Thought for the Day - What’s in a Candle? During a recent visit to Hereford Cathedral, Catherine and I came across the shrine of St Thomas of Hereford. Just like multitudes of pilgrims for hundreds of years we took up the offer to light a candle and say a prayer for a personal and private intention. Just by the shrine were the following words. As you read them perhaps you will think of times present and past when the words have real meaning for you personally. Lighting a candle is a PRAYER. When we have gone it stays alight, continuing our prayer. Continuing our prayer of thanksgiving and intercession for those in need. Lighting a candle is a PARABLE Burning itself out it gives light to others. Christ gave himself to others. He calls us to give ourselves. Lighting a candle is a SYMBOL, Of love and hope Of light and warmth Our world needs them all For me personally, lighting a candle and saying a prayer are the door-openers that help make small and big miracles happen such as happened in St Catherine’s the other day, when a couple came into church to pray and left £250 worth of Tesco vouchers for the Food Bank. When we light a candle to guide our prayers, we acknowledge that our Saviour Jesus Christ is the Light of the World and His light shines both for us and in us. St Catherine’s Church is open every Monday from 11a.m to 1p.m, on Thursdays from 6 p.m to 7p.m and Saturdays from 10a.m to 12 noon for quiet prayer Everyone is welcome and candles are provided. God Bless Clem.
THE WORD I have always been interested in power - probably because I have never had any of it. I find it interesting to read my newspaper and try to understand where power is in different situations. Sometimes it is very obvious, perhaps the American military, or the wealth of the extremely rich, or perhaps the inventor or discoverer of something new and of great benefit to humankind, or perhaps the opposite. However, sometimes the power is the newspaper itself. This is especially so nowadays, not so much in newspapers, as in social media, where anyone can expound wild theories about any subject or any person with impunity. When I was a child a popular party game was Chinese Whispers, where a sentence was passed from one person to the next in a whisper. They then had to pass it on to the next person and so on, until the person at the end of the line was asked to state it out loud. The original sentence was then read out and it rarely bore any similarity to the final version. This is how facts get distorted, and at the time of the early Church when very few people were able to read or write, there was great opportunity for falsehoods and exaggerations to arise. The New Testament that we read today evolved after much debate in the three centuries following the life of Jesus. In the first century after Christ the written word was of less importance than the sayings of Jesus that were remembered in the oral tradition by the Apostles and those who had known Jesus. The writers of the Gospels, The Acts of the Apostles, The Epistles and the Revelation did not write their contribution as part of a “New Testament”, but were inspired by the Spirit to put pen to parchment to spread the good news about Jesus Christ and evangelise the future Church. The early Church had to scrutinise a great many writings that were circulating in the second and third centuries to ensure the fundamental doctrine of Christianity was correct in their understanding. These documents became the canon, or the New Testament, we see today. How well they did, that we will never know until we meet Christ, but to Christians they give us the words of faith, hope and love that change lives. Words can be very powerful and sometimes a speech can resonate for centuries. I am sure that most of us can remember the “I have a dream” speech of Martin Luther King, or “The few”,or the “Fight them on the beaches” speeches by Winston Churchill. We then have the words of the great writers such as Shakespeare, Dickens, etc. who’s quotations still form a great part of our language today. Having a “way with words” is a gift which is greatly valued, although sometimes when I see the language of texting or even emails I do worry about how our vocabulary will develop over the next generations. The language of younger generations, different ethnic groups and classes seems to be diverging from what was taught to be the Queen’s English with BBC pronunciation when I was at school. Having said that, perhaps the strictness of the formal rules of language restricted many people (including myself) from daring to experiment and play with the multitude of words that overwhelm us in our lifetime. I was always amazed at school when I saw a friend reading his dictionary, when I was much more interested in playing football. I turned out to be a useless footballer and he became a play-write and Hollywood scriptwriter. Perhaps I should have “swallowed my dictionary” as they say. As Christians we talk of living by the word of God, and the beginning of St John’s Gospel starts with the sentence, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God”. St. John wants us to understand that the whole story of Jesus and our salvation is seen in the words that have come to us through God since the beginning of creation. St. John knew the power of words - that power still exists today. In his “Battle of Britain” speech, Churchill said “Upon this battle depends the survival of Christian civilisation”. As Christians we now have another great battle - against secularisation and indifference. Churchill also said “To jaw-jaw is always better than to war-war”. Speak up for your faith as best you can with the word of God. Fr. Terry
