Lord's Day February 25 2024

Busy day last Sunday as I not only preached morning adn evening in Childs Hill but in the afternoon also for the Korean church that uses our building in the afternoons. Their pastor is in Korea having an eye operation. Lovely to be with them. Our morning congregation was again a little lower than it has been (still half term?). Yet another new Iranian there - will we see him again? Another Iranian has just been moved a further hour out so I'm not ure if we will see much of her again. I carried on in the Sermon on the Mount and in the evening gave my penultimate sermon on Job.

Wales bad to worse

Wales's woeful six nations continues. They lost to England by just two points on February 10 (16-14) and then to Ireland last Saturday, 31-7. France next but on a Sunday so I won't watch that live. It's a young team with many new caps so perhaps there's hope for the future.

Midweek Meeting February 21 2024

We were just under double figures at the midweek meeting this week. Eddie carried on with his series on prayer, looking at Paul's prayers in Colossians (and Epaphrad wrestling). We had a good time of prayer too.

Day Off Week 8 2024

The main thing last Tuesday was reading, mostly at home but I did get out for a coffee at some point. My art book for the day was on the Pre-Raphaelites, which I enjoyed. I also finished John Steinbeck's little novella The Pearl which I very much enjoyed. Still reading the Charlemagne book and the amusing field guide to clergy.

Lord's Day February 18 2024

As I expected, numbers were down last Sunday as many were away. Trying not to be discouraged. I preached the next sermon in the new series on the Sermon on the Mount. In the evening Eddie preached to the usual smaller number from Exodus 16.

Brady's Coffee

 

My sister spotted this in Ireland and bought us some. I haven't tasted it yet. More here.

One Love

May be biopic (I said bi-opic for years but it shoud be bio-pic, of course) is my favourite genre of movie. I've seen three in the last little while (Maestro, One Life, One Love). I saw One Love in the cinema last week and really enjoyed it. Critics have been divided but I thought it did what it set out to do. How accurate it was I don't know. What I noticed was how brief Marley's life was (he died at 36) and how idealistic he was. Rastafarian beliefs really hold no water but I woould guess Christians come across like that to some. In the end it was great music that put Bob Marley so high in people's estimation. What his impact was otherwise it is hard to say.

Midweek Meeting February 14 2024

Seven of us came together to study the Word and pray the other night. (Plus one or two online). We did a one off on Psalm 147 to begin. I tried to be a bit more interactive. We then discussed prayer matters before praying. People were a little slow to pray I thought.

Day Off Week 7 2024

A good day on Tuesday. I was going to read about Post-impressionists but my copy had been damaged at some point before I bought it so I had to bin that and turn to the one on Expressionists (Schiele, Munch, etc). Didn't enjoy them as much as the impressionists. I worked on one or two of my other blogs, including this one here. In the afternoon Eleri and I went to see One Life the olm about Nicholas Winterton and his rescue of children from Prague in the thirties. Very moving. When we came out of the cinema we heard of the death of Steve Wright, who we have both enjoyed over the years. An emotional moment after such a film. No pancakes today but we enjoyed hoe made burgers and then watched the last in the current series of BBC's Silent Witness. We enjoy it but it is a funny old series with more quirks than Quirky Mcquirky.

Who should take the Lord's Supper?

I have been looking at this subject for some time now and on Monday I delivered a paper to the Westminster Fellowship. We were to have met on February 5 but the train strike menat it was moved and that was a good idea as there were more than 20 present. We had a good discussion after before and after lunch, moving on to one or two other matters in the process. Excellent charimanship from Paul Yeulett of Grove Chapel, Camberwell. Nice to meet his new assistant, David Hendircks. My father-in-law and I had lunch with him. Nice moment when David said his wife was German and Geoff could say his wife is too. I will try and get it into shape for a magazine article.

Lord's Day February 11 2024

 

Last Lord's Day was special in that we had a visiting preacher, Jeff Haskins from Lancaster, who preached very well from Isaiah 40 and Acys 5:12, and we had lunch together after the morning meeting. For the third Sunday in a row we were packed in the morning. No sign of anything happening in the evening yet. These are encouraging times then. As ever, there are pople missing, however.

10 Impressionist Artists

1. Claude Monet
2. Edouard Manet
3. Pierre Auguste Renoir
4. Camille Pissarro
5. Alfred Sisley
6. Berthe Morisot
7. Mary Cassat
8. Frédéric Bazille
9. Gustave Caillebotte
10. Paul Cezanne

Midweek Meeting February 7 2024

We were quite a small number on Wednesday for the midweek meeting (five), although a few (two or theree) were able to join us online. There seems ot be quite a bit of sickness about still. We looked to the final verses of Galatians, all written in Paul's own hand. This was followed by a brief time of prayer.

Day Off Week 6 2024

Tuesday was taken up with some traditional activites such as reading about art, buying cheese, having coffee, etc. I spent a while in West Hampstead (browsing the charity shops, reading in the library, having lunch in Chipotle). The art book I read was the one in the Parragon series on The Impressionists. I alos read more of the books I mentioned last week. The cheese I wanted (stinking bishop) was not in West Hampstead but I was able to get it in Hampstead. Had a nice chat with my sister on the 'phone there. Eleri out all day and evening. In the evening, I watched the film Maestro about Leonard Bernstein. Like so many geniuses he was rather self-centred and hard to live with and not someone you would want to know. Felt rather ill towards the end of the day, my sinuses I would guess (it felt like toothache).

Lord's Day February 4 2024

Bit slow with this but we had a great day last Sunday. We began with a communion service at which we welcomed in three new members, all of whom have grown up under the Koran. Then there were around sixty once again in the morning service as I began a series on the Sermon on the Mount. Many are Iranians but there were two new Chinese ladies too (one from Taiwan, one from Singapore). In the evening we were a much smaller bunch. We looked at Job 38.

Rugby 2024

The six nations is underway. I watched a bit of Ireland France and Italy England. Italy came so close! My father-in-law came over to watch the Welsh game (several relatives including my sister were there in the ground). It was certainly a game of two halves if there ever was one - embarrassing for forty minutes and then nail biting, skilful stuff that so nearly ended in victory for Wales. (I can't shake the niggling thought that one Welsh player giving away a penalty with a silly prank cost us the game but it is not that simple).

At the game they paid tribute to Welsh players who have died in the last year. The one that meant most to us all was JPR Williams who died last month. And then yesterday they announced that Barry John had died. Another immense figure in Welsh rugby.

Midweek Meeting January 31 2024

Eight of us gathered on Wednesday with one or two on zoom. We looked at Galatians 6:7-10 and then spent time in prayer. Good times.

Day Off Week 5 2024

Today's day of was a bit different becasue I had arranged to meet someone and the gas engineer had to be here to fix our boiler. I did manage to get out of the house to wonderful West Hampstead, where I bought some cheese (haven't done that for a while) and picked up a secondhand book I have had my eye on since it came out. Anopther book came by post (Days of Glory). I am also reading a fascinating book on Charelmagne one of my sons bought me for Christmas. In th evening we watched the final episode of The Crown and very moving it was too. Not a bad daydespite a major computer problem.

Subliminal Advertising

I thought subliminal advertising had been outlawed but there on page 171 of Matthew Roberts Pride it is clear that have paid to the good people who run the Carey Conference and publish RT to advertise their mag subliminally. We should be told.