the gospel. And that is what has kept the faith alive in Bekesbourne these 800 years.”
So may God bless you in your witness to that same gospel which planted the faith in
this lovely place so many years ago. Amen.

******

Our request for a new flag of St. George for Bridge Church in last month’s
issue of On the Nail brought a quick result, and our sincere thanks are due to
Mr. R. W. Fisher of Bridge Down who had the very thing and has made us a
present of it. We are most grateful.

**>|<***

We record with regret the passing of two elderly parishioners of Bridge who
lived quite near to one another. Mr. Frank Lemar, 41 Union Road, had lived
in the former miller’s cottage for almost sixty years. He died on Whit Sunday
in the Kent & Canterbury Hospital, and cremation was preceded by a service
in Bridge Church on 30th May. Our sympathy and prayers go out to his
widow and family. Mr. Alfred Roper, 19 Dering Road, had been in failing
health for a considerable time, but his death came very suddenly and leaves a
devoted wife bereft. May the souls of the departed through the mercy of God
rest in peace.
******

There will be a Coffee morning in aid.of the Church of England Children ’s
Society on Thursday July 31st at 33 High Street, Bridge, 10am to 12 noon.
Bring and Buy Stall. _

Mr. and Mrs. R. Beckett are holdingia Coffee morning at 3 Riverside

Cottages, Patrixbourne, on Wedneday 16th July from 10.30am to 12 noon in
aid of Bekesboume Church Flower Festival.

Patrixbourne with Bridge Church Summer Fete Accounts

Teas & Cakes £76
Groceries . 84
Produce Stall 31
Ices & Soft Drinks 30
Patrixbourne Store 47
Children’s Books 17
Plant Stall 35
Toileteries 28
White Elephant Stall 75
Bottle Stall 143

Raf fle £1 58
Less cost of tickets & 1st Prize 33 125
Side Shows 64
Donations 5
760

Less: Hire of School 10

Canterbury City Band 35
Sundry Expenses 4 49
Net surplus £711

6

..w M~m%«h~v“_‘““”«“
~.-..a~»\2"

.,,--._,_<—-—-«-~._._._,....,_,.,__,.‘(—......-,.____ _“~’%_Na

ACHBISHOP VISITS B

 

  
    

)Vw . g

The Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Reverend Robert Runcie approaches St.
Peter's Church for the special Service of Thanksgiving, on Sunday June 1st.
Photograph. Kenrish Gazelte

Bekesbourne’s Bonanza

Bekesbourne’s Octocentary was celebrated in fine style, as those who
participated in any or all of the events will readily agree. To have our
Archbishop visit us was simply marvellous, and I think most at any rate of the
congregation that filled St. Peter’s Church to over-flowing had at least a brief
word with him at the reception afterwards. We are most grateful to Mrs. Lois
Whigham for so kindly opening her home and garden to us: what better
setting could there have been? The Archbishop’s excellent sermon is
reproduced in this issue of On the Nail as it deserved wider publicity.

The Salvation Army Songsters kept up the pace of the festival on the Mon-
day night with a concert—cum—act—of—worship that made the ancient rafters
ring and the audience/ congregation rejoice with them. David Flood’s organ
recital the following evening, though a very different experience was none the
less well supported, and deservedly so, for he gave us a rare musical treat. The
Parish Eucharist on the Thursday was extremely well attended, and the
festivities ended on the Saturday with an unforgettable concert by the
Finchley Children’s Music Group that received a good write-up in the Kehtish
Gazette from the paper’s chief music critic. All thanks to our many patrons,
but an enormous ‘thank you’ to John Purchesc whosc brainchild it was and
who spearheaded the entire enterprise. What’s the next cause for celebration,
John?

EKESBOURNE.


In the Name of God!

Archbishop Robert Runcie’s sermon in Bekesbourne Church on 1stJzme, 1980.

“He gave gifts unto men . . . for the building up of the body of Christ.” (Ephesians 4
vv. 8b & 12b)

There are two ways of looking at life. You can take it for granted or you can take it
with gratitude. The second is the Christian way, and that’s why we have met together
to give thanks for 800 years of continuous worship in this beautiful and historic place.
And all the thoughtful, yet very homely arrangements make me feel very welcome, and
I am glad about that, because as you know this used to be one of the Archbishop’s
homes; and though I am not looking for any more, this is not the one I would have
glVCl‘| Up.

On this Sunday last year I was a long way from here. I was in the Soviet Union, and
strangely enough at a village, and a rare one. There was a church festival for the local
saint. As you know it is a country which, for over sixty years has had an atheist
government. The children are taught to despise believers at school: no opportunity to
talk about religion on radio or television or in the press. It is meant to be withering
away, and is simply allowed in one or two churches, in one or two places. Yet on that
Sunday there was a ceaseless flow of singing, praying pilgrims, which might have put
some of our self-conscious flower festivals to shame. They were by no means all old
women or tiny children. I believe that the miracle of the living Church in that country
— nourishing the soul of a people, producing from time to time a Solzhenitsyn — is
due to their sense of worship, a sense of belonging in a communion of saints which is
greater than any political arrangements or social circumstances. So let nobody ever say
that the keeping of festivals, the cherishing of sacred buildings, the sense of our unity
with the saints of other ages — that these are simply the churchy side of Christianity.
They are its very heart and its life.

