Beckenham Baptist Church

  Dear Friends,   Most of us don’t find waiting easy. Waiting for that long-promised telephone call or letter telling us when our next hospital appointment is, and which never seems to arrive; waiting for the bus or the train only to realise that it has been cancelled or delayed; waiting for the shopping to arrive at the appointed slot you had chosen only to discover that the delivery van has broken down and now won’t get to you; trying to keep children occupied as they wait for something – a plane ride to a holiday destination, a visit from a friend, or for Christmas morning to open their presents. But waiting for what is coming, when it arrives, brings a sense of relief and satisfaction knowing that we have endured. As the season of Advent begins once again, we enter a time of waiting as we count down the days until we celebrate the birth of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, but also as we await his Second Coming, and I’m reminded of a verse from the psalms, ‘Wait for the...

  Dear Friends,   Today sees the beginning of the Men’s World Cup in Qatar, and as you will be aware, it has not been without controversy. The charity Open Doors , which seeks to support and highlight the plight of persecuted Christians around the world, states that of the 32 nations taking part seven of the competing countries are on the World Watch List, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Tunisia, Mexico, Cameroon and the host nation Qatar. Open Doors has produced a prayer diary for the event, Tackle Persecution at the 2022 World Cup which you can find on the Open Doors website. It tells the story of Apo from Syria, a child affected by persecution. ‘ In 2013, when he was just a year old, Apo’s father was kidnapped for his faith. He has not been seen since. For three years, Apo was unable to speak, and even when he could, anxiety remained. Thanks to a Centre of Hope, which is funded by Open Doors supporters like you, he and his mother, Jina, are being provided with practical a...

Dear Friends,  If you have ever been to Victoria Railway Station in London, you may have noticed at the end of Platform 8 a plaque commemorating the arrival there of the body of the Unknown Warrior. It was the Revd David Railton, an Anglican vicar and military chaplain, who thought of the idea of the Tomb of the Unknown Warrior, and so, on the 7 th November 1920, in strictest secrecy, four unidentified British bodies were exhumed from the temporary battlefield cemeteries at Ypres, Arras, Aisne and Somme and taken to the chapel at Saint-Pol-sur-Ternoise near Arras in France where they were received by a welcome party. The remains were placed in four plain coffins each covered by a Union Flag and then one of the welcome party, Brigadier L.J. Wyatt who served with the North Staffordshire Regiment and had commanded forces in France and Flanders, was given the task of choosing the body of ‘The Unknown Warrior’, a member of the British armed forces killed on the battlefield during the...

Dear Friends,  The BBC News website this week reported that ‘a “magnificent” Surrey yew tree which is thought to be more than 500 years old has been named the Woodland Trust’s Tree of the Year’. Growing in the grounds of the ruined Waverley Abbey near Farnham, the first Cistercian monastery founded in Britain 900 years ago, Tom Reed from the Woodland Trust said, “It is great to see that this magnificent tree has been recognised as Tree of the Year 2022 and the way the tree is rooted within the ruins of the abbey is a great symbol of the fact that our ancient trees are intertwined with other aspects of our cultural heritage”. There is no doubt that trees are beautiful and amazing, and particularly at this time of year as the autumnal colours burst onto the scene, they add so much to our environment and our enjoyment of the natural world. Trees are the oldest living things on earth, some living as long as 10,000 years, and there are still trees alive today that were already ancient...