This is the text of the Christian Comment I submitted for the Lymington Times of 15th October, 2009.

The following week's L.T. printed a lengthy letter of complaint from an elder of the local Jehovah's Witnesses, so I thought it would be good to make the original available:

Christian Comment

As this year marks the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his seminal work, 'On the Origin of Species', it is an excellent time to reflect on the natural world and our place within it. (It's also rather comforting to reflect that one can still make a such a contribution to the world at the age of 50!) Although some of the detail is unclear, it is now certain that all the complex life forms we see around us, including penguins, poppies, and people, evolved from microscopic common ancestors over the past four billion years or so. It's a truth about God's amazing creation which should make us stop and think. Not only are other human beings our brothers and sisters, but also all living creatures are our cousins. Our past is shared and our futures are interwoven – we all depend on one another, and this is the way God intended it to be. As St.Paul put it, “Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. If one part suffers, every part suffers with it.” Darwin helped us to see that those words apply not only to the Church of Christ, but to the whole created world.

Peter Salisbury, Vicar of Lymington

Remembrance which makes a difference
I want to say this morning, through several different accounts, that true remembrance must make a difference.
And I want to start by remembering someone who died 80 years ago this year..
Woodbine Willy
Geoffrey Studdert Kennedy, a young vicar in Worcester who became an army chaplain in the First World War and was given the nickname “Woodbine Willy”
Here's what he had to say about war:
The brutality of war is literally unutterable. There are no words foul or filthy enough to describe it. Yet I would remind you ... that if we believe in a God of love at all, then we must believe [despite] war and all it means. The supreme strength of the Christian faith is that it faces the foulest and filthiest of life's facts in the crude brutality of the cross, and through them sees the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
In Christ I meet the real God. In him I find no metaphysical abstraction, but God speaking to me in the only language I can understand, which is the human language.
In [the crucified Christ] I find the truth that human sin and sorrow matter to God.
In the risen Christ I find the promise and the guarantee that the moral struggle of our [human] race will issue in victory.
Woodbine Willy was spurred on, by his remembrance of the horrors of war, to work for the relief of the poor in the slums of England and Germany.
True remembrance makes a difference.
Three new names
Three new names are being dedicated on our War Memorial on Wednesday, the 11th of the 11th at 1100
Among them is a name from the Bosnian conflict, Stuart Wilson.
He died a couple of days before his 21st birthday, driving his United Nations truck over a cliff rather than hit an oncoming civilian vehicle.
He'd be 33 by now
He's remembered each Boxing Day, when the New Milton Rugby Club plays an invitation side comprising ex-servicemen and currently serving men.
The proceeds of the day are donated to his family, who still live here in Lymington.
True remembrance makes a difference.
Royal British Legion
A week or two back I was at the monthly meeting of the British Legion branch in my capacity as their chaplain.
My goodness, that's a hard working group of people, and largely unthanked and unrecognised.
Each meeting begins with the exhortation: they shall grow not old...
And we respond “We will remember them”
And the meeting continues.
It reminds us all in the branch that remembrance has to make a difference.
So as we hear reports from the Welfare committee, hear about funerals attended by the standard bearers and make decisions about the Poppy appeal, we do it all to remember the fallen, and in particular to try to make life a little more bearable for our ex-service personnel and their families.
True remembrance makes a difference.
Howard Miles
You may think I've forgotten to shave this morning, but in fact I'm growing a moustache for November.
Some of you may know about the Movember organisation which encourages people to grow a moustache through November in order to raise awareness about Prostate Cancer.
In my case it's another act of remembrance, because a little less than a year ago Howard Miles, our churchwarden and my friend, died of Prostate Cancer.
So on the first Monday of November, I went into Lymington Hospital, with my two day old moustache, for a PSA blood test which can help detect Prostate Cancer.
It was quick and painless, and yet surveys show that about 50% of men don't even know about the PSA test.
My hope is that, by raising awareness, my remembrance of Howard can make a difference.
Camp Bastion
I was moved, as I'm sure our whole nation was moved, by the TV footage of troops preparing for Remembrance day in Camp Bastion, Helmand province, Afghanistan, heaving up a huge wooden cross and planting it in the desert sand.
How immediate and personal it must be for them.
There are 6 names on our news sheet of troops who have died in Afghanistan this week alone.
As their comrades erected that cross, their faithful remembrance has helped our forgetful nation to remember once more.
True remembrance makes a difference.
The gospel reading (Matthew 5:43-end)
In the reading we heard earlier, from St.Matthew's gospel, Jesus recognised the vicious cycle of war and retribution, offence and revenge, and pointed to the only way out of that futile round:
“You have heard that it was said, 'You shall love your neighbour and hate your enemy.' But I say to you, Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.”
As we respond to the challenge of Jesus' teaching, we can follow in the footsteps of Matthew's church who, in the face of brutal persecution, resolutely tried to love their enemies, in remembrance of Jesus.
True remembrance makes a difference.
Bonfire night
Last night I went to visit a friend whose wife has recently died.
He used to be President of the British Legion branch, having served with the Gurkhas in the war.
After we had chatted about his lovely wife, and prayed together, I walked out into the damp night which was full of the noise and sparkle of bonfire night.
The Lymington Rotary club were performing their annual magic: turning the remembrance of a treasonous terrorist murder plot, into a joyfully raucous celebration; a community coming together to help local charities.
And as I made my way along Daniells Walk I could hear the distant strains of music rising and falling on the wind: "Land of Hope and Glory, Mother of the free..."
And I was proud to be part of a nation which remembers: in ways which make a difference.

