Giving up is an easy decision – it’s going to be biscuits again as custard creams are still my biggest weakness.

Taking up is more challenging. I am hoping to speak to at least one person that I haven’t spoken to for over a year, each day of Lent.

I wish you all the best in your Lenten observances.

http://www.london2012.com/press/media-releases/2012/01/road-race-vantage-point-capacity-increased.php

Background

The Anglican service properly termed  ”Morning Prayer” (in the 1662 Prayer Book and the current Common Worship) is commonly referred to as Mattins and comes to us essentially unchanged from Archbishop Thomas Cranmer’s Second Prayer Book published in 1552.

For centuries following the reformation, Mattins was the principal parish service on a Sunday in the Church of England, only in certain weeks was it followed by a service of Holy Communion (Eucharist). This position was surplanted with the revival of the Eucharist as the principal Sunday service during the second half of the twentieth century.

Mattins draws on the monastic offices of Matins, Lauds and Prime, beginning with opening versicles and responses, continuing with the invitatory “Venite” (Psalm 95), the “Te Deum” and “Benedictus” (called the canticles because they are sung), interspersed with Bible readings, as well as recitation of the “Apostles’ Creed”, and ending with closing versicles adapted from the Breviary, intercessional, an address and final prayers.

Attending Mattins

Far from breeding contempt, familiarity with the canticles brings the opportunity to move from them into the worshipper’s own thoughts and prayers. Singing them is difficult (especially without music) and you should not feel ashamed to use this time for private reflection. To help this They are set out here in full with a little explanation on their origins and their role in the service.

—

The Venite (Psalm 95 Venite, exultemus Domino)

In this great Psalm we prepare ourselves for worship, (“let us sing unto the Lord…let us worship, and fall down and kneel before the Lord our Maker”).

O come, let us sing unto the Lord : let us heartily rejoice in the strength of our salvation.
Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving : and shew ourselves glad in him with psalms.
In his hand are all the corners of the earth :and the strength of the hills is his also.
For the Lord is a great God :and a great King above all gods.
The sea is his, and he made it :and his hands prepared the dry land.
O come, let us worship, and fall down : and kneel before the Lord our Maker.
For he is the Lord our God :and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep of his hand.
Glory be to the Father, and to the Son : and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be : world without end. Amen.

top

—

The Te Deum (Te Deum Laudamus)

A hymn of praise ascribed to Saint Augustine and St Ambrose. It holds the place in Morning Prayer taken by the Gloria in Holy Communion and like the Gloria is omitted in the penitential seasons of Lent and Advent. It contains references to the creed and quotations from the Psalms.

We praise thee, O God; we acknowledge thee to be the Lord.
All the earth doth worship thee, the Father everlasting.
To thee all angels cry aloud, the heavens and all the powers therein.
To thee cherubin and seraphin continually do cry,
Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God of Sabaoth;
Heaven and earth are full of the majesty of thy glory.
The glorious company of the apostles praise thee.
The goodly fellowship of the prophets praise thee.
The noble army of martyrs praise thee.
The holy Church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee:
the Father of an infinite majesty;
thine honourable, true and only Son;
also the Holy Ghost the Comforter.

Thou art the King of glory, O Christ.
Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father.
When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man,
thou didst not abhor the Virgin’s womb.
When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death,
thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers.
Thou sittest at the right hand of God, in the glory of the Father.
We believe that thou shalt come to be our judge.
We therefore pray thee, help thy servants,
whom thou hast redeemed with thy precious blood.
Make them to be numbered with thy saints in glory everlasting.

O Lord, save thy people and bless thine heritage.
Govern them and lift them up for ever.
Day by day we magnify thee;
and we worship thy name, ever world without end.
Vouchsafe, O Lord, to keep us this day without sin.
O Lord, have mercy upon us, have mercy upon us.
O Lord, let thy mercy lighten upon us, as our trust is in thee.
O Lord, in thee have I trusted; let me never be confounded.

top

—

The Benedictus (Luke 1.68-79)

Like the Magnificat and the Nunc Dimittis which are used in Evening Prayer this canticle is taken from the Gospel of Luke. It is the Song of Zechariah, the first words he utters on the birth of his son John the Baptist. So we begin the day with John linking Jesus to the patriarchs of Genesis.

