Annual well dressing asks ‘Who is my neighbour?’

LOCAL schools recently decorated St. Aldhelm’s Well at the bottom of Church Steps, in the annual dressing ceremony with St John’s Church.

This is the fifth year that the well dressing has been created in paint and collage with fresh cut flowers.  This historic well feeds the Leat in Cheap Street and was once part of the town’s water supply.

The decoration on the boards was designed and drawn by Alison and John Henderson and then given to local schools to paint and collage. Berkley, Hayesdown, and St John’s first schools took part, along with members of St John Ambulance Badger group.

The theme for this year is “Who is my Neighbour?” Alison Henderson said, “Berkley School have decorated the board depicting images from last year’s flooding in Somerset, with the texts “When I needed a neighbour” and ”Love your neighbour as yourself”;  Hayesdown’s board depicts the parable of the Good Samaritan;  and St John’s board shows the many ways in which we can help our neighbours. The top board depicts scenes typically seen on the news of the experience of refugees around the Mediterranean.  The Badgers have produced a fantastic aid convoy carrying a wealth of gifts for people in need.  The text ‘Blessed are the Peacemakers’ refers to the fundamental need for all people to be safe and secure and to honour all those who try to make this possible.

“The flowers decorating the Well were brought and arranged by children from St John’s First School. All of the children participating were able to select and personalise a range of faith and humanist symbols which have been used to decorate the borders of the boards to emphasise that our neighbour can be anybody in need and not restricted by creed or ethnicity.

“In the famous legal case of Donoghue -v- Stevenson in 1932 the judge Lord Atkin, considering the question “Who is my neighbour?” reasoned that it was anyone who might be affected either in a good or a bad way by things we do or do not do – which echoes Jesus’  message contained in the story of the Good Samaritan.”