Club News

Rotary International in Great Britain and Ireland is deeply saddened to learn of the death of HM Queen Elizabeth II.

Our thoughts are with the Royal Family as they grieve for their Mother, Grandmother and Great-Grandmother.

The Queen demonstrated extraordinary dedication and commitment to duty throughout her Reign and did so with a graceful strength and admirable determination.

She ruled throughout decades of change, from the dark post-war years, through to the new horizons of the 21st century, providing essential continuity for the nation.

This is a period of public grief when people who do not know each other come together to mourn a national figure who has been consistent throughout our lives, and for whom we have collective affection, despite not knowing her personally.

We share our condolences to the Royal Family and His Majesty King Charles III at this sad time.

Wednesday 24th August is Ukraine Independence Day, marking the day in 1991 when Ukraine declared independence from the U.S.S.R.

Faversham Rotary, together with Rotary clubs worldwide, is continuing to support the people of Ukraine, whether they are continuing to live in Ukraine or if they have left to live elsewhere.

There are more than 20 family groups now living in Faversham and the surrounding villages, and Faversham Rotary will be helping to support them.

Club members will be in Faversham Market Place on Saturday 20th August from 10am to 2pm collecting donations which the Club will then use for the benefit of Ukrainian families in the local area.

Please come to see us in the Market Place and make a contribution if you can or donate using the button below.

You can find out more about what’s going on locally at:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/favershamforukraine

Rotarians have always enjoyed the fun and fellowship that is part and parcel of being a Rotarian and part of the fun is going to places that you might not otherwise have come across.

Faversham Rotary is no exception and the Club’s most recent visit had a cultural flavour – the Chagall Windows at Tudeley church. It was a most interesting and enlightening visit - made all the better by John Blackford, one of our club members who acted as our guide. He has an amazing way of bringing the artist Marc Chagall and Tudeley Church to life with his interesting anecdotes and history.

Here are a few of John’s notes about the beautiful windows.

“In July several of us went to Tudeley church to see the Chagall windows, after enjoying a convivial pub lunch on the way. We were fortunate that it was a bright day and the sunlight dramatically lit up the colours in the glass, progressing from deep blue in the north wall windows to gold on the south.

The main window is a memorial to a local young woman who drowned in a yachting accident. As her father was Jewish and her mother Christian they commissioned Marc Chagall, the great Jewish artist of the 20th century, to make a memorial window in her mother’s church.

When he came to its installation Chagall saw that there were 11 other windows, all in clear glass. ‘I will do them all,’ he said, with the result that Tudeley is the only church in the world to have all its windows made by Chagall. They vividly show the changing of darkness into light, which is a universal image with meaning for everyone.”