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FROM THE URC ELDERS
One advantage of being in a period of interregnum is that we have so many different, and interesting, ministers and speakers come to take our services.
I was very taken by the following true story told by Jeff Eason of Ruislip Baptist Church. Evidently, in France, there exists an organization called Le Front de Liberation des Nains de Jardin. This is a movement to free ‘garden gnomes’. Once ‘liberated’ they are painted a tasteful blue, or green, so they fit into their new background of wood or lakeside.
Recently there was a demonstration by eighty-four gnomes on the steps of Saint Dié Church in Vosges. They carried a banner, which read “Free at Last!”
That phrase must be the deepest wish of so many people. Freedom from addiction to smoking and other drugs including alcohol abuse; freedom from debt and financial problems; freedom from constant worrying, from sickness and pain; freedom from guilt, grief, stress or sin.
How we long to be able to claim, like the garden gnomes, “Free at Last!”
As I write we are still in Lent, and looking forward to Easter when, because of the agonizing death of Christ on the Cross, we are promised that very redemption.
Our problems will not all fall away. We must rely on ourselves, and others, to accomplish this. But we know that God has offered us His ever-present support, help and comfort, and that through Jesus, His Son, we can be freed from our sins.
Joyce Wolff
Alfred and family would like to thank their friends for the many, many cards, letters and messages of sympathy received after Helen's death on 30th January. The response to the suggested charities has resulted in donations of £777 to Christian Aid, and £812 to Shelter.
HOSPITAL COMMUNION SERVICES 2005
More Volunteers needed urgently
The next Sunday when volunteers are needed to collect patients from wards for Communion services in the hospital chapel is: Mount Vernon Hospital, Sunday 24th April. More dates will be published in future months. This small service is very much appreciated by patients who have no family available to help them. To continue this service we need to supplement our regular team with more volunteers to provide cover for unavoidable absences. Anyone who is prepared to spend a couple of hours on occasional Sunday mornings, please contact Alan Grove on 020 8868 9220.
MEMORIAL SERVICE FOR THE BEREAVED
There will be a special Memorial Service at St. Giles' Church on Sunday 17th April at 3.00 p.m. for those who are bereaved. The name of the departed, whose funeral was conducted at the United Reformed Church or by St. Giles' staff between the beginning of March 2004 and the end of February 2005, will be read out during the service. Canon David Winter, who is a writer and broadcaster from Oxford, will give an Address.
Members of the churches' Pastoral Support Group will be present. After the service, the congregation will be invited to have refreshments in St. Giles' Church Hall.
Anyone who would find this service helpful is welcome to come.
Don’t forget the new evening drop-in for the bereaved starting on 6th April from 7.30 to 9 p.m. in the URC Hardwick Room. It will be held regularly every first Wednesday of each month.
ST GEORGE’S DAY – APRIL 23RD - CIRCA 300 AD
 He was the Saint of an English Army before he was Patron Saint of England. St George may have been a soldier, but he was no Englishman. He was an officer in the Roman Army under Diocletian, who refused to abandon his faith during the Terror, and was martyred at Lydda in Palestine about the year 300 AD - supposedly 23rd April. Over the years St George became the example of a Christian fighting-man, a powerful helper against evil powers affecting individual lives. He was the soldier-hero of the Middle Ages, of whom remarkable deeds were reported.
In the Golden Legend of the 13th century, Jacobus de Voragine gave St George a handsome write-up. The story runs thus:
One day, St George rode up to the heathen city of Sylene in Lybia, where he found the citizens in great distress. A neighbouring dragon had forced them to surrender two sheep each day for its dinner, and when the sheep gave out, two of their children; and now they were about to sacrifice the King's daughter, dressed as if for her wedding. St George encountered the little party by a stagnant lake, where the dragon lived, and persuaded the sobbing Princess to tell him why she was so miserable. At that moment the dragon appeared, looking inexpressibly revolting. The Saint charged, and drove his spear into the gaping mouth. To everyone's amazement, he tumbled the monster over and over.
Then St George borrowed the Princess' girdle, tied it round the dragon's neck, and persuaded her to lead it back to Sylene herself. The sight of her approaching with the befuddled dragon on its makeshift lead emptied the town. When the inhabitants timidly crept back, St George promised to behead the dragon if they would all believe in Jesus Christ and be baptised.
It was a most effective form of evangelism, for everybody said 'yes' at once. So 15,000 people were baptised, and four carts were commissioned to remove the dragon's body.
St George thus became a symbol of the war against evil, and is usually portrayed trampling the dragon of sin under his horse's hoofs. The Crusaders had a vision of him helping them against the Saracens at Antioch, during the first Crusade, and so brought the story of St George back with them from Palestine. Presently England put herself under the protection of the Saint. His day was a declared a holiday in 1222. A red cross on a white field is the flag of St George.
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