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TRANSCRIPT
A FREE magazine published
by the Langley Churches
for the people of Langley
February 2019
St Francis Church
Page 2
Editorial & Article Submission Anna Thomas-Betts 01753 822013 [email protected]
Announcements, Advertisements Richard Shircore 07943 404388 richard.shircore @btinternet.com
Layout & Advert Design Roo Kanis-Buck [email protected]
Copy Deadline 15th of the previous month
Website www.langleymarish.com/around-langley
Front Cover illustrations Michael Day - 01753 512519
Printing by Print Direct Solutions, Langley
GENERAL Editorial Page 3 Langley Neighbourhood Forum Page 4 Community Coffee Shop Page 4 NAG—does it have to
keep on nagging? Page 4 Slough Mencap Page 6 Galileo Galilei Page 8
FAITH MATTERS Regular Sunday Services Page 10 Regular Church Activities Page 11 Good News from John Page 12 Love Matters Page 14 Worship the Lord
in the Beauty of Holiness Page 16 Langley Churches invite you ... Page 17
Church Directory Page 19
Contents
(… continued from Page 3)
In the past three years, we have had articles about gospel-writers
Matthew, Mark and Luke to help those of us who use the Common
Lectionary to understand better the background of the gospels set
for Years A, B and C. John’s Gospel is not part of the cycle, but
parts of it are read throughout the three year cycle. So this month
we have an article on John, the Evangelist, by Tony Randall.
As winter drags on and we look forward to spring—and snowdrops
have already started flowering in our gardens—I wish all our
readers a happy and healthy year in 2019.
Anna Thomas-Betts
Page 3
From Darkness to Light
We have just crossed over the threshold of a new year and what a
momentous year it will be for our country. If we stay with the
Article 50 timetable, we have just two months to Brexit now. We
can but pray for our country and our leaders; that they may be given
wisdom and courage, so that they try to unite the country, and work
for the common good rather than personal ambitions.
We hope that our readers will find this issue enjoyable and helpful. It
was a chance remark I heard on the radio about the death
anniversary of Galileo that made me think that he might be a good
subject for an article. Maybe, as I was trained as a physicist, I am
prejudiced. We also hope that this would be the start of an occasional
series about some topics in science, where we could also explore albeit
briefly why conflict between science and religion still exists in many
quarters.
It was exactly a year ago that we published an article titled ‘Rich in a
Hungry World’ in Around Langley. The thrust of it was that for the
sake of alleviating hunger in the world, and for the good of our planet
(e.g. for reducing greenhouse gas emission) we ought to reduce our
consumption of meat. In January this year, the respected Journal,
The Lancet, made the same point based on scientific studies. They
emphasise the health benefits of halving our meat intake and eating
more vegetables, fruit and nuts. Surprisingly for a medical journal,
they also point out the benefits that this would bring to the planet by
way of less deforestation, decrease in greenhouse gases and releasing
more land for growing food for human beings.
(… continued on Page 2)
Page 4
Langley Neighbourhood Forum
The next meeting of the Langley
Neighbourhood Forum will be on
Tuesday, 19th February 2019, at Langley
College, starting at 7pm. The guest
speaker will be the newly appointed
Police Commissioner, Sarah Grahame.
Langley Community Coffee Shop
Have you managed to keep your New
Year Resolutions so far? Most people
haven’t, I guess. However, we at LCCS
hope to fulfil our targets for LCCS for
2019: that is, to provide a warm,
friendly, compassionate and supportive
environment at the Langley Library
every Tuesday from 10am to 11.30am.
Sometimes it is hard to break into a
group if you are a new person, but if you
are thinking of coming, don’t be put off
by that thought. You will always receive
a warm welcome at the Coffee Shop.
When you know people well then we can
share difficulties as well as happy
occasions with each other. So it is with
sadness, but happy memories, that we
lose Breda Walsh, a valued member of
the Coffee Shop who died on 23rd
December, 2018. Breda, a cheerful
lovely soul, was a faithful member of the
Holy Family Catholic Church. She loved
to go on outings organised by the
Coffee Shop as well as the Slough and
Langley Blind Club.
On 12th February, 10.30am, Andrew
Cartmel, author of ‘The First Vinyl
Detective’, will give a talk at the Coffee
Shop about his novel and also his
involvement in writing the script for one
of the episodes of Dr Who. Sheila Papali
What is the NAG
and does it keep on nagging?
Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAG)
are groups established in and for each
ward to identify issues affecting Langley
residents and to raise them with the
appropriate body, e.g. Slough Borough
Council (SBC), Thames Valley Police and
NetworkRail, to try to improve (or at
least not to worsen) the quality of life for
residents. Councillors and residents of
the ward are eligible to be members of
the NAG. In the Langley St Mary’s Ward,
NAG meetings take place roughly every
6 weeks and are attended by
representatives of Thames Valley Police
and Slough Borough Council regularly.
What does the NAG achieve and does it
have to keep on nagging? There have
been some successes, but other issues
drag on for months and still we don’t get
a satisfactory outcome. Here are some
News from Around Langley
Page 5
of the issues that have been on our
agenda in the past year.
After discussing the needs of Langley
with Thames Valley Police, we agreed,
given their limited resources, that a high
priority should be patrolling the Harrow
Market and Trelawney Avenue shops
areas and to have a higher profile in the
Community.
During the temporary closure of
Chequers Bridge (reported in Around
Langley at the time) the NAG, along with
other bodies, pressed the Council to
reopen the route and keep it open
permanently. We are urging SBC, Bucks
County Council, Network Rail and local
MPs to ensure that an alternative
replacement route should be constructed
if the WRAtH does go ahead.
The NAG pressed the Council for action
regarding parking around Barton Road/
Talbot Avenue by railway commuters.
They did respond with a consultation of
local residents, but as there was no
consensus among residents, they may
implement the most favoured option.
SBC was urged by the NAG to clip hedges
half-yearly, to improve access to the
Grasholm Way Green and to make it
more attractive. The Council produced a
plan and has planted bulbs, but the
prickly blackthorn hedge still grows out
across the pavement. SBC was also asked
to remove yellow lines illegally painted by
a management company and to refund
fines issued for 'illegal parking’ on those
yellow lines.
Pedestrian crossings in Station Road
have caused problems for residents for
some time. SBC have installed a zebra
crossing to improve access to the railway
station from Alderbury Road. The NAG
has pressed for a traffic lights-controlled
crossing, as traffic coming under the
railway bridge could easily fail to see
pedestrians on the zebra crossing. We
continue to press for solutions about the
dangerous crossing at the Harrow Market
roundabout and the crossing opposite the
College.
If the 3rd runway at Heathrow goes
ahead, with planes taking off and landing
over Langley, Langley residents should
have analogous compensation to that
available to Brands Hill and western
Colnbrook. This has been raised with our
MP and NAG members intend to attend
the consultation meetings, arranged by
Heathrow, to express concern about the
additional noise and pollution resulting
from this.
The NAG strongly objected to the
proposed siting in Langley of a depot for
the Heathrow Express and attended a
Commons Committee to state our
objections. That plan has eventually been
dropped. The NAG along with others was
successful in getting CrossRail to be
extended to Reading rather than
terminating at Maidenhead. Money
provided by NetworkRail to compensate
for the loss of part of Springate Field
during the electrification process arrived
after our nagging and has paid for gym
Page 6
equipment in the park. The NAG has also
complained to NetworkRail about the use
of Cherry Avenue for access to the railway
track.
Bucks County Council were approached
about rumours regarding reopening the
landfill immediately north of the Canal
and closing the Trenches Lane refuse
disposal site. They denied that this was
their plan, but actually they would
“beautify” the area. We are following up
this issue. The NAG is concerned also
about parking on Langley Park Road and
the use of a field alongside as a long-term
parking facility for Heathrow.
The access to both the Cemex gravel
quarries in Datchet and Richings Park is
via Langley (Ditton Road and Sutton
Lane). We have raised with Cemex our
concerns about the effect of HGVs on
Sutton Lane, but so far without much
success. SBC has produced plans to
improve the Sutton Lane/Parlaunt Road
junction. We wait for completion.
Other concerns raised by NAG include
parking at Harrow Market and the
absence of traffic wardens; the
application for planning permission for a
site near Langley station without
sufficient parking places; dog fouling on
streets and in parks; return of wheelie
bins to their address and litter picking.
Other wards at present do not have active
NAGs. The St Mary’s Ward NAG currently
has vacancies for those who wish to play
an active role in making Langley better.
Bill Birmingham
Slough Mencap Slough Society for Mentally Handicapped
Children and Adults (Slough MenCap) was
established in 1952 with a Mission
statement, “Slough Mencap exists to
enrich the lives of people with learning
disabilities and their families” and to this
day in 2019 that is what it achieves.
