Dear friends,
Karen and I had a lovely holiday last week, and while we were away we had a chance to catch up with family and friends we haven’t seen for quite a while. We had an opportunity to eat out in some of our favourite places and have trips out to some of our favourite haunts. We enjoyed spending the morning of Sunday 30th October at
Calverley Methodist Church, the chapel I attended as a boy with my parents and brother. I always find it a strange experience standing and preaching to people who taught me in Sunday School many years ago now, people who shaped my faith, and somehow managed to keep both my brother an I firmly engaged in the life of the Church whilst
most of our contemporaries moved away from the Church. Standing at the lectern now, because the congregation is quite small, a total of twenty people, I scanned the building and could see the faces of literally dozens of people who have attended that Church over the years and are either in glory now, or have moved on to different places.
The whole experience of being back home reminded me how things have changed in the seventeen years that we have been away. It is always good to go back, but each time we do so, we accept that our life is in East Anglia now and is likely to be for the rest of our days, so while it is good to be away, it is also good to be back home again. As we
drove north on Friday 28th October I felt quite negative about our chances of getting a minister to replace our colleague Andrew Sankey when he retires next summer. We were high on the moors above Arkengarthdale when my mobile phone rang and the caller was Liz Cope to say that we had a match in the first round of stationing. The
minister is our first choice, and the Ipswich circuit was his first choice, so we are very hopeful. Representatives from the Churches that will be under his care will meet with him on Saturday 12th November. We are not currently able to divulge any further information, in case things don’t work out, but please keep the Circuit Leadership Team and the Invitations Committee in your prayers this weekend.
This weekend we remember the fallen in the two world wars and being back in Yorkshire last week reminded me of an experience I shared about six or seven years ago with my brother. My home village of Calverley had built a new war memorial and I think that the opening ceremony coincided with the one hundredth anniversary of the outbreak
of World War one, there was a service by the new memorial in Calverley, with some old soldiers present, and members of the armed forces in attendance, as the service drew to a close, we walked through a wildflower meadow, with red poppies among other flowers, the walk was in complete silence, and as we reached the end of our
short walk, we had crossed the boundary into the neighbouring village of Farsley, where the service concluded around their memorial. I found it quite interesting that there was no mention of a Grimshaw on the Calverley monument, but there was an S Grimshaw listed in Farsley, the whole thing was a very moving experience and one
that I will remember for a long time to come.
Over the years, I guess that I have been guilty of paying lip service to the events of this weekend. I grew up hearing stories of the war from my parents and wider family, but it is only during the last few years that I have come to recognise the importance of the occasion. As time goes by, there become fewer people around who can share first
hand experiences of the events of 1939-45, particularly those who were of an age to be called up to fight for king and country. Regardless of how grim the world might look today, we must still remember their courage and conviction that means that we can live in freedom today.
With best wishes.
Derek
