RE: OPEN ALL HOURS - 507

We are off to the Rememberance service in town, see Y'all later.

Morning all..............you are all going out early.Ours starts at 11........could not get close last year so may watch it on the TV.

Good morning just got back from the local British Legion where I go every year. I think the important thing is that we show our respect it matters not if it is in the privacy of your own home, round the corner or in your local town centre.

Phil

hi all,

yesterday i went to hereford, caught the bus to worcester then train to hereford ony cost £5 return so not bad. went to the archives to check out bishops transcripts for the shrewsbury area (could not find any of the relies there). anyway, went to the cathedral and visited the mappa mundi. dont know if anyone else has seen it, but it is in a dimly lit room (obviously electric light would spoil the parchment after all these years), so bought a tea towel with it replicated. very interesting. saw the chained library, how old are all those books.

however, when i came out of the cathedral i met a young man in his twenties, very nicely spoken and clean asking for change, so i gave him some, and spent some time to speak to him. his mom had died when he was a teenager and he admitted he went a bit off the rails etc. but he was cheerful and said the local homeless charity had given him a sleeping bag to keep warm at night. it makes me wonder, and iv said this before, why cant the churches and such a large one as the hereford cathedral open its doors at night time to let them sleep on the floors and out of the wind, surely this is what christainity should be about.

rememberance day. my other half employs a lot of agency staff whom are mostly polish, lithuianians, latvians and russians etc. when it came to do the two minutes silence on friday they had no clues as to what he was talking about. such a shame - mind he is quite worried that they might think they get two minutes every day.

i have to stay at home and watch the march past as i just cry, cant help it.

bright sunshine here today, changed beds and got washing on line.

Steph

Yes you would think in this day and age when there are more needy than ever that the church would do a little more to help out. Yes the don't mind handing over defunct churches to the homeless as long as they don't have to pay for the staff to run them.They have to be run by volunteers or other charities. Several churches in Birmingham have been used for such purposes. St Basils in Bordesley and Holy Trinity at Camp Hill to name just a couple. I don't think they are still used for the same purpose now though.

It seems that the church would just like the homeless to go away if their recent acts at St Michaels on Moor St in Birmingham are anything to go by, where they evicted a soup kitchen for the homeless from their car park because it was upsetting the worshippers.

Phil

Went to the memorial service in the memorial garden.All the big wigs in attendance.I observed the last post and the silence.Did not go in for the service as I am not keen on that pomp.

The bigger the church the further they are from reality so would not expect much from them for the homeless.They are no more than admin people really.All keen on the next promotion.

A lot of excellent work goes on in some churches.Often unnoticed,some good people.

moving a soup kitchen because it upset the worshippers - what ever would jesus had said - if i remember the scriptures right he would have turned the tables over.

it does not matter who the homeless are, but a lot of them are ex servicemen who cant settle back into civilian life, and yet we have all these charities 'help the heros etc', i do help out at christmas by sending money to a charity in london who help ex servicemen and others. we should never turn our back on anyone. i like phil am not religious, although feel that if there is something beyond the grave i will face it at the time.

i was christened in the c.of e. and when we lived in wales, we used to attend the chapel int he morning and then the c. of e in the next village in the afternoon, all the children did apart from the r.c. - we had to attend because we could not go on the summer outings to rhyl and southport in the summer.

however, my mom decided to become a quaker and continued when we moved to the midlands. when my mom died she requested a quaker funeral, so i complied - it was very strange, no hymns, no service but people could get up and say what the wanted. many did and were not that kind about my mom - i was horrified. when they came back to the house (a lot were quite posh from solihull, shirley and hall green, but they were the rudest people i have ever met). afterwards my step dad, who was 85 and having to undergo kidney treatment three times a week wanted to go, he would get a taxi costing about £15, he would fall asleep when he got there, but not one of them came to visit him or ask after him or help him. needless to say when he passed away he did not have a quaker funeral.

i have in the past taken in homeless people and tried to help them so am not preaching and not done the same myself.

Denise

I agree with most of what you say, yes a lot of excellent work is done for the homeless at parish level and then it is mostly done by clerics with a social conscience with no direct help or advice from those above him except for when the local cleric receives some local acknowledgement then somehow the bishop will get his face in the frame.

Phil

Evening, Anyone hungry I've just made these.