125th Anniversary Celebrations: Rev. Martin Turner’s speech

First of all may I thank you for your kind invitation to share this special dinner with you,and I am sure I speak for all the guests in offering our appreciation for the invitation, the hard work and the meal itself.

It is always quite hard going back to a place where you have been a minister, I remember the story of the vicar who went back to his old church and over the tea table one of his former members said to him in a very loud voice, “Oh Vicar, I like the new man, but he doesn’t hold me in the way you used to do!”.

Well when I was here I was famous for not holding anyone other than a hug on Christmas Day, and in these days of “me too” that was perhaps a wise way of operating!

The eleven years we were here as a family were very happy years indeed, we all found leaving very hard, it was 22 years ago that we left, since then you have had four other ministers leading you, all very different.

Andrew has asked me to offer, I quote, “some words of congratulation and encouragement to the Church and all gathered.”

 So here goes, and how grateful I was that that little word “brief” was not in his request, if you come over a hundred miles for a dinner you might as well make it worthwhile!

First then the congratulations.

Ministers come and go, some you like more and some you like less, but what keeps a Church on the road are two forces.

The first is the people in the Church.

Some of you I know and others have come since we left, some of you here have moved away but come back for this special occasion, and of course we are so aware that this Church is also built on the love and service of those who have died, saints in light who share with us in the community of faith which has shaped this church.

This has always been a people church and a church anchored in the local community of Fleetville, not just a place where worship is offered on a Sunday, but also a place where service is offered throughout the week. There are all manner of different ways in which this Church serves, but I hope you will forgive me for mentioning the quite remarkable service which has been offered here in the Day Care Centre for the elderly.

When I asked Sue Davey to lead she was quite sure she was not up to the task, well she is still learning how to do it, along with others who were there right at the start, to me summing up the heart this place has for the people around.

Then the second and even more important driving force is the Holy Spirit, on this Pentecost weekend we are reminded that those first disciples were not up to much until the Spirit came to touch them through wind and fire.

A Church can be as dead and dry as dust if the Spirit is not at work, the minister can be a saint, the liturgy carefully thought out, the preaching stimulating, the buildings immaculate, but without the Holy Spirit at work nothing much is achieved, and even the caring work a Church does can be something which ends up as caring but no one is quite sure why or in whose name.

The Holy Spirit guided a group of Methodist people to start worshipping here 125 years ago, and 1894 seems a long way back!

The Holy Spirit built the work up, and the Holy Spirit guided some of you still here to build the new Church, then as the work expanded guided us to extend and turn the church round to face the main street and not a side street, for the Church should not be operating on the margins tucked away, but rather in the hustle of bustle of main street life.

So congratulations to you all for keeping this Church as the witness that is needed on this side of St. Albans, a witness on a main street, a witness in a multi-cultural community, a witness guided by the Holy Spirit.

Then the other thing Andrew asked me to offer was encouragement, and encouragement is a two edged sword, it can be encouragement to keep going, or encouragement to pull your socks up a bit, and here I am reminded of the great Bayeux tapestry, in part of that tapestry you can see King Harold poking a sword towards the backside of some of his soldiers, underneath it says,“King Harold encourages his troops!”

Well let me offer you both sorts of encouragement.

First let me encourage you by saying that you are doing a great job here,this a community where yes, you have your differences, but you live with them because you love God and you understand the call to love one another, there can be no greater blessing than to be a Church where love is at the heart, that blesses one another, blesses the community, and pleases God.

Loving one another does not come from the heart it comes from the will, keep loving and you will not go far wrong.

Second let me encourage you to be thankful for the past but not bound by it. The norms and the needs of society are very different now to what they were when I was here, you need to be open to the Holy Spirit leading you on to new ways of worship, new ways of service, new ways of living your life together, our God is a God who the Bible tells us makes all things new, if we do not allow God to do that we will in time wither and die.

It is unlikely I will be here for the 150^th anniversary, though some of you will, but I can tell you one person who will be there,the Holy Spirit, may the Spirit bless you, sustain you, and guide you in the years to come.