Slough Mencap was created by just five
families with children who had been
rejected by society as being “retarded”.
Each family donated one week’s wages to
launch the society, making a grand total
of £30.00 as capital. The last of those
pioneers who is still alive celebrated her
102nd birthday on December 13th 2018.
Without her and others like her there
would not be Slough Mencap.
Slough Mencap has come a long way in
the past 66 years. During that time
Slough Mencap has supported their
handicapped members in getting them
Page 7
included in the state education system. It
was not until 1971 people with mental
handicap were entitled to state
education. They had to build the first
residential home for their members in
the middle of a field in Langley, as it was
not considered right for “these people” to
live in an ordinary residential street.
Slough Mencap has been responsible in
setting up a school in Slough for children
with mental handicap: Evelyn Fox
School, complete with a swimming pool,
with voluntary work carried out by
families. Other facilities were started in
due course; playgroups, summer
playschool, citizens advocacy service,
support for carers and many more
services are still operational.
The Christmas parties, and lunches and
outings and the regular Film Shows on
Saturday afternoons are still much used
and appreciated by the members and
their families. The advocacy service still
helps many families in various ways,
being an independent voice for the
family. This service is one of the main
activities actually enriching the
lives of the members and their
families.
Slough Mencap does not
receive any funds from either
local government or national
government, and they raise all
their own funds. With careful
management the current CEO
and treasurer generated
sufficient funds to purchase
their own property with its own private
car park, so they now have a permanent
home (Slough Mencap, Horsemoor
Green Community Centre, Spitfire Close,
Common Road, Langley, Slough SL3 8JU)
used primarily for their client group.
However, their other objective is to run
Slough Mencap as a community centre,
so it is open for anyone who wishes to
use the up-to-date facilities with many
rooms for hire and offices to rent and
many other benefits. Just phone 01753
594666 to visit the Centre and view the
premises.
Slough Mencap could not exist without
its many dedicated volunteers.
Volunteering with MenCap has
encouraged so many people to make a
career working with vulnerable people.
For over 50 years, each year a group of
Eton Boys have been volunteers at
Slough Mencap, during their final year at
Eton. Many of the old volunteers from
Eton College keep in contact with Slough
Mencap saying it was one of the best
years of their life as Eton Boys. Over the
years, each of the local grammar schools
Page 8
has provided 6th Form students as
volunteers, many of them eventually
making their careers in medicine. Many
local young people have started their
lives as volunteers via Slough Mencap.
More mature volunteers are needed and
Slough Mencap have an excellent record
of support and training for volunteers.
To find out more, phone 01753 594666.
Things have changed over the years: at
one time the members had everything
decided for them; these days the
members themselves tell the
organization what they want, where they
want it and when they want it.
For the past 66 years Slough Mencap has
been helping people with mental
handicap and learning disabilities to
reach their full potential. Long may it
continue.
Eleanor Cryer CEO, Slough Mencap
Galileo Galilei and our Solar System Galileo Galilei was a versatile Italian
scientist of the 16th to 17th Century —
physicist, mathematician, astronomer,
engineer, musician and philosopher. He
was the son of a musician, who played
the lute, and had some medical training
as well. However, he is best known for
pioneering scientific observation and was
a major player in the scientific revolution
of his time, which brought him into
conflict with the Church in Rome, with
huge consequences to his later life.
Two of his discoveries were beautifully
simple and elegant. First, contrary to
popular belief at the time, he established
by dropping different objects from the
Leaning Tower of Pisa, that heavy and
light objects free-fall at the same rate.
Further, prompted by timing the
oscillations of chandeliers against his
heartbeat during a boring meeting, he
went on to conclude that all pendulums
of the same length have the same period
of oscillation, a discovery which was to be
the basis of pendulum clocks.
A list of his discoveries would fill pages,
ranging from a theory of tides to
frequencies of sound. He was the first to
note and state that the laws of nature are
mathematical, and formulated Relativity,
work appreciated by Einstein himself.
What antagonized the Church, however,
was Galileo’s work on astronomy. He
greatly improved the telescope
developed in Holland and made detailed
studies of the skies and observed
mountains and valleys on the surface of
the moon, sunspots and the four largest
moons of the planet Jupiter, among other
features. Indeed, his work on astronomy
made him famous and he was appointed
court mathematician in Florence.
