Funeral for Gary Benfold

I made my way down to Bournemouth yesterday for the funeral of Gary Benfold. The actual burial was a family affair beforehand but a large number gathered in Lansdowne Evangelical Church for the memorial service. Refreshments were served afterwards. Gary's good friend Chris Kelly led the service and did so very well. Gary had planned most of the service - the hymns (mostly traditional) and the text Chris was to preach on (Job 19:25). Tributes were given (and done very well) by his two children. I did not know most of the people there but it was good to chat with my old friends from London Seminary days Bernard and Linda Lewis and Chris and Serena Durrant. Chris is a pastor in Bournemouth and was contemporary with my oldest son at the seminary. Also Peter Baker, pastor at Lansdowne, Chris and Jim Sayers who first knew Gary when both in Aylesbury. I also spoke to Gary's son-in-law. Others I would like to have spoken to but did not get to do so.

I first met Gary when he was beginning his second year in London Seminary and I my first. He had already taken up the pastorate and had a young family. Much of the time he spent in Aylesbury but sometimes he was back to the single ife in seminary and one fond memory is being driven in his car with others to MacDonalds in Golders Green (no longer there). That was my first experience of such delights. Although I did not keep up a proper friendsip with Gary (he was always ahead of me in everything at first - marriage, driving, pastorate, theological thinking, etc) I always appreciated speaking with him in person or by other means and admired his solidity, down to earth approach and friendliness. People would soemtimes confuse us I understand merely beasue we're both Gary B.

Gary was not 70 and it is amazing to think that he has been taken from us so soon. Great for him but hard for Elaine and the family.

His son shared with us that the last sermon that he heard on the Sunday before he went to hospital the last time was Geoff Thomas on YouTube asking "Are you satisfied with what Jesus has done for you?" Apparently every time my father-in-law asked the question Gary was enthusiastically saying 'Yes!'. It was apparently powerful stuff and it deeply moved Gary. Andy said "On that morning, let me tell you, dad was satisfied with what Jesus had done for him."

(There seem to be two versions of that sermon on YouTube. Not sure which one Gary heard but this is one of them.)

Ian Parry on William Carey for the Evangelical Library

 

We had an excellent lunch time zoom lecture on Monday from Ian Parry, speaking on William Carey. Normally we have all the ostroy and then a few applications but this was shaped in an applicatory way and so was mor epointed and led to a decent discussion time too. Ian's point about Carey was that unlike us he was surrounded by prevailing corporate prayer due to an initiative from Jonathan Edwards and others before him; there was also a lot of theological confidence in the air and not ust because of the millennial positon many took; thirdly, there was a deep resilience and persistence that comes out in Carey's familiar story (See here for the lecture). We are very thankful to Ian for this very helpful and stimulating lecture.

Next month we travel from Cardiff, Wales to Inverness, Scotland, from where Dr Nick Needham will give us a lecture on Robert  Dabney. Again on zoom, it is on October 21. Details from The Library.

Lord's Day September 15 2024

We had a good turn out last Sunday morning and about 15 in the evening to hear Eddie on Psalm 73, which is not so bad. In the morning I preached the penultimate sermon on The Sermon on the Mount. I hope it was searching. We had lunch together at the end of the morning sermon. Always good. These are tough times for some but we press on.

10 Orders of Monks or Such like

I forget why I was thinking about this but here they are
1 Augustinians
2 Benedictines
3 Cistercians
4 Carthusians
5 Dominicans
6 Franciscans
7 Gilbertines

8 Capuchins
9 Cluniacs
10 Trappists

10 Puritans who studied at Emmanuel, Cambridge

J C Ryle notes that Sir Walter Mildmay of Chelmsford in Essex was the founder of Emmanuel College and even from its very foundation in 1585 it seems to have been notorious for its attachment to Puritan principles. Fuller in his History of Cambridge relates that on Sir Walter Mildmay coming to court soon after he had founded his college Queen Elizabeth said to him 'Sir Walter I hear you have erected a puritan foundation'. 'No madam' saith he 'far be it from me to countenance anything contrary to your established laws but I have set an acorn which when it becomes an oak God alone knows what will be the fruit thereof'. 'Sure I am' adds Fuller writing about 1650 'at this day it hath overshadowed all the university more than a moiety of the present masters of colleges being bred therein.' The number of leading divines of the seventeenth century who were educated at Emmanuel is certainly extraordinary.

