CHAPLAIN’S LETTER
What is this life if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
No time to stand beneath the boughs
And stare as long as sheep or cows.
No time to see, when woods we pass,
Where squirrels hide their nuts in grass.
No time to see, in broad daylight,
Streams full of stars, like skies at night.
No time to turn at Beauty's glance,
And watch her feet, how they can dance.
No time to wait till her mouth can
Enrich that smile her eyes began.
A poor life this if, full of care,
We have no time to stand and stare.
This poem by William Henry Davies (1871-1940) is entitled “Leisure”. It’s a good message for an August newsletter. All of us need to make time to stand and stare. All of us need time to do nothing – time just to enjoy our friendships, or the beauty of God’s world or even the beauty of a single flower. You don’t need to travel to exotic destinations to discover the beauty of creation. You just need to pay attention to the beauty that is all around you, had you but the eyes and the leisure to see it.
It is of course no accident that paying attention to the love and friendship that we receive from others, or to the simplest bits of creation, is a recognized way into contemplative prayer. It is usually when we are overtaken by wonder, and we forget ourselves for a few moments, that we become open to the calling of God’s spirit. When that happens we experience an encounter with God that will always be life-affirming, and sometimes even life-changing.
When that happens holidays become holy days, which is of course what they were always meant to be. So I wish you all a good holiday this summer.
Fr John
SERMON PREACHED AT THE ORDINATION OF CHRIS NICHOLLS – Utrecht, 2 July 2011
John 10.11
Jesus said
“I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd sacrifices his life for the sheep.”
And Charles Wesley wrote
“Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire to work and speak and think for Thee;
Still let me guard the holy fire, and still stir up Thy gift in me”.
We have heard a wealth of scripture in today’s service, and in their different ways these readings say much about the priestly calling.
The reading from Isaiah 61, 1-3 was used by Jesus himself as a kind of mission statement at the beginning of his public ministry
“The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me,
because the LORD has anointed me
to proclaim good news to the poor.
He has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted,
to proclaim freedom for the captives
and release from darkness for the prisoners,
to proclaim the year of the LORD’s favour”
Yes – that just what we are ordained to do – to reach out to those in the greatest need in the name of Christ.
And then there was that wonderful reading from 2 Corinthians 5. 17 reading to the beginning of chapter 6
“ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here! All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation … We are therefore Christ’s ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us”.
Yes – that too is just what we are ordained to be – ambassadors for Christ – urging people to be reconciled to God. That too is central to our ministry.
And then in our Gospel reading from John 10 we heard about the good shepherd, who loves and cares and even sacrifices his life for his flock – the true pastor – who knows his flock by name – who is a trusted voice to and leader of his flock.
And Yes – all that is true too – we are, as the Ordination service says, to model our ministry on the pattern of the good shepherd.
These are wonderful descriptions of what we are called to do and to become, and we should neglect none of them. But how are we to keep all that going, not just for the next year or two, when we are new and enthusiastic and things are still exciting? How are we going to keep all that going for a lifetime, and through the times when we get tired or discouraged or disappointed, and when our hopes and reality don’t match up?
Because the calling to priesthood, or to any ordained ministry in the church, is a calling for life. Its not a sprint you are entering today – it’s a marathon – and what counts in the end is faithfulness, right to the day when, as the Salvation Army puts it, we are “promoted to glory”.
So how can we be faithful to a priestly calling to the end of our lives?
Well it takes a Methodist hymn writer with a love for scripture and a talent for poetry to give us a few clues.
Charles Wesley wrote the hymn we have just sung – O thou who camest from above – sometime just before 1762. It was part of a collection of hymns based on passages of scripture. This particular hymn was inspired by Leviticus chapter 6, which describes how the priests of the tabernacle and later the temple were required to keep the fire on the altar burning day and night, so that the fire would never go out.
Wesley takes this idea and turns it into a parable about the Christian life, because in the end the fulfilment of any Christian calling has to come from deep inside us – from what the bible calls the heart.
