A FREE magazine published

by the Langley Churches

for the people of Langley

February 2019

St Francis Church

Page 2

Editorial & Article Submission Anna Thomas-Betts 01753 822013 a.thomasbetts@gmail.com

Announcements, Advertisements Richard Shircore 07943 404388 richard.shircore @btinternet.com

Layout & Advert Design Roo Kanis-Buck rookanis@btinternet.com

Copy Deadline 15th of the previous month

Website www.langleymarish.com/around-langley

Front Cover illustrations Michael Day - 01753 512519

Printing by Print Direct Solutions, Langley

GENERAL Editorial Page 3 Langley Neighbourhood Forum Page 4 Community Coffee Shop Page 4 NAG—does it have to

keep on nagging? Page 4 Slough Mencap Page 6 Galileo Galilei Page 8

FAITH MATTERS Regular Sunday Services Page 10 Regular Church Activities Page 11 Good News from John Page 12 Love Matters Page 14 Worship the Lord

in the Beauty of Holiness Page 16 Langley Churches invite you ... Page 17

Church Directory Page 19

Contents

(… continued from Page 3)

In the past three years, we have had articles about gospel-writers

Matthew, Mark and Luke to help those of us who use the Common

Lectionary to understand better the background of the gospels set

for Years A, B and C. John’s Gospel is not part of the cycle, but

parts of it are read throughout the three year cycle. So this month

we have an article on John, the Evangelist, by Tony Randall.

As winter drags on and we look forward to spring—and snowdrops

have already started flowering in our gardens—I wish all our

readers a happy and healthy year in 2019.

Anna Thomas-Betts

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From Darkness to Light

We have just crossed over the threshold of a new year and what a

momentous year it will be for our country. If we stay with the

Article 50 timetable, we have just two months to Brexit now. We

can but pray for our country and our leaders; that they may be given

wisdom and courage, so that they try to unite the country, and work

for the common good rather than personal ambitions.

We hope that our readers will find this issue enjoyable and helpful. It

was a chance remark I heard on the radio about the death

anniversary of Galileo that made me think that he might be a good

subject for an article. Maybe, as I was trained as a physicist, I am

prejudiced. We also hope that this would be the start of an occasional

series about some topics in science, where we could also explore albeit

briefly why conflict between science and religion still exists in many

quarters.

It was exactly a year ago that we published an article titled ‘Rich in a

Hungry World’ in Around Langley. The thrust of it was that for the

sake of alleviating hunger in the world, and for the good of our planet

(e.g. for reducing greenhouse gas emission) we ought to reduce our

consumption of meat. In January this year, the respected Journal,

The Lancet, made the same point based on scientific studies. They

emphasise the health benefits of halving our meat intake and eating

more vegetables, fruit and nuts. Surprisingly for a medical journal,

they also point out the benefits that this would bring to the planet by

way of less deforestation, decrease in greenhouse gases and releasing

more land for growing food for human beings.

(… continued on Page 2)

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Langley Neighbourhood Forum

The next meeting of the Langley

Neighbourhood Forum will be on

Tuesday, 19th February 2019, at Langley

College, starting at 7pm. The guest

speaker will be the newly appointed

Police Commissioner, Sarah Grahame.

Langley Community Coffee Shop

Have you managed to keep your New

Year Resolutions so far? Most people

haven’t, I guess. However, we at LCCS

hope to fulfil our targets for LCCS for

2019: that is, to provide a warm,

friendly, compassionate and supportive

environment at the Langley Library

every Tuesday from 10am to 11.30am.

Sometimes it is hard to break into a

group if you are a new person, but if you

are thinking of coming, don’t be put off

by that thought. You will always receive

a warm welcome at the Coffee Shop.

When you know people well then we can

share difficulties as well as happy

occasions with each other. So it is with

sadness, but happy memories, that we

lose Breda Walsh, a valued member of

the Coffee Shop who died on 23rd

December, 2018. Breda, a cheerful

lovely soul, was a faithful member of the

Holy Family Catholic Church. She loved

to go on outings organised by the

Coffee Shop as well as the Slough and

Langley Blind Club.