However, his studies starkly contradicted
the then existing view, held by the
Church, that the Earth was at the centre
of the solar system, with the Sun going
round it. His data supported the contrary
theory that the Earth and the planets
were orbiting the Sun, proposed two
Page 9
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decades before Galileo’s birth by the
Polish astronomer Copernicus. The
amount of detailed calculations he did for
this work, in an age when there were no
computational aids, is mind-boggling!
In fact, Galileo countered the opposition
of the Church arguing that ‘heliocentrism’
was not contrary to biblical texts, and
that the Bible was an authority on ‘faith
and morals, not on science’. However,
this did not satisfy the Inquisition who
found Galileo guilty of heresy, held him
under house arrest and barred him from
publishing his philosophical analysis of
the two views of the solar system. Yet,
he wrote some of his famous works while
under house arrest. He went completely
blind in 1838 and died four years later.
The irony of all this is that in this early
conflict between science and religion,
Galileo remained a believer to the end.
Anna Thomas-Betts
Galileo demonstrating his telescope
Page 10
Regular Weekly Service Times
St Mary’s (St Mary’s Road)
Sunday 8.00am Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer)
Third Sunday (17th Feb.) 9.30am Family Worship
Sunday 11.00am Family Communion (and Sunday Club for children)
Sunday 6.30pm Evening Prayer (Usually a said service)
Holy Family (Roman Catholic) (Trelawney Avenue)
Sunday 9.30am 11.15am & 6.30pm Mass
Mon, Tues, Wed 9.30am Mass or Service of the Word and Communion
Thursday NO SERVICE
Friday 9.30am Mass or Service of the Word and Communion
Saturday 5.30pm Mass
Langley Free Church (Baptist) (Trelawney Avenue)
Sunday 10.30am Morning Worship and Sunday School (All Age
worship on first Sunday)
2nd Sunday 10.30am Holy Communion
St Francis of Assisi (London Road)
Sunday 9.30am Holy Communion
Fourth Sunday 11.00am All age Service
Christ the Worker (Parlaunt Road)
1st and 3rd Sundays 11.00am Morning Worship
2nd, 4th & 5th Sunday 9.30am Holy Communion
Anglican Morning Prayer 8.45am Mondays and Fridays at St Mary’s
Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at St Francis
Wednesdays at Christ the Worker.
Ash Wednesday 6th March
Service of Ashing and Holy Communion at St Mary’s at 8pm
Page 11
Regular Church Activities
St Mary’s Sunday 11.00am Sunday Club and Crèche in St Mary’s Centre
Monday 9.30am Jellibeans - Parents and Toddlers Group
Wednesday 2.00pm Toddlers’ Service
3rd Monday 2.00pm Mothers’ Union
House Groups Sunday Evenings & Tuesday afternoons
Holy Family Catholic Church Alternate Thursdays 2.00pm Union of Catholic Mothers
Langley Free Church (Baptist) Monday 12 noon Monday Lunch Club
Wednesday 9.00am Toddler Group
Wednesday 2.00pm Oasis – fellowship time with various speakers
Thursday 10.30am Bible Study (House Group)
Thursday 3.15pm J Team – ages 4 - 11
Thursday 7.30pm Bible Study at LFC
3rd Saturday 12 noon Craft Afternoon
St Francis of Assisi Friday 9.45am Mums and Tots (Waiting list: call 01753 548646)
3rd Thursday 1.30pm “Refresh” for a chat, talk, cakes and songs
Christ the Worker Tuesdays (Feb. 5th & 19th ) 2.00pm Needles & a Yarn
Holy Family parish is sad to announce the closure of its social club.
It has been open for nearly 50 years and many people in Langley
will have fond memories of all sorts of social and community
events that have taken place. The buildings will remain open as a
parish and community centre.
Page 12
Faith Matters
Good News from John Imagine you are getting to be an old man
or woman and believe that the person
you spent your formative years with was
the best person who ever lived. That is
the background for the gospel of John,
who is now an old man, looking after a
number of young churches in Ephesus
and the surrounding area, in what today
is Turkey. Although the gospels of
Matthew, Mark and Luke have long been
written, John considers that another
account of the life of Jesus is needed. One
which stresses who he is and covers more
of the things Jesus said than the others
do. It is only John who covers the story of
the washing of the disciples’ feet, for
example.
