Donald Trelford – St Bride's Church

On Tuesday 16th May, 2023 at 11:30am a service of thanksgiving for the life of Donald Trelford was held at St Bride’s Church, Fleet Street.
Download Order of Service (pdf)

Introduction

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The Revd Canon Dr Alison Joyce delivered the opening:

A very warm welcome to St Bride’s, the Journalists Church, as we come together to honour the memory and to celebrate the extraordinarily rich and active life of Donald Trelford.

Over the years, Donald and members of his extended family have become well known to us here, so we really do share your sense of loss – as we remember with affection a man who was so full of energy and enthusiasm, and who really did leave his mark.

A man of modest stature, he was, nevertheless, a towering figure within the industry that he loved, and which he served so diligently for so very many years.

And for all its complexities, Donald was a man for whom family was always at the very heart of his life – you are very much in our thoughts today.

Let us pray:

Father of all,
we pray to you for those whom we love but see no longer,
especially this day, Donald, whose memory we honour.
Grant him your peace.
Let light perpetual shine upon him,
and work in him the good purpose of your perfect will.
Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

Addresses

Robert Low

William Keegan

Paul Webster

Readings

Claire Trelford read Ecclesiastes 3: 1-13

To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

2 A time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to pluck up that which is planted;

3 A time to kill, and a time to heal; a time to break down, and a time to build up;

4 A time to weep, and a time to laugh; a time to mourn, and a time to dance;

5 A time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together; a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;

6 A time to get, and a time to lose; a time to keep, and a time to cast away;

7 A time to rend, and a time to sew; a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;

8 A time to love, and a time to hate; a time of war, and a time of peace.

9 What profit hath he that worketh in that wherein he laboureth?

10 I have seen the travail, which God hath given to the sons of men to be exercised in it.

11 He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end.

12 I know that there is no good in them, but for a man to rejoice, and to do good in his life.

13 And also that every man should eat and drink, and enjoy the good of all his labour, it is the gift of God.

Geraldine Sharpe-New read When great trees fall by Maya Angelou

When great trees fall,
rocks on distant hills shudder,
lions hunker down
in tall grasses,
and even elephants
lumber after safety.

When great trees fall
in forests,
small things recoil into silence,
their senses
eroded beyond fear.

When great souls die,
the air around us becomes
light, rare, sterile.
We breathe, briefly.
Our eyes, briefly,
see with
a hurtful clarity.
Our memory, suddenly sharpened,
examines,
gnaws on kind words
unsaid,
promised walks
never taken.

Great souls die and
our reality, bound to
them, takes leave of us.
Our souls,
dependent upon their
nurture,
now shrink, wizened.
Our minds, formed
and informed by their
radiance, fall away.
We are not so much maddened
as reduced to the unutterable ignorance of
dark, cold
caves.

And when great souls die,
after a period peace blooms,
slowly and always
irregularly. Spaces fill
with a kind of
soothing electric vibration.
Our senses, restored, never
to be the same, whisper to us.
They existed. They existed.
We can be. Be and be
better. For they existed.

Music

The choir & organist of St Bride’s performed the following anthems and songs:

Swing low, sweet chariot – Wallace Willis arr. Robert Jones
Ave Maria – Franz Schubert
Flower duet from Lakmé – Leo Delibes
Kyrie from Missa luba – Guido Haazen
Bright side of the road – Van Morrison arr. Robert Jones
Postlude in D – Henry Smart

Hymns

Dear Lord and Father of mankind
Lord of all hopefulness
He who would valiant be

Obituaries

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