Blessed be the Lord God of Israel :
for he hath visited, and redeemed his people;
And hath raised up a mighty salvation for us :
in the house of his servant David;
As he spake by the mouth of his holy Prophets :
which have been since the world began;
That we should be saved from our enemies :
and from the hands of all that hate us;
To perform the mercy promised to our forefathers :
and to remember his holy covenant;
To perform the oath which he sware to our forefather Abraham :
that he would give us, That we being delivered out of the hands of our enemies :
might serve him without fear, In holiness and righteousness before him :
all the days of our life.
And thou, child, shalt be called the Prophet of the Highest :
for thou shalt go before the face of the Lord to prepare his ways;
To give knowledge of salvation unto his people :
for the remission of their sins; Through the tender mercy of our God :
whereby the dayspring from on high hath visited us;
To give light to them that sit in darkness,
and in the shadow of death : and to guide our feet into the way of peace.

Glory be to the Father, and to the Son :
and to the Holy Ghost;
as it was in the beginning, is now, and ever shall be :
world without end. Amen.

top

—

The Apostles’ Creed

An older and simpler version of the creed (statement of faith), avoiding some of the Christological (the nature of Christ as both man and God) issues addressed in the Nicene Creed and so more suitable for early in the morning!

I believe in God the Father almighty,
maker of heaven and earth:
and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord,
who was conceived by the Holy Ghost,
born of the Virgin Mary,
suffered under Pontius Pilate,
was crucified, dead, and buried.
He descended into hell;
the third day he rose again from the dead;
he ascended into heaven,
and sitteth on the right hand of God the Father almighty;
from thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead.
I believe in the Holy Ghost;
the holy catholic Church;
the communion of saints;
the forgiveness of sins;
the resurrection of the body,
and the life everlasting.
Amen.

—

top

John 2: 1-11

On the third day a wedding took place at Cana in Galilee. Jesus’ mother was there, and Jesus and his disciples had also been invited to the wedding. When the wine was gone, Jesus’ mother said to him, “They have no more wine.” “Woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My hour has not yet come.” His mother said to the servants, “Do whatever he tells you.” Nearby stood six stone water jars, the kind used by the Jews for ceremonial washing, each holding from twenty to thirty gallons. Jesus said to the servants, “Fill the jars with water”; so they filled them to the brim. Then he told them, “Now draw some out and take it to the master of the banquet.”
They did so, and the master of the banquet tasted the water that had been turned into wine. He did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew. Then he called the bridegroom aside and said, “Everyone brings out the choice wine first and then the cheaper wine after the guests have had too much to drink; but you have saved the best till now.” What Jesus did here in Cana of Galilee was the first of the signs through which he revealed his glory; and his disciples believed in him.
(John 2:1-11 NIV)

This apparently simple story – the Bacchic alchemy of turning water into wine – is actually rather odd.  Jesus, his mother and the disciples are invited to a wedding, but we do not know how they were related to the bride and groom, indeed the bride and groom do not appear in the story at all.  The wine runs out and Jesus’s mother (she is not named as Mary in this story, or in fact in the whole of John’s Gospel) asks her son to do something about this faux pas.  Jesus replies that it is not the time or the place– but then apparently acquiesces to his mother’s request and so his ministry begins, not with a landmark speech or a public healing but in helping his family deal with a social embarrassment.

Beyond these oddities, this “first” miracle occurs only in John, leading people to think that its inclusion must have a special meaning in this meaning-laden Gospel.

To try to uncover this special meaning we can view the story from the perspectives of the different protagonists:

“Mary” is the catalyst for the beginning of Jesus’s ministry.  It is not God or John the Baptist, but his mother.  It is in response to her appeal for help that his work begins.  Jesus’s ministry is a response to basic human needs.

