Follow Him

Death and darkness, get you packing, Nothing now to man is lacking, All your triumphs now are ended, And what Adam marred is mended. Graves are beds now for the weary, Death a nap, to wake more merry; Youth now, full of pious duty, Seeks in thee for perfect beauty; The weak and aged, tired with length Of days, from thee look for new strength; And infants with thy pangs contest As pleasant, as if with the breast. Then, unto him, who thus hath thrown Even to contempt thy kingdom down, And by his blood did us advance Unto his own inheritance, To him be glory, power, praise, From this, unto the last of days!

'Holding and Letting Go' (poem) written by Malcolm Guite

This work is from his anthology 'The Singing Bowl' (Canterbury Press, 2013) We have a call to live, and oh A common call to die. I watched you and my father go To bid a friend goodbye. I watched you hold my father's hand, How can it not be so? The gentleness of holding on Helps in the letting go. For when we feel our frailty How can we not respond? And reach to hold another's hand And feel the common bond? For then we touch the heights above And every depth below. We touch the very quick of love; Holding and letting go.

Bereavement Sunday 2025

It was my privilege to speak to the lovely and encouraging folk at Buckland Road Baptist Church (Poole, Dorset, UK) on their Bereavement Sunday, 26 th October 2025 . Background Deborah was a talented and dedicated teacher, whose knowledge of religious education could rarely be bettered. She loved the pupils that she taught, wanting each one of them to progress in their learning and, in the process, to enjoy the experience. However, we felt that God was calling us to move to north Dorset and so Deborah joyfully decided to take retirement early. At that moment, when we had signed the contract for our home to be put on the market, we learnt that she had a grade 4 brain tumour, glioblastoma, without any previous visible symptoms so it was unexpected. Deborah experienced the increasingly debilitating effects ...

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