Queen Elizabeth II

 

Three years ago this week Queen Elizabeth II died at the age of 96 surrounded by her family. In the year of her Platinum Jubilee, the longest serving monarch passed away at her beloved Scottish estate, Balmoral. 

Buckingham Palace made the simple announcement at 6.30pm on Thursday 8 September 2022, stating: "The Queen died peacefully at Balmoral this afternoon. The King and The Queen Consort will remain at Balmoral this evening and will return to London tomorrow."

For 70 years Her Majesty The Queen had been the centre of our culture. The Queen’s image has adorned billions of coins and banknotes and sat proudly on letters carrying good news and bad. Her name has been given to places near and far, buildings, ships and train lines. She sat for hundreds of portraits and inspired thousands more. She had been imitated more than any other public figure, BUT there was only one original. 

On Friday 3 June 2022 Stephen Cottrell, the Archbishop of York delivered the sermon in St Paul's Cathedral during a service to mark and celebrate Her Majesty the Queen's Platinum Jubilee and the very original person she was. On that occasion he reminded us that, “Jesus is worth following because Jesus shows us who God is, and what our humanity could be. And there are many occasions in the gospels where we see Jesus Himself, faithful to His vocation, seeking out places of replenishing so that He can learn God’s way. The purpose of the Christian faith is to know and to do God’s will.

Do you know God as your Father?

 

To be rejected and left alone is a dreadful experience and one which can cause and leave deep emotional and psychological scars for life in those abandoned.  Simone Lang was an Australian school teacher who spent some time in India.  There, she taught in a Christian school to help educate the poor and those who could not afford to go to the state schools.  In the school was a little boy by the name of Jonathan and he lived in a nearby children’s home. 

She got to know the little boy, and gradually he opened up his heart to her as she conversed with him.  His parents had abandoned him when he was three years old and had left him at the children’s home.  They had abdicated all responsibility for him and had left him to be brought up by others who would try to show him some sort of love and kindness.  His parents were still alive and one day he received a letter from them stating that they would come and visit him on a particular day, namely the first day of December.  This gave him a wonderful feeling and he shared his excitement of looking forward to seeing his parents with Simone. She realised that this would be a wonderful day for this little boy. 

How to join the winning side

 

When I was in grammar school many years ago, I can always remember counting how many boys were in my class on the days when football took place.  Inevitably there were some who would have been off ill with some malady or other, but I was always delighted if the absentees were an odd number.

Why?  Well, let me explain.

We were an even number of boys in the class – 32 to be exact – so if an odd number of boys were not in school, it meant there would be an odd number reporting for football that afternoon.

And that was important to me.

Have I captured your curiosity?  Let me explain further.

The Humber Bridge

 

In 1981, a bridge across the Humber Estuary was opened to traffic crossing the estuary from 5 miles west of Kingston upon Hull to Barton on Humber. It was a marvellous feat of engineering, being at the time the longest single span bridge in the world.

The opening did not only provide continuous access day and night across the estuary, but it also brought to an end over 600 years of ferry history. The modern ferry service began in the nineteenth century between Hull and New Holland, a bleak windy place in North Lincolnshire. A pier was built there, which was served by the Barton on Humber to Grimsby and Cleethorpes local train service. It was the quickest and shortest way from Hull to Lincolnshire, thus avoiding a long circuitous journey inland. Over the years, the ferry service was operated by a variety of ships. One of the most well-known was the 594 ton paddle steamer ‘Lincoln Castle’ the last coal fired ship of its kind in Britain, before its withdrawal in 1978.

Leaves or Fruit

Just recently I had a question put to me that, at first, seemed so simplistic as to be ridiculous.

The question was, ”What is the difference between the leaves and fruit of a tree?” My unspoken response was, “Everything!  They are different in shape, in texture, in colour…… the list seemed endless.” But then I went a little further and the question began to make sense. “What is the difference in purpose between the leaves and the fruit?”

I still didn’t grasp the reasoning behind the question until the answer was given. “The leaves are for the benefit of the tree, but the fruit is for the benefit of others.”

Are your children happy?

Children should be happy. One of the Bible predictions about the future is that, when Jesus reigns, “the streets of the city shall be full of boys and girls playing in its streets” (Zech 8.5). 

One test of a nation’s moral character is its treatment of the innocent, the weak, and the vulnerable. If such members of society live in fear of abuse, mistreatment, or death, it seems obvious to all right-thinking people that there is a moral deficiency in the nation. 

Children should live free from such fears. They will one day. They certainly do not now. 

Children are not safe in the streets. They are not safe in the schools. They are not safe (often) in their own homes. Sadly they are not even safe in the womb of their mother. How cold, callous, and celebrative of wickedness must a nation be to rejoice in the slaughter of infants? Is this how society improves? Should we slaughter the innocent for the sins of the guilty?