It’s now ten months since Charles and I were ordained deacons and we joined St Faith’s last June. The time seems to have gone very quickly. I suppose this is partly because there is so much to learn. The way of life as a full time minister is very different from that as an ordinand in full time employment with IBM. It has been quite a change for me. First, I want to thank everyone for the welcome, friendship and support during my time here. It does make a difference to the process of getting to know Havant. It is strange; I have lived on Hayling Island now for thirty years. In that time, I never became really familiar with Havant. Discovering the byways of the town is an intriguing process. In June, Charles and I will be back in the Cathedral for our ordination as priests. The coming months are going to be busy: partly in preparing for that and partly as we start work on the Kairos programme. Father David seems keen to emphasise that we are already well advanced towards this with the work we have done on our Vision project. There is a great deal of truth in this. Our work on mission has taken us some way down the road that we are being encouraged to follow in Kairos. However, it does greatly widen the work we have done so far by introducing two new factors. The first of these is the element of co-operation with other churches. We are encouraged by the Kairos process to work together – both ecumenically with the other denominations in the area and with the other Anglican churches in the deanery. I suppose I am an enthusiast for these forms of co-operation. Having got to know some of the other churches over the last few years, I am convinced that there are many things, which we at St Faith’s can learn from them. There are also some areas where we can probably help the others as well. The division among the various parts of God’s Church is one of the things, which most influences those outside not to join us. I believe that we need to place a lot of emphasis on this aspect of the Kairos process. The second factor to extend our vision efforts will be the better availability of information about our community and its needs, which the planned process will provide to us. Can we say that we really know what the people of Havant want St Faith’s to be and to do? Perhaps we do have a pretty good idea already, but it will be helpful to have our perceptions either confirmed or changed by proper information. This does, of course, raise one of the eternal questions about the church. That is the degree to which our role is to be a prophetic voice in the community. Should we speak out and express our opinions or should we respond to the needs of the community. I think we all would agree that we have to do both. However, we will probably not agree on what the balance really needs to be. The Kairos process will put that question to us clearly. This will be helpful whatever our answer. As you may have discerned, I am keen on Kairos: coupled with the forthcoming ordination and the continued effort to get to know Havant and St Faith’s, it looks like it will be an exciting and interesting year – again! David Williams

Elsewhere in "Faith Matters", you will read of the Miracle of the Feeding of the Multitude in which I have always found a parallel with a momentous event which occurred in my lifetime. Take note of Cosmo Gordon Lang's words: "..just these insignificant resources, gives God thanks for them, uses them, and lo! they are found to be enough, and more than enough...". On 24 May 1940, some 400,000 British, French and Belgium troops were pinned against the coast close to the Port of Dunkirk, with the German army massed just ten miles away. General Field Marshal Hermann Goring, Commander of the Luftwaffe, persuaded Hitler to halt his tanks to let him have the glory of finishing off the Allied forces by air power. This gave some valuable time to mount a rescue. Many other factors helped the cause. A huge pall of black smoke from a burning oil refinery obscured much of the beach from air attack. Even the weather helped, with banks of cloud making flying impossible at certain times. There was also the need perceived by the German military to concentrate on a drive to Paris, leaving the trapped Allied forces to be dealt with at an opportune time, thinking that their escape was impossible. There were many practical problems in mounting an evacuation because large warships were not able to get close to the beaches where the troops were patiently waiting. Improvised pontoons were formed by sinking lorries and troops waded out to small boats which took them out to the large warships. Eventually the embarkation got slowly under way but it was not enough. After some five days, the request went out to the general public for craft of all sizes to go to Dunkirk and the people's response was beyond anyone's expectations. On 30 May, a Lieutenant Cox on board the destroyer Malcolm saw what he described as a mass of dots approaching Dunkirk. To his astonishment, they gradually materialised into boats of all shapes and sizes. In the words of Walter Lord, author of the definitive book on Dunkirk, "Here and there were respectable steamers, like the Portsmouth-Isle of Wight car ferry, but mostly they were little ships, fishing smacks, drifters, excursion boats, glittering white yachts, mud-spattered hoppers, open motor launches, tugs towing ship's lifeboats, Thames sailing barges, cabin cruisers, dredgers, trawlers and even the Admiral Superintendent's Barge from Portsmouth in all its finery" (which in fact crashed rather ignominiously into debris in the sea just off the beach!). Escape had seemed impossible and yet in eleven incredible days 338,000 troops were evacuated to England and safety. Father Brown will be pleased to know that 170 dogs were also safely evacuated back to his home town of Dover! It was said that not a single dog remained in the town of Dunkirk! (Peter Thomas tells me that dogs will always follow soldiers because they befriend them). Winston Churchill won the respect of the people of this country because, unlike many present day leaders, he always spoke the truth to them. And so it was on this occasion because he cautioned the Nation with his wonderful oratory: "We must be very careful not to assign to this deliverance the attributes of a victory. Wars are not won by evacuations." Finally, I mentioned Walter Lord's book but I did not give its title. It was a very apt one - "The Miracle of Dunkirk".                                                                                                Roger Bryant

