As I prepare for another busy month ahead of us at St Faith’s and St Nicholas it seems appropriate to reflect upon a few moments from a wonderful June. Firstly the welcome of our Assistant Curates, Fr. Charles Keay and Fr. David Williams. The Ordination service and the introduction to the parish on the 29th June were marvellous occasions, which will have provided them, I am sure, with a great springboard for their ministries in Havant. As they now learn to adjust to life as ordained ministers in Christ’s church I know you will continue to support them and pray for them. Also worthy of mention is the Flower festival earlier last month. It seems ages ago now, but it was a most successful weekend, raising some £2000 for the Restoration Appeal. Seeing so many people wandering through the church, appreciating the beauty of the arrangements adorning our lovely church was a delight. In the same way a number of people enjoyed reminiscing about their childhoods or past associations with St Faith’s. Particularly pleasing for me was to savour the teamwork put in by so many groups of people from within St Faith’s and from other churches and groups locally. We owe so many people a debt of gratitude for their help and appreciate all that has been done to assist the work of the church. I know from every one’s comments that all felt it was worthwhile. So well done!

Looking forward now I need to draw your attention to two major events this month. Firstly the Vision continues and on Saturday 5th July from 9:45 in the Church Hall the various groups will be reporting back on their activities. The aim of the morning will be to hear what they have found and concluded and to begin the process of drawing together the proposals of the six groups into one co-ordinated plan. Clearly this will be a task beyond the scope of the day, but it will be a chance to see what has been said and a further chance to add your opinions. So please come along to the hall on Saturday 5th July from 9:45 to 2pm and bring a packed lunch.

As if this isn’t enough, this month also sees the launch of the Stewardship campaign on Sunday 13th, during and after the main Parish Eucharist. The campaign is launched through a presentation given in church and then there is the chance to talk and learn more over Brunch in the Church Hall immediately after the service. The focus of Stewardship is about how we use our resources and the gifts God has given us. It will therefore provide us with the chance to examine how we give of ourselves in service to Christ’s church through our time, talents and money. The organising team of Trevor Hopkinson, Sybil Laird and Hilary Deadman have given the subject great thought and time and dealt with the issues in a highly sensitive fashion. Please come and hear about the campaign and hear how you can learn further about the way we manage the church’s resources and how we can help out.

Another quiet month then! With every blessing,                                                                          Fr. David

I often think that God must have a sense of humour. Someone once said, "He must have a sense of humour, otherwise He would not have created the Camel!" Alone in Creation, or so it seems, we have a sense of humour; an ability to laugh, often in adversity. Laughter breaks down the barriers between people of all races and creeds. We do not need to know the language in order to laugh at Laurel and Hardy. Laughter is a tonic when we are ill. It helps us to overcome danger and stress. You will guess from all of this that I greatly admire people who can make us laugh.

I mentioned Stan Laurel, a Lancashire lad who conquered Hollywood, and his American partner, Oliver Hardy, known to Stan and all his many friends as "Babe" after an Italian barber once said that his face was as smooth as a baby's. Stan created all the timeless sketches and directed their scenes. Babe loved golf and as soon as filming was over for the day, he would rush from the film set to the nearest golf course, while Stan spent the evening on work for the next day's filming. Stan would delay filming as long as he could so that, with Babe at the very end of his tether, Stan would get him to look into the camera and deliver the line, "A fine mess you've gotten me into!" with just the right degree of exasperation and anger. Babe would then make a speedy escape to the golf course.

Humour does not always travel well in films. This is because the cinema is not a good vehicle for humour because of the absence of an audience at the point of delivery. I remember in the immediate post-war years, my uncle telling me about a wonderful comedian he had seen at the London Palladium. His name was Norman Wisdom and, at the time, his stage shows received rave reviews. Try watching one of his films on television. They are unfunny to the point of embarrassment.

