Monday Spot (7 December 2009)
A very busy weekend in the life of the Medway Towns as it celebrated the annual Dickens Christmas festivities. Rochester Cathedral was the scene of ‘Songs of Praise’ at lunchtime on Saturday, now a regular feature of the Dickens weekend.
The historic cathedral
The event was again well attended with many people standing. The Band accompanied the congregation and the Rochester Cathedral Boys Choir in the singing of carols, which were interspersed with bible readings of the Christmas story. The Dean of Rochester, the Very Reverend Adrian Newman, gave some ‘Christmas Reflections’ for the crowd to take away from the brief service. In addition the Band also had two carolling sessions outside the ASDA supermarket at Bridgewood so it is evident that the busy Christmas season for our musicians is well under way.
Sunday meetings saw the Christmas theme in full swing. Whilst Major Beverley was leading the morning meeting at neighbouring Sheerness corps our own leader was Major Drew.
Majors Drew & Beverley McCombe
Drew took as his theme ‘when a child id born’ and chose Calypso Carol to begin the day. Other songs included 74, 79 and 141 from the Salvation Army Song Book together with 1419 from Songs of Fellowship. Scripture used was Isaiah 9:6-7 and Luke 2:21-40 with musical ministry provided by the Songsters (with ‘Christ is Born’) and the Singing Company (with ‘Rainbow Christmas’)
During his message Drew featured the solo ‘When a child is born‘ sung by Rachel Horwood and said:
With those words comes a promise to end all doubt – when this child is born many answers are provided to the questions of the world. He is going to wipe out all misery. We ask ‘is this just fantasy or is there any substance to the claims?’ Why are we still in need of a Saviour? What does scripture say? The old testament gives many examples of prophecies which support the claim. He will be a light for revelation to the Gentiles; the whole world would see His glory. In recent weeks we have dealt on several occassions with the question of the identity of Jesus. Its a really important question. If we are to receive His message we must understand who He is. Its crucial. War must be replaced by peace, hate by love. This is God’s mission, His agenda, and we must not be held back from it. We must make an appropriate response, despite our sin because He is our Saviour and the hope for our world.
Rachel Horwood
In the evening Major Beverley had returned from her travels to ‘the island’ and led on the theme of ‘why this baby is important – He is the original cause’. Songs chosen were 164 and 87 from the Salvation Army Song Book and 1151, 1239 and 923 from Songs of Fellowship. Both Band (‘Royal David’s City’) and Songsters (‘Sing, Little Angel’) brought musical contributions. A period of testimony was also included in which several members of the congregation took part.
Using scripture from Revelation 21:5-7 and Hebrews 1:1-4 Beverley asked ‘What is Christmas?’ and said:
I recently went to the internet and found 10 ‘politically correct’ rules for Christmas, all of them ridiculous. Too many people think Christmas is everything to do with family, friends, food & drink, time off work and snow (perhaps). Nothing to do with Jesus Christ! But Christmas is about God, the all powerful, coming to earth as a baby and radiating God’s glory. To see God we need to look at Jesus because who He is is a massive issue for us. Why are we here? What’s the purpose of life? We are made for God and life is about our relationship with Him. He is the heir of all things. Is that the Jesus you believe in? To make sense of our lives we have to put this baby at the centre. That is the only way to bring real meaning to our existence.
The use of our building was almost back to normal yesterday following a hectic week organising and distributing parcels of food and presents to needy families which for a few extremely busy days seems to take over the whole place. We are again indebted to Marjory Hudson for her skilled administration of this complex procedure and to all those who helped in so many different ways. Our thanks also go to those who were required to make adjustments to their own programme activities to accommodate this most important ministry to the people of Medway.
Marjory Hudson
During this coming week we look forward to more carolling activity at two local schools and the Bluewater Shopping Centre culminating next Saturday with the Band joining with the Rainham Ladies Choir for a Christmas concert in the old Dockyard Church.
Finally a reminder. Churches together in Chatham organise the ‘tree of hope’ in the town centre. This is a tree where stars can be hung in memory of a loved one. At the same time a charity collection is made and this year we are the nominated charity for our community work.
Next Saturday (12th December) The Salvation Army has the responsibility to ‘man’ the tree and help with people writing their messages on the stars to be hung on it. Any members of the public who would like to be associated with this activity should contact us please. We will be very grateful for any time you can give.
Well, here’s wishing all readers a happy week ahead in preparation for Christmas. Stay safe and we’ll see you all again next week.