Thoughts for Today From the real world, sublime and challenging St Kitts and Nevis In the steps of Alexander Hamilton, Horatio Nelson, natural rainbows and fifteen minutes of tropical mayhem… At the time of writing the election results of the United States are coming to their conclusion. On this day, Wednesday 4<sup>th</sup> March, we were to visit the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton (1757- 1804) one of the main authors of the US Constitution. He described it as ‘…strong but flexible….’! Basettere is the capital of St Kitts. We disembarked Balmoral to the Grand Hall where security checks saw us on to the 50 minutes ferry to the ‘Island in the Clouds’, Nevis. Its population is the size of Burbage within 26 square miles. Sylvia our guide told us ‘Gossip is a hobby here’. We had first sight of the island through the famous clouds, and as we drew nearer we saw the welcome arch: ‘Welcome to Nevis – The birthplace of Alexander Hamilton’. It was a short coach ride to Trott House and Hamilton House, Charlestown - the rebuilt home by the sea where Alexander was born and grew up as a child. It is now a museum of Nevis telling the story of Hamilton and Nevis in storyboards and artefacts. Alexander was born on the 11<sup>th</sup> January 1757 (or 1755) in Charlestown to Rachel Faucette who was half French Huguenot, and James Hamilton, a Scotsman whose grandfather was the Laird of Grange in Ayrshire. He was orphaned at the age of 11, when his mother, who was bringing him up, died of Yellow Fever. By this time they had moved to St Croix in the Virgin Islands. The local Church of England school refused him entry because he was born out of wedlock. You never know where breakthroughs are going to come from despite great odds. Alexander was tutored by a Jewish headmistress, and he took advantage of the 34 books inherited from his mother’s estate. He was spotted by one of the local community leaders, who read his essay on the effects of a devastating hurricane on the island. He became a Cargo Clerk at the age of 14, and was supported by the same local leaders who raised money for him to go to Boston USA and then to New York. In the post-war years against the British he studied Law at Kings College, New York (now Columbia). He passed his Bar Exams in 1782 and became a Captain under the army leadership of General Washington, and gained further promotion. Under Washington’s presidency he became Secretary to the Treasury from 1789 until 1794. During that time he was responsible for developing tax raising, founding the US Mint and the production of the American Dollar. In 1794 he resigned, and went back to his law firm, putting family first as his wife Eliza had suffered a miscarriage. They had 8 children, 6 sons and 2 daughters. In 1798 he re-joined the Army taking on various leadership roles and was never far away from the politics of the day. He witnessed his son Philip die in a duel in 1802, and Alexander himself was killed two years later in a duel with his main political rival Aaron Burr on the banks of the Hudson River in New Jersey. We had seen the show ‘Hamilton’ in London before going on the voyage, but at the time we didn’t know we would be in Nevis the following March. I noticed two quotes in the Hamilton archive which rang bells. The first from 1780 ‘The want of money makes us want everything else.’ From February 1791, ‘ Who talk most about liberty and equality… is it not those who hold the Bill of Rights in one hand and a whip for affrighted slaves in the other?’ It is extraordinary that the lives of Hamilton and Admiral Horatio Nelson (1758-1805) mirror each other. Born one year apart, both died aged 47 - the first in a duel, and the other at the Battle of Trafalgar. Both were hugely influential in their distinctive ways. Nelson also came from a rural beginning in Burnham Thorpe, Norfolk and was given the opportunity of going to sea at the age of 14. Our next destination was the island’s Botanical Gardens. Driving there we saw an open truck full of prisoners in uniform on their way to community service. We stopped at the Montpellier Estate and were shown the tree under which Nelson married Frances (Fanny) Nisbet on the 11<sup>th</sup> March 1787. She was a young widow living on Nevis (this was 12 years before Nelson met Emma Hamilton in Naples). Horatio was on the island having become the Captain of HMS Boreas in the West Indies (between 1784 and 1787) encouraging British interests. ‘Nelson’s Spring’ can still be seen where he watered his crew during their time on the island. It is now bottled under that name. We arrived at the Botanical Gardens via a cattle road-block, and wild goats grazing outside the huge Courts Supermarket. Ray the gardener showed us around the family-owned gardens and tropical house. He revealed the Fiddle Leaf Fig tree and a Trinitarian flowering blue shrub called ‘Yesterday,Today and Forever’. There was a Labyrinth of stones in the grounds and an extraordinary Rainbow Gum Tree (Eucalyptus Degulpta) that exuded a horticultural covenant of hope. Meantime, a large palm tree pod measuring 4 feet by 6 inches, fell by Jane’s head and narrowly missed another traveller. As if this wasn’t enough excitement for one day, we stopped by on the Cotton Ginnery at New River. We saw there the old water and steam-powered machinery (manufactured