To a lesser degree this is true of another comedian, George Formby, who in his time was the top British star of films and the theatre. I once had the great good fortune to see him on the West End stage in a musical comedy called "Zip Goes a Million". He played his normal gormless Lancashire lad in a part made for him. After the show had been running a little while, suddenly, right on cue, George Formby made his entrance on stage. The audience erupted into a standing ovation which brought the show to a stop for many minutes. He really was a most accomplished performer, with impeccable timing and an extraordinary rapport with his audience. There was a wonderful magic about his performance which captivated them. Sadly, very little of this is captured in his films.

As I wrote at the beginning, I am sure that God has a sense of humour which He gifted to these performers. Joy is shaking her head in disbelief. "What has all this to do with the parish?", she is asking me. When they read this, I know what our two editors, Jan and Colin, will be thinking - "A fine mess you've gotten us into!"                                                                                                     Roger Bryant

We were all saddened to hear of the death of Canon Douglas Caiger. St Faith’s Church has lost a very good friend who was of great help to us during the Interregnum. He was, of course, a former Assistant Priest at this church and Audrey Currie has fond memories of his time here, when she would often babysit for him. In more recent times he was a Rector of Emsworth, returning to the town when he formally retired. After retirement, he continued to serve at Warblington and St James, Emsworth. Apart from the Interregnum, he took services for us on many occasions at both St Faith’s and at Christ Church Centre. He was a kindly and dedicated priest who will be missed in both parishes. Our thoughts are with his family at this sad time.                                                                 RHB

Last month I preached about on this subject, giving an introduction to what I hope will be an extended discussion about related issues. On that occasion I said that sexuality is a subject often overlooked by the church and one on which the church has failed to give a clear and meaningful lead. A part of this problem has been the attitude, adopted from Classical Greek thought, that body and spirit are separated – an idea St. Paul sought to refute. However, when he came to talk about sexual behaviour he gave away his reluctance to completely reject Platonic philosophy. Remember Paul’s advice to the Corinthian church when he asserted that a man should be celibate, but if he cannot contain his sexual desire then he should marry? This same attitude can be seen in the Book of Common Prayer’s marriage rite:

"Marriage… is an honourable estate… not to be enterprized, nor taken in hand, unadvisedly, lightly, or wantonly, to satisfy men’s carnal lusts and appetites, like brute beasts that have no understanding."

Matrimony was ordained, it says: for three reasons: for the "procreation of children, to be brought up in the fear and nurture of the Lord" and "for each other’s mutual assistance" – with which I couldn’t agree more. The third reason given, however, is that marriage is "for a remedy against sin, and to avoid fornication; that such persons as have not the gift of continency might marry, and keep themselves undefiled members of Christ’s body." The implication here is that the sexual desire is itself something sinful or dirty! We may have moved on from such a view but these expressions in our scripture and cherished ancient texts carry a weight – one that lives on in the consciousness of a nation that has been so influenced by the Christian tradition over the centuries.

My point on that Sunday was a very simple one – that sexual feelings and desires are natural and a vital part of our humanity, as creations of a loving God. Sexual behaviour, on the other hand is another matter, and it is completely appropriate that the church should continue to call for marriage to be held as the ideal context for sexual activity. The problem lies in that, of course, the two – feelings and behaviour are linked. If we tell people that sexual thinking is bad then, of course so also is sexual activity. Yet marriage is given for the procreation of the human race – so that means that sex is sinful, yet necessary in certain conditions. What sort of a warped message is that!

What we need to say is that human sexuality is a very beautiful and natural part of who we are as special parts of God’s creation and that sexual appetite and desire needs to be acknowledged and not repressed. The way we express these desires needs, however, to be very carefully thought about and sexual activity should ideally take place in a mutual, loving and committed relationship. As such it is entirely appropriate that the church should continue to advocate marriage as the desirable context.

Most of us have been brought up in an environment in which the church’s involvement has exuded, if not explicitly stated, this negative and repressive approach to human sexuality. To turn this around the church may need to make clearer statements about just what it does see as appropriate. It is likely that an appropriate understanding of the body as a temple for God that honours the body and its associated impulses, without necessarily giving way to them, can assist people in their self worth and search for appropriate spiritual practise.

