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British tradition focus of event Saturday Iced tea may be a staple of the South, but it won’t be served Saturday morning during a traditional English tea at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church in Benton.  Barbara Moore, above, pours tea for a small group of members of St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church. Shown with her is Brenda Scrimager.
Only hot tea with culinary items that would be found in a British setting will be offered at the event, which is sponsored by the church’s growth team.
 Practicing holding an English tea in preparation for one to be held Saturday at St. Matthew’s Episcopal Church, are, seated, from left, Jessica Bakken, Brenda Scrimager and Jan Handley; standing, Barbara Moore, Kim Bakken and Pat Seegrist. The event is scheduled for 10 a.m., which is 4 p.m. in Great Britain, the traditional time for tea. Tickets are $8 each and are limited in availability. St Matthew’s is at 1112 Alcoa Road in Benton.
The tea will begin at 10 a.m., which is significant to the occasion, church member Barbara Moore said.
“That’s Greenwich Mean Time for 4 p.m. in England, which is the time we traditionally have our tea,” Moore said.
Moore is a native of England, but has lived in this area for a number of years. She is active at St. Matthew’s along with several others people who once called England home.
Several of the former Brits got together last week at Moore’s home in Haskell to stage a tea in preparation for the real thing coming up Saturday at the church. Participants included Jan Handley, who is heading the congregation’s growth team; Brenda Scrimager; Pat Seegrist; and Kim Bakken and her daughter, Jessica.
Space is limited for Saturday’s tea, Handley said.
“We can sell only 50 tickets and we’re asking for an $8 donation,” she said. To reserve tickets, people should call 847-0628.”
“We hope it will be a real success,” Scrimager said. “If it’s well-received this year, we’ll rent a hall next year to make it larger.”
Proceeds from the project will support the church’s outreach ministries, Handley said. Door prizes will be included.
Though St. Matthew’s is not a large congregation – around 110 members — an estimated 8 percent have British roots, the planners of the event noted.
The English influence led to the tea project, Seegrist pointed out.
Handley provided a copy of the actual menu for the tea.
The menu will include sausage rolls, cucumber and salmon sandwiches, scones, egg and tomato sandwiches, sour cream pound cake, salmon sandwiches, shortbread, cucumber sandwiches and bakewell tarts.
Following the tea, tours of St. Matthew’s will be conducted Bakken said. “People want to see inside the church with the red doors,” she said, referring to the double doors at the entrance to the church.
The tours will be conducted by Jamie Bryant, who serves as verger of the congregation.
Bryant has received verger training and will be dressed in traditional verger regalia for Saturday’s event.
The duties of a verger at worship services reportedly are to make certain that all participants are in place for the procession into the sanctuary and to escort the readers to the lectern.
Handley, who works at University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, noted that she has influenced some of her co-workers to become hot tea drinkers.
This wasn’t done without resistance, she said.
“They weren’t interested at first, but now they find it so soothing,” she said. “They even drink it with milk. Some of them say now that everything’s right after a cup of tea.”
Displayed in Moore’s home are several teapots, including the one she used for the mock tea. It plays “My Favorite Things” from the Rodgers and Hammerstein musical The Sound of Music.
Good conversation is an integral part of tea time, Moore noted.
“You never go to an English house that you don’t get a cup of tea and a good chat,” she said.
The preview tea proved her words to be true.
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