Our situation is different. We have freedom to influence the life of our country
through preaching and teaching and criticism, through sharing in political action or
social care. But this freedom is also a temptation: a temptation to think that talking
and social action and political influence are in themselves the purpose of the church.
So we can easily neglect the heart of prayer, a sense of God, a devotion to Jesus, the
holy place, and pride in the company of the saints across every age and land. And if we
do that we may call ourselves a Christian country, but the heart will have ceased to
beat. For as someone said, “Nothing is real unless it is local.” That is why the local
church and the local festival should be signalling a message, the message of the gospel.

l have been reading a book recently, in which the author applies five tests, to see
whether a church in its teaching and in its life is genuinely signalling the gospel. Thev
are biblical tests: Cranmer would have approved of that! They are like chemicals being
tipped one after another on a piece of metal, to test its claim to be pure gold.

First test, does your message come over as something old yet also fresh? The one
who hears the gospel in the New Testament constantly responds with surprise. “I
haven't thought of that before.” There is a parallel here with the way beauty always
comes as fresh disclosure. We don't say, when the leaves are golden in autumn, “Mm!
Just like last year!” We are astonished each time it happens. Watch a superb
performance of a famous play. We don't say, “Same old Hamlet!” So one essential
test of our words and our witness to the faith, whether it is about Christian marriage
or prayer or speaking about life after death; does it come over as something new, or are
we trying to nourish people on something like curled-up sandwiches, stale cake, tired
cliches or dreary worship‘! ‘They were all astonished when they heard Jesus speak
saying, “What’s this? He doesn’t speak like the religious officials." '

Second test. Does it disturb? The gospel is an affront to the way we live, and upsets
things we take for granted. Now if we are never offended, if a vicar is never a nuisance,
and if what he says always seems commonsense, very good: it may be a case of the
bland leading the bland!

4--...¢—u-e.,_,--,.___. __ ,,. .-, om .-u...-av-——-—---—-~‘~ -'~—'%"""‘
__,_.—-—---~’''’ ‘ ‘ .......~~.«-..«.—..—-—-'\..«‘

..  -vV‘\ .‘---_-...~__,_____..a , , ,_
~.— "'"-~ -- ’-.......,.\....»».._..~-- ~

ti)

\lVhen Jesus taught they were not only astonished, they took offence at him; and
Paul preached Christ crucified, a stumbling-block. And remember, you should expect
it not only to shake others, but constantly to break up our own assumptions as to who
are righteous, who are blameable. Niceness is very agreeable, but niceness is not the
gospel!

And then third, is it something of great expectations, greater than our hopes! ——
whether you are coping with a sick person or an evil regime or a broken marriage. And
does this faith call out everything? Jesus never spoke of a fraction of our possessions,
but ‘sell all you have and give to the poor’. And in the same way his promises were
excessive: to have the kingdom, to inherit the earth, to see God. Saints are
extraordinary people, whether St. Francis or Mother Teresa, because the gospel they
live by leads to excess. I like that passage in the gospels where Jesus is thought to be
overdoing it, and his family go out to rescue him. We might imagine their
conversation: “We’re all for religion, we're all for his becoming a rabbi, but this
extreme stuff . . !” It is the kind of thing people still say when a girl decides to become
a nun, or a graduate goes off to Campuchea. “If only she could meet a nice man” or
“If only he’d settle down”.

Fourth test. Does it bring joy? The gospel is not only fresh, disturbing and excessive,
but good news, and if we believed it we should be set free from fear and dismal
thoughts. The man in Jesus’ parable sells all he has in joy, and the convert, typical in
the Book of Acts, hears the gospel, is baptised and goes on his way rejoicing. There
have been expressions of Christianity which have been solemn and miserable, but they
are distortions and the way in which this church has sung with praises tonight should
be an echo of the joyfulness that has radiated from this place over the centuries. I have
a friend who says that joy is a word which is only used by parsons, and they put on a
special tone of voice when they say it, and a kind of sagging jaw. Whether that is true I
know not, but there is a quality which is in short supply, and it is quite different from
breezy heartiness, and truculent resentment, of which there is a plenty around. It is a
kind of serenity born of confidence, and the great saints and teachers of faith have
always had that. Even someone like Martin Luther whom we think of as a rather
serious person once said, “As I drink my glass of German beer the gospel runs its
course.” And someone of a rather more sentimental character once said, “Joy is the
flag that is flown from the citadel of the heart when the King is in residence.” And our
King is the King of love: which brings me to the last test.

Does it promote love? The gospel brings release from the slavery of self-centredness
and opens out the possibility of living for others. Anything that claims to be the gospel
and produces bigotry, prejudice, blaming, is no good. ‘He who loves not his brother
whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen. And this
commandment have we from him, that he who would love God must love his brother also.’

Now these five tests of a church witnessing to the gospel through the ages — they are
all necessary. It is not like an examination: only two to be attempted! But someone said
to me the other day, when I mentioned these five tests, “Oh, I can tell you, if there is a
church that is doing something new, something disturbing, and is making excessive
claims, it won’t produce joy and love, it will produce tension, suspicion and division.”
But that is to miss the whole point of the Christian faith. We are given the unity of all
these things by Christ. We don’t contrive it, but we can receive it, for he has given
these gifts unto men.

So if I hear news about the church here, in this parish, I hope that sometimes I will
hear, “Mmm —— they’re doing new things there!” But that won’t be everything. I hope
I may hear, “They’re not afraid to stick their neck out there, and make a stand;
perhaps even be unpopular!” And that has been quite a tradition, that has kept the
church going over the years in the past. Perhaps they may even say, “They’re a bit
mad, you know!” That is not a bad thing to be said of any group of Christians. I know
it will be said “They’re a cheerful lot at Bekesbourne, and they have good festivals”
and let it always be said, “They are a loving, caring and sensitive church“, but
altogether. And then you can say, “Here is the body of Christ. Here is a partnership in

5