june 09e

COSY

The latest COSY conference was held in Holytown on Thursday the 26th of May in our Church hall. If you recall when lain was here preparing us and Wrangholm for our search for a minister for this linked charge, attendance at COSY meetings from both congregations was very healthy and a lot was achieved. Now that the search for a minister has been successful, attendances at these conferences have dropped off for some reason or another. One of the things that attracted Caryl to this charge was the way we could demonstrate that the linkage had gone successfully and that we were living and caring congregations who could demonstrate work being carried out for the benefit of both congregations by members in the areas of Caring, Outreach, Support and Youth. Now that Caryl is with us doesn't mean that we can now take a back seat and let her carry the responsibility for all these areas of ministry on her shoulders alone. Attendance at the last two conferences has been disappointing to say the least. This should not be allowed to continue and it is the responsibility of each and every one of us to ensure that initiatives such as COSY are well supported in every way possible.

Recently one or two folks have become more involved in some of the congregational activity. When this happens, you notice a change in the individual. You know that God has spoken to them and that God is using their talents and energies for His glory. You also notice a type of joy in the person that was not previously apparent. It is a good thing for the congregation and for the individual. More of you should consider seeking this experience for yourselves. You will not regret it.

The flower of friendship

Life is like a garden
And friendship like a flower
That blooms and grows in beauty
With the sunshine and the shower. . .
And lovely are the blossoms
That are tended with great care
By those who work unselfishly
To make the place more fair. . .
And, like the garden blossoms,
Friendship's flower grows more sweet
When watched and tended carefully
By those we know and meet. . .
And, like sunshine adds new fragrance
And raindrops play their part,
Joy and sadness add new beauty
When there's friendship in the heart . . .
And, if the seed of friendship
Is planted deep and true
And watched with understanding,
Friendship's flower will bloom for you.

Helen Steiner Rice

Does history repeat itself?

John Wycliffe could be called the genesis of an era. Although the man has been virtually forgotten in our world today, this fourteenth-century saint was a stern and determined individual. He could not bear the thought that the Bible should remain chained to a pulpit in the dead language of the clergy and the prelates of the church. And so he set out as an English speaker to put into the English vernacular both the Old and the New Testament.

It was a mammoth undertaking and it was done against all kinds of verbal and physical assault upon him. Nevertheless this faithful scholar, this preacher of righteousness stayed at the task until it was virtually completed. And then in bold defiance against the enemies of his day, he wrote these words in the flyleaf of that first English translation: "This Bible is translated and shall make possible a government of the people, by the people, and for the people."

Little did Wycliffe realise that five hundred years later a lean and broken president of a new government that had established itself on a new continent would borrow from the flyleaf of his Bible the very same words he would use on a bleak November day in a place called Gettysburg. In that blood-drenched battlefield Lincoln said, "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain, that this nation under God shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people shall not perish from the earth."

It was less than a year and a half later that President Lincoln was assassinated. And among the hundreds of men and women who reported his death, one keen reporter was right on target when he said: "This is not a death. Lincoln's assassination is the end of an era."

Stuart P Carver, Our Christian Heritage