Bands and Banners

Brass Band playing at Henley Royal Regatta 2024. Photo by Mr.G

This week has been Brass Band Week, a new annual event launched by Brass Bands England to raise awareness of our nation’s brass bands and everything they have to offer.
Here is something of my own experience.

One of my abiding memories is of a three week ‘work experience’ I had at the Black Dyke Mills, home of the world famous band. My aunt lived in Queensbury between Halifax and Bradford, where the mill was situated. I’m vague as to how it came about but she arranged the work experience for me but I remember enjoying working there, without pay! I was however given my reward when on the final Friday afternoon, I was taken to the ‘Band Room’, a vast space which was full of trophies and other memorabilia amassed by the famous band with its distinct sound that I can still instantly recognize today.

It wasn’t my first association with Brass Bands. In the North West of England there was a custom of ‘Whit Walks’. Usually on Whit Sunday (now known as Pentecost). Churches held processions round the streets of each parish, not just Anglicans but Methodists too. In my town, Roman Catholics walked on the following Friday (whit Friday). The big features of the Processions were the huge, embroidered Banners which identified the Churches and were adorned with Christian symbols; and the Brass Band which was hired to lead the Processions.

Saddleworth on the Lancashire and Yorkshire border is an area of 11 villages.
Each Whit Friday they hold a Band Contest. Each of the villages host the competition and brass bands march and play in each one. The band judged to be the best receives a monetary prize and the prestige of taking part. There is also an overall prize. Earlier this year 117 bands took part as coaches raced them between the villages. The overall winner this year was the famous Brighouse and Rastrick Band. It is one of the top bands in the UK. Their version of the Floral Dance,’ reached the dizzy heights of the Top of the Pops chart in 1976.
It was the Saddleworth Festival which brought to fame another tune – ‘Hail, Shining Morn’ – which complete with vocals, was composed by Reginald Spofforth in 1810. It has become a signature tune for the Saddleworth Festival as well as a Festival at Selkirk commemorating the Battle against the English at Flodden in 1513! It is labelled as a ‘glee’ song which is derived from the Old English, ‘gléo’ – music or entertainment.

Many Brass Bands are associated with mining and manufacturing, such as the Foden Motor Works Band, and bands associated with Collieries and coal mining.
The bands are proud offsprings of the mining industry and with huge secular versions of the Whitsuntide Religious banners, they marched and brought music which raised the spirits of people often living in harsh and deprived communities. Their biggest gathering has always been the Durham Miners Gala, held annually, in the City of Durham which was the spiritual centre of the County Durham mining villages and communities. Whilst the Gala is often seen as a political occasion with huge rallies; for the Durham miners it is the spiritual march behind the Bands and Banners of the various collieries, up the hill to Palace Green and the Cathedral that is the central part of their day.

One of the most moving experiences I’ve had was to be in the Cathedral as the West Doors were flung open and the band marched up the aisle, followed by many miners, to be blessed by and give praise to God. This was at a time when mining was facing a great struggle with the Government to simply exist. As the mines closed in County Durham and throughout the country, it was vulnerability and poverty which seemed to take over people’s lives but there was pride and tenacity mixed with dignity that ruled the day. Poor materially, these communities were rich in spirit (and still are). On one level the miners were defeated in a struggle which was the result of a battle between the Prime Minister, Mrs Thatcher and Arthur Scargill, the Miners Union leader, but the marching band and the proud carrying of the banners, to be blessed by ‘their’ bishop, showed a people who stood tall and with deep integrity enfolded in God’s protective and loving arms.

Both that procession and those of my Sunday School days were acts of witnesses both to faith and a knowledge of God’s care and love.

Brass Bands play a huge part in the lives of communities in almost every Nation.In Britain many village and church fêtes rely on them to bring excitement and pleasure and they are a feature of events such as the Henley Royal Regatta, where I was last week and where I took the photo above. Many towns have their own bands which from New Year to Christmas enhance community gatherings. Nor must we forget our Military Bands, but that’s another story!

What is at the heart of Brass Bands is that they are so distinctive. It is not just their stories stretching back into history but the way they encourage young people to learn instruments and to make music. The music that they play stretches from stirring, uplifting marches to quiet reflective pieces which are more contemplative. Such music raises my spirit, produces goose-pimples on my skin and exercise for my feet as I tap along to the sound. Most of all, it gladdens my heart.

*Black Dyke Mills Trumpeter from archives*

Make a joyful noise to the Lord, all the earth;
   break forth into joyous song and sing praises.
Sing praises to the Lord with the lyre,
   with the lyre and the sound of melody.
With trumpets and the sound of the horn
   make a joyful noise before the King, the Lord.

Psalm 98:4-9

*Durham Miners marching in Durham Cathedral*

Hope & Vision

Warton Tarn, English Lake District, photographed by Gill Henwood.

My friend, Gill, sent me this beautiful photo which I want to share with you.
This is what she said about it.

Shimmering in the late afternoon sun. The tarn is below High Cross, the pass over Hawkshead Hill towards Coniston. Rarely visited by comparison with nearby Tarn How’s. A delightful, wild tarn fringed with perfumed bog myrtle, with water lilies ringing the shallows. Nesting in the waving birch, willow and reeds. Badgers visit at night too…

Very peaceful in the light breeze and western sun – after the cold wet windy week. Hope!