Of course the image of a fire burning in our hearts is not original to Wesley, even though his own heart was as he put it “strangely warmed” at the time of his conversion. The most notable example of the burning heart is in Luke 24 verse 32, when Cleopas and his friend, who have just met the risen Christ at Emmaus say to each other
“Didn’t our hearts burn within us as he talked with us on the road
and explained the scriptures to us.”
“The heart on fire with love for Christ” has to be the thing that will sustain a vocation to any ministry in the church. If that isn’t there we should never seek to be ordained.
“The heart on fire with love for Christ” is of course what Wesley’s hymn is all about, and it starts with the simple recognition that the initiative in faith, as well as in any kind of Christian vocation, always comes from God. No one decides to become a priest – only God can call you to become one – because the fire of love that underpins that calling has to be kindled in our hearts by God himself. Which is why the first verse of the hymn is a prayer asking God to start a fire of love for him in our deepest being.
“O Thou Who camest from above, the pure celestial fire to impart,
Kindle a flame of sacred love upon the mean altar of my heart.”
The third verse of this beautiful hymn is a prayer which any Christian could use every day, to dedicate that day to the Lord’s service, and I think that any Christian minister could use these words as a prayer at any and every moment of their ministry.
“Jesus, confirm my heart’s desire to work and speak and think for Thee;
Still let me guard the holy fire, and still stir up Thy gift in me”.
But how are we to keep this fire of love for Christ burning for a lifetime to sustain the self-sacrificial work of a pastor? For make no mistake Christian ministry can be costly. If you are to be a true pastor of Christ’s flock, you will find that not all your flock are as meek and willing as lambs. I don’t think it was any accident that Jesus had to ask Peter three times if he really loved him in John chapter 21. Because each time Jesus asks Peter – do you love me – and Peter says – yes of course I love you – Jesus entrusts Peter with a harder pastoral task. Feeding the lambs is easy – they are longing to be fed. But feeding the sheep is much harder, because generally speaking sheep are rather stupid and wilful creatures who reckon they know it all, and think they don’t need to be fed.
Sometimes pastoral ministry is heartbreaking, as any Parish Priest or Bishop or even a cynical Archdeacon will tell you. So how are you going to sustain that ministry – well the clue lies in verse two of Wesley’s hymn.
“There let it for Thy glory burn with inextinguishable blaze
And trembling to its source return, in humble prayer and fervent praise”.
If you want to keep going you need to constantly go back to the source of your calling which is the love of Christ, and you go back to that in humble prayer and fervent praise. And please note the importance of praise, particularly when things are not going well. When they threw Paul and Silas into jail in Acts 16 what did the Apostles do – they sang hymns. Praise is always a good strategy.
And how will the ministry that you begin today end? The truth is none of us knows what the future holds. The only thing that matters is to seek and to do God’s will wherever it leads us and to keep on living our faith out in love, till we are promoted to glory.
“Ready for all Thy perfect will, my acts of faith and love repeat,
Till death Thy endless mercies seal, and make my sacrifice complete.”
You may think that ecclesiastical preferment is the main goal of your ministry. You may think that promotion is the main goal of your ministry. You may even, heaven help you, aspire to become a Bishop. You may think that a comfortable retirement is the true goal of ministry. Ultimately however there’s only one thing that really matters when you meet the Lord and that is to hear him say to you
“Well done good and faithful servant,
Enter into the joy of your Master. Amen.”
Fr John
WIKILEAKS FOR CHOIRS:
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN (VII)
There once was a minister who prayed for sopranos to join his choir. Not long after his prayer had gone up to heaven, sopranos began to appear. First a young mother, a regular churchgoer, and then a soprano who suddenly returned to the choir until one evening two sopranos showed up – a soprano invasion! They were class A sopranos, already in fifth gear, who usually do not stay around for long, because they are on the wish list of any aspiring conductor. Before we knew it we suddenly had four sopranos against one bass, one tenor and one alto for choral Evensong. We couldn’t believe our luck. It seemed that the minister’s prayer was answered but I wish he had also prayed for rain, because the plants in the garden began to wither and decay because of drought.
