Suddenly, the house came alive! Shouts of joy, people rushing to get themselves ready. “What are we going to see?” “Goldfinger! It’s another James Bond film.” “Oh, wow!” The year was 1964. The place – Nairobi! We were ecstatic. We all piled into the car and set off. It took a little while to get out to the Drive-In Cinema at Thika, but we preferred it to the Bellevue near the airport. If we as…
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Although the well-established Spiritualist meetings on a Thursday night at the Village Hall are obviously geared to local people after a bit of spiritual upliftment, guidance and messages from ‘Beyond’, there is more to your Littleport Christian Spiritualists’ group than you might think. Even more than the development circles, healing circles and various regular workshops led by its Pastor, the Right Reverend Nick Brown and his team of ministers would have you assume. Affiliated to…
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I have an ear-worm. Not a wriggly slimy thing in my ear but a song that is going round and round in my head: ‘A time for giving, a time for getting, A time for forgiving, a time for forgetting’ These are lyrics from ‘Mistletoe and Wine’ – a song that doubtless has been heard across the supermarket aisles as we all prepare for Christmas. I will be ready and keen to give out presents…
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A common misconception is that Christianity is all a bit polite, a bit genteel; like tea and buns with the vicar. But No! Christianity consistently challenges us with questions about life, the universe and everything at every turn. As I write, we are moving from harvest time through Advent, to winter and Christmas and throughout it all, there is nothing restrained about the Christian message. The bible readings we use at harvest are drawn from…
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We have beekeepers in our church family at The Vine. Their bees make the most wonderful-tasting honey. Of course they are really God’s bees. Everything we have really comes from God. I’ve been thinking about just how extraordinary bees are. I’m writing this in July, and there are bees of different kinds buzzing around in my garden. They especially seem to like a plant called Lamb’s Ear. I was reading the other day that female…
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Church is a movement, not an exhibit… Let me elaborate. There’s a tale from South America about a family and their prize possession, a wonderful old car. They spend so much time polishing the paintwork, dusting the upholstery, generally checking it over; they really love their car. They spend time sat in the car too, telling stories of journeys with all the hazards you might meet, and also, all the exciting things you might get…
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One of the first lessons I learnt as a Spiritualist, over 21 years ago, was the simple principle that our way of life should make itself open and available to all. Although at the time both myself and the one who taught me that lesson were not ‘officially’ classified as Christian Spiritualists, there is no doubt in my mind that in our hearts we were. I refer to Rev Lyn Gibb-de Swarte. When we both…
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Dear Friends After a number of years my time at Littleport has come to an end. I have enjoyed working here at the Methodist Church and so much alongside other churches in the village. I have found the people warm and friendly and am amazed at the number who have been in Littleport all their lives. Of course, a number go back to the shirt and mac factories but a lot did work on the…
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I decided that this communication to you, had to be on a personal level, because prayer is very personal! Now you might say that I am stating the obvious. But we know that prayer is something about communication between us as individuals experiencing all of life’s ups and downs, and those elevated and loving beings on the other side of life, in the spirit realms of light, who hear our prayer requests and hurry them…
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Once again, I am coming to the end of my time working in Littleport. What a wonderful place it is. I have enjoyed working with my Christian colleagues as well as meeting new people through baptism and funerals. All with different experiences of life and yet have shown me so much of what life is about and how they cope. We have been shocked recently by the evil killing of people of faith in the…
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