1. William Gurnall
2. Matthew Poole
3. John Preston
4. Ralph Venning
5. Thomas Watson
6. Stephen Charnock
7. William Bridge
8. Jeremiah Burroughs
9. John Cotton
10. Anthony Burgess

(Also Bishop Hall, Bishop Bedell, Stephen Marshall, Thomas Sheppard, Thomas Hooker, Ezekiel Culverwell, Ralph Cudworth, Laurence Chaderton,  Anthony Tuckney, Lazarus Seaman, etc)

Westminster Conference 2024

The Westminster Conference for 2024 is now out. Programme:

Day 1 3 December

10.30am

The Council of Nicaea

Stephane Simonnin

1.30pm

Salter’s Hall Debates

Gary Brady

3.45pm

Greatheart: A Portrait of a Pilgrim-Pastor

Brad Franklin

Day 2 4 December

10.30am

Luther and the Peasants’ War

Phil Arthur

1.30pm

Bullinger and the Decades

Florian Weicken

3.45pm

John Elias

Alun Ebenezer

This time we have anew venue in Islington.

The Lonely Londoners

I found this book in the house the other day. It was given a way with The Times a few years ago. It is well written but in a convincing West Indian style, sometimes with little punctuation. The scope is too thin for it to be a great novel and the unsavoury nature of certain parts was unhelpful. It captures the WIndrush generation's experience to some extent and is very interesting. Sam Selvon died in 1994.

Midweek Meeting September 11 2024

A small number gathered last Wednesday to look at the final part of Romans and then to pray. We all prayed in turn. A good spirit.

Day Off Week 37 2024

A fairly typical day off last Tuesday with lots of reading, a coffee, some blogging and TV in the evening. I also continue to work on cataloguing books in Librarything and getting rid of as many as I can.

New Westminster Conference website up and running

You will be interested to know that a new website for The Westminster Conference is now up and running. See here.

10 Writers Called Thomas

 



1 Dylan Thomas (1914–1953, E), poet
2 Gwyn Thomas (1936–2016, W), poet and academic
3 Gwyn Thomas (1913–1981, E), novelist
4 Ned Thomas (b 1936, EW), critic and editor
5 (Philip) Edward Thomas (1878-1917)
6 Leslie Thomas (1931–2014, E), novelist
7 R S Thomas (1913–2000, EW), poet
8 William Thomas (Gwilym Marles, 1834–1879, W), poet and minister
9 David Thomas (Dewi Hefin, 1828–1909, W), poet and schoolteacher
10 Ebenezer Thomas (Eben Fardd, 1802–1863, W), poet


(The above writers wrote in E(nglish) or W(elsh) or both)

10 Heresies Edward Wightman was accused of

I read recently of a man called Edward Wightman (1566-1612). He was the last person in this country to be burned at the stake for heresy. According to Wightman, Bishop Neile, the last to examine him, told him "that unless I did recant my opinions he would burn me at a stake in Burton before Allholland day next". Interestingly the final verdict and list of charges included as many as ten heretical groups.

The wicked heresies of

and other arch heretics, and moreover, of other cursed opinions belched by the instinct of Satan".

1. Ebion (Ebionites taught that Jesus and the Christ are two different beings, and, therefore, the Christ is an angel of God)

2. Cerinthus (his followers believed that Jesus, the offspring of Joseph and Mary, received Christ at his baptism as a divine power revealing the unknown Father. This Christ left Jesus before the Passion and the Resurrection.)

3. Valentinian (who held to Gnostic and dualistic heresies)

4. Arius (Arianism denied the true divinity of Jesus Christ taking various specific forms, but all agreeing that Jesus Christ was created by the Father, that he had a beginning in time, and that the title "Son of God" was a courtesy one)

5. Macedonius (Macedonians accepted the divinity of Jesus Christ as affirmed at Nicaea in 325, but denied that of the Holy Spirit which they saw as a creation of the Son, and a servant of the Father and the Son.)

