Why do we sing hymns

Ruth led a cafe style service at Trinity. About 60 people sat round tables at the front, and the other chairs were pushed back to make room.

Rather than a sermon Ruth posed the question 'Why do we sing hymns.' The people round the tables came up with the reasons they could think of, and then these were written on a flip board and compared with the list Ruth had devised. Reasons included:

• Participation (we enjoy singing together and harmonising as many voices)
• A means of devotion / to praise God
• Memorable (and make up memories)
• Emotion (have different moods)
• Tunes complement and reinforce the words
• Reinforce the message( Ruth said the first hymn she usually chooses is the one after the sermon to echo the message)
• Tradition (hymns in our hymn book date from all ages of Christendom and some are still being written)
• ...

Praying under the EU General Data Protection Regulation

Revd Alan Grist led the service this morning and did the miraculous in running though the service with communion in 55 minutes. Nothing was omitted. There was a children's talk, four hymns, different sorts of prayers, two bible reading, a collection, and a time for silence. The phrase that stuck with me from the sermon was don't be self-centred be Christ-centred. The communion was Christ-centred.

The service was followed fifteen minutes later by a church meeting with minutes from the last meeting and an agenda. It has been found that more people take part, and help make important decisions, if the church business meeting follows the Sunday church service.

We discussed the proposed improvements to the Conduit Centre, and other topics, but what did take time was the discussion of the prayer book and box. In the end the church meeting took 90 minutes.

The recent introduction of the EU General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR)  led to the prayer book being withdrawn, and replaced by a locked prayer box . People could post prayers for people into the box and they would be prayed for anonymously in the main service. Subsequently the Friday prayer Group, comprising a small group, would open the box and pray for the people by name. (Just praying for Fred or Fred Blogs, particularly if it is for Fred Blogs' prostate condition is a data breach in the new world of GDPR if it has not got the express consent of Fred Blogs wanting the congregation to know of his prostate condition.)

The problem with the box is that there are some people who want their loved one to be prayed for by name, and there are people who need to know what they are praying for.

It was proposed in the meeting that the prayer book be re-introduced but that the person suggesting the name would sign it themselves to say they had got the assent of the person to be prayed for publicly.

The conclusion, after a lot of opinions were given, was that Trinity would bring back the prayer book with signed assent for people who want to be prayed for by name, and the prayer box for those for those whose permission has not yet been gained.

Family worship and baptism

There was supposed to be more than one baptism this morning but an accident to one child meant that one of the families could not be there. Deacon Selina led the service.

Two of the songs were sung along to videos. Both were jolly:

• Down the mountain the river flows 
• A man had been an invalid for 38 years with the chorus the bubbling pool of Bethesda.

The service introduction encapsulated what the service was about ... small acts of love and kindness can accumulate like water. Drops of water, small by themselves, but when released into a pool, become a stream and then a river

Selina told the story of the boy throwing starfish back into the sea, one at a time, saving one life at a time. It made a difference to that one even though there were millions swept up.

Lord, to whom shall we go

There was rain during the service and water had started to drip from a corner in the vestry. The wall near the porch door looked damp.

We will soon be welcoming Reverend Ian back to lead the church in the next quarter. I was stewarding today and the preacher was Revd Nigel Appleton, a retired minister from Cumnor URC. He preached on choices, using two bible readings. From the old testament Joshua decided to carry on following the God who had brought them through the desert rather than adopt the gods of the people that had displaced. From John 6 Jesus upset a lot of his followers by saying 'Whoever eats my flesh and drinks my blood remains in me, and I in them.' A lot of them turned away from him.

“You do not want to leave too, do you?” Jesus asked the Twelve.

Simon Peter answered him, “Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. We have come to believe and to know that you are the Holy One of God.”

These choices to carry on following Jehovah, and Jesus have repercussions even up until today.

Revd Nigel said that is our choice too.

Daughter and Father leading worship at Trinity

A daughter and father first at Trinity yesterday. Daughter, Esther Woollgar led family worship in the morning, and her father, Revd Richard Miller, led the evening service.

Esther Woollgar spoke on Romans 12 1-8. In a number of places Paul used the metaphor that we are members of one body, the church. Esther said, if we are currently acting as an eye or hand of the body we should not take this metaphor too far. We are people and can have many gifts and aspire to do more for God in the church. We may have failed once at prophesying or healing but can pray to God to provide us the faith to do something we aspire towards. He gives gifts generously.

Revd Miller spoke on Paul's wise words to the Greeks in Acts 17 when Paul did not condemn the "Men of Athens!" for their many gods. On finding an alter 'To an Unknown God,' Paul said "now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you..." Revd Miller challenged us to speak wisely like Paul, and repeated a number of time the verse 1 Peter 3 v 15 "Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect..."

My Song is Love unknown

My song is Love Unknown
My Saviour’s love to me;
Love to the loveless shown,
That they might lovely be.

I remember somebody singing a solo of the first verse of this hymn here at Trinity some years ago, and finding it very moving. As part of our Songs of Praise service led by members I introduced this hymn. Christine sang the first verse as a solo then all of us, the congregation, joined in.

Nowadays this hymn is sung to a tune called 'Love Unknown'. The tune was written three hundred years after the words by the composer John Ireland at the request of a friend who wanted to include this rediscovered hymn in a hymn book he was compiling.

This hymn was written by Samuel Crossman in 1664 as part of "The Young Man’s Meditation, or Some Few Sacred Poems upon Select Subjects, and Scriptures."

He had been meditating on Chapter 6 and verse 14 of Paul's letter to the Galations ... 'But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.'

The opening line could be the start of an unrequited love song.
My song is Love Unknown.

 But then the next line reveals
My Saviour's love to me.

It is God's love that is unrequited. As the second verse of the hymn reveals
He came from His blest throne
Salvation to bestow;
But men made strange, and none
The longed-for Christ would know:

Ken and Lin

Ken and Lin, married 4th Feb 1967, shared cake and celebration chocolates with everybody at church this morning to celebrate 50 years of marriage.