Minister's Message
Bible reading: Matthew 25:31-46.
According to an article in the “Nairobi Sunday Standard” (a newspaper I’d never have heard of without the Internet!), there are several things which you must never do when you’re visiting someone ill in hospital.
Read more “Minister’s Message – November 26, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: Matthew 25:14-30.
“Double Your Money” was probably the most successful TV game show of the late 1950s and early 60s. It was famous for its presenter Hughie Green, who constantly interrupted contestants in order to put them off, for its perky young Cockney hostess Monica Rose, and for the soundproof box in which participants could follow the “money trail” to win £1000 – over a year’s wages for most people. Hughie Green wasn’t, I think, a very nice man (although he had a large model railway in his flat above Baker Street station); he was renowned for his many affairs and was a heavy smoker, drinker and drug user. Nevertheless his huckstering style added sparkle to British television at a time when it was all in black-and-white. And here’s some trivia you might not have known: one of the hostesses before Monica Rose was Margaret Smith, who went on to become the famous actress Dame Maggie Smith; and one of the £1000 prize-winners was Bobby Carlton, who answered questions on pop music – would you believe that he flouted the rules by refusing to go into the soundproof box!
Read more “Minister’s Message – November 19, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: selected from Jeremiah 6.
The Second World War was very much a living memory when I was growing up. There were derelict air-raid shelters in the local parkand, bombsites which had yet to be developed. Films such as “The Dam Busters”, “The Wooden Horse” and (a bit later) “633 Squadron“ and “The Guns of Navarone” filled the cinemas. My comics featured stories of plucky Brits fighting dastardly Germans who called their enemies “Schweinhund”. Boys enjoyed assembling (and then destroying) Airfix kits of Spitfires and Messerschmitts. War was made to seem exciting, heroic and even rather fun; perhaps that was a way of helping grown-ups to work their way through the trauma that so many had suffered.
Read more “Minister’s Message – November 12, 2023”
Minister's Message
Bible reading: James 3:1-2, 13-18.
My friends, not many of you should become teachers. As you know, we teachers will be judged with greater strictness than others. All of us often make mistakes. But if a person never makes a mistake in what they say, they are perfect and able to control their whole being.
Read more “Minister’s Message – November 5, 2023”