6. Simon Magus (mentioned in the Bible as one who wanted to buy apostolic gifts with money. Simony came to be used for anyone wanting to buy or sell ecclesiastical privilege)

7. Manes (or Mani, who founded Manicheeism)

8. Manichees (a major dualistic religion stating that good and evil are equally powerful, and that material things are evil)

9. Photinus (who taught that the Logos was simply a mode of manifestation of the Father, hence denying the pre-existence of Christ)

10. Anabaptists (who not only opposed infant baptism but often taught other unbiblical ideas)

Lord's Day September 8 2024

Numbers were down a bit last Lord's Day for various reasons but we were nearly 40 in the morning and ten in the evening. I had to remind myself to be thankful for those who were there. I preached in the morning on false teachers (from the Sermon on the Mount) and on 2 Chronicles 2 in the evening. In the morning there was a new Iranian sat with two others who have begun to come in recent weeks. This third one has his asylum, unlike the other two, and was most recently living in Halifax. (Oddly someone had contacted me last week about an Iranian woman he knows who has just moved to the area. She hopes to come next week.)

Door to door in diverse Childs Hill

My assistant Eddie and I try and do door to door work on a Friday. Last Friday we tackled one of the three high rise blocks of flats in the area. Most of the residents of the sixty flats were out but we caught some in and chatted to one or two. It struck me again the diversity of the area. We met people whose roots are Somali, Kenyan, Indian, Bangladeshi, Portuguese, Iranian, etc (my Ghanaian friends were out). Religiously, there were those of Muslim, Hindu, Quaker, Anglican and Pentecostal persuasion (I know that some JWs also live in this block).

Midweek Meeting September 4 2024

We carried on with Romans 6 last night. There were nine of us there. We looked at verses 6-14. We then prayed about everything from Ukraine to Grenfell to beach missions to accommodation to next Sunday. Nearly everyone took part praying aloud. This is the place to be.

Day Off Week 37 2024

Last Tuesday was a day of reading and various other things, including further work on a project I have in hand. I am also working on getting rid of my large collection of sermon manuscripts. I threw another large pile away - the last of the print outs hanging around in my study. All these should be on my computer in electronic form so it is not hard to throw them but next the pre-98 handwritten sermons will have to go. There was time for a coffee and some TV in the evening too.

Lord's Day September 1 2024

We began as we do on the first Sunday of the month with communion. Good to be there. I then preached to about 40 on the next two verses in the Sermon on the Mount. A lady we met on the doors on Friday who was eager to come did not show. Otherwise, we had a few visitors and some missing. Still settling in, I suppose. In the evening our Tamil friends from last week did not return and we were quite a small number. A bit depressing in some ways. I launched out into 2 Chronicles.  

Midweek Meeting August 28 2024

Just the eight of us looking at Romans 6:1-5 and praying agian last week. So good to be there.

Day Off Week 35 2024

We're beginning to get back into routine after the holidays and so last week I had a marked day off. Unusually, beside the usual coffee and reading and a little work ona writing project I have in hand I actually spent time with my wife. It was our anniversary and so we arranged to go in to town. First we ate at Zizzi's on Wigmore Street (with some help from Tesco's vouchers) and then we went to see Hello Dolly with Imelda Staunton at the Palladium. My wife is the musical fan. I couldn't get beyond admiring it. Musicals just don't do it for me. Excellent production I could see, though, and enjoyed the theme song in the second half.

10 Contrasts in Matthew 7

1. Two gates, one narrow and one wide

2. Two roads, one narrow and one broad

3. Two destinations, life or destruction

4. Two groups, one with a few and one with many

5. Two sorts of tree, one good and one bad

6. Two sorts of fruit, good fruit and bad fruit

7. Two sorts of profession, one true and one false

8. Two sorts of hearer, one who hears and puts into practice what Jesus says and one who hears but does not put these things into practice

9. Two sorts of housebuilder, one wise who builds on rock and one foolish who builds on sand

10. Two houses, one that did not fall and one that falls with a great crash