difficult to come by, but on Tuesday 4 May we heard from Father Solomon how many in the Brotherhood have been suffering from COVID, some of them in hospital and on oxygen, but that most of the Brothers were recovering. The exception was Bishop Collin, who had underlying health conditions, and passed away on the morning of 15th April. We have posted an obituary elsewhere on this site.
Father Solomon writes: ‘Delhi has been under lockdown since 16th April and this has been extended till the morning of 11th May. The situation is very critical and most of the people we know are either positive or critical and many have lost their lives…. Every hospital has exhausted their capacity as they have scarcity of beds, medicines and oxygen.’
Schooling has continued online since the pandemic started, but it is hard to imagine beyond the news reports how people are being affected. It was said this morning that there were more than 300,000 new infections every day in the past week, with mention of 400,000 new cases reported yesterday 6 May. Total cases by today are almost 18 million. Perhaps we are now seeing that no-one is safe until we are all safe.
Thank you for your interest. There are many ways to support India. Giving to the Wye and Brook India Trust is an effective and efficient way to support the work of the Delhi Brotherhood. Continuing schooling for girls and boys from poorer families will help to rebuild individual lives, families and society in India.
Become a donor! And leave a permanent legacy by giving to the Wye and Brook India Trust in your will. Contact us at wandbit@aol.com
Bishop Collin Theodore: obituary
We have just heard from Delhi that Bishop Collin of the Brotherhood passed away last month. Bishop Collin was a visitor to Wye and Brook on various occasions, and will be remembered by many with fondness. I met him here and in Delhi. He was larger than life, and indeed was very large in life: I can’t imagine him travelling round Delhi on a motorbike!
The obituary following has been issued.
Nigel Poole, WBIT Chairman
——
Bishop Collin Christopher Theodore
Bishop Collin Theodore spent his life serving the church in Delhi, except for the time when he was consecrated as Bishop to serve the Diocese of Rajasthan. From his childhood till his death he remained a faithful son of the Church of North India.
In Delhi he joined the Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ, which is a monastic-missionary community of the Church of North India. After completing a period of two years as probationer in 1979 he made his final promise for life-intention as a member of the Brotherhood in 1981. He was trained at Bishop College Kolkata and was ordained as deacon in his home parish of St. Mary’s Church Ajmer in 1979, and then returned to the Brotherhood where he was admitted as a probationer. In Delhi he served at St. James Church Kashmere Gate and Holy Trinity Church Turkman Gate as the following year he was ordained as presbyter in the Diocese of Delhi. He continued to serve in these churches, serving and visiting the members on his black Rajdoot motorcycle.
In 1985 Collin was appointed CNI Youth Director; consequently in the following year which was the International Year of Youth, he played an important part in planning conferences at Diocesan and regional levels. The most important one was at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi for the delegates from each diocese of CNI. This was part of the moderator’s “Transfer of Vision” programme, and the Moderator, the Most Revd. Dinesh C. Gorai was present.
Due to his active ministry as a pastor and youth director, he had become widely known among all sections of the people of Delhi Diocese. Moreover his involvement was beyond the confines of the diocese, particularly in the administration of the Christian Study and Retreat Centre at Rajpura Dehradun and Fr. Wyld Memorial Retreat and Study Centre at Tezpur Assam. As a very active Secretary of the Delhi Christian Pastor’s Fellowship he was in touch with the local churches. His experience in pastorates was very wide having ministered only in small Hindi-Speaking Churches like St. Stephen’s Church Fatehpuri, Christ Church Basai Darapur and Prabhu Prakash Sadan Nandnagari, Mukti Aradhnalaya Pitampura but also in multi-lingual Congregation of the Cathedral Church of the Redemption in New Delhi.
At a meeting of the Chapter in November 1997 Collin was elected as the eleventh Head of the Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ. He took over his office as Head from Fr. Amos Rajamoney. Later, he served as Bishop of Rajasthan for a decade 2001-2011 stationed at Ajmer. He did his best to build up the diocese under most difficult circumstances. After his retirement he was called upon to take charge as the episcopal commissary of the Diocese of Lucknow, which was also a very challenging ministry. Thereafter he retired at the Brotherhood House and served as the Guardian of the St. Stephen’s Community, and also built up the ministry of the North West Region of the National Council of Churches of India. As an ecumenical minded person he was loved and respected by Bishops of the Roman Catholic and Methodist Churches.
On the last week of his life he was at St. Stephen’s Hospital Delhi where Fr. Monodeep Daniel (Head of the Brotherhood) was also admitted under the same condition. At the same time Fr. Solomon was also tested corona positive and was quarantined in his rooms in the Brotherhood. They shared the same floor in the hospital but could not meet in person due to health regulation of isolation. Fr. Monodeep called him on mobile each day from his hospital room. Collin spoke very little as he had become very weak. “Yes, Mono” … “still going on, slowly” he would say. He died on the morning of 15th April 2021 in the hospital. According to his wishes he was cremated and his ashes were divided; half were buried at the Nicholson Cemetery Delhi along with Fr. Ian Weathrall and Bishop Christopher Robinson both members of the Brotherhood, and the other half in Ajmer among his family graves.
We will remember him for his very strong voice heartily singing hymns during Sunday Services and the Brotherhood Chapel, his sense of humor and love of mughalai cuisine.
Fr. Monodeep Daniel (PhD)
Head
Brotherhood of the Ascended Christ
Wye and Brook India Trust 