3) Vision: changing hearts and minds
This sermon, the third of a series of four on the St.Thomas renewal project, was preached on 1st March 2009. The gospel reading was Mark 1:9-15

Last week
Last week we heard those same words, “This is my Son” from the mountain top of Transfiguration.
I spoke about the Messianic secret and the different information Jesus gave to different sorts of people.
I said that we had now come to the point when we were able to share with the wider congregation some of the conclusions we had reached.
I went through the proposals for renewing this building which are up on the display at the back, and I explained what we hope to gain for ourselves from that work.
This week I want to turn outwards, and ask what is to be gained for other people in Lymington.
Gospel
But first, let's just remind ourselves of the gospel passage we have heard this morning.
It begins just 9 verses into Mark's gospel.
We have been introduced to John the Baptist and now we meet Jesus.
Despite John's protestations Jesus is baptised, and the theophany booms, “This is my Son.”
That high point is immediately followed by the Lenten experience of the desert, forty days being tested by Satan.
We are not given the details by Mark of the temptations, but we know from the other gospels that Jesus was being asked the usual self-doubting questions: Why bother? What's in it for me? Aren't I better than this?
We also know that Jesus passed all those tests, using the resources of his Jewish upbringing to keep his focus on his father in heaven.
And when he returned from that time of prayer and soul-searching, he went home to Galilee to say, we're told, two things:
Firstly the good news of God
Secondly: the time is now, repent.
How does that relate?
So how does that relate to our renewal project here at St.Thomas?
In two ways: firstly our duty to proclaim the good news of God.
The number one need of the people of Lymington is not an economic upturn but a spiritual journey back to God.
And secondly: the call to repentance reminds us that responding to God requires a complete turn-around in our attitudes.
Spiritual journey
Let's look at the first of those first, the good news of God, the importance of the spiritual journey to our community.
Some of the genuine questions people have posed about the renewal project centre around the use of money.
“Surely we could use this money to relieve poverty?” or “How can we justify spending money in this climate?”
Now on the one hand I completely agree with the sentiment, we need to be using our gifts in the service of God and our neighbour, not ourselves.
But on the other hand I want to come back to our core values, our understanding of why we bother being church here at all.
It's not to be a sort of volunteer arm of the Social Services, although we certainly contribute handsomely to good causes every year, to the tune of 15 thousand pounds or so.
No, we're here to carry on that work of Jesus, proclaiming the good news.
Since 1250 one of the ways in which generations of Christians in Lymington have made that proclamation is by maintaining this stones, bricks and mortar witness at the heart of the town.
It's now our turn, in our generation, to do our bit.
Economic downturn
What about the TIMING of the project, in the current economic climate?
We need to remember that a major cause of the current downturn is people STOPPING spending because they are fearful about the future.
We Christians are NOT fearful about the future, we are full of hope.
By commissioning this work we can do our small part in keeping people in work in the local economy, and at the same time demonstrate our undying hope.
In any case, who knows what will happen by the time we actually get to do the work?
Repentance
So the first message from today's gospel is the supreme importance of the good news of God, the second is that essential first step: repentance.
We are constantly being asked to change our hearts and lives to follow Jesus.
And NOW is the time.
One of the attitudes we need to change is that this building is OUR building, and must be set up in the best way for US.
We have to allow ourselves to see the building through the eyes of the elderly, the disabled, the young and the newly retired.
When I was little we used to wear winter clothes indoors in winter, and there was ice on the INSIDE of my windows in the morning.
In those days it was perfectly acceptable to have a cold church.
Those days are gone, as have the days of dim lights and hard chairs.
We need to meet people's expectations, not put barriers in their way.
About a building
My deepest concern in this has been that we are placing so much emphasis on a mere building.
BUT I must say that as I have been through the process so far, I have been persuaded of the importance of this building, to the spiritual journey of Lymington.
It seems that whichever possibilities I explore, it always seems to come back to this, our parish church, and how we can share it with Lymington once again.
Process – please contribute
At this point in the process please don't be overly concerned if you or your friends find it all very difficult.
This is the painful point in any project when the maximum novelty meets the maximum uncertainty.
Suddenly lots of people are hearing for the first time, but, when they ask questions, the answer is often, “We don't know the detail yet.”
When the engineering consultant, Chris Reading, comes along in the next month or so, he will begin to put flesh on the bones of our proposals.
Until then, please, please think and pray about what I've been saying and put your thoughts on the cards provided at the back.
Can you think of ways in which a more flexible space could be used to help Lymington on its spiritual journey?
I'm thinking of exhibitions, prayer trails and so on. If you can add to that list, please write it down so it's not lost.
Can you think of ways of increasing the flexibility of the space which we've overlooked? If so, please write it down.
Have you seen another church which has done something wonderful which has worked well? Please write it down.
Conclusion
So this week I have spoken about Jesus Lenten preparation for ministry.
How he returned with two messages: God's greatness and the need to change our hearts and lives right now.
I've applied it to our renewal project to remind us that our job is that same proclamation in Lymington, and that this building is one our most important tools.
I've tried to show how the renewal project will benefit the people of Lymington in their spiritual journeys.
Next week I shall look in as much detail as I dare at the next steps we shall be taking, when they may happen, and how much they will cost.
In the mean time, please continue to hold this before God in your prayers at home, and remember to write down any ideas you are given on those cards.
Because it is only together that we hear God well, only together that anything good can be achieved, and we can serve our community in its greatest need.