I live in London now but was brought up in Havant. Church House has in different ways been part of my life for as long as I can remember.   As a small boy I have quite vivid memories of "bun breakfast" in the Church Hall after the Eucharist on Sunday mornings. I also recall Sunday Schools in the House – I think there were two, which to a small boy seemed to be absolutely teeming with, to my eyes, hundreds of other children. Other than that all I can remember about Sunday School was learning to sing Kumbiya – a gift I could have done without.  Over the years I must have bought hundreds of second hand books from the various charity shops in the House. Indeed, I think as a rather oafish adolescent it was the Church Shop where I first bought classics and read them for pleasure. I still have the copies of Thomas Hardy novels I bought for 10p each and devoured one summer. It was this that led me to think that I might want to study literature at university – which I did.  Above all though I remember the crèche which I attended when my mother went to the Young Wives Group at St Faith’s. Like many memories of early childhood I can’t remember particular individual incidents, but I have a strong recollection of the pleasure my time at the nursery gave me. And Miss Finedon, who presided over it, defines this memory. A kind gentle lady, who lived, I think, in White Ladies Close, Miss Finedon displayed a patience, which I fear her mischievous charges did not merit. I was fascinated by her – as much as anything because she seemed fantastically ancient, but also because of her gentility and benevolence. She was a single lady and I have the vaguest recollection of being told she had lost a fiancé in the First World War, a tragedy that lent further weight to the awe with which I considered her.   A lovely lady who deserves to be remembered. Each time I visit Havant now I always walk past Church House. I always pop into the charity shop. And am always gratified to see that there is still a nursery and a Sunday Club in the same room there was over thirty years ago. And I always think of Miss Finedon.                                                                                             Hugo Deadman

I signed up for an exercise class and was told to wear loose-fitting clothing.

If I HAD any loose-fitting clothing, I wouldn't have signed up in the first place!

In response to a plea for help we volunteered to lend a hand with the Sunday Club. We turned up in good tune on Day One to find the A Team already at work getting the Hall prepared and paints, paper and brushes laid out. Although we were not sure exactly what was entailed we had not expected to find such an organised, structured and impressive set-up. The session kicked off with the children sitting down in a circle saying a prayer in unison. This was followed by a story being read to them about the Last Supper with genuine looking props. However the children were obviously a smarter bunch than us as, after having listened intently to the story, they then questioned the authenticity of one of the props - the unleavened bread. It was admitted that, yes, the one used for this session was in fact a poppadum but that unleavened bread resembled this very closely and was indeed still eaten today. The next step in the proceedings was that in turn the children could chose whether they would like to paint, make a collage or do something with clay. They all settled down amazingly quietly to do whatever they had chosen and which, hopefully, would have some relation to the story which had just been read to them. Meanwhile we were given an 'Induction Course' by Deborah Creasey who, with others, had been on a course which demonstrated a new format for Sunday School sessions which was called Godlyplay. This seemed a great idea and, having already run two sessions, it is going to be adopted by our Sunday Club in due course. Although we were only observers on our first day, there is a good chance that we may benefit as much or more than the children from the Sunday Club, albeit in different ways. As time goes on, through the magazine, we will give an up-date on our progress.

Ann Buckley, Sara Freeston

The three wise men of the Bible were possibly not wise and might not even have been men, the Church of England has ruled. A committee appointed to revise collects and prayers rejected a plan to replace the word "Magi" by "wise men" in a collect because "the possibility that one or more of the Magi were female cannot be excluded". But in a letter to The Times Stuart Weir from Oxford pointed out: "There is no doubt that the Magi were men. Had they been women they would have asked directions and arrived on time, chosen more sensible presents for the baby and brought a casserole for Mary and Joseph."