John was one of the first, and possibly the
youngest, to follow Jesus when he was
working in the family fishing business on
Lake Galilee. He was with Jesus
throughout the entire three years of his
ministry, with him at most of the key
occasions and, together with his brother
James and Peter, appears to have shared
in a closer relationship with Jesus than
many of the other disciples.
So what is it about Jesus that John wants
to make clear? To John, Jesus is without
doubt divine as well as human and on a
mission to bring people back into a
relationship with God. He shows how
Jesus closely linked the spiritual and the
physical aspects of life in his dealings with
real people.
Probably his most famous sentence is in
chapter 3 verse 16, where John quotes
Jesus as saying ‘For God so loved the
world that he gave his one and only Son
that whoever believes in him should not
perish but have everlasting life’. This was
part of a dialogue with Nicodemus, a
member of the Jewish Council and a
scholar, who had come secretly to ask
Jesus questions about his authority and
spiritual things. Later John records some
challenging encounters of Jesus with
these leaders in Jerusalem.
John shows how Jesus dealt with
individual people in their personal
circumstances. In chapter 4 it is a
Samaritan woman, whom he meets at
midday by a well. In chapter 8 he saves an
adulteress from being stoned to death,
and he offers her forgiveness but asks her
to change her way of life.
Both of these, and other relationships
with people, were used by Jesus to talk
about the human condition that needs to
be dealt with by a loving God. These
included the healing of a government
official’s son who was left at home dying,
a lame man left lying by the temple pool,
and a wonderful description of Jesus
Page 13
healing a man born blind with mud. The
consequence of this last incident in
chapter 8 is a conflict with religious
leaders, who refuse to believe the
account, even when supported by his
parents’ testimony. The man says, during
fierce interrogation by the leaders, ‘I
don’t know (what you are going on about)
but I do know I was blind but now I can
see’.
There are two other significant stories
among many that only John relates. One
is the miraculous bringing back to life of a
family friend, Lazarus. John describes
how Jesus delayed his arrival at the house
in order to give God glory and for
recognition for himself, but he also shows
remarkable compassion toward Mary and
Martha, Lazarus’s sisters. In fact John
describes miracles performed by Jesus as
the Signs of who he truly was.
The other notable story relates to the
Apostle Peter, who had deserted Jesus at
the time of his crucifixion. We read in
chapter 20 how after the Resurrection
Jesus reinstates him lovingly on the shore
of Lake Galilee.
John also describes Jesus using the term ‘I
AM’ of himself on seven occasions. This
would have resonated with most of his
readers as the way God used to introduce
himself in the Old Testament. The
metaphors that Jesus used of himself in
that way are – the Bread of Life; the Light
of the world; ‘born before Abraham’; the
Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the
Life; the Way, the Truth and the Life; the
True Vine.
To end with, we recall the opening of
John’s gospel with the amazing prologue,
setting out clearly that Jesus as the Word
(Logos) is God who was involved in
Creation and is come in frail human form
to bring human beings back to the
fullness for which they had been created.
Tony Randall
In most medieval paintings, like this one by
Cosimo, St John is depicted as very young and
almost effeminate, often accompanied by an
eagle, his symbol as an Evangelist, with
allusions to Ezekiel (1:10) and the four
creatures in Revelation. He is also shown
holding a chalice: apart from the Cup of the
Holy Communion, it could also be evoking Jesus’
words to John and James (‘You will indeed
drink my Cup’.) The snake round the chalice
could signify poison because according to legend
he was asked to drink poison to prove his faith.
Page 14
Love Matters
In the chapel of St Bernard’s school in
Langley Road, there is a stained-glass
window depicting St Bernard praying to
the Blessed Virgin Mary. This picture
recalls the vision described by Dante
Alighieri, the 13th century Florentine
poet, in his epic poem The Divine
Comedy. In a concluding masterstroke,
Dante asks St Bernard to intercede for
him with the Virgin Mary to grant him a
beatific vision i.e. to see God. What
Dante beholds is God as transcendent
Love, communicating Himself in an
eternal
present.
All Christian
thinkers
agree that
love is the
central
concept of
Christianity.
John’s first
Letter puts
it simply and
to the point:
“God is Love.” He
further elaborates: “This is love: not that
we loved God but that He loved us and
sent his Son as an atonement for our
sins. That we are to love God in return by
his grace, and show it by loving each
other, only follows from this.
