| A GREAT inducement to visit the churches of Exeter diocese later this month is a free cream tea. As part of the national Hope 08 focus on acts of kindness, churches of all denominations are being invited to take part in the Big Cream Tea, which will be launched at the Devon Show on 16 May by the Bishop of Exeter, the Rt Revd Michael Langrish, with a cream tea on the churches’ stand.
It will be linked with a conference on Jersey dairy herds (not a slight on Devon dairy farmers, said Canon Mark Rylands, one of the organisers: it’s just that Jerseys produce superb cream, even in Devon). There will also be an ecumenical cream tea, with a jazz band, on the Cathedral Green, Exeter, on 24 May, provided by the Anglican, Roman Catholic, Baptist, and the United Reformed churches — all doling out scones, cream, and jam together.
All the churches, large and small, are being asked to take part over the May Bank Holiday weekend, and 25,000 cards are being distributed across the county to ask people to take part. The ecumenical co-ordinating group received many suggestions about ways of observing Hope 08, such as litter- or graffiti-clearing, or decorating public buildings, but it wanted something that every church could manage, however tiny, bearing in mind that 150 churches and chapels have congregations of fewer than ten people.
As just about everyone in Devon can make the traditional scones (one woman immediately said she would make 200), and the county is thought to be awash with cream, the Big Cream Tea seemed the obvious solution. As waitresses always say these days — “Enjoy!”
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