In this discourse I have been careful to direct my comments to the issue of the church’s history of thought relating to the sinfulness of sexual desire. I have limited my comments about sexual activity to recognising the church’s promotion of marriage as the appropriate forum for sex. I have not, thus far, embarked upon a discussion about homosexuality, or indeed any other sexual activity outside marriage! I was asked what were my intentions in talking about this subject and the answer is that I have been reading on the issue and was struck by the inadequacy of the church’s historic statements and teaching. Let me reassure you there was no other objective. I am not for example, as one person feared, preparing you for some shocking announcement about the private life of Mr X, prominent church member! I should be interested in your responses and see where this conversation leads us. Perhaps you should like to comment on, for example, the Scottish Episcopal Church’s decision to accept Women Bishops, or the Episcopal Church in Canada that blessed the union of a gay couple?                                                                                                                                          Fr. David

Back in the 1950s, one of the top film stars was Victor Mature, who starred in a large number of classic films including some with a biblical theme like the "Robe" (with Richard Burton), "Samson and Delilah", (in which the great Hedy Lamarr was manifestly too old to play Delilah), and "Demetrius and the Gladiators". The film critics of the day gave Victor very poor reviews, perhaps because he was a screen rather than a stage actor. There is quite a difference in the acting technique required, as I once saw Michael Caine explaining on Television.

My story starts a few weeks before (I was serving on board HMS Reggio, LST 3511, based on Malta) when the Mediterranean Fleet left Malta for the UK. The majority of the fleet turned left after leaving Grand Harbour, for the UK.

Following them out were other units of the Med Fleet who turned right, heading for Port Said in Egypt. You can imagine the feelings of those on board those ships, especially when you realise that they were on a 2½ year com-mission. Four days later we arrived at Port Said and went alongside Navy House Jetty for four to five weeks.On Coronation Day itself, HMS Ranpura (Depot Ship) had a serious fire in her boiler room and most of Reggio's ship's company were on standby as a relief fire party!                                                                                                                                                 Bill Sagrott

So reads the inscription on the fine oak lectern in St Faith's Church, Havant. As a fellow Royal Marine I undertook some research into John Blake about his life locally, how he won his Military Cross and he met his untimely death. And very rewarding research it was too.

John Blake was born in Portsmouth on 17 November 1917 above the surgery in High St, Portsmouth where his father was a dentist. The family later moved to what was then Wade Cottage in Wade Court Road, Havant where he, his two sisters and brother had an idyllic childhood. He went first to Emsworth House School and then, to Aldenham as a Scholar and finally Head Boy. From there he read Maths at St John's College, Cambridge and became a double Blue in Cricket and Hockey. In 1939 he played 14 games for Hampshire County Cricket team, scoring over 1,000 runs, and also became a Maths master at Sherborne School.

John Blake joined the Royal Marines in 1940 and took part in the abortive Dakar expedition. On return his battalion went through the arduous commando course at Achnacarry, in Scotland and converted into 43 Royal Marine Commando (450 men at full strength) arriving in North^--Africa later in 1943. In January 1944 the commando landed against light opposition at Anzio in Italy, gained its objectives and was withdrawn to Naples. The US General in command then lost the initiative and, in Churchill's words" instead of flinging a wild cat ashore we were left with a stranded whale" when the Germans reacted with their usual efficiency. 43 Commando was recalled and with 9 Army Commando given the task of capturing three peaks with bare, rocky, precipitous slopes to extend the bridgehead over the River Garigliano. After a long and exhausting night climb under mortar and machine gun fire Captain John Blake's D Troop seized Monte Ornito (2,400ft). For this fine achievement he was awarded the Military Cross for his bravery, leadership and navigational skills.