The Master of the Banquet – this man is normally in charge, he is the master of ceremonies, the maître d’hôtel, but he has no idea what is going on – he thinks the wedding party have deliberately saved the best wine till last.  This is a familiar Gospel theme – those in power and authority are the last to see the big picture.

Instead it is the Servants who are the first to know that something remarkable is happening.

“The Master did not realize where it had come from, though the servants who had drawn the water knew.”

This is a classic reversal of the normal order of knowledge and power which we see throughout Jesus’s ministry.

So we can see that the events at Cana fit within some established Gospel themes but what does this tell us about Jesus himself?

His reluctance to begin his ministry is human and touching in its modesty.  Jesus is presented as someone to whom his messianic mission comes as an obligation even a burden rather than following expectation, let alone ambition.

We get some further insights from today’s other scripture readings – Genesis 14 gives us the famous “vignette” about Melchizedek, a priest of God most high, who brings out bread and wine to Abraham, and so is seen as a precursor of Jesus as both the first priest in the Bible but also someone identified with bread and wine, the elements of the Eucharist.

The wedding at Cana – where Jesus provides the wine – is also seen as a precursor of the passion narrative (both the Eucharist and the crucifiction); here Jesus miraculously provides wine where later he will provide his own blood.  Interestingly John excludes most of the miracles which are found in the synoptic Gospels – but he does include the feeding of the 5,000 – where Jesus provides the other element, the bread.

The other symbolism seen in the wedding at Cana stems from the mystery of the missing bridal party.  In their absence Christ comes to be seen as the bridegroom himself and we, his people, are his bride.  So, at the beginning of his ministry, Christ is embarking on a new and intimate relationship with his people – like a marriage.  This echoes ideas of the relationship with God as being like a marriage in Isaiah and Hosea.

This is also the metaphor which we see in our reading from  Revelation 19:

“For the wedding of the Lamb has come,
and his bride has made herself ready. Fine linen, bright and clean,
was given her to wear.”

And then later in the same passage the two ideas are brought together –

“Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!”

Perhaps not surprisingly, these are the very words used to introduce the Eucharist in the Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions to this day –

“Behold the lamb of God who taketh away the sins of the word.  Blessed  are those  that are called to his supper.”

So there is a lot going on here – but what does it mean to us?

It reminds us that God will provide all that we need – better than we might imagine possible.

It reminds us that things are not always as we expect – that we have to listen to the weaker members of society to see things from their perspective as they may know more than we think, more than us.

It reminds us to be on the lookout for people giving us special messages, a divine nudge in the direction where we should be travelling.  That sometimes others’ need for us will dictate our ministry, and that it may, therefore, begin earlier or differently than we have imagined.

It invites us to join with Jesus in the Priesthood of Melchizedek – sharing bread and wine and giving thanks to God.

And finally it offers us the opportunity to begin a new and intimate relationship with Jesus, a lasting and supporting one, like the very best of marriages.

Let us pray:

Almighty God, we thank you for the message of your servant John.  For the wisdom and insight it brings.  We thank you for the intercession of Mary who brought Jesus to us.  We thank you for the ministry of your son Jesus who fills our lives to the brim with his love and compassion.  We thank you for this community and this congregation, for the opportunity to come together and celebrate by breaking bread in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.  May we begin this day a deeper and closer relationship with him.  We ask these things in the name of your son, our saviour, Jesus Christ. Amen

Chris Hancock  22nd January, 2012

It is especially appropriate at the midnight service on Christmas Eve with the back rows swaying gently in an alcoholic haze having just come in from the Cock Inn.

The congregation looking to get the God bit out of the way to leave more time for eating and drinking on Christmas day.

But I know I am addressing the hard core this morning.

Parents who insist on taking their children to church – some of whom even have to delay opening their presents until they get home!

But I do have some sympathy with the traditional fulminating clergyman.

