Shaking hands...

St Martin in The Fields, Trafalgar Square this morning

Well here’s a blog for the 12.12.12. (the century's last sequential date – apparently) - and a warning: I’m going to begin it with a shameful example of name dropping!  That’s because I shook hands with the Archbishop of Canterbury this morning.  I did it as I left St Martin in The Fields after attending a service there, at which he was the preacher, to celebrate 80 years of the BBC World Service.

I was pleased to be given a ticket to this celebration and I enjoyed it very much.  St Martin’s is always a joy to visit and this morning it was filled with tremendous music and fine words.  Perhaps some of the most moving were spoken by BBC World Service presenters.  Some came from countries such as Iraq and Iran and remembered growing up in war-torn days listening to the World Service and relying on it as a channel of truth.  Today they present programmes on BBC Persian.

And that seemed to be the central message of the service – that in a world of propaganda when governments are economical with the truth they tell their citizens – the BBC World Service has sought, through eight decades, to be an independent guardian of factual reporting that can be trusted. 

Lord Patten, Chairman of the BBC Trust, spoke at this morning’s service and acknowledged that ‘trust’ in other parts of the BBC may have been dented this autumn – nevertheless, he believed, the World Service has been an exemplary channel of integrity and truth.

Well there was a lot to celebrate. In the nave I sat next to a man who, I think, was a member of the press for he scribbled in his notebook throughout. When it came to singing my neighbour certainly celebrated with a loud voice – just a shame he sang so lustily a semi-tone down from the rest of us.  (I know - as Hagred says in Harry Potter - 'I shouldn't have said that'!)

In some versions of the Parable of The Sower we are told the farmer ‘broadcast’ the seed.  That is he scattered it with broad strokes up and down the field. 

It got me thinking about the sort of message we will be ‘broadcasting’ this Christmas – what ‘seeds’ of hope and goodwill will we be planting.  At Amersham Free Church last Saturday the well attended Christingle Service we shared was surely an example of sowing a seed of loving witness to Jesus - The Light of The World.  The same is true of the Christmas window in the church hall.  As folk pass by it on Woodside Road they see a beautiful representation of the nativity shining out in the December night.  And then there are the marvellous local broadcasts in Amersham at the moment by Radio Christmas – staffed by many folk from the churches of our town. In various ways our hope and prayer is that we are ‘broadcasting’ to our community something of the spirit of Immanuel – God with us.

With best wishes,

Ian
p.s. -by the way, as I shook his hand I said ‘thank-you for all you’ve done’ to Dr Williams – and I meant it – Archbishops surely need our prayers!