What did the Queen say to the Mayor....?

Sounds a bit like the opening line of a joke!  Actually the two have come together in my mind because of the events of these last twenty-four hours.

Yesterday evening I attended our town’s Mayor Making – held in The Sanctuary of our own church at South Street.  This prestigious event followed on from the Town Council AGM – this was a good meeting but I have to confess I smiled somewhat as we received the report from The Bus Shelter Sub-Committee (miss one meeting and then three come along at once!)

I shouldn’t jest because every report delivered last night had its rightful place in our community’s life and every committee has striven to enhance the life of our town.  I was proud that our church played ‘host’ to yesterday evening’s proceedings.

It’s easy to be cynical about ‘committee’ work – in churches I’ve known people avoid them like the plague!  Yet...it’s often when we come together as a group, as we discuss and tackle issues as a group, that we gain a much clearer and deeper perspective than when we approach these issues simply by ourselves.  That’s the genius of the principle of ‘Congregational Government’ in a church like ours – based on New Testament passages describing the disciples coming together as a group and only then making decisions under the guidance of the Holy Spirit – even the godly go-ahead maverick St Paul needed to consult with the Council of Jerusalem before embarking on his missionary journeys.

For me the high point of yesterday evening was the farewell to the outgoing mayor, Phil Chandler – a man for whom I have great respect (and who selected four of our GB and BB members to be his cadets – they gave back their sashes last evening!) – and then the installation of Clive Davis as our new mayor.  Clive’s wife, Sally, is well-known to many of us because she is a member of our Monday afternoon Women’s Group, and Clive himself attends our coffee mornings on most Fridays.  Let’s pray for Clive and Sally that they will have a terrific year as Mayor and Mayoress.

And then there was the Queen!  What a thing for Clive to be made mayor on Tuesday and welcome the Queen to town on Wednesday – I hope he doesn’t feel it’s all downhill from now on.

Along with Prince Philip the Queen visited the Diamond Jubilee Fayre at Nine Springs Country Park today – just down the road from our church.  The rain held off, school children lined the roads waving their flags and inside the Royal Enclosure members of our Boys’ Brigade helped make up the Guard of Honour – some are just visible behind Her Majesty in the above photograph. Well – I think many people will remember today for a very long time and it’s great that our BB played their part – so ‘well done’ lads for looking so smart and well turned out!

So – what did the Queen say to the Mayor?  Well – perhaps that’s between Clive and the monarch!  May God bless them both in their service – the Queen in her sixtieth year and Clive in his first.

With best wishes,
 
Ian