We are due to leave Japan on 18 June for UK. We'll stay to April 2005 and then spend April-July in South Africa before returning to Japan, DV. The Westons are now officially cleared to replace us. They will come in September so please pray that we can find preachers for the summer.

Love from Rod & Glenda Thomas

Continuing with the interpretations of the Miracles of our Lord by Cosmo Gordon Lang, we now consider "The Feeding of the Multitude". We are all familiar with the Bible account and, as before, I will not repeat it. However, before looking at Lang's interpretation, I would like to say something about the boy who gave up the seven loaves and fishes. We know nothing about him. The multitude were distant from their homes, on a hillside close to the Sea of Galilee, so was he alone or with family. Presumably the former since he, not his family, gave the food to the disciples. What was he doing with the food in the first place? It would seem too much for one boy. Was he on an errand to deliver it to someone, perhaps to workmen in an isolated workplace? Perhaps he was taking the food home. In which case we can imagine his mother saying in anger, "What do you mean, you shared my food with 4,000 people! Go straight to bed!" Lang points out the significance of our Lord's first words; "I have compassion on the multitude." In Lang's commentary, "(the words) mark an epoch in the story of man's life on earth - the entry upon the stage of the new sentiment and motive of pity for the vulgar crowd, with a career before it in the spread of philanthropy and civic freedom." It was also significant because it showed our Lord's manifest care for the body as well as the soul. Lang says "The disciples were dismayed at the contrast between the desire of their Master to feed that great multitude and the poverty of the resources which they actually had to fulfil it." But, he reasons "The power of a great compassion takes just these small opportunities, just these insignificant resources, gives God thanks for them, uses them, and lo! they are found to be enough, and more than enough, to feed the multitude." We too are often dismayed at the contrast between our actual life and the ideal, which our religion sets for us. We live ordinary lives, often mundane, with ordinary, perhaps monotonous, work, yet God expects us to live a perfect life in which we are partakers of the divine nature. Lang puts it very well; "a heroic life to be lived in circumstances unheroic." He goes on to say, "We know - and baptism is God's guarantee of it - that from the very first we possess the power of the Spirit. God never wills us to do anything without giving us beforehand all the grace we need for the doing of it." We have to take the opportunities that come our way. We do not need to make an inventory of all our personal qualities before embarking on an enterprise. It is enough that we have God with us, ready to hear our prayers and to guide us when we are lost. We make no progress unless we are bold enough to make a beginning and we can be bold because we have the power of the Spirit. The Feeding of the Multitude is the inspirational warrant for boldness and faith in our endeavours for God's Church on earth. Amen.                                                            Roger Bryant

A young woman teacher with obvious liberal tendencies explains to her class of small children that she is an atheist. She asks her class if they are atheists too. Not really knowing what atheism is but wanting to be like their teacher, their hands explode into the air like fleshy fireworks. There is, however, one exception. A girl named Lucy has not gone along with the crowd. The teacher asks her why she has decided to be different. "Because I'm not an atheist." Then, asks the teacher, "What are you?" "I'm a Christian." The teacher is a little perturbed now, her face slightly red. She asks Lucy why she is a Christian. "Well, I was brought up knowing and loving Jesus. My mom is a Christian, and my dad is a Christian, so I am a Christian." The teacher is now angry. "That's no reason," she says loudly. "What if your mom was a moron, and your dad was a moron. What would you be then?" She paused, and smiled. "Then," says Lucy, "I'd be an atheist."

