I arose at 7 o’clock this morning leaving a sleeping Francoise. As I have had a Bemer treatment overnight, which  is a machine that sends vibrational frequencies through the body to keep the blood flow in the micro channels, I had a good glass of water followed by a coffee. I enjoy brewing coffee. I saw a man do this on a street in Marrakesh and have followed it ever since.

Trans World Radio

As it’s my habit, I turned on Trans World Radio to hear a testimony from a young woman who was working in a country of the world where it was very dangerous to follow the Christian Faith. A friend asked her if she was afraid of persecution and her response really stopped me in my tracks. She said ‘persecution is a crown that we wear every day’. In this country the United Kingdom, we are relatively free to practice our faith that is until some absurd globallist act of Parliament seeks to further marginalise the Christian Faith in favor of wokeness what ever that means and subversion of the Ethical spirit of communal responsibility, faith and trust that most of us have been brought up with and adhere to although there may be slippage.

Inconsiderate guests in Wetherspoons

I decided to attend the local Methodist church where services start at 10am and I decided to precede this by having my normal  freedom breakfast at Wetherspoons which happens to be opposite the church. I like to eat in peace and quiet. There were two working men opposite me speaking rather loudly and one of them decided to get a colleague on the phone which they put in loudspeaker mode. I could hear everything that was said and I felt like going up to them and saying that ‘this is not an office’ and if you want to have business conversations could you please do it discreetly but I did not feel like having a confrontation early on Sunday morning, though I accept this may be an excuse, I took my proffered breakfast and found a cabin out of earshot of these people.

The church is used for many purposes + A canceled monthly market

At 9:45, to the church itself. The last time I visited it was when they had a bric a brac sale. There were acres of knitted garments, about 16 sellers in the church hall and about four customers. I met one of the parishioners and we discussed the wind which had prevented the monthly monthly market from taking place. It is normally on the green outside the Council Buildings. I wonder how much notice the stall holders had been given because you need at least 24 hours notice if not more if you are preparing cakes and perishables such as bread.

Some types of food can be put back in the freezer but not certain categories so they must have cursed the system which was perhaps being over cautious. Awning can stand a fair amount of wind if it is tied down properly perhaps with bricks or stones. The parishioner gave suggestions for various alternative venues perhaps inside, perhaps along one wall adjacent to Sainsbury’s or perhaps in the Hollies, which will not mean much to those living outside the area but it is a shopping center with half the properties vacant. I stood up for the outdoors saying how nice it was to be able to walk around which was not possible in narrow areas.

My experience of three local churches

Before I continue, I might add that my adherence to local churches has been checkered to say the least. About six years ago I joined All Saints Church in Paulton. I stumbled along after a fashion but did not quite get on with the vicar though he did deliver a good sermons. We then had to change, to another style of worship with a vicar who wanted to play his guitar as opposed to having an organ and  the Choir. Also, he saw nothing wrong with young children running around the church during a sermon and making a noise. Noise is anathema to me so I tended to visit the coffee mornings on Tuesday, listen to the radio podcast of the Sermon which arrives every Tuesday, and attend the occasional social event.

A couple of years ago, I found the Vineyard Church. This is also known as the vineyard movement which is an international Neo charismatic evangelical Christian Association of churches. The movement is rooted in the Charismatic renewal and historic evangelism. I do not quite fit with the happy-clappy waving your hands around version but I did relate well to the informality and the cohort that did attend which were the sort of people you would not normally find in a church. Recently there was some politics going on in the main branch of vineyard in Bath and the leader and his wife were asked to leave. A couple of weeks ago there was a meeting to try and smooth people’s feathers but the management team who turned up were not prepared to say what exactly happened so they left the audience puzzled and confused.

How not to solve a church problem

If you don’t give reasons for something people tend to assume the worst as happened in this case. We then received a letter from our local leader saying that there would be no more House groups and that instead they would be three meetings at monthly intervals to try and resolve the situation. This is about as bad a decision as I could envisage so until the clouds have passed, as I put in my letter to the local leader, I would worship elsewhere as if you understand anything about consciousness, it cannot be contained within one group and will affect or infect all codependent groups of the same nature.

Morning Service at Midsomer Methodist Church

I went to the Methodist Church when I first came ten years ago and now I find myself back there again. No churches perfect but I like the formula of hymns commerce prayers, reading the gospel, and a sermon. Is what I call ‘ homegrown’ .

