Minister’s Message – Page 9 – Christchurch United Church

Minister’s Message – Remembrance Sunday

November 13, 2022

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!

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Minister’s Message – November 6, 2022

November 9, 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.

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Minister’s Message – October 30, 2022

October 30, 2022

On September 3^rd 1966 a special excursion train ran from Glasgow to Aberdeen to mark the withdrawal of one of the most famous classes of steam locomotive, Sir Nigel Gresley’s “A4 Pacifics”. Thirty years earlier an engine of this class named “Mallard” achieved the speed record for steam traction which has never officially been beaten.

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Minister’s Message – October 16, 2022

October 17, 2022

I’m sure that we’ve all seen the film of “The Snowman”, based on the book by Raymond Briggs who died earlier this year. This enchanting film first appeared on Christmas Eve 1982 and has been shown every year since, which means that it’s now delighting the grandchildren of the original viewers. It’s famous not only for its magical artwork but also for its music by Howard Blake – this includes the song “Walking in the Air” which, contrary to popular belief, wasn’t sung by Aled Jones but a chorister from St Paul’s Cathedral called Peter Auty: Jones’ record came out in 1985 and made him a star, while Auty wasn’t even mentioned in the film’s credits until it was remastered 20 years later.

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Minister’s Message – October 2, 2022

October 4, 2022October 17, 2022

It strikes me (and I may be wrong) that our society has witnessed a loss of faith over the last years and decades. For instance, many people no longer trust mainstream news media such as the BBC as they believe they’re peddling the “fake news” which the Government would like us to hear, What’s strange is that they then turn to social media and seem willing to believe things which are unsubstantiated or bizarre! We have also lost our faith in politicians, whether to give straight answers to questions, to keep their promises, or to “deliver” on their policies. I’d suggest that the behaviour of some – not all! – politicians hasn’t made it easy for us to put our trust in them.

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Minister’s Message – September 18,2022

September 18, 2022

When I was a child, the buses that passed our house were red and the telephone vans were dark green. The trains that came through our local station were hauled by steam locomotives, and ambulances rang bells when they were rushing to an emergency. Our house was heated by coal fires, the “News Chronicle” was delivered each morning, we played records on the gramophone, and we listened to “The Archers” on the wireless every evening (we didn’t have a television as my parents thought it was a bit “common”). If we were away from our home and wanted to call someone, we had to find a phone box (and hope that we had 4d to put in the slot). Much of the world map was coloured pink, Harold Macmillan was Prime Minister and Queen Elizabeth was on the throne. Life seemed well-ordered, secure and fixed in stone.

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Minister’s Message – September 11, 2022

September 12, 2022

I suspect that most of you will know that No. 221b Baker Street, London, was the street address of Sherlock Holmes, the famous detective. Of course the detective and the house number only existed in the imagination of the author, Arthur Conan Doyle.

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Minister’s Message – September 4, 2022

September 6, 2022

Beaumaris Castle, which we visited on our recent holiday in Anglesey, has been called the most beautiful and most technically perfect castle in Britain. It’s not as large as Caerphilly, it doesn’t sit on a dramatic cliff like Chepstow, it doesn’t dominate its adjoining town like Conwy and Harlech. But it does have an ingenious symmetrical concentric design of “walls within walls” and it includes a moat, four lines of fortifications and hundreds of arrow slits, not to mention inner passageways, a portcullis and “murder holes” at the entrance. This was “state of the art” military architecture of the late 13^th century, and a triumph for its designer, James of St George.

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Minister’s Message – August 21, 2022

August 21, 2022

Back in Queen Victoria’s day, Tacket Street Congregational Chapel was the poshest Nonconformist place of worship in Ipswich. It wasn’t where the so-called “County Set”, the landed gentry and gentleman farmers attended: they attended the Parish Church. But Tacket Street was where you’d find the merchants, the business owners, the folk who made their money in trade (although possibly without dirtying their own hands in the process!) On Sunday mornings these highly respectable people would make their way to the Chapel for worship; they would return home to a sumptuous lunch and then engage in “improving” – but never frivolous! – activities such as reading, leading a “Pleasant Sunday Afternoon” meeting for the poor (intended to keep them out of the pubs) and finishing off by singing hymns around the piano. No work was to be done on a Sunday; entertainment and humour were strictly forbidden. For this was the Sabbath, the day of rest, dedicated to the worship and contemplation of God.

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Minister’s Message – August 14, 2022

August 14, 2022

Earlier this year, on March 2^nd to be precise, Dreweatts auction house in Newbury held a sale which must have had collectors salivating in anticipation. For this was no ordinary sale, but the disposal of the collection which had been on display at the Barometer World Museum in Devon (one wonders if it hadn’t succeeded in drawing the crowds).

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