I told one of the new sopranos that she had been much prayed for. “It is usually not the sopranos who are in short supply,” she answered. Indeed, it is usually the tenors that are much sought after as I found out years ago when I first joined the choir of a Baptist church. “How did you become a Baptist,” a Taizee brother asked me once. He had once met preachers from the Southern Alabama Baptist church in
Japan and had asked them: “How does one become a Southern Alabama Baptist Church?” I tried to give a satisfactory answer: “They were very kind to me”. Indeed when I first joined the choir at rehearsal the conductor welcomed me with open arms and she said: “I think I could kiss you”. They thought that I was quite a catch: a class B tenor, or possibly a class A tenor. I could only reply with the Neapolitan saying: “Never praise the tenor until he has sung”.
And they were indeed most kind to me – perhaps to a fault. They made sure that I never sang the tenor part on my own. They always found a tenor to sing with me, even though I had not asked for any help. The conductor often checked whether I was all right with the piece we were rehearsing or not. They assumed that I would definitely come into my very own with English anthems. “Don’t you know that piece?” they repeatedly asked. Sometimes I shook my head and said: “No, never sung it before”. No, singing for more than 12 years in the choir of Holy Trinity church had not quite made me an expert in the field of Anglican church music!
During the break some choristers asked me how I was, or how I coped with everything. I was touched that they seemed genuinely interested in me as a person and not just as a singer. My singing with Holy Trinity did not usually interfere with my singing for the Baptist choir except during Advent and Lent. With two tenors, four sopranos, four altos and three basses, the choir was well balanced and well up to any musical challenge. The conductor asked the choir if they wanted to do a special Advent programme: their own Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols compiled from Bach’s Christmas Oratorio, Advent Cantatas and Handel’s Messiah. She also came up with three dates and three locations. I had told the conductor that I was already booked for one of the dates. But then things got messy with scenes slightly reminiscent of that night in the Garden of Gethsemane! My fellow tenor began to suffer from some virus and as I also heard, from “motivational problems” as well. All eyes suddenly turned to me. “Are you available for the first date,” they asked. “No, I already told you I wasn’t”. They thought: “Houston, we have a problem!”. Then they asked the minister, who usually sang baritone, to join the tenors, which he had done before. But this otherwise charming man, well liked for his sermons embellished with purple prose, began unexpectedly to moan. “I am an abused tenor,” he said repeatedly, long before the term ‘abused’ was associated with sexual exploitation of children by clergy. Soon a more suitable replacement was found - a chorister from the widely acclaimed Scola Davidica. When he joined us for the first time the conductor welcomed him very much in the manner she once had welcomed me. Now I was treated rather differently: “And here is the tenor I mentioned – forgive me for forgetting – I am not sure whether he is available or not for Christmas”. Had I become a class C tenor overnight? She obviously no longer thought that I was such a catch after all.
With the problem of the shortage of tenors out of the way, the choir deliberated on what title to give to the Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols. What I was able to pick up was very much in the vein of the Goon show. “Christmas get together,” proposed one chorister. “Christmas Evensong,” proposed another. “Carols and chorales”, proposed yet another. “But we actually don’t sing Carols,” interrupted someone else. “Christmas Concert Bach and Handel”, another tried. “No, it is not a concert, but a church service!”.
The class A tenor, the catch from the Scola Davidica, however, reported sick on the day itself. My fellow tenor and I had weathered the icy and the snowy conditions outside, others were not that fortunate and were unable to get to church. After the Festival, members of the congregation came up to us and told us how they had appreciated the strong tenor part particularly in de Bach Cantatas. As you can imagine, it was one of my most cherished moments of triumph in that choir.
