EXTRACTS FROM THE BEACON – MAY 1975
PAGE 1
IN TWO WAYS I want to express my thanks through the Beacon.
First, as the minister, on behalf of all the members and friends, I would like to say how indebted we feel to those who planned and prepared so carefully for many months, to bring about our “Spring Festival of Creation” which was such a fitting part of the church’s Diamond Jubilee Year.
So many people have benefitted, in a variety of ways, through the impact which it made upon us as a fellowship. We congratulate the Committee on a vision which became a moving, living reality.
On behalf of the Committee I want to thank all who helped us to prepare the church and the exhibition, those who responded with such a magnificent display of creative talent, all who helped during the weekend to welcome visitors, serve refreshments, provide music, and so many jobs too numerous to mention, but essential to the success of that weekend. Then to all who, by their willing co-operation, ensured that the church and hall were cleared and all exhibits collected promptly.
The “Spring Festival” weekend will be a “mountain top” experience long to be remembered – but let us fully realise that whatever seeds were sown, whatever goodwill was created & whatever new contacts were made, if they are not nurtured and followed up by personal concern and prayer, then the Festival may be a marvellous memory but it will not be a springboard from which we are launched into greater effort and faithful endeavour for our Lord and the extension of His Kingdom here in Goodmayes.
G.D.P. [Graham D Powell]
PAGE 14
A Festival of Praise
… because that is what it was, although we had named it the Spring Festival, and it was to commemorate our Diamond Jubilee Year [which was 1974]. I know all who were privileged to be there during that weekend will not soon forget the experience. Someone said there had never been anything like it in Goodmayes before, and another who just came in to “look” was heard to say “I felt I just had to pray”. What greater reason could there be for holding such a festival?
The hundreds of entrants for the various classes showed what talents so many had been willing to use “to the glory of God”. The standards were so very high; one paused in real admiration! Could it have been the people we know so well who has painted such beautiful pictures or worked them in embroidery & crochet? I have been to many festivals & eisteddfods and never seen the exhibits even equalled.
A picture of our Queen worked in crochet took many an eye, and the photography, copper-work and floral art are not easy to speak of without using superlatives. So many, many folk came, & on every hand one heard: “I’ve never seen anything like it!” The children, bless them, had worked so hard & it was difficult to believe that such tiny mites had achieved such wonderful results. All these, of course, were in the Cordell Hall, so well adapted for the purpose of display to such good effect.
But it was in the church that one felt most awed – it is the only word to be used. “Take off thy shoes from off thy feet for the place where you stand is holy ground.” Yes, that was the effect upon one, on entering. Every part of the church had been so arranged to fit the whole theme. Creation typified by earth and seeds; a rainbow across the window; the products and fruits of the earth. “While the earth remaineth, seedtime and harvest shall not cease”. The promises of God so beautifully written to show the way.
Everywhere were beautiful flowers – masses of them. As we made our way around we could realise all the thought and prayer that had brought this festival into being. The Children’s Corner portrayed the hymn: “For air and sunshine pure and sweet we thank our Heavenly Father”. There were “lovely flowers and blossoms gay” and “birds that sing in bright array”. There were baby chicks coming from real eggshells, a fluffy white hen .. just far too much to mention in closer detail … but joining in, with a lump in one’s throat: “For Jesus Christ, the children’s friend, we thank our Heavenly Father.”
At the front of the church hung the empty cross – to remind us: “He is Risen”. The open baptistry & the water reminding us that if we “confess our sins, He is faithful & just to forgive us our sins” and we go down into the water and rise up with Him to a new life, leaving our old shelf behind. The communion table laid out beneath a copper relief of the Last Supper … the bread: “this is My Body” … could any pass by without seeing it all, I wonder?
I believe that the object of it all – to point men and women, boys and girls to Jesus Christ – was achieved. How we must not forget! We must go on to make this gospel evident to all with whom we come in contact. We have so much to offer & share, and there are so many in need today. God is alive, Jesus is amongst His people, so may we go on, working, loving, caring, that others outside the Church may come to know Him too.
To all those who worked and planned for so long, our pastor and his wife, our “young mums and dads”, our deacons, young people – we say: God bless you and a very big “thank you”!
M.E.B [Marjory E Bissell]