On 12th February, 10.30am, Andrew

Cartmel, author of ‘The First Vinyl

Detective’, will give a talk at the Coffee

Shop about his novel and also his

involvement in writing the script for one

of the episodes of Dr Who. Sheila Papali

What is the NAG

and does it keep on nagging?

Neighbourhood Action Groups (NAG)

are groups established in and for each

ward to identify issues affecting Langley

residents and to raise them with the

appropriate body, e.g. Slough Borough

Council (SBC), Thames Valley Police and

NetworkRail, to try to improve (or at

least not to worsen) the quality of life for

residents. Councillors and residents of

the ward are eligible to be members of

the NAG. In the Langley St Mary’s Ward,

NAG meetings take place roughly every

6 weeks and are attended by

representatives of Thames Valley Police

and Slough Borough Council regularly.

What does the NAG achieve and does it

have to keep on nagging? There have

been some successes, but other issues

drag on for months and still we don’t get

a satisfactory outcome. Here are some

News from Around Langley

Page 5

of the issues that have been on our

agenda in the past year.

After discussing the needs of Langley

with Thames Valley Police, we agreed,

given their limited resources, that a high

priority should be patrolling the Harrow

Market and Trelawney Avenue shops

areas and to have a higher profile in the

Community.

During the temporary closure of

Chequers Bridge (reported in Around

Langley at the time) the NAG, along with

other bodies, pressed the Council to

reopen the route and keep it open

permanently. We are urging SBC, Bucks

County Council, Network Rail and local

MPs to ensure that an alternative

replacement route should be constructed

if the WRAtH does go ahead.

The NAG pressed the Council for action

regarding parking around Barton Road/

Talbot Avenue by railway commuters.

They did respond with a consultation of

local residents, but as there was no

consensus among residents, they may

implement the most favoured option.

SBC was urged by the NAG to clip hedges

half-yearly, to improve access to the

Grasholm Way Green and to make it

more attractive. The Council produced a

plan and has planted bulbs, but the

prickly blackthorn hedge still grows out

across the pavement. SBC was also asked

to remove yellow lines illegally painted by

a management company and to refund

fines issued for 'illegal parking’ on those

yellow lines.

Pedestrian crossings in Station Road

have caused problems for residents for

some time. SBC have installed a zebra

crossing to improve access to the railway

station from Alderbury Road. The NAG

has pressed for a traffic lights-controlled

crossing, as traffic coming under the

railway bridge could easily fail to see

pedestrians on the zebra crossing. We

continue to press for solutions about the

dangerous crossing at the Harrow Market

roundabout and the crossing opposite the

College.

If the 3rd runway at Heathrow goes

ahead, with planes taking off and landing

over Langley, Langley residents should

have analogous compensation to that

available to Brands Hill and western

Colnbrook. This has been raised with our

MP and NAG members intend to attend

the consultation meetings, arranged by

Heathrow, to express concern about the

additional noise and pollution resulting

from this.

The NAG strongly objected to the

proposed siting in Langley of a depot for

the Heathrow Express and attended a

Commons Committee to state our

objections. That plan has eventually been

dropped. The NAG along with others was

successful in getting CrossRail to be

extended to Reading rather than

terminating at Maidenhead. Money

provided by NetworkRail to compensate

for the loss of part of Springate Field

during the electrification process arrived

after our nagging and has paid for gym

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equipment in the park. The NAG has also

complained to NetworkRail about the use

of Cherry Avenue for access to the railway

track.

Bucks County Council were approached

about rumours regarding reopening the

landfill immediately north of the Canal

and closing the Trenches Lane refuse

disposal site. They denied that this was

their plan, but actually they would

“beautify” the area. We are following up

this issue. The NAG is concerned also

about parking on Langley Park Road and

the use of a field alongside as a long-term

parking facility for Heathrow.