Jingle Bells,
Christmas jumpers,
Rudolf the Red-nosed Reindeer (what’s that got to do with anything?),
Tinsel,
Singing santas and dancing snowmen
at least we seem to have got rid of lametta – terrible stuff which you find for months afterwards in odd places.

What has this to do with the lowly birth of the infant Jesus who would grow up to profoundly change the world?

But then the traditional Christmas has its share of nonsense

We sang at the carol service this year:

“I saw three ships come sailing by”- is Bethlehem on sea? I believe the nearest mass of water is the Dead Sea about 20km away

How about “We three kings of orient are”. Caspar, Melchior and Balthazar are good for Christmas quizzes but try to find them in the Bible.

The point is that we have always gone a bit overboard on celebrating Christmas but now that we are in the third year of recession and the shops have fewer customers buying less than before – those days of great excess now seem like a bit of a golden age, albeit a fairly shallow one.

Because Christmas is about feeling good, and celebrating

And how do we celebrate at Christmas? We decorate our houses, we sing special songs (Carols); we bake special cakes, we light candles, we give each other presents. This all seems a lot like how we celebrate a Birthday.

And that is not surprising because it is a birthday. We are celebrating the birthday of Jesus Christ. You can see a picture of him in the window at the east end of this church.

Amazing fact number one – we are celebrating the birthday of this person 2,000 years ago – who we see here hanging from a cross as he is dying, being executed for sedition and blasphemy.

His message that all people – Jews, Gentiles, Romans, Greeks, Englishman, Scots, even Canadians – are all equal in the sight of God and equally loved by God was so dangerous that it had him killed – but this message, once so revolutionary is now the basis of all our morality in the western world.

Unlike a normal Birthday at Christmas we give each other presents.

Why do we do this?

On the one hand we are celebrating the gift by God of his son Jesus to save us from the slavery of the old religions – with all of their restrictive rules and hierarchies.

As we heard in Isaisah 9:6

“For unto us a child is born, unto us a son is given.”

And I love the fact that this celebration of Christmas is bigger than any birthday – in fact it is bigger than all birthdays put together

But there is more than this

Let us for a moment unwrap “birthday presents” – if you will excuse the pun.

Why do we give presents on a birthday normally?
- to make the other person feel special
- to show our appreciation for them
Yet on Jesus’s birthday we give presents to eachother.
– why is that?

Because Jesus’s message is that we are all special – all important – all loved and in return we should love one another.

That’s why the presents are important – because they are part of the message – we are all important – all special – all loved – and we should love one another

But there’s more: there are two more senses of present – both of which are relevant here.

In the autobiographical “Cider with Rosie” Laurie lee tells of his first day at school when he is told by his teacher “sit down and wait there for the present”. He waited all day for the present that never came.

Well that was a bit like those early Christians who were waiting for Christ to come again and they would still be waiting.

They missed the point– Advent is finished – the waiting is over – God is with us right now. The present is given to us in the present time – not in the future.

I said it is all about the presents and this takes us on to the third sense of present which is relevant here – the sense of being present.

We sing in our Christmas hymns: “O come, O come Emmanuel”. Matthew quoting Isaiah tells us that Emmanuel means God with us.

And it is the presence of God with us right now which is the greatest gift of Christmas. Whenever we have need of God’s love – it is there – accessible to all – God is with us and within us throughout our lives.

A presence which we will celebrate and share together in our Eucharist this morning as we rejoice in Christ’s continuing presence with us symbolised in shared bread and wine.

As I approach the altar I always look up to the picture of the crucified Christ and feel at once entirely unworthy but also entirely justified in the knowledge that I am not expected to be perfect but only to love as I am loved.

And I hope that we may all take that presence and that love home with us and share it with our families and friends and everyone we meet – not just this Christmas but for the whole year.

Let us remember what we have been given this Christmas – love, forgiveness, the opportunity to start each day afresh and think about what we might give back in the coming year.

But above all let us “keep the feast”, enjoy the giving and receiving of presents and rejoice because the man looking down upon us from the cross at the end of our church represents a very special present to us and presence with us – then, now and always.

