A blog featuring whatever I fancy, often on the Christian faith but not exclusively
Joseph Chamberlain
I was out and about and I noticed this plaque. I must have passed it many times but I do not recall noticing it before. Joseph Chanberlain (1836-1914) an important statesman in his own time was the father of Neville Chamberlain. The LCC plaque is found near Hiighbury Fields.
EL Zoom Lecture on John Lothrop
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| This plaque is found at Lothrop Hill, Massachusetts, USA |
There was another opportunity on Monday to get together on Zoom and to hear another illustrated lunch time lecture. This one from Norman Hopkins was an obscure one being on the life of John Lothrop (1584–1653). Norman likes a Kent connection which he found but the story begins in Yorkshire and goes on to New England, where Lothrop ministered for nearly twenty years. He was the ancestor of at least four US presidents. Numbers were a little down. Maybe that was the announced subject. If so, people miscalculated. A recording will be available from the Library in due time.
Lords Day September 25 2022
We were the usual decent number last Sunday morning and quite low in the evening. In the morning, although there were several missing (some abroad in America, New Zealand, etc), we were swollen by a new visitor, a South African lady with her son, and more than one old friend. A lady we know who is originally from Eastern Europe and now lives elsewhere was there. It was nice to see her again. There was also a Filipina lady who is now up near Newcastle. She was visiting with her daughter who has just come to this country and works in Chester. I preached evangelistically on John 14:6. In the evening we looked at a wonderful text in Isaaih 49:15, 16.
Baptism in Trowbridge
It was my privilege to be present last Saturday at a baptism in Trowbridge. The baptism took place in Zion Baptist Church, which is the church where John Warburton (1776-1857) was once the minister. We were there mainly becasue ny nephew Osian was being baptised but there were another two baptisms - of an elderly couple, Mrand Mrs Bridges, who had been Anglicans all their lives but were very unhappy that the most recent minister in their local church was a woman who lives with a female companion. All three are reguar members of the congregation that meets in aschool in nearby Hilperton (at Grace Reformed Baptist Church). It was good to see about forty there and we had a nice tea to follow. The opreacher was Geoff Thomas, Osian's grandfather.
Un o'n meibion ar y radio
Our son Gwïon works for UCCF and he was interviewed about that on a Welsh religious news radio programme yesterday in Welsh. You can hear it here at the end at about 21-25 minutes. (Y rhyfel, ie the war in Ukraine was their lead subject. The programme is called Bwrw Golwg (take a look)).
Week of Prayer
Before the pandemic we used to try and have a week of prayer in September and February. We finally got back to it. I arranged four meetings in person and two on zoom. We had between three and ten at the meetings. Two were early meetings at 7.30 am, one a mid-morning coffee time one and one a prayer breakfast. We also had zoom meetings on Tuesday and Wednesday. We also had an officers' meeting the same week and a clean up meeting (which we couldn't make) so it was not an ideal week but it was a good week and I'm gald we have got back to it. Prayer is so important.
Two Days Off Week 38 2022
Yet More Pareidolia
A proof that God exists? A hint at least. I saw this out walking today.
(May be the fact that I'm reading Moby Dick at the moment made a difference).
Lord's Day September 18 2022 Pains Hill
The preacher in Childs Hill yesterday was my former assistant Andrew Lolley. I think they had a good day. I was off into the countryside to preach at Pains Hill, as I do from time to time. The church there is small and getting older and although they have seen one or two conversions and some interest, people are generally apathetic and there is an understandable apprehension about the future. I had a lovely time with old friends in the afternoon. I preached the same sermons as the week beofre with a little tweaking.
Midweek Meeting September 14 2022
We were a small number last night on zoom but plenty prayed. I took us to Isaiah 6 and 8 in light of the current mood in the country. We hope to have a series of prayer meetings next week.
