General Chat

Sorry, Chris and Maggie. If any consolation, I get names of children mixed up as well :-D :-D

Leni. Many thanks. And wish you a very happy Christmas :-D :-D

I do love Christmas, but also feel sad as so many of my loved ones are no longer here to share it. Life goes on and I have so many happy memories, but just miss them so much.

Merry Christmas John :-)

CarolP Just to say I think that was beautifully put, thank you. :-)

Re your first sentence, that is why I started http://www.genesreunited.co.za/boards/board/general_chat/thread/979039
five years ago.

Paula+ Merry Christmas to you. :-D :-D

I think it is a time to think of our loved ones, yes. It can bring back lovely memories. My children are ancient now, but I so remember their excitement after Santa had been. Running into our bedroom and jumping all over us so our early morning cup of tea redecorated the bedroom.

Santa that called at our house was slim and curvy and very attractive. This old grumpy bloke used to help her a bit ;-)

Joy. I had spotted that lovely thread and had a quick look through.

You have words of Once in Royal David's City near the beginning. The hymwriter was a Mrs Alexander. In my old church in Northamptonshire, a lovely lady (one of those quiet, gentle Christians who form the bedrock of a local church) came originally from N Ireland.

She will be close to 90 now. Her grandmother was in Mrs Alexander's Sunday School. Mrs Alexander wrote these hymns ("All Things Bright and Beautiful" was another) to teach her children what the Creeds actually meant. She was a very humble lady. Her husband eventually became a "Most Rev" and was Anglican Primate of All Ireland. :-D :-D

Some of the old well known hymns have amazing stories behind them.

Abide with me - was written by a clergyman who suffered from TB. He wrote it shortly before he died at the age of 54.


I remember the name of Mrs Alexander as a hymn writer so how nice to hear of someone who had a connection to her.



This morning we had the nativity. Shepherds in dressing gowns and angels in boots........... :-D :-D


When it came time to share the Peace of the Lord (a handshake offered in reconciliation), one of the lads aged about 13, grinned at me, raised his hand in the Star Wars configuration and said "Live long and prosper". :-D



Just wondered if anyone else has been to a nativity today? I love to hear about the different traditions......

My Mum used to have a hymn book The Alexander hymn book, would that have been the same Mrs Alexander? they were the sort of hymns always chosen for the 'Fellowship Hours' after church (Baptist) on Sunday evenings when all the youth used to stay and sing along.

Ann. I think that would be Charlie Alexander, an American born abt 1860 who was a friend of Sankey and Moody. Very catchy songs with choruses for more than one voice.

My favourite American hymnwriter of that period was Fanny Crosby (1820-1915). Blind almost all her life, she wrote hymns like "To God be the glory, great things he has done". With fantastic choruses. :-D :-D

That is one of my favourite hymns John, memories of Dr Billy Graham in the 50s. Yes, we used to sing the Sankey hymns too so I am sure you are right.

I hadn't a clue Ann so googled to find out. Yes, John was right on that.


I was brought up on Salvation songs - complete with tambourines - and now look at me.....a staid old Anglican.... :-D :-D



Sankey and Moody................that brings back memories.


I quite like some of the more modern hymns too.


It's amazing how many different hymn books there are but there's always a hymn for every occasion :-D

I love the old traditional hymns myself. Isaac Watts, for example. "When I survey the wondrous Cross" is one of his. And some of the 19th century - Kenneth Horne (Round the Horne) had a father who served as a clerk in the C of E. He wrote "Sing we the King who is coming to reign"

And I love the American revival hymns, as I think we all do. And many of the modern ones are good, well known and are getting very popular. Daughter and her friend both got married in 2011 and both asked the Vicar for "Keep me travelling along with you" and all the young people at both ceremonies sang that lustily and words are very fitting. :-D

I don't think I know the hymn that your daughter and her friend both had at their weddings John, but The Old rugged cross was one of my Dad's favourites, I can still hear him singing it in church, he had a powerful voice. And I always loved Monty Sunshine playing it in the Chris Barber band!

Ann. My local Vicar is very snooty about your favourite. Cross is not old, it is for today - and not rugged - baaa, humbug. You get the idea.

Not in many of hymn books today, but I often choose it and also love it. And I have never yet found anyone in the pews who does not love it either. :-D Not that difficult to print off copies of words for a smallish congregation ;-)

Ann, the hymn which John mentioned is often sung in schools, especially at the end of the Summer term when youngsters are moving on to 'big' school.....

".....so it's from the old I travel to the new, keep me travelling along with you". Quite apt really. :-D



The Old Rugged Cross is a firm favourite with many of the older generation but, sadly, the young ones don't really know it.


I like a mixture of both old and new - as the occasion befits probably and, there's a hymn for every occasion. :-D

It is a shame when the old hymns die but I like some of the modern hymns too. As I have said I don't attend church now so the modern hymns I know I have heard on Songs of praise.

That one sounds very apt for a wedding Cynthia.

Just watching The One Show and it featured a short piece about the number of people going forward for ordination. One of the comments made was that these folk believe the church has a future - they don't go along with the decline which the media suggests. These people are coming to the church from all walks of life and bringing their work experience with them.


Then, they interviewed Nicky Gumbell. I've heard of him but that's about it. Seems he was an atheist from an atheist family but who discovered the Christian faith. He was a barrister but went for ordination and has been a vicar for quite a while.


He has a congregation of 4,000 per week and is the founder of the famous Alpha courses which he runs three times a year with a 1,000 people at each one.


I've been on similar courses to Alpha but never that one.....has anyone else?



It was an interesting item to watch just before Christmas when some may be thinking about going to church over the festive period. ..... :-D

Cynthia, Not sure his family are atheists if wikipedia it to be believed

Gumbel is the son of Walter Gumbel, a German Jew from Stuttgart whose licence to practise law in that city was withdrawn in one of the early Nazi purges. Walter emigrated to Britain and became a successful barrister. Gumbel's mother, Muriel, served on the Greater London Council for many years between 1967 and 1986 and was Mayor of the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea. An avowed atheist, Nicky Gumbel was converted to Christianity in his first year at Trinity College, Cambridge through reading the New Testament. He said, "I was enthralled. It was as if I had found what I had been looking for all my life".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nicky_Gumbel

Roy

Not a clue Roy ... but that's interesting.....it was just what he said on the programme.. ........maybe his father was a non practicing Jew :-S



As if that wasn't enough, there's just been a NW programme on with the story of a young chap who was a violent drug dealer, whose meeting with a prison chaplain subsequently changed his life etc.etc.



I think I need a lie down........... :-S

Nicky Gumbell is a fantastic speaker. Had no idea he was a Barrister or an atheist. Isn't it funny that we never seem to ask that sort of question of Christians? What is in the past gets firmly buried in the past.

One of the best preachers I ever heard was at a Gideons Friends Rally in Banbury about 14 years ago. The man had been converted in prison and he had been a convicted murderer. Yes, he admitted he had killed a man 30 years previously in (I think) a bank raid.

And all we wanted to know was what God had done with his life since conversion and what plans he had for his future. He was a lovely and gentle man, and almost unbelievable how God had turned his life round. :-D :-D