After withstanding a German counterattack which came within grenade throwing range, 43 commando was withdrawn and ordered to the island of Vis in the Adriatic. The Germans had mounted a big offensive against Tito's partisans in Western Bosnia and Tito asked for a large scale operation on the Dalmation coast to distract them. It was decided to attack the island of Brac where the enemy was 1,200 strong with mutually supporting strong points each sited on top of a hill South of the village of Nerezisca. A joint British/Partisan force was divided into four to tackle each of the objectives. The main force included 43 Commando. D Day was 2 June. Unfortunately with radio problems causing confusion and half hearted moves by the partisans, 43 Commando attacked unsupported. Hard fighting ensued in which five officers including two Troop Commanders, one of whom was John Blake, were killed. Thus ended the life of a courageous leader and outstanding young Englishman who died in the service of his country. May we be reminded of his example when lessons are read from the Lectern which salutes his life and commemorates his name.   Peter Thomas

This title comes easy for me because as a schoolboy it was never simply John Pounds; it was always, "John Pounds and the Ragged School". And yet, John Pounds had a life before the Ragged School. He was born in Portsmouth in 1766 and in 1778, at the age of 12, he entered the Dockyard as an apprentice shipwright, following in the footsteps of his father who was already working there as a carpenter. At the age of 15, he met with an appalling accident, falling into a dry dock and breaking his thigh. There was no Health and Safety in those days and no compensation for a 15 year old who was now a cripple for life.

He was no longer fit for employment in the dockyard and became a cobbler, working the next 15 years in a little wooden workshop, with a living room above, in Highbury Street, just off the High Street in Old Portsmouth, as we know it now. In 1796, he adopted his one year old nephew who had been born a cripple. Astonishingly, John cured his lameness by making the child surgical boots of his own design. More than this he taught the infant reading and writing, and Botany. He also gave the child religious instruction.

Realising that he had a gift for teaching, he decided to teach the idle and poor children in his district. He attracted them to his workshop with hot potatoes and roasted apples. Apart from reading and writing, he taught them to cook simple foods and to repair their own shoes. He also sent them to Sunday School. He assembled a supply of suitable clothes, into which the children changed before going to the Sunday School. On their return, they changed back into their own clothes. He treated their minor ailments, made bats and shuttlecocks for their games, took them on outings to Portsdown Hill and did so much to give the children a fine start in life.

His great supporter was the High Street Unitarian Church, or more properly its Minister, Dr Russell Scott, who gave reading books and spiritual guidance to the children. John Pounds died in 1839 at the age of 73 after a lifetime of wonderful achievement. His Ragged School inspired many more around the country, even as far afield as Edinburgh. When you next go to the High Street in Old Portsmouth, have a look at the John Pounds Memorial Church and give thanks for a kindly and remarkable man. In 1844, five years after the death of John Pounds, the "Ragged School Union" came into being and twelve years later, the first Free Ragged School opened in St George's Square. Oh, I almost forgot, the "Old Benny". To hear how the first Free Ragged School fared and to discover who or what was "Old Benny", you must read next month's "Faith Matters".                          Roger Bryant

A water bearer in China had two large pots, each hung on the ends of a pole which he carried across his neck. One of the pots had a crack in it, while the other pot was perfect and always delivered a full portion of water. At the end of the long walk from the stream to the house, the cracked pot arrived only half full. For a full two years this went on daily, with the bearer delivering only one and a half pots full of water to his house. Of course, the perfect pot was proud of its accomplishments, perfect for which it was made. But the poor cracked pot was ashamed of its own imperfection, and miserable that it was able to accomplish only half of what it had been made to do. After 2 years of what it perceived to be a bitter failure, it spoke to the water bearer one day by the stream. "I am ashamed of myself, and because this crack in my side causes water to leak out all the way back to your house." The bearer said to the pot, "Did you notice that there were flowers only on your side of the path, but not on the other pot's side? That's because I have always known about your flaw, and I planted flower seeds on your side of the path, and every day while we walk back, you've watered them. For two years I have been able to pick these beautiful flowers to decorate the table. Without you being just the way you are, there would not be this beauty to grace the house" Moral: Each of us has our own unique flaws. We're all cracked pots. But it's the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. You've just got to take each person for what they are, and look for the good in them. Blessings to all our crackpot friends!!!

Giving the Church a good spring clean before Easter this year!