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BADGER HILL AT WESTMINSTER ABBEY
| Every
year the Scouting and Guide movements hold a Founders Day service at Westminster
Abbey to celebrate the birthday of the man who started it all, Lord Robert Baden-Powell.
This year was a special service for three reasons: it is the 150th
anniversary of Baden-Powells birth, it is the 100th anniversary of the
Scouting movement, and much closer to home, the Rev Richard Winslade had
been asked to lead the service. Richard is the Rector of Maulden and has
had an involvement with Scouting since his own Cub days, and has been both
a Cub Leader and Badger Hill Group Scout Leader since coming to Maulden.
He is also National Church of England chaplain for the Scout movement
which led to his involvement with Founders Day and his presence in
Westminster Abbey. |
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| The
build up to the Abbey ceremony started many weeks previously for Richard
and included a photo session with the county Scout media manager at
Maulden Church to demonstrate Richard's dual role as a minister and a
member of the Scout movement. As it was half-term week, Badger Hill
Explorers helped out with non-speaking parts. They were non-speaking not
because they didn't have anything interesting to say, but because most of
the time Richard's well-known sense of humour makes it difficult to talk
and giggle at the same time............. |
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On the morning of the
big day, one party of 20 Scouts and Leaders and a smaller party of 6
Explorers and 2 Leaders met at 7.45 at Flitwick station. Several Explorers
were previously unaware that Saturdays started before 10am, but that's one
of the good things about Scouting - it's full of surprises, some nicer
than others. The early start proved worthwhile as we were only about 50yds
from the front of the queue, and by 10.15 it stretched right round the
Abbey and into Millbank. |
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Richard happened to be
inside the West Door when we got in, and it was a little strange to see a
very familiar face in a very unfamiliar setting. He said it was his first
time in the Abbey, and probably his only time as they were unlikely to ask
him again. We found out what he meant later on................... |
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After some singing of
Scout and Guide spiritual songs, the main service started at 11.00am with
a welcome from Canon Reiss who is the Canon Treasurer of the Abbey.
Rachel and Naomi, who are Badger Hill Scouts and respectively the
daughters of Billy, a former Cub leader, and Richard Winslade, then took
over and performed an outstanding role as narrators and guides through the
service, and carried it off as though they'd been doing it for years. |
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Being early meant we
were in the front row, ready for the address. The theme of the service was
Past/Present/Future, and Richard's own theme within this idea was sharing,
that the young people who are "the future" could share their experiences
with leaders and older people - "the present" and "the past" - and vice
versa, with both sides learning from it. He illustrated the idea of
sharing with a large tin of Quality Street which was distributed all over
the nave, and proved the value of sharing experiences by dispatching 25 or
so Cubs and Brownies into the choir area of the Abbey where the VIP's were
seated to exchange Scouting experiences with them. He then asked every other
young person in the nave to turn to the nearest adult whom they didn't
know, and do the same with them. The next problem was stopping the many
conversations that had developed in order to get on with the service, but
the point was well proven! |
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Towards the end of the
service, new flags were installed on the memorial to Lord Baden-Powell and
his wife Olave, and the photograph above shows several of the Badger Hill
Scouts with Peter Duncan, the Chief Scout, in front of the memorial.
Afterwards, Richard
and Canon Reiss were at the West Door to take leave of the congregation in
the usual manner, and Canon Reiss was asked if he could recall a previous
occasion when sweets had been distributed aerially in the Abbey. He paused
for a moment, then replied "No, I can't recall a similar occasion, it
probably was a first for the Abbey......................." |
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