Beckenham Baptist Church

Dear Friends,  I received in my email inbox this week the Christians in Parliament October Newsletter, which began, ‘Th e Lord is close to the broken-hearted and saves those who are crushed in spirit’ (Psalm 34:18). It went on to say, ‘Parliament is reeling at the tragic and shocking killing of Sir David Amess MP. Many will be feeling broken-hearted by the loss of a dear friend and colleague. Some will be crushed in spirit, perhaps numb, whilst others will be overwhelmed by feelings of grief, anger, sadness and fear. Psalm 34:18 reminds us that God is not only present with us in the midst of our pain and grief, but he is also near’. For so many it has brought back the painful memories of the killing of Jo Cox MP in 2016, and as I listened to the tributes paid to David Amess in Parliament this week, her name was mentioned by a number of MPs, none more so than the sister of Jo Cox, who now represents the seat that she once held, Kim Leadbetter, who spoke of her family’s experience wh...

  Dear Friends,  Each year during Black History Month in the UK the Baptist Union of Great Britain along with the Jamaican Baptist Union highlights the Sam Sharpe Project by giving an annual lecture. Sam Sharpe was a Baptist deacon and preacher who was hanged in Montego Bay on 23 rd May 1832 after initiating and leading a revolt for justice. Today he is seen as hero in Jamaica because of his legacy and his story which is one of a Christian liberator of his people. His actions were motivated by his faith and the reading of the Scriptures, and by engaging in ‘liberation from below’, Sam Sharpe demonstrated that true liberation comes when the oppressed and marginalised participate in their own bid for freedom and justice and not wait to have it granted to them by those who have power and authority. The project was set up in 2012 with the aims of encouraging churches and associations to engage with our contemporary multicultural society; supporting the Baptist Union Racial Just...

Dear Friends,  On 10 th October 2021 people around the world mark World Homeless Day. The concept of ‘World Homeless Day’ came out of online conversations between people who were working to respond to homelessness around the world. Began in 2010, World Homeless Day has been marked on every continent except Antarctica, in several dozen countries, and its purpose is to draw attention to people who experience homelessness and provide opportunities and resources for others to respond. 2021 also marks the 30 th Anniversary of the founding of The Big Issue by John Bird and Gordon Roddick in September 1991. It exists to offer homeless people and those at risk of becoming homeless the opportunity to earn an income from selling the magazines on the streets and help them to reintegrate into society. Each year vendors collectively earn around £6 million as they buy copies of the magazine and sell them on keeping the difference. There are some 4,100 vendors working across the UK every yea...

Dear Friends,  October is Black History Month in the UK which began in 1987 as part of the African Jubilee Year, a celebration recognising the contributions of African, Asian and Caribbean people to the economic, cultural and political life in the UK. I was fascinated to read this week in a BBC News website article of the first black Scottish football player to captain the Scottish team. Andrew Watson was born in Guyana in 1856 and came to Britain with his father who was a wealthy sugar planter. As a student at Glasgow University he played for Parkgrove FC, and then for Queen’s Park in Glasgow, which at the time, was one of the best teams in Scotland. It was from here that he was selected to play for Scotland against England at The Oval in 1881 where the Scots trounced England 6-1. The curator of the Scottish Football Museum said of Watson that he was a top star in the 1870s and 1880s, and that ‘wherever he went he was box-office attraction. Everybody knew who he was.’ The theme ...

Dear Friends, Operation Agri is celebrating 60 years of supporting Christian-led rural and urban development projects in three continents, showing the love of Jesus in action. OA was established by the Baptist Men’s Movement (BMM) in 1961 and the initial challenge to was to provide tools, livestock and equipment for agricultural mission workers, and OA grew out of this. Now, a wide range of development projects is linked with OA and support is largely given by the sending of grants rather than goods. The projects provide local people with the means to address their own problems, rectifying injustice, establishing their role within the local community, and responding to their aspirations for a better quality of life, physically, mentally and spiritually. Considerable emphasis is placed on the development work fulfilling two criteria: it should be ‘owned’ by the local people, and where possible, it should be sustainable. With its aim of ‘showing the love of Jesus in action’, OA works w...

Dear Friends,  The death was announced this week of the inventor and entrepreneur Sir Clive Sinclair who invented the first slimline pocket calculator in the 1970s, popularised the home computer in the 1980s with the ZX Spectrum, and launched the Sinclair C5 electric vehicle in 1985, which it has to be said was not a huge success. His daughter announced his death saying that he had been working on his inventions the week before he died because that was what he loved doing. ‘He was inventive and imaginative and for him it was exciting and an adventure, it was his passion,’ she added. Sinclair was a man ahead of his time and his daughter said, ‘He was very good at imagining things that people might like or might need, even though they didn't know they wanted them.’ I was interested to learn that Sinclair was an atheist, someone who didn’t believe in the existence of any deities, but he did believe in his talents and gifts and skills to create such useful and inventive things for p...

  Dear Friends,  So did you enjoy being able to sing in church last Sunday? As I stood at the front singing and listening my heart was lifted and for a moment, I felt a little emotional. Just being able to exercise our singing vocal cords was a joy and delight. The American singer Josh Groban says about singing in the shower, ‘There’s no half-singing in the shower, you’re either a rock star or an opera diva’. Well in church now we can sing our hearts out to God, and I know he is pleased to receive our praise. I’m reminded of the worship song by the band Delirious? , ‘Sing to the Lord with all of your heart’, and which goes on to say, ‘ You are the Lord the Saviour of all, God of creation we praise you. We sing the songs that awaken the dawn God of creation we praise you’. It is just so good to be able to praise God in song once again! Grace and peace, Neil