The common expression ‘the love of
God’ is ambiguous. It can mean either
the love that God has for me or my love
for God. In this article I unpack only the
former meaning i.e. God’s love for his
creation, for you and me, mostly based
on the Bible. But what do we understand
when we say: God loves me? God is
infinite and we are finite. So our grasp of
God’s love for us can never be God’s love
as it truly is in itself, but only God’s love
as can be perceived and received by us in
our limited human capacity. Theologians
call this created grace. We use our
human experience of love among
ourselves, and apply it by analogy to
God’s relationship to us. That is why it is
important for
us to
experience
human love:
otherwise we
will not be
able to
understand
and
appreciate
God’s love for
us.
Every page of
the Bible,
directly or indirectly, speaks to us of
God’s love for us. His words and deeds
are simple and concrete, taken from
human experience available to all. In
Genesis we read about God forming man
in his own image and likeness, and then
breathing life into Adam’s nostrils. God’s
breath is his Spirit, the love between the
St Bernard presents Dante to Virgin Mary
Page 15
Father and the Son so the whole of
creation is enfolded in God’s love from
the very beginning. The commandments
are not usually presented to us as
expressions of God’s love. But in fact by
obeying God’s commandments we
experience God’s love and his blessings.
And when we sin and repent, God offers
us, so to say, his love at its best, the
merciful quality of his love.
In the Bible we have beautiful images
from our family experiences of how God
loves us: “Does a mother forget her baby
at her breast, or fail to cherish the son of
her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will
never forget you.” ( Is.49:15) In the New
Testament God’s love is even more
explicitly expressed in the parables, for
instance. In the parable of the lost
sheep, when the shepherd finds the
sheep that went astray, he ‘joyfully takes
it home on his shoulders’ Lk 15:5). And in
the parable of the Prodigal son when his
wayward son returns home, the father
sees him while still a long way off from
the house, runs to the boy, clasps him in
his arms and kisses him tenderly. Out of
love for us God put aside his divine
nature, became man and laid down his
life for us. “No greater love can a man
have than to lay down his life for his
friend” (Jn 15:13-17). During Holy Week
we remember and re-enact this sacrificial
love of Jesus for us, a crucified love.
It is true that it is by faith that we get to
know and love God. This makes it
possible for us to search for him and to
place our trust in him. Yet, you know
what? At whatever stage in our life we
are, God is willing to play peekaboo with
us if we are willing to join in. God shows
us his love by playing hide and seek with
us as it were. God surprises us, at a time
of his own choosing, with signs, glimpses
of ‘his face’ and his mysterious presence.
It is as if God cannot wait for the day we
will be able to see Him face to face, to
show us that he is Love itself, the vision
poetically suggested and immortalised
by Dante.
Alfred Agius
Galileo, on God We live in an age where there is still a lot
of tension between scientific and
religious views on matters. Galileo
Galilei (page 8) was one of the earliest
people to be condemned for this. So
what he said about his dilemma might be
of interest to us:
But I do not feel obliged to believe that
the same God who has endowed us
with senses, reason and intellect has
intended us to forego their use and by
some other means to give us knowledge
which we can attain by them.
But already my desire and my will were being turned like a wheel, all
at one speed, by the Love which moves the sun
and the other stars
Dante after his vision of God
In Divine Comedy
Page 16
Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness There is a Jewish legend about music.
After God had created the Earth and its
inhabitants, he called his angels together
and asked them what they thought of it.
One angel said. “There is only one thing
missing, Lord. There is no sound of praise
for the Creator.” So God created music, to
ring through the murmur of the trees and
through birdsong. He also gave humans
the gift of music and over the ages it has
proved to be a blessing for mankind. And
so Bach (J.S.) says, “Where there is
devotional music, God is always at hand
with His gracious presence.“ The Zohar
Jewish mystic tradition claims that there
are mansions in heaven which can only be
opened by the sound of music!
It is not surprising that all major religions
use music in different forms in their
worship: adoration, praise, thanksgiving,
narration of stories, supplication and so
forth. Again, most religions have
traditions of solo or group voices singing
and leading worshippers to focus on
meditation, as well as music and chants
which all worshippers can join in.
Some readers might recognise the title of
this article as verses from the Psalms
(96:9 amd 29:2, for example) Many will
also recognise it from the opening line of
one of the hymns we sing at Epiphany
time, when we remember the Adoration of
the Infant Jesus by the Wise Men. This
story seems to trigger emotions of
adoration and worship in hymn writers,
which we share in as we sing the hymns.