Day Off Week 37 2022
Some reading again this week. I bought Operation Julie in the summer. It is the story of a massive LSD ring (two in fact) in Wales and how it was discovered by detectives. It makes for an interesting story but there are too many characters to keep up. I also did some painting and went out for a coffee and to buy some birthday presents for an upcoming event. In the evening we watched the final episode of BBC's Capture and an episode of ITV's Suspect.
Lord's Day September 11 2022
In the light of recent events we began with a minute's silence and I tried to talk to the children about Queen Elizabeth's tole and faith. I didn't change the sermons as I had already decoded to preach sermons touching on death and disappointment. In the morning we looked at the famous text Romans 6:23. I felt the structure needs reworking. In the evening I preached on a phrase from Genesis 42:36 Everything is against me. We were a good number in the morning but we were quite few in the evening. However, we had two visitors - an old friend and someone we had never seen before. I hope the fresh visitor comes again but I feel like there would be a steep learning curve ahead.
The fraternal again
It was good last Wednesday to meet up again with minister friends for our monthly fraternal, when we walk across the Heath. I think we were about nine this time round, including someone I'd not really met before. It was also someone's birthday and he very kindly stood us all drinks at the cafe halfway along. Good times.
Midweek Meeting September 7 2022
Our midweek meeting was the night before the Queen's death on the eighth. Her illness was a matter of prayer but not a major one. So much has happened sine then. As I recall we looked at those wonderful verses in Philippians 4:4-7cand a good time of prayer though a little short. We were about twelve altogether on zoom.
Beginning of the reign of Charles III
I read somewhere a rumour that Charles did think of dropping the obvious title (George VII may be). He has not done that and so links his name with those of a beheaded man and a lecher. Hopefully he will be far better than those two in the short time he has.
Death of Queen Elizabeth II
I am not a monarchist but the death of the Queen today s a highly significant event. The former prime minister has eloquently summed up what most of us are feeling.
This is our country's saddest day. In the hearts of every one of us there is an ache at the passing of our Queen, a deep and personal sense of loss - far more intense, perhaps, than we expected.
In these first grim moments since the news, I know that millions and millions of people have been pausing whatever they have been doing, to think about Queen Elizabeth, about the bright and shining light that has finally gone out.
She seemed so timeless and so wonderful that I am afraid we had come to believe, like children, that she would just go on and on.
Wave after wave of grief is rolling across the world, from Balmoral - where our thoughts are with all the Royal Family - and breaking far beyond this country and throughout that great Commonwealth of nations that she so cherished and which cherished her in return.
As is so natural with human beings, it is only when we face the reality of our loss that we truly understand what has gone. It is only really now that we grasp how much she meant for us, how much she did for us, how much she loved us.
As we think of the void she leaves, we understand the vital role she played, selflessly and calmly embodying the continuity and unity of our country.
We think of her deep wisdom, and historic understanding, and her seemingly inexhaustible but understated sense of duty. Relentless though her diary must have felt, she never once let it show, and to tens of thousands of events — great and small — she brought her smile and her warmth and her gentle humour —and for an unrivalled 70 years she spread that magic around her Kingdom.
This is our country's saddest day because she had a unique and simple power to make us happy. That is why we loved her. That is why we grieve for Elizabeth the Great, the longest serving and in many ways the finest monarch in our history.
It was one of her best achievements that she not only modernised the constitutional monarchy, but produced an heir to her throne who will amply do justice to her legacy, and whose own sense of duty is in the best traditions of his mother and his country.
Though our voices may still be choked with sadness we can say with confidence the words not heard in this country for more than seven decades.
God Save The King.
RT HON BORIS JOHNSON MP
Day Off Week 36 2022
We are beginning to get back to more regular patterns and so on Tuesday it was my official day off. I like to read on those days and so I picked up a book I bought on holiday in a charity shop. It is Melvyn Bragg on Twelve Books the changed the world. It came out in 2006 and was apparently accompanied by a series of four programmes on ITV, each an hour long. Not that I noticed. The books he chose are all English ones and some are not quite what you would call books Some were a bit sniffy about it but I enjoyed it (not quite finished as I write).