Arnold
29 AUGUST: BEHEADING OF ST JOHN THE BAPTIST
When you go back to work after the August holidays, spare a thought for John the Baptist: however rough your local sandwich bar may be, it probably doesn’t serve you locusts with a honey dip; you won’t be imprisoned for saying derogatory things about the local MP’s wife, and even the boss from hell is unlikely to have a daughter who wants to hip hop about with your head on a platter.
John the Baptist, by our standards, had a terrible life. Yet the Bible tells us that of all the people in history, no one has even been born who was as great as him. Why? Because of the unique job God gave him to do, which has to be the best PR job of all time: act as God’s press officer.
This was quite literally the PR job from heaven: with God as his client, John the Baptist’s job was to broadcast the news that the Messiah had come. Not even Church House Westminster has ever attempted anything like that!
It always helps if PR people recognise their own clients, and the same was true of John: he was the first person to recognise Jesus as the Messiah. PR people also help their clients prepare for their public role, and John did the same for Jesus: he baptised him in the Jordan at the start of his ministry.
PR people also stand up in public for their client’s point of view, and in John’s case it led to his arrest and imprisonment. His death was finally brought about by the scheming of Herodias and Salome, and here the similarity ends: for not even Max Clifford has ever lost his head over a client!
PRAYER CHAIN
If you have any requests for the prayer chain, or if you feel called to take part in this ministry, please contact Anne Miechielsen
DRAMA
Did the play have an unhappy ending?
No!! Everybody was glad when it was over!
E-WASTE OR WASTE ELECTICAL AND ELECTRONIC EQUIPMENT - A NEW EC DIRECTIVE
At a recent Green Awareness meeting the problem of waste from computers came up. It rang a bell. We had all seen photos in newspapers of people in some African country or other dismantling old computers. But how bad was that? Would they be exposed to hazardous substances? Did we know anything about the production of our trusted friend, the laptop? Some googling brought startling answers. One Dutch waste disposal firm gave plenty of information on its website ? in Dutch. Worthwhile information but too technical to translate. Nevertheless, for those interested: www.it-recycling.nl.
More googling hit upon the EC website and the following press release: Recaste of the WEEE Directive. This Directive, 2002/96/EC, has been in force since February 2003 and provides for the creation of collection schemes where consumers return their used e-waste free of charge. The aim is to increase recycling and/or re-use. It also requires heavy metals such as lead, mercury, cadmium, and hexavalent chromium and flame-retardants such as polybrominated biphenyls (PBB) or polybrominated diphenyl ethers (PBDE) to be substituted by safer alternatives. Despite such rules on collection and recycling only one third of e-waste in the European Union is reported as separately collected and appropriately treated. A part of the other two thirds is potentially still going to landfills and to sub-standard treatment sites in or outside the European Union. The collection target of 4 kg per person per year does not properly reflect the amount of WEEE arising in individual Member States. Illegal trade in electrical and electronic waste to non-EU countries continues to be identified at EU borders. Inadequately treated e-waste poses environmental and health risks.
Over the years amendments were published but in December 2008, the European Commission proposed to revise the directives on electrical and electronic equipment in order to tackle the fast increasing waste stream. The aim is to increase the amount of e-waste that is appropriately treated and to reduce the volume that goes to disposal, and also to reduce administrative burdens and ensure coherency with newer policies and legislation covering, for example, chemicals and the new legislative framework for the marketing of products in the European Union. The idea is to set mandatory collection targets equal to 65% of the average weight of electrical and electronic equipment placed on the market over the two previous years in each member state. The recycling and recovery targets would cover the re-use of whole appliances and weight-base targets would increase by 5%. Targets are also proposed for the recovery of medical devices. Member states with a high consumption of electrical and electronic equipment would have more ambitious collection targets under the new directive, while others with lower consumption levels would have targets that are appropriately adapted. The text of the proposed new Directive was agreed upon in March 2011. It can be found on www.europa.eu/environment/waste, or by googling WEEE Directive. Over the next few months we will try to produce more information on e-waste.
