Minister’s Message – January 8, 2023

They weren’t kings. We don’t know their names. There may or may have been three of them. It’s possible that they rode on – or led – camels. But what we do know is this: they weren’t Jews, they came from the East, they brought valuable gifts, and – eventually – they were able to present them and pay the homage befitting a new crown prince. And then, having, we are told, “returned home by a different route”, the Magi vanish from the pages of the Bible, never to be heard of again. So what have I forgotten? Oh yes: they followed a star.

Minister’s Message – Christmas Day

I wonder how many of us watch the TV show “Who do you think you are?” If you’ve never seen it, let me tell you that it’s an ‘ancestry; programme in which celebrities examine their family histories. Not every episode is interesting but some are absolutely fascinating; I particularly remember one about Stephen Fry; he may appear to be a quintessential English gentleman but his maternal grandparents were Slovakian Jews who in 1927 were ‘head-hunted’ to come to Britain and run the new sugar factory in Bury St Edmunds. That saved their lives as many of their relatives later perished in the Nazi death camps. I wonder how many of us have traced back our own family histories and, if so, how far we’ve managed to get: a century, two centuries, or even more?

Minister’s Message – Christmas Eve

Over the last few years the “Songs of Praise” TV programme, the BBC Classical Music Magazine and the Classic FM radio station have all run opinion polls, trying to find out which Christmas carol is Britain’s favourite. I suspect that the outcome of these surveys has a lot to do with who’s being asked, but the results are surprisingly consistent. One carol that is always at, or near, the top of the list is “In the bleak midwinter”. And many of you will agree with one enthusiastic writer who asked, “Does any other carol get to the very heart of Christmas as understatedly but effectively as this?” and went on to declare that “Christina Rossetti’s poem is nigh-on perfect as a carol text”.

Minister’s Message – December 18, 2022

The news has been filled recently by what we might call small-scale tragedies. Among other sad happenings there were the fishermen who drowned when their boat collided with a ferry off the coast of Jersey and the would-be migrants who died when their dinghy capsized in the English Channel. The island of Jersey itself saw the devastating gas explosion which demolished a block of flats in the early hours of one morning and killed nine people. We heard about that house fire in Pembrokeshire where a husband and wife perished, of the two small boys apparently murdered in east London, and the revellers killed and injured in the concert crush in Brixton. And, of course, we were all shocked by the deaths of the children who fell through the ice on the lake in Solihull – an appalling story, albeit tinged with heroism.

Minister’s Message- December 4, 2022

“Voices in the wilderness”.

In autumn 1931 the great Indian leader Mohandas Gandhi visited Britain. His passion for independence, his advocacy of fair trade and support for the poor were already known, and the visit was a personal triumph, widely reported in the media. During Gandhi’s time in Britain he met national figures such as the Archbishop of Canterbury, Lloyd George and Charlie Chaplin, and visited centres of learning and culture such as Oxford, Cambridge and Eton. True to his ideals, he also went to poor places including London’s East End and the mill towns of Lancashire, still in the grip of Depression, where he was received with enthusiasm. The one person who refused to meet Gandhi was Winston Churchill, who sneeringly called him a “rebel fakir”.

Minister’s Message – Remembrance Sunday

Growing up in the late 1950s at a time when people in Britain – we were told – had “never had it so good”, I used to look forward to Remembrance Sunday. Instead of meeting for Sunday School in the rather dreary church hall with its own peculiar smell, we joined the crowd that gathered around the War Memorial across the road. Prayers were said, wreaths were laid, we observed the Two Minutes’ Silence, the Last Post was sounded, we wore our poppies with pride, and we all had a cup of tea afterwards. Strangely enough I don’t remember singing any hymns: perhaps that was left for the indoor service in church; nor can I remember it ever raining!

Minister’s Message – November 6, 2022

The biggest question we humans face is probably, “What happens to us when we die?” Is that the end, or is there something more? It’s a question which all the major world religions attempt to answer in one way or another, by saying that the human soul enters nirvana or goes to a paradise garden, or that we are reincarnated to live again in a different form. Christianity has its own specific and detailed doctrines of a bodily resurrection and the hope of life in glory with God, for which Jesus has blazed the trail. These beliefs comfort us, especially when we’ve recently lost someone very dear to us; they also encourage us to keep plodding along the pilgrim path in the hope of a heavenly reward. The problem of course is that we have no way of proving the truth of our beliefs: we simply have to have the faith that they are not false.