in London and Derby!) used to drive the cotton and sugar cane industry. We lunched surrounded by palm trees at the inevitable ‘Hamilton’ Beach Villas and Spa. Chicken Tapas was on the menu, with iced tea served in jam jars! Just after 3pm we scattered for cover as 15 minutes of mayhem of a tropical storm descended upon us. Even the locals were caught by surprise. On the way back to port we saw a very wet St Thomas’s Church (founded in 1643) by the sea - the oldest Anglican Church on the Caribbean. As we sailed back to St Kitts a rainbow appeared below the clouds of the island. The storm delayed our arrival back to the Balmoral, but just in time for the sailing and our 5pm Holy Communion ‘on the move’. This heralded the beginning of 6 days of sailing to Ponta Delgada in the Azores. We waved farewell love and thanks to the Caribbean. Blessings…Edward and Jane
Thoughts for Today From the real world, sublime and challenging St John’s, Antigua, travelling down ‘Soul Alley’ to Hurricanes, Earthquakes and Regeneration We now reflected upon a sense of place in St John’s. We had a day to see behind the façade of the exotic, and to be nearer to the people of this Cathedral city. It is in fact a large town of 22,219 souls, at the last count.The island is famous for having the Georgian naval dockyard of Nelson, part of the deep-water port. It is now a UNESCO World Heritage site and is still a working dockyard. Nelson was the Captain of H.M.S Boreas between 1784 and 1787 and based from Antigua enforcing British laws in the colonies.The resort has 365 white sand beaches. Neighbouring island Barbuda has the largest colony of Frigate birds in the world. These delightful creatures followed us for a large part of our voyage. The choice of excursions from the ship on this day varied from swimming with stingrays, beach hopping on an island safari, kayaking, snorkeling and a sunset tropical cruise.We docked at Redcliffe Quay in the commercial centre which featured many small shops and interesting street names e.g ‘Soul Alley. The pavements were disturbed and broken due to the many earthquakes through the years, and are awaiting restoration. The last earthquake was in December 2019, and measured 4.9 on the Richter Scale. Time has stood still in this place, endearing in its laid-backedness. “Waitin’” (Caribbean spelling) is described by theologian Bill Vanstone as the ‘The Stature of Waiting’.When we passed a colourful sign just near to “Soul Alley” advertising ‘Oldies Night every Tuesday’ – sadly, we were a day late! As we approached the cathedral our eyes were drawn to the huge ‘pepper pot’ towers of the west end, quake- damaged steps of the old east entrance and a profusion of flowers over the ancient perimeter walls. The iron gates survive from 1789. The latest cathedral is built on a fossilized reef and was completed in 1845. It has a capacity of 2,200 and was designed by architect Thomas Fuller from Bath. On entering the cathedral we were serenaded by Richard, the cathedral caretaker, playing hymns with a Caribbean lilt. The sun streamed through the windowed apse of the east end. Something we had never seen before was the large pulpit with a prominent cross and the Star of David together. It reflects the welcome the Jewish Sephardic trading community received after their persecution from Spain and Portugal at the end of the 15th Century. We enquired as to the whereabouts of the Dean and were directed to the prefabricated Deanery Office three streets away. We knocked on the door and were shown into the office by his secretary. Ernest Flemming welcomed us to Antigua, and described his life in the church with the continuing challenge of restoring the large cathedral and running six parishes. He wanted to know about our links with Coventry, and we were able to hand him the Litany of Reconciliation from Coventry Cathedral. Since then Dean John of Coventry has made links with the Caribbean Dean. It was a good meeting, and highlighted the challenges of restoration with the ongoing threat of earthquake and hurricane. The transition from being a cathedral for the Sugar Cane Planter owners to becoming a cathedral for all the people of St John’s has been the story of the last one hundred and fifty years. The Dean sends Christian greetings to us all.On the way back to the port we walked down Agatha Goodwin Street by a more personal centre of transformation called C.H.A.T.S - Centre for Holistic Advancement of Therapeutic Service - a centre helping those who have any kind of learning difficulties and providing specialist care in speech therapy. It also provides the communities of what used to be called the Leeward Islands (under British jurisdiction) with specialist services for those with living with Autism and their families. The islands celebrated their independence in 1981 coming full circle from the earliest island community going back to 2,900 BC.We strolled to a dock-side bar for refreshment and wi-fi connection home. The clarity was just unbelievable. The 11pm sail away entertainment was provided by the lively ’Hell Gate Antiguan Steel Orchestra’ . Our next port of call, the following day was to be Basseterre, St Kitts and Nevis. Little could prepare us for more Nelson connections, and our visit to the birthplace of Alexander Hamilton on the island of Nevis ‘The Island in the Clouds.’We were thankful for our trip down ‘Soul Alley’, and to witness the huge resilience of such a vulnerable community was somewhat inspiring and humbling. Blessings,Edward and Jane
