Evangelical Library Lunch Time Lecture Joseph Ivimey

Last Monday we had an excellent Library lecture on zoom from Norman Hopkins on the Baptist pastor and historian Joseph Ivimey 1773-1834.

Ivimey, the eldest of eight was born at Ringwood, Hampshire and brought up under Arian influences, but became a convinced Particular Baptist. He was a tailor at first and came to London finding work but was unsuccessful and returned to the Hampshire, Dorset area, where he became an itinerant preacher. Early in 1803 he was recognised as a minister, and settled as assistant to Robert Lovegrove at Wallingford, Berkshire. He was chosen pastor of the Particular Baptist church, Eagle Street, Holborn, London, in 1804, and was ordained the next year.

From 1812 he was on the committee of the BMS. He was also first secretary of the Baptist Society for Promoting the Gospel in Ireland and visited Ireland in May 1814. In 1817, and again in 1819, he made missionary journeys to the Channel Islands. He believed in strict communion and advocated the abolition of colonial slavery.

He is buried in Bunhill Fields. There is also a tablet to his memory in the boys' schoolroom at Eagle Street.

In Writing 143 Now Out

The latest copy of the Evangelical Library Magazinw is out today.

Lord's Day March 24 2024

I was at Pains Hill Chapel in Surrey once again yesterday. Numbers were just inside or outside single figures but people listened well and there were almost as many in the evening as in the morning. I preached on love and peace from John 3:16 and Philippians 4:13. I had a very pleasant afternoon with a couple from the church and it was good to catch up with them. Eddie preached here.

Midweek Meeting March 20 2024

Seven of us were there last night. We looked at Romasn 2:1-16 and then prayed together. Everyone prayed. What a privilege.

Day Off Week 12 2024

There was some waiting to do yesterday. In the morning for the gas man to fix a leaking boiler, which he wasn't able to do and will have to come back. Then later it was for a new microwave we have bought. I eventually got oout to West Hampsted and had a coffee and bought some cheese (apres soleil - see here). Otherwise, I was working on blogs (especially here), reading the Mike Parker book and watching University Challenge, which I wasn't abe to the day before. On Monday and Tuesday this week I have unusually bought The Times newspaper. I bought them chiefly for the full page obituaries of rockstar Steve Harley and IRA supporter Rose Dugdale. Yesterday I also did several of the puzzles.

Lord's Day March 17 2024

A packed morning congregation once again. That included some visiting family members, a recently retired local pastor and his wife and the brother of a regular attender plus all the usual crowd. Some of the Iranians have just gained asylum but others still wait. It's tough. As we are working through the Sermon on the Mount the subject was divorce Not an easy subject but it seems to have been appreciated. In the evening we had communion then looked at another famos verse  - Philippians 4:13.

Wooden Spoon

 

Mason Grady scores Wales' third try

Sadly, after a fifth and final loss today Wales are defnites for the wooden spoon, Worst for twenty years.

Midweek Meeting March 13 2024

Eight of us were present and all prayed after a message from Eddie on prayer from 1 Thessalonians that included disussion and that made us want to pray.

Carey Conference 2025

A new venue has been amounced for the next Carey Conference. This time it will not be in Swanwick but in King’s Park Conference Centre, Northampton. No reason is given for the move but Carey has often been quite peripatetic and I have attended conferences in Liverpool, Ripon and Swanwick. Earlier conferences were in Cardiff and other places, I believe.

The dates for this coming conference are Tuesday 7th - Thursday 9th January 2025. The main speaker will be Brooks Buser, who served at one time church planting in Papua New Guinea among the Yembiyembi people. He is now President of Radius International, which trains cross-cultural workers for missionary service among unreached people groups.

Day Off Week 11 2024

Another day of reading and working on some of my blogs with TV in the evening after the regular Bible Study up the road.

Lord's Day March 10 2024

We were a decent number Sunday morning but I've just been counting up who was missing and it reaches double figures. We have lost four Iranian refugees who have had to move hotel. There were another 16 at least away for various reasons. It is hard to keep up. I preached the next section in the Sermon on the Mount and in the evening I started a series on famous texts, beginning with John 3:16. I'd hoped to entice sime people oout who don't aready come but it was a wet old day.

Midweek Meeting March 6 2024

About eight of us this last Wednesday (plus one online), looking at Romans 1:18-32 and spending time in prayer. Good time.