The access to both the Cemex gravel

quarries in Datchet and Richings Park is

via Langley (Ditton Road and Sutton

Lane). We have raised with Cemex our

concerns about the effect of HGVs on

Sutton Lane, but so far without much

success. SBC has produced plans to

improve the Sutton Lane/Parlaunt Road

junction. We wait for completion.

Other concerns raised by NAG include

parking at Harrow Market and the

absence of traffic wardens; the

application for planning permission for a

site near Langley station without

sufficient parking places; dog fouling on

streets and in parks; return of wheelie

bins to their address and litter picking.

Other wards at present do not have active

NAGs. The St Mary’s Ward NAG currently

has vacancies for those who wish to play

an active role in making Langley better.

Bill Birmingham

Slough Mencap Slough Society for Mentally Handicapped

Children and Adults (Slough MenCap) was

established in 1952 with a Mission

statement, “Slough Mencap exists to

enrich the lives of people with learning

disabilities and their families” and to this

day in 2019 that is what it achieves.

Slough Mencap was created by just five

families with children who had been

rejected by society as being “retarded”.

Each family donated one week’s wages to

launch the society, making a grand total

of £30.00 as capital. The last of those

pioneers who is still alive celebrated her

102nd birthday on December 13th 2018.

Without her and others like her there

would not be Slough Mencap.

Slough Mencap has come a long way in

the past 66 years. During that time

Slough Mencap has supported their

handicapped members in getting them

Page 7

included in the state education system. It

was not until 1971 people with mental

handicap were entitled to state

education. They had to build the first

residential home for their members in

the middle of a field in Langley, as it was

not considered right for “these people” to

live in an ordinary residential street.

Slough Mencap has been responsible in

setting up a school in Slough for children

with mental handicap: Evelyn Fox

School, complete with a swimming pool,

with voluntary work carried out by

families. Other facilities were started in

due course; playgroups, summer

playschool, citizens advocacy service,

support for carers and many more

services are still operational.

The Christmas parties, and lunches and

outings and the regular Film Shows on

Saturday afternoons are still much used

and appreciated by the members and

their families. The advocacy service still

helps many families in various ways,

being an independent voice for the

family. This service is one of the main

activities actually enriching the

lives of the members and their

families.

Slough Mencap does not

receive any funds from either

local government or national

government, and they raise all

their own funds. With careful

management the current CEO

and treasurer generated

sufficient funds to purchase

their own property with its own private

car park, so they now have a permanent

home (Slough Mencap, Horsemoor

Green Community Centre, Spitfire Close,

Common Road, Langley, Slough SL3 8JU)

used primarily for their client group.

However, their other objective is to run

Slough Mencap as a community centre,

so it is open for anyone who wishes to

use the up-to-date facilities with many

rooms for hire and offices to rent and

many other benefits. Just phone 01753

594666 to visit the Centre and view the

premises.

Slough Mencap could not exist without

its many dedicated volunteers.

Volunteering with MenCap has

encouraged so many people to make a

career working with vulnerable people.

For over 50 years, each year a group of

Eton Boys have been volunteers at

Slough Mencap, during their final year at

Eton. Many of the old volunteers from

Eton College keep in contact with Slough

Mencap saying it was one of the best

years of their life as Eton Boys. Over the

years, each of the local grammar schools

Page 8

has provided 6th Form students as

volunteers, many of them eventually

making their careers in medicine. Many

local young people have started their

lives as volunteers via Slough Mencap.

More mature volunteers are needed and

Slough Mencap have an excellent record

of support and training for volunteers.

To find out more, phone 01753 594666.

Things have changed over the years: at

one time the members had everything

decided for them; these days the

members themselves tell the

organization what they want, where they

want it and when they want it.

For the past 66 years Slough Mencap has

been helping people with mental

handicap and learning disabilities to

reach their full potential. Long may it

continue.

