About Ian
Pointless champion Revd Ian Fellows has been the vicar at St Andrew's since 2007. He likes Dr Who.

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Belting, You're All Signed Up!

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Hello again.  How did you manage with the Famous First Words quiz?  The answers are...

“Call me Ishmael” is the first line of Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

“It was a bright cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen” kicks off George Orwell’s 1984.

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times” describes the setting of A Tale Of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

And “Those two very old people are the father and mother of Mr Bucket” is from page one of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl.  Lose a point if you thought it was Keeping Up Appearances.

Starts can be inauspicious.  There are false starts.  Just ask Usain Bolt or Moses.  The first episode of Doctor Who went out fifteen minutes late on Saturday 23rd November 1963 because of an extended edition of the news reporting the assassination of Kennedy.  I bet no-one felt like a whole new TV serial that night.  Fortunately the BBC repeated it the following Saturday, or else we may not have Matt Smith stepping back into the shadows in 2012.  From the shakiest of starts (and that was just the 1963 camerawork) comes something fantastic. 

This week sees a new opportunity to start out in faith, shaky or otherwise.  The Mission Partnership is hosting an Alpha course, ten sessions looking at what this Christian faith is, who this Jesus is, whether it’s believable at all.  It’s not too late to join!  Contact us.  And there’ll be another Alpha along before long.  Maybe even a Start! if the demand arises.

Faith, once started, is almost unstoppable.  I say almost because it lives in us, and we’re easily wearied, worn out and worn down.  You may even find you’ve stopped.  The wheels fall off your wagon, the wind leaves your sails, you have a flat tyre, you’re stuck in the mud.  Is that you?  I always say that if you’re in the same place today that you were even a couple of years ago, then it’s time to make sure you’re not stuck.

I won’t be devising or running a Stop! course.  But I say to all who feel stuck or stopped, becalmed or bewildered, maybe you could join our Alpha Course.  Or else sit down and ask God to re-start you with his Holy Spirit.  There are still whole ranks of exciting good works that God has prepared for you: don’t miss them by sitting still and staying stopped.  Take a leaf out of the Gospel according to S Club 7 (I’m sorry, everything I know about life I learned from the Top 40 and Doctor Who): don’t stop movin’, reach for the stars...