Just before Christmas, Beryl and I received an invitation from our friends in Denvilles to attend their son’s wedding in Wellington as he was marrying a New Zealand girl. Neither of us had visited New Zealand, so this was an opportunity not to be missed. After handing in the April edition of Faith Matters to the printers, off we set on a 21-hour flight to Auckland. We met our NZ friend whom we had not seen for 30 years, did some sightseeing, and then made our way from Auckland to Wellington by coach and train seeing some beautiful scenery on the way, and stopping for a marae and hangi at a Maori Village. In Wellington we again did some sightseeing and attended the wedding. The wedding was held in a beautiful country garden and was lovely, as all weddings are. After crossing the Cook Straits from Wellington to Picton on the South Island, we made our way by train to Christchurch via Kaikoura. From Christchurch we flew to Sydney for Easter. We did the normal sightseeing tours and then spent two days with our Australian friends who had visited St. Faith’s last September. We attended the Easter Sunday service at their church, and then went to a Koala Park, where Beryl was able to have her photograph taken with a koala bear and a kangaroo! The following day our friends took us to the Blue Mountains to see some more fabulous scenery. We left Sydney for Singapore to see how much the place had changed since living there 30 years ago. There were very few places we recognised, as Singapore is now such a modern city and probably the most advanced place that makes use of information technology. Soon it was time for the 13-hour flight back to the UK in time to prepare for the May edition of Faith Matters. It was a fabulous trip and one that we shall never forget. During our trip we visited four cathedrals, two of which were very modern. The Cathedral of the Holy Trinity in Auckland was completed in 1995 and the Cathedral of St Paul in Wellington was completed in 1998. We found the sound system surprisingly poor in both these cathedrals considering how modern they are. The last two cathedrals were much older in comparison. Christ Church Cathedral in Christchurch was completed in 1904 and St Andrew’s Cathedral in Sydney in 1868 - it is the oldest cathedral in Australia. I shall give more information on all four cathedrals in later issues. It was interesting talking to the people at the cathedrals as they all seem to have the same problems as ourselves; that is, raising money, mainly run by the older generation, difficulty in attracting the younger generation and some people having problems with the "peace". In spite of all the beautiful cathedrals we saw, the Baptist church we went to with our friends, which is just a brick building, had a more modern approach with many young people taking an active part in the service and the words of the hymns displayed on a screen. However, we were told that some of the older generation did not fully agree with the modern approach. The key is to get a balanced service in which both the younger and older generations feel comfortable together.                                                                                                                    Colin Carter

The popular coffee mornings will start again on the 1^st May from 10am-12noon in the church. As well as selling cakes there will also be a plant stall and we would appreciate plants from your garden as you are dividing plants in the spring or anything you can pot up or grow from seed. Please bring plants or cakes along on the morning or pass them to a member of the Restoration Appeal Committee. The dates for future Saturday coffee mornings are 5th June, 3^rd July and 7^th August.

We are hoping this year to have the tower open for visits and also, in the afternoon in Homewell, to have some extra stalls. As part of the ecological theme, Fair Trade and Havant Friends of The Earth will be running stalls, Havant Borough Council will provide information on recycling and solar energy and the Solent Energy Centre will be giving away low energy light bulbs. Last year the handicraft stall raised almost £400 and we would appreciate items for this popular stall. Rosemary Thomas has agreed to run the plant stall and we are looking for someone to run the bookstall in the afternoon. Volunteers are also needed to run games and sell draw tickets, if you would like to help or have any suggestions for events or stalls please contact Ann Buckley on 023 9245 2289.

Joy and Roger Bryant celebrated their Golden Wedding Anniversary on Saturday 27^th March. The Vicar, The Reverend Fletcher-Campbell, married them in 1954 at St James’ Church, Milton. Joy was just 21, by 3 days, and Roger was 20, 5 months short of his 21st. Some months prior to the wedding, Rogers mother's neighbour was talking to someone in a bus queue when she discovered that they were both going to weddings at the same time on the same day at St James'. Joy & Roger took this up with the Vicar who discovered that he had double booked! Joy & Roger had booked first so the other couple switched their wedding to St Margaret's Eastney. The Evening News reported the story under the heading "Wedlock - No Deadlock!"

Dear Friends

We would like to thank everyone for their anniversary and birthday cards, presents and good wishes on our Golden Wedding Anniversary and my birthday. You made it an occasion we will never forget. We are so grateful to you all. Sincerely                                                                                   Joy Bryant xxx

50 years 5 decades

A love match that’s pure

How the worlds changed

Yet your love has stayed

Stayed in truth, fairness, happiness and joy

To share, to be contented

To be happy with your lot

Is special and beautiful

And never to be forgot

For your love is known and your love is strong

Not only for one another

But for all of us who’ve come along

Your children, your grandchildren

And a great grandchild too

All of us the better for being shown the way by you

To enjoy, to love, to live and to be true

So we thank you with our hearts, our minds

And our souls

For without your love our lives may be bradled with many holes

But fortunately we love and love makes us stronger

And helps us to live our lives happily ever after