Henny for the Green Awareness Group
REBIRTH
Does the caterpillar know
it will become a butterfly?
Does it hold to this dream
even in the face of death
when the bloated body splits,
turns in on itself,
stiffens to a sepulchre?
Is the price of life death,
death and disintegration
before new birth?
Beneath the still exterior
a maelstrom seethes.
Moving molecules break down,
are crushed into dust,
and recreated in the dark.
A rending of the tomb
and a second womb
gapes open to the air.
A throbbing and a quickening
of animated veins,
and a new life emerges,
lifts to the sun's warmth
on silent wings.
Does the butterfly remember
that it lived before?
by Megan Smith
WHAT'S THE BIG IDEA? ? AN INTRODUCTION TO THE NEW TESTAMENT: 1 and 2 TIMOTHY
Paul?s Pastoral Epistles (1, 2 Timothy and Titus) were written to young leaders in the local church. Paul wrote this first letter to Timothy around c. 63?65 instructing him to care for the church at Ephesus (1:3); to challenge false teaching (1:3?7; 4:1?8; 6:3?5, 20?21) and to oversee the life of the growing Ephesian church, incl. their worship ( 2:1-15); the appointment of leaders (3:1?13; 5:17?25) and their attitude to money (6:3-10, 17-18). This section includes the often misquoted verse, ?the love of money is the root of all kinds of evil? (6:10).
Paul writes to Timothy, ?my true son in the faith? (1:2). Timothy?s father was Greek, while his mother was a Jewish Christian. Paul led him to faith in Christ during his first visit to Lystra. At the time of his second visit he invited Timothy to join him on his missionary travels, circumcising him so that his Greek ancestry would not be a liability in working with the Jews (Ac 16:3). Although somewhat timid and often unwell, Timothy was a faithful servant of the Lord and Paul.
The primary purpose of the first letter is to urge Timothy to deal with false teaching in the church. It also provided written authorisation to allow him to carry out this task. The false teachers were primarily insiders, not from outside the church. They taught a strong emphasis on Jewish myths and genealogies. They were legalistic about Jewish laws, while downplaying the importance of marriage. It would also appear that they taught that the resurrection had already come and Christians no longer needed to look forward to Christ's coming, judgment, and resurrection of the dead. They were so immersed in speculative controversies that they were neglecting the very core of the Christian faith. Not an unfamiliar situation today!
Therefore this letter teaches us that we should all be an example of faithfulness and not a stumbling block to those God has called us to reach. Like Timothy, we are called to build the church in a way that will bring glory to God. ?But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.? (I Timothy 6:11,12)
Paul?s first letter was sent during his missionary journey after his release from prison in Rome in AD 62. It was when he was imprisoned again under Emperor Nero c. 66-67 that he wrote 2 Timothy. In contrast to his first imprisonment, when he lived in a ?rented house? (Ac 28:30), Paul now languished in jail chained like a common criminal (1:16; 2:9). He wrote knowing that his work was done and that his life was nearly at an end (4:6-8). Paul was inviting Timothy to join him, as he was alone, except for Luke (4:9-11).
Paul was concerned about the welfare of the churches during this time of persecution under Nero, and he urges Timothy to guard the gospel (1:14), to persevere in it (3:14), to keep on preaching it (4:2) and, if necessary, to suffer for it (1:8; 2:3).
The tone of the second letter is more personal than the first; it is a final testament from Paul to the younger Timothy (4:1-8). Paul is not just a prisoner (1:8, 16; 2:9) in Rome (1:17), but he has been largely deserted by his friends (1:15-18). Despite his situation, Paul confidently looks to God, not to human beings, for deliverance (4:3-8, 18). For Paul the resurrection of Jesus lies at the heart of the gospel for which he has been ready to lay down his life (2:8-9). He recognises that his preaching of the gospel is the reason for his imprisonment and offers Timothy, as a motive for steadfastness, his own example of firmness in faith despite adverse circumstances (1:6-14). He also encourages Timothy to prepare others to replace himself as Paul has prepared Timothy to replace him (2:1-2).