Our servant Lydia

A lady called Lydia was busy handing out the service sheet and giving out a square of paper and a pen for our use during the summon. I was very interested in the name Lydia, which you don’t get every day, and I looked up the meaning of the name. Lydia told me that her parents wanted to give her a name with Christian significance.
Lydia is a fascinating and beautiful name with a long and rich history. It is a traditionally feminine name that has origins in both Ancient Greece and Christianity’s New Testament. It was first used in the 2nd Century BCE, during the Iron Age The name Lydia translates to “from Lydia,” referring to ancient peoples from the Lydia region of Asia Minor.
However, the Greek roots mean “beautiful one” or “noble one.” In the fifth book of the New Testament, Acts of the Apostles, Lydia of Thyatira was a businesswoman and the first convert to Christianity in Europe. Lydia was said to have hosted the apostle Paul after his release from prison.

A mixed congregation, and noise problems

We have one or two visitors from a home for people with mental disabilities and they tend to clap for no reason, shout out and try and sing the hymns hopelessly out of tune but they are generally well behaved. Also  I had a chat with one of the parishioners about the presence of children in a play pen halfway through the service. I had found their noise a little bit irritating but it was pointed out that this was an exception, and that they did not want to have parents or grandparents come along and dump their children in another room.

I can see that the association would not have been good. I can see that the situation involves balancing many factors. I can come along with an extreme view and it can be corrected by the right information which happened in this case. I found the service very helpful particularly the sermon or homily as it is called.

Inspiration of the day

During the talk I heard from within, and I don’t know where this came from, announcing that  we Christians of faith are ‘the door through which eternity enters’.

The sermon/address

The topic was on generosity. The first reading was from the Acts of the Apostles Chapter 4: verse 32-35

All the believers were one in heart and mind. No one claimed that any of their possessions was their own, but they shared everything they had. With great power the apostles continued to testify to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. And God’s grace was so powerfully at work in them all that there were no needy persons among them. For from time to time those who owned land or houses sold them, brought the money from the sales 35 and put it at the apostles’ feet, and it was distributed to anyone who had need.

The etymology of generosity is interesting. The origins are slightly different from what you would imagine.

early 15c., “nobility, goodness of race,” from Latin generositatem (nominative generositas) “nobility, excellence, magnanimity,” from generosus “of noble birth; magnanimous” (see generous). Meaning “munificence, quality of being generous” is recorded from 1670s.

The word ‘munificence’ itself may need some further examination

“quality of giving or bestowing liberally or lavishly,” early 15c., from Old French munificence, from Latin munificentia “bountifulness, liberality, generosity,” from stem of munificus “generous, bountiful, liberal,” literally “present-making,” from munus “gift or service; function, task, duty, office” (see municipal) + unstressed stem of facere “to do” (from PIE root *dhe- “to set, put”).

Related to this word is the work ‘largesse’

“willingness to give or spend freely; munificence,” c. 1200, from Old French largesse, largece “a bounty, munificence,” from Vulgar Latin *largitia “abundance” (source also of Spanish largueza, Italian larghezza), from Latin largus “abundant, large, liberal” (see large). In medieval theology, “the virtue whose opposite is avarice, and whose excess is prodigality” [The Middle English Compendium]. For Old French suffix -esse, compare fortress. Related:

What makes security?

How very far we are away from this. I do still associate security with how much there is in the bank and I’m a bit obsessive about keeping an account of every transaction which I do on a daily basis. I hear many stories of people who have got into trouble through not being careful enough with money. My father used to do the same thing. He used to keep ledgers and write everything in there including household expenditure. I was never allowed to see these books but I knew he kept them

Am I a hoarder?

I think of my own domiciliary unit, full to the brim including the bungalow attic of the combined possessions of myself and Francoise when we moved from our separate places and combined our resources.  My particular predilection for hoarding is that of books of which I have about 1000. A friend drew my attention to a book shop in Bath who would consider reselling them and that I should take a long a photograph of some of the books to see if there was any interest. I do not want my books thrown away on a tip but one to find a good home for them.  As this country is following the rules of 1984 I don’t know for how much longer we will have books but hopefully some sort of change of mind on a national basis will prevent their extinguishing along with all other types of culture.

Has anyone been generous to me recently?

The preacher invited us to describe any act of generosity which we had performed or which we had seen the formed on us. We were invited to drop a note on a square of paper kindly supplied when we left the church. I could not think of anything to say. I do things for people and occasionally they do something for me but I can think of no special acts of generosity certainly within the last week. My default mode is to expect nothing of anybody, except for a few close friends. That’s a bit sad I must admit, but I do not want to set myself up for being disappointed.