Day Off Week 10 2024

Typical day off mainly reading. I didn't quite finish the book on naive art, which I have read before. The day before Eleri had been at the London Welsh Centre and she brought me a signed copy of  book on the Welsh marches by Mike Parker. I started reading it and got through a good chunk of this interesting and well written book. In the evening I held my regular Bible study with an Iranian couple. Back here there was time for a bit of TV.

The Times They were Achanging

I was reading a book yesterday that referred to a famous picture of Bob Dylan at the old Aust Ferry terminal in 1966. I don't remember seeing the picture but it is of interest as if you look, in the distance you can see the almost complete first Severn Bridge (it's just above the car). Before that, of course, the ancient ferry was the only way to avoid making a long roundabout journey to get from Somerset to South Wales.

Lord's Day March 3 2024

We were back to pre-half term numbers last Sunday morning, which was good. In the eening we were our usual small number, just into double figures. We started the day with communion, thinking about Passover. In the main morning meeting we carried on in the Sermon on the Mount and in the evening I gave my final message on Job. It has been good to go through the book once again.

The late Chris Nicholl and his amazing feat

I notice that the footballer Chris Nicholl has died. I didn't know the name but I was interested to read of a game he was in that features in Football's Strangest Matches by Andrew Ward, a book we have somewhere in the house. The game was between Leicester City and Aston Villa at Filbert Street, in March 1976. Chris Nicholl, a Northern Ireland international, who in his career played 648 league games for a number of different clubs, managed to score all four goals. A tall central defender for Villa, he clearly appreciated the symmetry of the game and managed on the occasion to alternate own goals with his "proper" ones for Villa, all spread nicely across the ninety minutes. The first, an own goal, came in the 15th minute, from a shot by a Leicester player which deflected off Nicholl's head. He was able to equalise before the break in the 40th minute, shooting from close range after a scramble in the penalty area. In the second half, he managed, in the 53rd minute, to score a second own goal (his hat trick, you might say, but own goals don't usually count for that honour). He had again headeded past his own keeper. With four minutes to go he was remarkably able to once again cancel out his own effort, this time scoring from a Villa corner.

Exodus 35:18

Exodus 35:18 ... the tent pegs for the tabernacle and for the courtyard, and their ropes; ...

This verse has to have the potential for being one of the least striking verses in the Bible. It is part of a list in connection with the building of the Tabernacle in the wilderness and it is simply saying that someone in Israel made the tent pegs for the Tabernacle itself and for the Courtyard - and also the ropes. Some forgotten character or characters made the tent pegs and ropes. It seems so insignificant a work and yet, of course, without it the Tabernacle never would have stood. If the work had been defective, it would not have stood long. So today all sorts of hidden and seemingly insignificant work goes on in the Kingdom - and must go on. If the tent peg makers and rope makers, the listeners and tea makers and fall down on their job, the whole enterprise is in jeapordy.

Happy St David's Day

 

Most of my grandchildren celebrating today in Wales

Midweek Meeting February 28 2024

Seven of us gathered (plus three online) for our Bible study and prayer meeting. We began a new series on Romans with Romans 1:1-17. I tried to be interactive. Good prayer time too.

Day Off Week 9 2024

Typical day, mostly spent reading and catching up on one or two blogs. From what I can see Post-impressionism is not really a thing just a way of noting how artists took in what impressionism had to say then moved on. Started the Banner biography of Beza. In the evening I did go out for a Bible Study with some friends, postponed from last night when we were seeing my nephew off. In the evening we began watching this futuristic Welsh drama about Port Talbot. Interesting.

Bon Voyage

On Monday night we said bon voyage to my nephew Will who is off to live in Adelaide, Australia, indefinitely. That is a second nephew down under. My nephew on the other side, Iwan, has been in Melbourne for a while now. Both are around 27 and single. Makes sense. It's an awfully long way though.

Latest Lunch Time Lecture at the Library

There was another online lecture on Monday when Dr Ian Densham spoke on Calvin and worship. This is something of a companion piece to a previous lecture on Luther the Wittenberg Nightingale. We were about twenty or so listening in. The lecture can be found here on YouTube (the Luther one is also there - see here and my own lecture given the previous time = see here). The next lunch time lecture online is from Norman Hopkins on Joseph Ivimey, March 25. Our annual lecture is live at the Library and is on June 3, when David Campebell will speak on Alexander Stewart of Moulin.