This letter, like the preceding one, urges Timothy to protect the Ephesian church from the impact of false teaching (2:14-3:9), without fear of the personal attacks that might arise (3:10-13). Paul encourages Timothy to rely on the power of the scriptures, on proclaiming the word, and on holding to sound doctrine (3:14-4:2). For us, like Timothy, if we are to stand firm we need to have confidence in the Scriptures that God has given us. They are the primary means that God has given us to grow in spiritual life. ?All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.? (3:16).
MOFISH AND FRIENDS
On Saturday, August 27, starting at 7 pm, Mofish and friends will give a concert of very mixed musical styles in church. The concert will end at about 8-15 pm and will be followed by refreshments in the Parsonage. Although there will be no admission charge, there will be a collection jar and all donations will go to the restoration fund for the stained glass windows. So come along, let your hair down, have fun and be generous!
For further information please contact Grant Cooney or Henk Korff.
THANK YOU AND GOODBYE
I feel a bit like the editor of the happily departed News of the World ? this month?s newsletter is the last one that I shall edit. I have taken care of Holy Trinity?s magazine for over 8 years now and the time has come for a change. Added to which, I was given so much help in the past by Jamie, dealing with the idiosyncrasies of computers and the programmes that inhabit them, that I now feel so much out on a limb without him that I realize that the time has come to pass the responsibility on to someone else.
Still in the vein of TNOTW?s last edition, I would very much like to thank everybody who has contributed to the newsletter over the years, and particularly to that small and oh so loyal group from whom I could always expect regular copy. Thank you all!
The onus of responsibility now passes to Judy Miller who has very bravely taken over the reins. Please be every bit as supportive and helpful to her as you were to me.
Good luck Judy and may your efforts be richly blessed!
As a parting shot: I have been searching old files on Jamie?s computer and I came across an article that muses on the folly of passing glory. I once had a bit part in a film, sharing the silver screen with the likes of Peter O?Toole and Colin Firth, although my (exceedingly small) scene was only with Mr O?Toole. Jamie?s wry wit and tangential view of life was stimulated by the pre-premier of this movie, screened in the glorious Art Deco splendour of the Tuschinski cinema in Amsterdam, many, many years ago. The film, Wings of Fame, was a resounding flop, as indeed were the two other films in which I had minor parts. I hesitate to suggest a causal relationship, but you do wonder. In any event: Sic transit gloria mundi!
So, here follows another, and probably the last episode, of Jamie?s cynical look on life. Enjoy!
Harry
SIC TRANSIT GLORIA MUNDI
The day before we had both been to a wedding and had worn our best (only) suits.
"Since they are out shall we wear them to the pre-premier?" I inquired.
"I don't know what one wears to a pre-premier," said Harry, "Perhaps we should ask Mike, as he once played the second hood in a Superman film."
These days Mike has come up in the world: he played the TV director in this movie and got invited to the REAL premier. So we phoned Mike and asked him what one should wear to a pre-premier. Mike replied that one does not stoop to attend mere pre-premiers, but added that suits might be a bit OTT.
Nonetheless on Saturday morning we got washed, shaved, put on out best bib and tucker and set off for the cinema. We were running way ahead of time. First thing we ran into was a lady who must have taken us for policemen or something, for as soon as she clapped eyes on us she looked very guilty and rushed past, pulling her little dog behind her.