In the end he went for
Principia Mathematica by Isaac Newton; Married Love by Marie Stopes; Magna Carta; the Rules of Association Football' On the Origin of Species by Darwin; On the Abolition of the Slave Trade by Wilberforce; A Vindication of the Rights of Woman by Mary Wollstonecraft' Experimental Researches in Electricity by Faraday' Richard Arkwright's patent specification for his "Spinning Machine"; The King James Bible; The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith; The First Folio by William Shakespeare.
by including the KJV and Darwin and Newton and Faraday and Magna Carta for that matter Bragg has to touch on higher things and he does on those books and others and whole not forsaking the liberal humanist stance he has long embraced I thought he was pretty judicious and is well worth a read.
In the middle of the day I popped in to Chipotle for lunch and in the evening watched an episode of the crime drama Ridley that we had recorded.
Funeral of our oldest member
Having said goodbye to our longest serving members, as they move house, last Sunday, on Monday we said an even more permanent goodbye to our oldest member Mike Smith (95) who died last month. It was a small funeral - just family, friends a few church members. It was a burial which I'm sure is the best way to do things. We had a bite to eat back at the chapel. Mike has three sons but none of them have embraced the faith in the way he did all those years in Bangalore. We have not had much contact with him during the pandemic but we will miss him still.
Lord's Day September 4 2022
Last Sunday began with communion and then I preached on phrase from Colossians 3:11, making good use of material from Puritan writers, especially Samuel Ward. In the evening I preached the last in the series on Song of Songs. We were saying goodbye to our longest serving members before their move to Pembrokeshire so that was hard but we were welcoming in three new members at the communion too so not all sadness. We had quite a few around for lunch which was nice.
Funeral Back Home
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| Pontrhydyrynn Baptist Chapel |
Back in the early seventies, I was converted. I lived on a housing state that, by the grace of God, surrounded a church that began in 1815. The church began well but got itself in a bit of a mess. However, when I was three or four they called a good though flawed man called Derek Garwood who preached the gospel and not only was I converted but many other young people too - Paul, Julie, John, Michael, Carol, Chris, Stephen, Fay, David, Gail, Paul, etc, etc. Not all the young people who made connection with the church were converted, of course, but many went on to serve faithfully in different places.
Last month one of these "young people" died. He was 64. David Morgan must have been converted within a month or two after I was converted. I didn't know him well but he was one of the older ones you looked up to who took the things of God seriously and loved the Lord. I was eager to be at his funeral, which took place in our home church. Not all the old gang were there but many were and also the present and former ministers, Steve Levy from Swansea, Mike and Jayne Leaves, members of the Morgan clan and many others,
David married a girl from Swansea, Gillian, and they spent some years in the north east but he was mostly a Cwmbran boy, a chemistry teacher by trade and an elder in the church for many years. They had three children and many grandchildren. The service was very evangelistic and we sang many songs (mostly newer ones). How sobering to think that what must be the first of us is now with the Lord.
It is always a little traumatic to be back home. I enjoyed seeing my sister and husband and my niece and many others. Some things stay the same but much changes. Forgot to look at my parents' grave and didn't walk the 200 yards to look at the house where I grew up. May be next time.
10 Elements that make up how Christianity changes the world
Culled from Sharon James
- Freedom
- Religious Liberty
- Justice
- Protecting Life
- The Dignity of Women
- Philanthropy
- Healthcare
- Education for All
- The Creation Mandate and the Value of Work
- A coherent understanding of history: The Triumph of Christ
Midweek Meeting August 31 2022
We began on Philippians 4 last Wednesday. We were a decent number and had a good prayer time. Last midweek meeting for our longest serving members who leave us next week. Poignant.
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