Eleanor Cryer CEO, Slough Mencap

Galileo Galilei and our Solar System Galileo Galilei was a versatile Italian

scientist of the 16th to 17th Century —

physicist, mathematician, astronomer,

engineer, musician and philosopher. He

was the son of a musician, who played

the lute, and had some medical training

as well. However, he is best known for

pioneering scientific observation and was

a major player in the scientific revolution

of his time, which brought him into

conflict with the Church in Rome, with

huge consequences to his later life.

Two of his discoveries were beautifully

simple and elegant. First, contrary to

popular belief at the time, he established

by dropping different objects from the

Leaning Tower of Pisa, that heavy and

light objects free-fall at the same rate.

Further, prompted by timing the

oscillations of chandeliers against his

heartbeat during a boring meeting, he

went on to conclude that all pendulums

of the same length have the same period

of oscillation, a discovery which was to be

the basis of pendulum clocks.

A list of his discoveries would fill pages,

ranging from a theory of tides to

frequencies of sound. He was the first to

note and state that the laws of nature are

mathematical, and formulated Relativity,

work appreciated by Einstein himself.

What antagonized the Church, however,

was Galileo’s work on astronomy. He

greatly improved the telescope

developed in Holland and made detailed

studies of the skies and observed

mountains and valleys on the surface of

the moon, sunspots and the four largest

moons of the planet Jupiter, among other

features. Indeed, his work on astronomy

made him famous and he was appointed

court mathematician in Florence.

However, his studies starkly contradicted

the then existing view, held by the

Church, that the Earth was at the centre

of the solar system, with the Sun going

round it. His data supported the contrary

theory that the Earth and the planets

were orbiting the Sun, proposed two

Page 9

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decades before Galileo’s birth by the

Polish astronomer Copernicus. The

amount of detailed calculations he did for

this work, in an age when there were no

computational aids, is mind-boggling!

In fact, Galileo countered the opposition

of the Church arguing that ‘heliocentrism’

was not contrary to biblical texts, and

that the Bible was an authority on ‘faith

and morals, not on science’. However,

this did not satisfy the Inquisition who

found Galileo guilty of heresy, held him

under house arrest and barred him from

publishing his philosophical analysis of

the two views of the solar system. Yet,

he wrote some of his famous works while

under house arrest. He went completely

blind in 1838 and died four years later.

The irony of all this is that in this early

conflict between science and religion,

Galileo remained a believer to the end.

Anna Thomas-Betts

Galileo demonstrating his telescope

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Regular Weekly Service Times

St Mary’s (St Mary’s Road)

Sunday 8.00am Holy Communion (Book of Common Prayer)

Third Sunday (17th Feb.) 9.30am Family Worship

Sunday 11.00am Family Communion (and Sunday Club for children)

Sunday 6.30pm Evening Prayer (Usually a said service)

Holy Family (Roman Catholic) (Trelawney Avenue)

Sunday 9.30am 11.15am & 6.30pm Mass

Mon, Tues, Wed 9.30am Mass or Service of the Word and Communion

Thursday NO SERVICE

Friday 9.30am Mass or Service of the Word and Communion

Saturday 5.30pm Mass

Langley Free Church (Baptist) (Trelawney Avenue)

Sunday 10.30am Morning Worship and Sunday School (All Age

worship on first Sunday)

2nd Sunday 10.30am Holy Communion

St Francis of Assisi (London Road)

Sunday 9.30am Holy Communion

Fourth Sunday 11.00am All age Service

Christ the Worker (Parlaunt Road)

1st and 3rd Sundays 11.00am Morning Worship

2nd, 4th & 5th Sunday 9.30am Holy Communion

Anglican Morning Prayer 8.45am Mondays and Fridays at St Mary’s

Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at St Francis

Wednesdays at Christ the Worker.