A very happy Christmas to you all

Amen

Chris Hancock 25^th December, 2011

At our 10:30 service Jan will be lead the ministry of the Word, Chris will preach and Linda will preside at the Eucharist.

We will be celebrating with some suitable refreshment after the service.

I hope you will come and help us keep the feast!

 The last volley of friendly guns has gone, rumbling, earth-shuddering, echoing away

Leaving an awkward silence.

Straining ears find the sound of falling raindrops

Pinging like hammer blows onto a blacksmith’s helmet

The musty smell of sodden wool rises from the tunic of a shepherd

And mingles with apple-sweet rifle oil on a nurseryman’s carbine.

Smoke curls from the groom’s flared nostrils as he takes a final pull on his pipe

The lamplighter grips the rungs of his ladder, squinting up into the rain

“Lovely day for it” mutters the farrier, shuffling ankle-deep, mud-shod.

The butcher’s bowels tightening and twisting sausages inside him

The bowed head of the pallbearer, averting his gaze

The seconds ticking down on the referee’s watch.

Till suddenly: no extra-time, no replays,

Just one, long, shrill blast,

And it all kicks off.

cmjh

November, 2011

The Psalmody set by  the lectionary is the beautiful Psalm 13 and we will be using this as the basis of our devotion.

You can begin to let the Psalm under your skin by reading it to yourself, aloud and under your breath, in your mind and in your heart as often as you wish before the service.

To learn more about Lectio Divina join us at St Andrew’s Box Hill at 10:30 on Sunday

Psalm 13 

How long, O LORD?
Will you forget me for ever?
How long will you hide your face from me?
How long must I wrestle with my thoughts and every day have sorrow in my heart?
How long will my enemy triumph over me?
Look on me and answer, O LORD my God.
Give light to my eyes, or I will sleep in death;
My enemy will say, I have overcome him, and my foes will rejoice when I fall.
But I trust in your unfailing love; my heart rejoices in your salvation.
I will sing to the LORD, for he has been good to me.

There is a time for everything,
A time for war and a time for peace,
A time to plant and a time to uproot,
A time to tear down and a time to build,
A time to mourn and a time to dance,
A time to keep and a time to throw away,
A time to be silent and a time to speak,
A time to be born and a time to die.

Ecclesiastes 3

“I know there is nothing better for men than to be happy and to do good while they live.”

So wrote the author of Ecclesiastes,

Its author (probably Solomon but described as “the Teacher”) is a highly sophisticated student of human nature and in the course of reflecting on how one should live it contains some of the most famous lines in the Bible

• “There is nothing new under the sun”
  
• “Cast your bread upon the waters”
  
• “Vanity, Vanity all is Vanity”
  

   

Ecclesiastes central theme – which we have just heard – is that man is aware of the infinity of time and of man’s insignificance in it. So what should man do?

The answer is to do good things

The balance, the phlegmatic tone, the melancholy, the wisdom, the wisdom of experience gained in a long and thoughtful life

All strikingly evocative of Ted and his little sayings

And in the course of his long life Ted did so many good things. – did not brag about them – so it has been quite a task to tease them out

There is a time for everything – a time to be born

Edward John Holroyd Cross was born in Kildaire, Ireland 1^st November, 1920 to a family of wealthy landowners.

Holroyd is the family name of the Earls of Sheffield a branch of whose family settled in Ireland in the late 18^th Century. Such a background would help explain why, when the “Troubles” began in earnest in the early 20′s, the family felt they had to leave.

A time to uproot

They sold up and moved to Ruislip in North West London when Ted was just 2 years old.

Ted’s father turned his energy to property development and his building business was responsible for the development of much of modern Ruislip – this financial success would prove to be the catalyst for Ted’s own business career.

Ted was at school, at St Paul’s – he was no academic and had no fond memories of school.

Instead seemed keen to get going and start to make his mark in the world.

A time to plant

First job was working for his uncle in an aircraft components business called Airspeed on the South Coast.

