Same-sex marriage

The latest bulletin from Affinity is available at http://www.affinity.org.uk/ . This has a most interesting article on same-sex marriage, looking at what has happened in Spain. The Spanish experience needs to be pointed out to MPs because there is every reason to believe that the same thing would be likely to happen here - so have a look!

Church Buildings

This is Newhaven Baptist Church in Sussex, the picture taken probably just before the second World War. My father was minister there from 1937 until the end of 1942 when we moved to East Acton in London. I have very few memories of Newhaven and I am not sure I can remember being in the church building, though I must have been many times. The congregation was not large, but it was often swollen during the war by soldiers. At least in the early period of the war Newhaven was in a restricted area and relatives had to get a permit to come and visit us. During the latter half of 1940 father remained in Newhaven on his own, while my mother, brother and I stayed in Bournemouth. We returned when there was more bombing of Bournemouth than of Newhaven!

The Hope in Hope Street

This book is just out and can be obtained from Amazon. It tells the story of 200 years of gospel witness in Hanley, Stoke-on-Trent through two buildings on the same site. In 1812 the Hope Congregational church building was erected on New Hall Street. When later a street came to join it by the church this was called Hope Street after the building. The book provides an interesting and spiritually valuable record of the growth and progress of the church up to 1931 when the building became Bethel Temple following the ministry of Edward Jeffreys in the Potteries. In 1958 the name of the church became Bethel Evangelical Free Church, which it still retains. As it happens I was the pastor of the church from 1966 to 1994. The present building was opened in 1977. As far as I am concerned it is the early history which is so enlightening.

Adam

Can I recommend the lectures given at the recent conference at the John Owen Centre on Adam. I haven't listened to them all but what I have heard have been very stimulating. They can be accessed at [johnowen@ltslondon.org].

Vertical or horizontal

I have just been reading the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles again. In thinking of the way in which all the tribes are listed going through the generations I was suddenly aware that we look at things differently today. No longer do we think vertically in terms of different generations springing from the same family line in the way the Bible does. Nowadays we categorize people in large groups, children, young people, middle aged and the elderly. There are of course some reasons for this but it is a fundamentally different way of thinking and affects how we understand relationships. It also affects how we think of our churches. We struggle to cater for all age groups in our church life and worship because we think in unbiblical terms. We wonder how we can integrate the horizontal bands, but overlook our identity as all descended from Adam and all one in Christ. There is no easy way to recalibrate our thinking, and modern life militates against it in many ways, but we ought at least to try.

More from Muggeridge

I have now finished reading the biography of Malcolm Muggeridge. I was arrested by this sentence: 'To a younger generation growing up in a world which had less and less interest in the past, his name meant nothing.' Well, it is not surprising that a younger generation did not know his name, but I think it is true that that generation and now the present young generation, has less and less interest in the past. And that is serious for a historical religion like Christianity.

Malcolm Muggeridge

At present I am reading Richard Ingrams’ biography of Malcolm Muggeridge. One of the striking things it reveals is the antipathy to Christianity by the left-wing literary elite who were part of Muggeridge’s life. ‘… supporters of the Soviet Government welcomed its strenuous efforts to impose atheism and eradicate Christianity almost more than anything else that had been done.’ As A. J. P. Taylor wrote to Muggeridge, ‘… think of the fact that a new generation is growing up free from Christianity – that’s something worthwhile.’ It is the successors of that generation who are largely responsible for quite a measure of success in eradicating Christianity from Great Britain. One reason for our interest in Muggeridge is that we knew his eldest son Leonard well – a gentle, humble Christian man, a member of the Christian Brethren who studied at London Bible College in the early 1950’s, now into his eighties. He became a believer long before his father’s turn to Roman Catholicism.