I love Epiphany hymns with their allusion
to the star guiding us and dispelling
darkness as in Bishop Heber’s hymn,
‘Brightest and Best of the Sons of the
morning’ with its reminder:
Vainly we offer each ample oblation
Vainly with gifts would his favour secure
Richer by far is the heart’s adoration
Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.
‘O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of
Holiness, Bow down before him, his glory
proclaim’ was a hymn written by JSB
Monsell, a Victorian poet (whose better
known hymn is probably ‘Fight the good
fight with all thy might’). It is a great
favourite of mine, redolent as it is with
beautiful images. The beauty of holiness
is such a rich and deep concept. As some
commentaries say, that is the only beauty
God cares for in our public worship; one
for which no other—beauty of architecture
or beautiful vestments or other external
paraphernalia— can compensate.
In the hymn we go on to offer our gifts as
we worship: gold of obedience and
incense of lowliness, really meaning that
we approach God with humility. But we
also find here that there is encouragement
for us; we are urged not to fear to ‘enter
his courts in the slenderness of [our] poor
wealth’ ; all we need bring with us is ‘truth
in its beauty and love in its tenderness’.
Let us always—not just at Epiphany—
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.
Anna Thomas-Betts
Page 17
At Langley Free Church
Oasis Fellowship group meets on
Wednesdays (1.30 for 2.00pm). The
programme for February is:
6th Bill Birmingham
13th Tony Randall
20th Tea, Sharing and Gift Time.
27th My Journey
Contact: Ann Portsmouth on 01753
585845 or 07788 812 500
The Monday Lunch Club meets
every Monday (12-2.30pm) in February.
Purchase lunch for £2 or bring your own.
Plenty of tea and coffee!
CRAFT Afternoon this month is on
16th February, 12 - 5pm. Ideal
opportunity to tackle that UFO
(UnFinished Object!), or maybe start
something new. A friendly group who
enjoys a chat, eating cake and drinking
lots of tea.
At Christ the Worker Church
Needles & a Yarn meetings in
February are on Tuesdays, 5th and 19th ,
2pm. We knit and crochet blankets, baby
clothes and toys for charity. Contact:
Maureen Bush on 01753 543465.
Langley Churches Invite you to join them ...
Valentines Evening
Christ the Worker Church
Saturday February 16th 7pm
Live music
fish & chips supper
Tickets cost £6 and are
Available from Christ the Worker
church or Maureen(01753
543465)
Page 18
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Would you like to sponsor or support Around Langley?
If so, you may like to give £5 a year towards the costs
of the magazine. To do so please make a donation
at any of the sponsoring churches.
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Page 19
St Mary’s Church www.langleymarish.com/stmary
Open Tuesdays from 7.00 – 7.45pm for enquiries about baptisms, weddings, etc.
Rev. Robin Grayson 01753 542068 [email protected]
Curate: Rev. Sue Lepp 07930 520562 [email protected]
Hall Lettings: Mr Graham Jones 07802 784024 [email protected]
St Francis Church www.langleymarish.com/stfrancis
Hall Hire: Mrs Joy Raynor 01753 676011 [email protected]
Licensed Lay Minister: Mr Bill Birmingham 01753 548646 [email protected]
Christ the Worker Church www.langleymarish.com/c-t-w/
Rev. Shola Aoko 01753 547025 [email protected]
Hall Lettings: Mr Graham Jones 07802 784024 [email protected]
Parish Administrator: Mrs Dalletta Reed 01753 541042 [email protected]
Holy Family Catholic Church www.holyfamily.co.uk
Parish Priest: Canon Kevin O’Driscoll
Deacon: Rev. Graham Jones
Hall Hire: Mrs Maria Boland
All above contactable at 01753 543770 [email protected]
Parish Worker: Mr Kieran McKeown 01753 543770 [email protected]
HF Parish Club: Mrs Mary Wilkins 07759 304 567 [email protected]
Langley Free Church www.langleyfreechurch.org.uk
Pastor Rev. John Bernard 01753 473219 [email protected]
Hall Hire: 01753 540771 [email protected]
Parish Directory
Page 20
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Around Langley needs
contributions from people in Langley
on issues affecting its residents, or of
general interest. If you can help,
please contact Anna Thomas-Betts:
[email protected] or 01753
822 013.
A BIG THANK YOU and New Year wishes to all our
advertisers, past, present and future.
Together with the support of our churches, you make this magazine
possible!
With thanks from the editorial team of
Around Langley