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Minister’s Message – August 23, 2026

Message.

The summer of 1540 was extraordinarily hot and dry across Europe. Temperatures reached heights which would not be repeated for over 400 years while only 2025 saw less rain. France, south-east England, Belgium, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, the Czech and Slovak Republics, Poland, Slovenia, northern Italy and southern Spain were all affected. It was the worst climate event of the 16^th century.

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Minister’s Message – August 16, 2026

Bible reading: Genesis 45:1-15.

Message.

Dartmouth is a pretty and much visited town in south Devon. It is famous for many things: its picturesque narrow streets climbing up the hillside, its beautiful location on the River Dart, its castle, and the Britannia Naval College. You can take boat trips up the river on a vintage paddle steamer, or cross to Kingswear for a ride on a steam train with, perhaps, a visit to Agatha Christie’s house. For many years, too, Dartmouth was home to a bookshop owned by Christopher Robin Milne, who hid when people asked him about Winnie-the-Pooh.

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Minister’s Message – August 9, 2026

Message.

I’ve never seen Shakespeare’s play “Othello”, recently described as a “tragedy of shattered passion, revenge and psychological warfare”. It is considered one of his finest plays. Three of its key characters are Othello himself, Desdemona his wife, and Iago, a soldier who has fought beside Othello for several years. However he believes that Othello has unfairly passed him over for promotion and seeks ways of getting revenge. Matters come to a head in the final act which is full of violence: Desdemona is smothered by her husband, Iago is injured and Othello commits suicide – and that’s by no means the whole story!

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Minister’s Message – July 5, 2026

Bible reading: Matthew 11:1, 25-30.

Message.

I was brought up in the Church of England; we weren’t regular church-goers but we attended the Parish Communion service once or twice a month. In those days the traditional 1662 Prayer Book, compiled by Archbishop Thomas Cranmer and reckoned to be one of the greatest influences of the English language reigned supreme, although (little do we know it) modern-language versions were lurking just around the corner. And of course the Prayer Book, being old, contained words which were archaic or which had changed their meaning over time.

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Minister’s Message – June 28, 2026

Bible reading: Genesis 22:1-14.

Message.

There are a number of Bible stories which, when one starts to think about them seriously, are deeply unpleasant. Just last week Ruth told us that Junior Church had been learning about Cain and Abel – a story which ends with murder. That tale still gets told to children, but there are others which we might shy away from these days (although I certainly heard them when I was quite young). So we have David not only sleeping with Bathsheba but getting her soldier husband moved so that he will face a certain death, and we have Jael killing Sisera by hammering a tent-peg through his eye socket. We’re also picky about other stories: we love to hear about Moses crossing the Red Sea but seem unconcerned at the death of many Egyptians, we enjoy hearing of the animals going into Noah’s Ark but we’re not so keen to think of the hapless people who were drowned; we rejoice in Elijah’s victory over the pagan prophets on Mount Carmel but forget that he then killed all 450 of them. I could go on, but you’ll see what I’m getting at.

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Minister’s Message – June 21, 2026

Bible reading: Matthew 10:26-39.

Message.

I’d guess that most of us would think of Jesus as a peace-loving person, and the Gospels seem to bear this out. For instance, in the Sermon on the Mount, he commends peace-makers, saying that they will be known as God’s children. In the same sermon he tells his followers not to take revenge on someone who wrongs them; if they are slapped on one cheek, they should turn round so they can be slapped on the other one as well. Jesus also calls on his hearers to replace the old adage, “Love your friends and hate your enemies” with, “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you”.

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Minister’s Message – June 14, 2026

Bible reading: Matthew 9:35-38.

Message.

“For a few days or a week or a fortnight, the fields stood ‘ripe unto harvest’. It was the one perfect period in the hamlet year. The human eye loves to rest upon wide expanses of pure colour: the moors in the purple heyday of the heather, miles of green downland, and the sea when it lies calm and blue and boundless, all delight it; but to some none of these, lovely though they all are, gives the same satisfaction of spirit as acres upon acres of golden corn. There is both beauty and bread and the seeds of bread for future generations.

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Minister’s Message – June 7, 2026

Bible reading: Hebrews 10:19-25.

Message.

Scrooby is a small village in the north of Nottinghamshire, about 10 miles south of Doncaster. At one time it was on the Great North Road; Cardinal Wolsey and Queen Elizabeth I both spent the night at the Manor House. It also sits next to the main railway line to Edinburgh. But the village was bypassed in 1766 and the station closed in 1931, leaving an unassuming place of around 300 people with no school, Post Office or shop. It does, however, have a pub called “The Pilgrim Fathers” and that gives us a clue to its historical importance.

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Minister’s Message – May 31, 2026

Bible reading: Matthew 28:16-20.

Message.

Many pieces of music end with a coda; a tail-piece or final section which brings the music to its end. Codas may be short, just a few bars, or they may be long and complex: for instance the full coda for the Beatles’ song “Hey Jude” is very nearly four minutes long, in fact it’s longer than the main part of the song!

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Minister’s Message – May 24, 2026

Bible reading: Acts 2:1-11.

I fear, as I begin today’s message, that I shall get into trouble with my wife! For I’m going to ask: what things symbolise Scotland?

Of course there are many. For example, in (as they say) no particular order, there’s Edinburgh Castle and the Scott Memorial, the Loch Ness monster, Scotch whisky, bagpipes, haggis, the Highland Fling (and other related dances), porridge, Highland cattle, Glenfinnan viaduct (made famous by Harry Potter), Irn Bru, caber tossing and the Saltire flag. (I could add mountains, rain and sheep but something tells me that they’re not quite unique to that part of the world!) There’s one thing, though, that I’ve left out of my list, although you’ve probably guessed what it is from what I’ve already said today: Scottish clothing, more specifically kilts, made of course out of tartan fabric. Apparently you need about 8 yards of “single-width” (about 26 to 30 inches) material to make an adult kilt, although it’s more common today to use half the length of “double-width” (about 54 to 60 inches) fabric.

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