In a life where everything seems to have been for a purpose this early exposure to an engineering business was later to lead to much greater things.

Battle for Britain looming he joined the RAF and trained to be a pilot – he was very proud of his pilot’s licence.

Ted seems to have been caught up in the emotion of the time.

He met an attractive, vivacious woman 8 years his senior in a local pub in Ruislip – this was Cecily Sparks (whom we know as Celia) and within a few months they were engaged to be married. They would be together for over 60 years.

It was at this time that fate played a hand in changing Ted’s life –

While engaged to Celia, Ted crashed his car into a lamppost, suffering severe injuries to head and face.

It nearly forced postponement of the wedding. This accident and his poor eyesight brought the end of his career as a fighter pilot – which probably saved his life.

A time for war

Instead Ted joined the Army and recuperated through the discipline of basic training.

Selected for officer training and 1942 saw him at Sandhurst in the Royal Armoured Corps.

Recognition of his natural authority and skills in diplomacy meant Ted was transferred to the Military Police where he served in Egypt during the war and then in Palestine – being in Jerusalem when the King David Hotel, the headquarters of the British Mandate, was bombed by Zionist extremists in July 1946 leaving 91 people dead and a further 46 injured.

Ted also served in Europe at the end of the war –

He tried to loot the Reichstag in Berlin but found the Russians had already taken all the good stuff.

Witnessed destruction and brutality in Europe which left a lasting impression

A time for peace and a time to build

Retuned to UK, demobbed it was time to return to a business career.

Initially as a salesman for Birdseye frozen foods.

Keen to get into business for himself. It was then that Ted met with Bob Rodd, owner of Rodd O’Neill, a small metal bashing business based in Sunbury on Thames which had found itself in difficulties.

His father having died in Jan 1940 Ted had been left a small amount of capital.

Rodd needed money and Ted wanted business experience so they went into partnership and formed Rodd Engineering (1950) Limited, the precursor of what would become Rodd Group

Rodd seems to have been more interested in Ted’s money than his ideas and Ted relied on one of the staff, Connie Read to educate him on the fundamentals of the engineering business.

Ted needed a real partner and he found that with engineer Jack Baker who ws introduced by a good friend Frank Smith – of whom more later – Ted persuaded Jack to join Rodd.

With Jack providing the technical expertise Ted could give free rein to his leadership and negotiating skills as Chairman.

The company focused on automotive components building a strong relationship with Ford Motors Europe for whom their made seat slides, widescreen wiper parts and later widgets.

With accountants Everett & Son providing the financial insight Jack and Ted added to the business over 20 years through synergistic acquisitions (like Bridal & Cross steel stockholding) so that when they came to sell the business the Group employed over 500 people and was turning over around £10m pa.

The relationship forged at time with Everett & Sons was to last the remainder of Ted’s life. Geoff Greenhalgh, who is now one of Ted’s executors, first met Ted in 1959 as an audit trainee. He remembers Ted then as being much more approachable than the average Chairman of the Board – Ted had time for everyone, even a 17 year old trainee auditing the Directors’ remuneration. (Probably because – unlike many Chairman – Ted was not abusing his expenses!)

This longstanding relationship with Geoff and Everett is typical of Ted Cross. He appreciated loyalty and returned it with interest. He knew what he liked and liked what he knew.

A time to keep and a time to throw away

As he approached the age of 60, having built a highly successful commercial enterprise, Ted recognised that times were changing – industrial unrest, high inflation and the advent of more aggressive competition as customers started to put pressure on their suppliers to save costs were taking the fun out of Rodd Group. The business was ultimately sold in a typically gentlemanly way with John Harvey acquiring the business over a period of 5 years while Ted and Jack stayed on to provide an orderly transition for customers and employees.

Ted looked for a new interest to engage his time and talents and having always had an eye for pictures which had increased with his friendship with a childless couple Frank and Joyce, who were great art lovers. When they died leaving Ted and Celia a house full of art and antiques Ted decided to open a gallery.