Ash Wednesday 6th March

Service of Ashing and Holy Communion at St Mary’s at 8pm

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Regular Church Activities

St Mary’s Sunday 11.00am Sunday Club and Crèche in St Mary’s Centre

Monday 9.30am Jellibeans - Parents and Toddlers Group

Wednesday 2.00pm Toddlers’ Service

3rd Monday 2.00pm Mothers’ Union

House Groups Sunday Evenings & Tuesday afternoons

Holy Family Catholic Church Alternate Thursdays 2.00pm Union of Catholic Mothers

Langley Free Church (Baptist) Monday 12 noon Monday Lunch Club

Wednesday 9.00am Toddler Group

Wednesday 2.00pm Oasis – fellowship time with various speakers

Thursday 10.30am Bible Study (House Group)

Thursday 3.15pm J Team – ages 4 - 11

Thursday 7.30pm Bible Study at LFC

3rd Saturday 12 noon Craft Afternoon

St Francis of Assisi Friday 9.45am Mums and Tots (Waiting list: call 01753 548646)

3rd Thursday 1.30pm “Refresh” for a chat, talk, cakes and songs

Christ the Worker Tuesdays (Feb. 5th & 19th ) 2.00pm Needles & a Yarn

Holy Family parish is sad to announce the closure of its social club.

It has been open for nearly 50 years and many people in Langley

will have fond memories of all sorts of social and community

events that have taken place. The buildings will remain open as a

parish and community centre.

Page 12

Faith Matters

Good News from John Imagine you are getting to be an old man

or woman and believe that the person

you spent your formative years with was

the best person who ever lived. That is

the background for the gospel of John,

who is now an old man, looking after a

number of young churches in Ephesus

and the surrounding area, in what today

is Turkey. Although the gospels of

Matthew, Mark and Luke have long been

written, John considers that another

account of the life of Jesus is needed. One

which stresses who he is and covers more

of the things Jesus said than the others

do. It is only John who covers the story of

the washing of the disciples’ feet, for

example.

John was one of the first, and possibly the

youngest, to follow Jesus when he was

working in the family fishing business on

Lake Galilee. He was with Jesus

throughout the entire three years of his

ministry, with him at most of the key

occasions and, together with his brother

James and Peter, appears to have shared

in a closer relationship with Jesus than

many of the other disciples.

So what is it about Jesus that John wants

to make clear? To John, Jesus is without

doubt divine as well as human and on a

mission to bring people back into a

relationship with God. He shows how

Jesus closely linked the spiritual and the

physical aspects of life in his dealings with

real people.

Probably his most famous sentence is in

chapter 3 verse 16, where John quotes

Jesus as saying ‘For God so loved the

world that he gave his one and only Son

that whoever believes in him should not

perish but have everlasting life’. This was

part of a dialogue with Nicodemus, a

member of the Jewish Council and a

scholar, who had come secretly to ask

Jesus questions about his authority and

spiritual things. Later John records some

challenging encounters of Jesus with

these leaders in Jerusalem.

John shows how Jesus dealt with

individual people in their personal

circumstances. In chapter 4 it is a

Samaritan woman, whom he meets at

midday by a well. In chapter 8 he saves an

adulteress from being stoned to death,

and he offers her forgiveness but asks her

to change her way of life.

Both of these, and other relationships

with people, were used by Jesus to talk

about the human condition that needs to

be dealt with by a loving God. These

included the healing of a government

official’s son who was left at home dying,

a lame man left lying by the temple pool,

and a wonderful description of Jesus

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healing a man born blind with mud. The

consequence of this last incident in

chapter 8 is a conflict with religious

leaders, who refuse to believe the

account, even when supported by his

parents’ testimony. The man says, during

fierce interrogation by the leaders, ‘I

don’t know (what you are going on about)

but I do know I was blind but now I can

see’.

There are two other significant stories

among many that only John relates. One

is the miraculous bringing back to life of a

family friend, Lazarus. John describes

how Jesus delayed his arrival at the house

in order to give God glory and for

recognition for himself, but he also shows

remarkable compassion toward Mary and

Martha, Lazarus’s sisters. In fact John

describes miracles performed by Jesus as

the Signs of who he truly was.