After wandering around wasting time, we decided to drift past the cinema and see what was happening. It was firmly locked and bolted. There was no sign that it would open at all that morning. As we casually walked past someone, attempting to make an "entrance", arrived outside a deserted and locked cinema in a taxi. Sniggering, we kept on walking and took a slow circuit of the block. On our return we found a small crowd had gathered on both sides of the street. On the far side was a group that did not want to appear to be actually queuing, and on our side were the peasants who didn't give a monkey's. We found some friends and stood with them chatting and laughing at all the wallies arriving by taxi. Our suits earned us rude comments everywhere, and the taxis containing the pretentious continued to arrive outside the still locked cinema.
About five minutes before the curtain, a side door opened and we were allowed in. Now the last time I went to the cinema on a Saturday morning must have been about 40 years ago. I, my friends, and about a zillion other screaming little vagabonds used to descend, sixpence in hand, on a local cinema. Here we were treated to a couple of cartoons, an episode of the current serial, a sing song at the interval, a kid's picture and any infectious childhood diseases that happened to be popular that week. Mind you, the owners of the cinema would only let us into the stalls. Apparently, years ago - even before my time - they had allowed the kids onto the balcony. But the children there had discovered that they had the tactical advantage normally afforded to seagulls over man, and had used this to great effect with partially filled ice cream cartons, hurled upon their hapless fellows beneath.
"I see that they're still not letting us upstairs then," I muttered.
"Huh?" said Harry, who had in no way been following my line of thought.
Everyone was a bit nervous. You see the rumour had gone round that they had shot a lot more footage than they could use. Therefore a lot would be lost in the editing. Who would have their brilliant performance cut to the bone? Or even worse, dropped on the cutting room floor, never to see the silvery screen. So, as the tension slowly mounted, the house lights gently faded, the curtains parted and the film began to roll. If the film had been a success, which alas it wasn't, I would not have wanted to ruin it by telling you too much about the plot, but here's a rough outline: Peter O'Toole plays a renowned film star. He is rather big headed and self-important. He is also VERY famous. This fact takes on a greater significance later. Colin Firth plays a young man (which gives you an idea how long ago this was!) who, as the film opens, is desperate to contact Peter's character and talk to him about some urgent matter. He fails and at a film premier, he inexplicably grabs a gun from the holster of a policeman standing guard and shoots Peter's character dead. His own accidental death follows within minutes. Having now seen off the star and co-star in the first ten minutes of the film you would expect to spend the rest of the movie in "flash back" but you would be wrong. You follow them into the next world. Here there is a huge hotel where some of the famous people who have died now stay. Their accommodation is in keeping with their current fame on Earth. As their fame fades, their accommodation goes down hill with it. When their fame has completely gone they are chucked out into oblivion. Harry's part was right at the start of the film when Peter's character is being established. Harry was the first reporter at a news conference and he questioned the Peter character about his audience with the Pope. He had two lines and a couple of non-speaking shots.
It was a very strange audience to watch the film with. They were much more interested in their own performance than the film. A new character would enter and there would be a sudden burst of whispering in one part of the auditorium.
For me there were two peculiarities: the first was the fact that I knew most of the bit part players. Thus I was constantly being startled by the waiter who looked remarkably like Scotty and the smaller American Astronaut who was the spitting image of Keith. The second thing was the fact that I had attended the "end of shoot" party, held in the converted warehouse that had served as the studio. All the sets were still standing and the party took place in the ballroom. Therefore whenever they switched from location to studio in the film, I noticed.
After the screening was over, Harry and I were standing in the foyer waiting for a friend, when a gentleman walked up to us. It must have been the suits that did it because he reported to Harry that one of the seats was broken and needed repair. Harry courteously took note of this and thanked him most sincerely. We managed to keep straight faces until he was out of sight.
"Should have told him you were a reporter," I said.
I suppose that if the film was making any comment on life it was about how we love to be in the limelight, how transitory and ultimately useless fame is. Mind you, sitting in a cinema after the movie was over, with the credits rolling up the screen and an audience that stayed firmly put until the curtains finally closed, I wondered if I was the only one who noticed the irony of it.
Jamie
Services at Holy Trinity Church, Utrecht
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