One of the businesses which Rodd had acquired was builders’ merchants, Gordon and Alexander and when Rodd was sold Ted kept their premises at 128 Oaklands Drive, Weybridge.

By the same time of the sale Connie Read was retiring and Ted had taken on a new assistant who happened to have an interest in fine art, Margaret James. Together Ted and Margaret transformed the Oaklands Drive property into the gallery from which many of you here today will have bought pictures.

With more time on his hands Ted also began to put more energy into Celia’s interests with the foundation of the Celia Cross Greyhound Trust which he supported financially, as well as having a great love for the “longtails” themselves – looking after up to six of them at any one time.

Typically of Ted – every time one of these rescued dogs would pass on he would say “that was the best dog I ever had, best dog I ever had.”

Celia was the front man for the organisation with Ted in the background, a Dennis Thatcher figure – the successful businessman with a famous wife. But Ted played an integral part in Celia’s famous fundraising sales – providing auction prizes from the gallery stock and plying all of the helpers with generous quantities of champagne at the end of the day. Must have made it hard to count the money.

Perhaps it was his experience of business practices which led to the announcement after the counting of how much each stall had raised – this created fervent competition amongst the stallholders with each one donating bigger prizes every year to try to raise more money.

A time to dance

Ted and Celia were not blessed with children but when they sold Headley Hall to Bill and Christine Gerhauser in 1978 they moved in to the adjacent property at White Lodge and gained not only new neighbours but a family to boot. The couples shared an interest in racing which saw them enjoy outings to Royal Ascot and Longchamps as well as to watch the greyhounds at Wimbledon and Battersea dogtracks. Ted and Celia became Godparents to Kate and William, the Gerhausers’ children, and were present at every family occasion as well as sharing regular meals out.

Ted liked eating out, he would always start with soup saying “you can tell a good restaurant by its soup”. He especially liked Chinese food , and In fact I first met Ted at Gourmet 38 on Box Hill Road

These were the best of times. But as the author of Ecclesiastes knew, nothing lasts for ever and they had to come to an end.

A time to mourn

Celia became unwell and increasingly infirm and my abiding memory of the two of them together is of tall Ted bent down protectively with his arm around the diminutive, Celia guiding her from the room.

Ted was a gentle man who was a true gentleman.

A time to be silent

Without Celia, Ted, who was never a loud man or an extravert, became increasingly withdrawn. He stopped coming to Christmas lunch at Healey Hall, but instead Stephen would take him up a plate on a tray. We owe a debt to Geoff and Rose, Christine and Elaine and all those who banded together to ensure his last months were spent comfortably and in company.

So we come together today to give thanks today for the long and productive life of Ted Cross with its many acts of generosity. To the Greyhound Trust , the Headley Cricket Club, this Church and the many tradesmen and employees whom he took care of in his own quiet way. Many of them not even realising that he was helping them.

In his modest way Ted thought no one would come to his funeral. It was a rare piece of bad judgement on his part and we see today how wrong he was.

His life touched many, many people, every one of whom he treated justly and graciously.

We remember his wisdom and his character- of fairness and loyalty, his essential goodness.

The author of Ecclesiastes determined that everything was meaningless – work, wisdom, pleasure, everything – if pursued only for its own sake. He could have written Ted’s own motto when he said:

“I know there is nothing better for men than to be happy and to do good while they live.”

Let us pray now that this “gentle man”, may rest in peace. Amen

The service was led in an ecumenical spirit by by Revd Paul Cockburn Superintendent Minister of the Dorking and Horsham Methodist Circuit with an address given by Revd Linda Harknett, Rector of the Parish of Headley with Box Hill.

As the congregation looked out on the “green and pleasant land” of the Mole Valley we were reminded of Jesus’s commission to his disciples given on the Mount of Olives outside Jerusalem. With the sun rising to warm the earth and the birds singing in the trees all around us, we took the time to appreciate the wonder of creation and give thanks for the continuing presence of Christ in the world. “I will be with you always, even to the end of time” (Matthew 28:20)