The other notable story relates to the

Apostle Peter, who had deserted Jesus at

the time of his crucifixion. We read in

chapter 20 how after the Resurrection

Jesus reinstates him lovingly on the shore

of Lake Galilee.

John also describes Jesus using the term ‘I

AM’ of himself on seven occasions. This

would have resonated with most of his

readers as the way God used to introduce

himself in the Old Testament. The

metaphors that Jesus used of himself in

that way are – the Bread of Life; the Light

of the world; ‘born before Abraham’; the

Good Shepherd; the Resurrection and the

Life; the Way, the Truth and the Life; the

True Vine.

To end with, we recall the opening of

John’s gospel with the amazing prologue,

setting out clearly that Jesus as the Word

(Logos) is God who was involved in

Creation and is come in frail human form

to bring human beings back to the

fullness for which they had been created.

Tony Randall

In most medieval paintings, like this one by

Cosimo, St John is depicted as very young and

almost effeminate, often accompanied by an

eagle, his symbol as an Evangelist, with

allusions to Ezekiel (1:10) and the four

creatures in Revelation. He is also shown

holding a chalice: apart from the Cup of the

Holy Communion, it could also be evoking Jesus’

words to John and James (‘You will indeed

drink my Cup’.) The snake round the chalice

could signify poison because according to legend

he was asked to drink poison to prove his faith.

Page 14

Love Matters

In the chapel of St Bernard’s school in

Langley Road, there is a stained-glass

window depicting St Bernard praying to

the Blessed Virgin Mary. This picture

recalls the vision described by Dante

Alighieri, the 13th century Florentine

poet, in his epic poem The Divine

Comedy. In a concluding masterstroke,

Dante asks St Bernard to intercede for

him with the Virgin Mary to grant him a

beatific vision i.e. to see God. What

Dante beholds is God as transcendent

Love, communicating Himself in an

eternal

present.

All Christian

thinkers

agree that

love is the

central

concept of

Christianity.

John’s first

Letter puts

it simply and

to the point:

“God is Love.” He

further elaborates: “This is love: not that

we loved God but that He loved us and

sent his Son as an atonement for our

sins. That we are to love God in return by

his grace, and show it by loving each

other, only follows from this.

The common expression ‘the love of

God’ is ambiguous. It can mean either

the love that God has for me or my love

for God. In this article I unpack only the

former meaning i.e. God’s love for his

creation, for you and me, mostly based

on the Bible. But what do we understand

when we say: God loves me? God is

infinite and we are finite. So our grasp of

God’s love for us can never be God’s love

as it truly is in itself, but only God’s love

as can be perceived and received by us in

our limited human capacity. Theologians

call this created grace. We use our

human experience of love among

ourselves, and apply it by analogy to

God’s relationship to us. That is why it is

important for

us to

experience

human love:

otherwise we

will not be

able to

understand

and

appreciate

God’s love for

us.

Every page of

the Bible,

directly or indirectly, speaks to us of

God’s love for us. His words and deeds

are simple and concrete, taken from

human experience available to all. In

Genesis we read about God forming man

in his own image and likeness, and then

breathing life into Adam’s nostrils. God’s

breath is his Spirit, the love between the

St Bernard presents Dante to Virgin Mary

Page 15

Father and the Son so the whole of

creation is enfolded in God’s love from

the very beginning. The commandments

are not usually presented to us as

expressions of God’s love. But in fact by

obeying God’s commandments we

experience God’s love and his blessings.

And when we sin and repent, God offers

us, so to say, his love at its best, the

merciful quality of his love.

