From our Sunday School Days (Lift up our hearts)

Jim McEwen was Boys Brigade captain there. David Lyne also BB.

Alan Lyde occasionally preached at Stoke Harefield Road, but had Brownshill Green church in his care.

Prof, that's right. His wife, Beryl was ordained as well. Alan was registered blind and he and Beryl worked tirelessly within the community. He did some teaching at Coundon Primary School too.

Yes, Dreamer. I knew that too.

Thank you, Phil. A week ago today at tea-time, Mavis, my beloved partner of 30 years, died (aged 86) with MND. The funeral will be 1.30 p.m. on Friday 8th April in Tewkesbury Abbey and then at Cheltenham Crematorium. We both have Christian faith and are Friends of the Abbey as well as worshippers there. I know you have been through this and will understand how I am at the moment.

Hi all, With so much going on in the world, I don't just mean Ukraine, me sharing an Easter thought, could be controversial, our forum not being the place for such. However, by God's grace an issue gets handed to me on a plate for me to share. One of our members suffered an awful plight just prior to going on hols around Christmas time. Their lives thrown into chaos, uncertainty & awful unhappiness & pain. It's with true joy that I'm able to share their good news that they have had such a blessing to match any chocolate Easter egg. That news to me, such a delight. It's good on here, hey!

Hi all, Every now & again, I'm reminded of just how close we are to thinking along the same lines as Our Father in Heaven. (Not too close though, Scripture does declare limits) A Scottish medic by the name of Sir James Young Simpson, is credited with the safe development of anaesthetic properties of chloroform, so inducing sleep during open surgery. He declared that he had copied what God did, when He wanted to change someone. For all of its might be warts, I'm so glad of our NHS. God bless us all.

Good morning, I have a solemn duty to attend to today, the funeral of my dear friend Iris. The chosen piece of music for the entrance is "Somewhere over the rainbow". Made famous by Judy Garland singing it in the film Wizard of Oz, 1939. A fantasy film, that reminds me of the adventures of Alice in Wonderland. I knew Iris so well that I know that her life & belief was anything but a fantasy. The first time that I've ever been asked to play this at a funeral. It was an opening tune at many of my theatre organ performance venues over the years. The cortege timing will only permit such a short excerpt from the song. Have a good day all.

Hi all, Today is Fathers day. For many of us, our dads are simply a fond memory. Sadly for some, they don't want to hear any thought of their dad mentioned. Whatever our thoughts or past history, I/we have a Father in Heaven, which I truly believe with all of my soul. HAPPY DAY TO ALL OF OUR FATHERS.

Lift up our Hearts. That's part of the title of this thread. Sometimes an important aspect to our wellbeing, as each of us journeys through life. Some days it is though nothing is going right. Even on good days, often something crops up that we hope hadn't or we weren't expecting. I'm sure that everyone of us can nod our heads to that. Oh, how I have messed things up from time to time. Guess what! I'm human after all. This week sees twelve months since my Pam's funeral. I try to hold my head up, in the knowledge that I did try to do everything in my power to be of assistance & real help to Pam, but I got some things horribly wrong there. Most know little or nothing about that. Then, before her illness, over fifty three years of taking her for granted, me being awkward to her on issues time & time again. She was good at returning serve sometimes. During her last moments, when her condition did a nose dive over just two hours, as she was clutching her phone, she told Nurse Sarah, "I do love my Phily". as she slipped away. Her mobile was open, those last words heard. When I eventually arrived in ward 35, her lifeless hand was still clutching her phone. I at that point, I was actually so proud of everything that she had been, I was exhilarated, totally dry eyed. (Now my faith in God may have clicked on there, but that is not for this post) I could have so easily have given up on everything there & then. Would Pam have done that if our rolls had been apposite! I don't even need to answer that. Now look overseas, bread queues all over the world. A new No 14 food bank opens in Coventry. When I put all of that into my priorities in life, the issues that I've got wrong previously, yesterday, the day before, it all gets put into prospective. I'm blumming fortunate in most areas of my life, or what's left of it. So to all of our forumites, --: I can hear Pam right now with her words "Come on, pick up the pieces & carry on". "What are we waiting for, a blue moon" Carry on Forum!

Thank you, Dreamtime. So much of how we are I believe is shaped by our upbringing, our schooling, then our working life & adult hobbies, or as in my case, carry on schoolboy hobby. There are aspects of my life, mostly all here in Coventry, that with the benefit of hindsight, I would think again before doing again. Drama is one of them. I was a member of three drama groups for years where I did my best to stop any of them from one group knowing that I belonged to any other. Leave alone my chapel folk friends. I had business interests that no body outside of Pam knew anything about. I enjoyed watching the horses, What! Sorry vicar! Horses & Methodist folk mixed like booze & the Salvation Army. Expressing my faith belief on our forum stops there, but, my faith is having a huge roll in my lifestyle like never before. I'm sure that we can see why I'm sceptical of returning to many of my past lifestyles, even though Pam didn't have strong feelings & often entered fully into some of those activities herself. I don't believe that there is another public website forum quite like ours. For most part it moderates itself, which when an issue does crop up, we all wake-up. That is almost a complement in itself, to each & every member. Few of us like policemen, until we ring them up in desperation for help, yet they are constantly there. Our forum would not work without them. We get it wrong sometimes, like the couple who were awakened by their door being smashed in by police who had the wrong address. Where was that! In Leamington just days ago. Thank you all for putting up with us. My mum said that I was very trying!

Quote from Philip "There are aspects of my life, mostly all here in Coventry, that with the benefit of hindsight, I would think again before doing again". Do you think we should have a Regrets topic?

It might be a good idea..... but would we come to regret it???