Another Interesting Day . . .

We don’t plan on making it a point to write a blog every day, but we can’t go to bed without telling you about this day. We just got home from the most amazing meeting! Sue Williams invited us to attend the quarterly meeting of Churches Together in Witney (CTiW) . This is the local arm of a larger organization called Churches Together in England. There is a similar group in Ireland. Communities all across the UK have these organizations in which representatives, sometimes the pastor/priest and sometimes lay persons, come together to discuss ways in which they can work together to make the church a visible entity within their given community. Tonight there were 25 of us who met in a small Catholic church to discuss and plan events for the Witney area.

There was a spirit of wonderful cooperation as they discussed the impact of their Christmas events which included charity drives as well as a community choir which sang during the Christmas season on a specified Saturday in the middle of the Towne Centre. The upcoming Easter season provides them with another opportunity for visibility in Witney. On Good Friday, church members from across the area will meet at the High Street Methodist Church in the middle of the Towne Centre and march solemnly up High Street, along the village green and ending at St. Mary’s Anglican Church. This march is done in total silence except for the slow beating of a single drum. There is a service to emphasize the crucifixion and then hot cross buns, with an explanation of the symbolism attached to them, are passed out to everyone along the streets (As soon as someone enlightens us as to what that tradition is, we’ll pass it along). They also organize a sunrise service on Easter which is held at another local church.

The next topic of discussion was the most astounding to us. This is an election year in England and the local parliamentary representative is hoping to oust current Prime Minister Gordon Brown. His name is David Cameron and he is from the Conservative Party. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were both from the Labor Party and the folks around here are quite confident that their guy is going to make it a good run. CTiW historically has sponsored a Q & A for major party candidates and it is held in a local church. We sat there totally amazed at the fact that this group of church leaders are allowed by the British government to actively sponsor such an event. In fact, the questions they will ask and the reason for this event is for the express purpose of seeing where the candidates stand on issue pertaining to the church. Some observant individual in the group looked at us and asked if we did things like this in the States to which we replied, “Absolutely not! We are totally amazed by this whole discussion!” So, it was certainly an exciting evening to be a part of something like this.

The highlight of our day was a 2 hour visit with 90 year old retired missionaries from the Baptist Missionary Society (BMS), Josephine and Alex Matthews. They are long time members of our little church and served the Lord faithfully in Congo until the early 60s when they were evacuated along with most other missionaries. One of the items we hated to leave behind in Abilene was our reference books, so Alex gracious insisted that Dennis take his commentary series by William Barclay. Alex is a graduate of Spurgeon College in London. He innocently asked if we were familiar with Spurgeon to which we smiled and teased, “Vaguely . . .” Alex told us of he own father’s pictures of Charles Haddon Spurgeon’s funeral in London where thousands lined the streets of London to mourn his death. These wonderful saints and many like them are probably responsible for Congolese families such as Elias Kenyamitobo’s family hearing the gospel and coming to faith in Christ. We will, no doubt, spend more time with the Matthews. Such great stories!

Enjoy the pictures!

St. Bartholomew's was built in the very early 1200s. In fact, the columns on the right mark the wall of the original church which was the area to the right of them. That section has been dated to the last decade of the 12th century, probably around 1197 AD. The middle section was added during the 1200s and the left and finally section was added in the 1300s.


There is a continuous record of Rectors at St. Bart's beginning in 1222.


The Font was put in place when the middle section was built during the 1300s and the large wooden trunk sitting in front of it probably dates back 500 years and was the church coffer. The current Vicar told us that it originally had 3 locks on it and the church treasurer probably sat on it during the services.


Dennis would like one of these installed before he gets back and starts teaching Sunday School again. This one is dated in the mid-1800s and symbolises the Gospel carried on wings to the four corners of the earth