In the Bible we have beautiful images

from our family experiences of how God

loves us: “Does a mother forget her baby

at her breast, or fail to cherish the son of

her womb? Yet even if these forget, I will

never forget you.” ( Is.49:15) In the New

Testament God’s love is even more

explicitly expressed in the parables, for

instance. In the parable of the lost

sheep, when the shepherd finds the

sheep that went astray, he ‘joyfully takes

it home on his shoulders’ Lk 15:5). And in

the parable of the Prodigal son when his

wayward son returns home, the father

sees him while still a long way off from

the house, runs to the boy, clasps him in

his arms and kisses him tenderly. Out of

love for us God put aside his divine

nature, became man and laid down his

life for us. “No greater love can a man

have than to lay down his life for his

friend” (Jn 15:13-17). During Holy Week

we remember and re-enact this sacrificial

love of Jesus for us, a crucified love.

It is true that it is by faith that we get to

know and love God. This makes it

possible for us to search for him and to

place our trust in him. Yet, you know

what? At whatever stage in our life we

are, God is willing to play peekaboo with

us if we are willing to join in. God shows

us his love by playing hide and seek with

us as it were. God surprises us, at a time

of his own choosing, with signs, glimpses

of ‘his face’ and his mysterious presence.

It is as if God cannot wait for the day we

will be able to see Him face to face, to

show us that he is Love itself, the vision

poetically suggested and immortalised

by Dante.

Alfred Agius

Galileo, on God We live in an age where there is still a lot

of tension between scientific and

religious views on matters. Galileo

Galilei (page 8) was one of the earliest

people to be condemned for this. So

what he said about his dilemma might be

of interest to us:

But I do not feel obliged to believe that

the same God who has endowed us

with senses, reason and intellect has

intended us to forego their use and by

some other means to give us knowledge

which we can attain by them.

But already my desire and my will were being turned like a wheel, all

at one speed, by the Love which moves the sun

and the other stars

Dante after his vision of God

In Divine Comedy

Page 16

Worship the Lord in the Beauty of Holiness There is a Jewish legend about music.

After God had created the Earth and its

inhabitants, he called his angels together

and asked them what they thought of it.

One angel said. “There is only one thing

missing, Lord. There is no sound of praise

for the Creator.” So God created music, to

ring through the murmur of the trees and

through birdsong. He also gave humans

the gift of music and over the ages it has

proved to be a blessing for mankind. And

so Bach (J.S.) says, “Where there is

devotional music, God is always at hand

with His gracious presence.“ The Zohar

Jewish mystic tradition claims that there

are mansions in heaven which can only be

opened by the sound of music!

It is not surprising that all major religions

use music in different forms in their

worship: adoration, praise, thanksgiving,

narration of stories, supplication and so

forth. Again, most religions have

traditions of solo or group voices singing

and leading worshippers to focus on

meditation, as well as music and chants

which all worshippers can join in.

Some readers might recognise the title of

this article as verses from the Psalms

(96:9 amd 29:2, for example) Many will

also recognise it from the opening line of

one of the hymns we sing at Epiphany

time, when we remember the Adoration of

the Infant Jesus by the Wise Men. This

story seems to trigger emotions of

adoration and worship in hymn writers,

which we share in as we sing the hymns.

I love Epiphany hymns with their allusion

to the star guiding us and dispelling

darkness as in Bishop Heber’s hymn,

‘Brightest and Best of the Sons of the

morning’ with its reminder:

Vainly we offer each ample oblation

Vainly with gifts would his favour secure

Richer by far is the heart’s adoration

Dearer to God are the prayers of the poor.

‘O Worship the Lord in the Beauty of

Holiness, Bow down before him, his glory

proclaim’ was a hymn written by JSB

Monsell, a Victorian poet (whose better

known hymn is probably ‘Fight the good

fight with all thy might’). It is a great

favourite of mine, redolent as it is with

beautiful images. The beauty of holiness

is such a rich and deep concept. As some

commentaries say, that is the only beauty

God cares for in our public worship; one

for which no other—beauty of architecture

or beautiful vestments or other external

paraphernalia— can compensate.

In the hymn we go on to offer our gifts as

we worship: gold of obedience and

incense of lowliness, really meaning that

we approach God with humility. But we

also find here that there is encouragement

for us; we are urged not to fear to ‘enter

his courts in the slenderness of [our] poor

wealth’ ; all we need bring with us is ‘truth

in its beauty and love in its tenderness’.

Let us always—not just at Epiphany—

worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness.

Anna Thomas-Betts

Page 17

At Langley Free Church

Oasis Fellowship group meets on

Wednesdays (1.30 for 2.00pm). The

programme for February is:

6th Bill Birmingham

13th Tony Randall

20th Tea, Sharing and Gift Time.

27th My Journey

Contact: Ann Portsmouth on 01753

585845 or 07788 812 500

The Monday Lunch Club meets

every Monday (12-2.30pm) in February.

Purchase lunch for £2 or bring your own.

Plenty of tea and coffee!

CRAFT Afternoon this month is on

16th February, 12 - 5pm. Ideal

opportunity to tackle that UFO

(UnFinished Object!), or maybe start

something new. A friendly group who

enjoys a chat, eating cake and drinking

lots of tea.

At Christ the Worker Church

Needles & a Yarn meetings in

February are on Tuesdays, 5th and 19th ,

2pm. We knit and crochet blankets, baby

clothes and toys for charity. Contact:

Maureen Bush on 01753 543465.

Langley Churches Invite you to join them ...

Valentines Evening

Christ the Worker Church

Saturday February 16th 7pm

Live music

fish & chips supper

Tickets cost £6 and are

Available from Christ the Worker

church or Maureen(01753

543465)

Page 18

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Would you like to sponsor or support Around Langley?

If so, you may like to give £5 a year towards the costs

of the magazine. To do so please make a donation

at any of the sponsoring churches.

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Page 19

St Mary’s Church www.langleymarish.com/stmary

Open Tuesdays from 7.00 – 7.45pm for enquiries about baptisms, weddings, etc.

Rev. Robin Grayson 01753 542068 r.j.grayson@btinternet.com

Curate: Rev. Sue Lepp 07930 520562 revdsuelepp@gmail.com

Hall Lettings: Mr Graham Jones 07802 784024 st.marys.church.centre@gmail.com

St Francis Church www.langleymarish.com/stfrancis

Hall Hire: Mrs Joy Raynor 01753 676011 joyraynor@aol.com

Licensed Lay Minister: Mr Bill Birmingham 01753 548646 billbirmingham@gmail.com

Christ the Worker Church www.langleymarish.com/c-t-w/

Rev. Shola Aoko 01753 547025 shola_aoko@yahoo.co.uk

Hall Lettings: Mr Graham Jones 07802 784024 ctw.langley@gmail.com

Parish Administrator: Mrs Dalletta Reed 01753 541042 langleymarish@gmail.com

Holy Family Catholic Church www.holyfamily.co.uk

Parish Priest: Canon Kevin O’Driscoll

Deacon: Rev. Graham Jones

Hall Hire: Mrs Maria Boland

All above contactable at 01753 543770 holyfamilylangley@yahoo.co.uk

Parish Worker: Mr Kieran McKeown 01753 543770 kieranmckeown50@yahoo.co.uk

HF Parish Club: Mrs Mary Wilkins 07759 304 567 marywilkins@hotmail.co.uk

Langley Free Church www.langleyfreechurch.org.uk

Pastor Rev. John Bernard 01753 473219 pastor@langleyfree.org.uk

Hall Hire: 01753 540771 bookings@langleyfree.org.uk

Parish Directory

Page 20

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Around Langley needs

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on issues affecting its residents, or of

general interest. If you can help,

please contact Anna Thomas-Betts:

a.thomasbetts@gmail.com or 01753

822 013.

A BIG THANK YOU and New Year wishes to all our

advertisers, past, present and future.

Together with the support of our churches, you make this magazine

possible!

With thanks from the editorial team of

Around Langley