God of new beginnings
we pray that you will transform
your world, our country,
our neighbours, ourselves,
as you renew us by your love.
Give us a vision of your creation,
wide, inviting, beckoning,
that we may travel hopefully
and with eager anticipation
that through faith and with your blessing
we may be empowered and inspired
to work together to build a better,
more just and fairer world;
where all may be sustained by the peace of Christ
and live in harmony with each other
and with the planet you have given to us
as our temporary dwelling place
on our journey to your Kingdom
Amen.

[Mr G]

My Lord and My God

I *trace the Rainbow through the rain (George Matheson) photo taken by Gill Henwood of a rainbow*
*arching* *over the Lakeland fells – a sign of God’s Glory.*

My Lord & My God

Much prayer is often confined to asking God for things or seeking to change his mind about things – this of course assumes that we actually know God’s mind.

Louis Evely in his wonderfully challenging book, Teach us how to pray, says that too often people march into church, notify God what they want and leave without bothering to listen to him; without consulting him or taking him into account. They leave without giving God time to act in the way he needs to act which may be to answer our prayer by changing us who pray.
Praying for others and casting our anxiety about people onto God is not a bad thing. It is a very good thing but it isn’t the heart of prayer.
My understanding is that to travel to the heart of prayer we need to develop a personal relationship with God. In this praying we seek to place ourselves before God in quietness as we travel into a still centre of our very being where we find God waiting to meet and greet us. It is prayer which develops into a sense of God’s nearness as well as otherness and which finds expression in praise, thanksgiving and love for God Himself.

This kind of prayer is what we find at the centre of today’s Gospel (John 20: 22-29)– the prayer of Thomas, whose feast day we keep today, July 3^rd.

My Lord
And my God!

This is sheer prayer.
It asks for nothing and it gives everything.
It is a confession of faith;
it is total devotion;
it is absolutely God-centred.
It also recognizes the Divinity of Jesus – He is our Lord and our God.

My Lord and My God.
There’s a wealth of theology in those five words and to pray them and mean what we pray could take a lifetime. It would be a lifetime’s work worth doing for it is a prayer which contains the love, devotion and absolute and pure worship as this prayer does.
I do wonder if God prevented Thomas from being with the other disciples on Easter Day just so that he could have this intimate moment with this loyal and utterly devoted disciple.
It wasn’t just because Thomas needed the reassurance (which he did), nor that he was a natural sceptic. He really, really wanted to believe!

But this incident is bigger than what we see at face value.
In the prayer of Thomas we have the picture of where our lives, our witness, our deeds, our words, our very action, and – our souls – are being led – right to the heart of God – and this prayer takes us there and only there.

There is nothing about us or our concerns in this prayer. It is totally centred on God.
There are no superfluous babblings here. No manipulation. No bargaining or pleading – if you do this God, I’ll do that. Just simply and profoundly, My Lord and My God!
Blessed Thomas, so-called doubter, shows us the way of sheer faith.
However we have to make time for God if we are to become close and in the kind of loving, self-giving relationship whereby our hearts and not just our mouths proclaim the prayer of Thomas.

Last month, my Soul Friend, Sister Rosemary of the Sisters of the Love of God, gave me some advice. It was in response to a question she posed about when I just sat down to be still with God. Because she knows that I am a keen gardener, she suggested that I sit quietly in the garden. I was to engage in a sitting which had no agenda save being in God’s Presence.

On one hand, a Garden is quite a good place for quiet contemplation and stillness though, if you are a keen gardener, it may be a distraction.
I was reading in the current Royal Horticultural Society Garden Magazine an article by Rachel de Thame, one of the regular contributors. She was writing about time spent just being in the garden She confessed to finding it “impossible to just sit in my garden.” For her, as for many active gardeners, it is a place to be doing – “and the doing is what we enjoy most.”
She came to the conclusion that real gardeners simply couldn’t just sit without jumping up immediately to do things.
So she decided to find a better balance between “activity and admiration.” She perches on some stone steps which aren’t too comfortable that she might be tempted to linger. Short pauses, she says are just perfect. “for a short time, resting and looking is lovely.” But spotting a stray tendril, she’s off!

I know what that feels like, so on Sister Rosemary’s advice, I have been trying hard to just sit and contemplate the plants and flowers, resisting the temptation to do anything.
It is starting to work, though the physical stray tendrils are so often replaced with inner ones as the mind tries to tidy up my life. It’s all too easy to concentrate on oneself and other preoccupations. Becoming still can be hard. I find having a notebook handy. When I realize that I have forgotten to buy the bread or phone a friend, I write it down. I can then forget it for this short time.

Repeating slowly the short mantra of St Thomas’s prayer helps to keep me focused on God. It’s power lies in this. Other short prayers which are your favourites may work just as well, such as the Jesus Prayer.
For me, My Lord and My God, addressed by Thomas to Jesus is a kind of version of that though it is totally concentrated on God and it is enough to bring us into the presence of God. If, that is, we ignore the roses which need dead-heading. That’s what your notebook is for!

[Mr G]

God creates a little flower.

One Sunday afternoon in heaven, a wing of Guardian Angels met God and he noticed their glum faces.
“Why are you looking so miserable”, God asked.
“We’re bored” they replied.
“How can you be bored! You have so many humans to look after, and animals too.”
“That’s the trouble,” Angel Anthropos said. “Many of the humans aren’t much fun and right now so many of them are anxious and sad.”
“Some are downright wicked” said Angel Pax.
Angel Vocalis, ever one to put in its opinion, added that, “many are just dull.
“and,” said Angel Gloriana, “so many of them keeping asking for things for themselves. Some of them think they are so important that they want bigger and better homes, cars, boats, holidays. They are possessed by their possessions. They don’t care about anybody else. Angel Anthropos concluded, “There is no joy or colour in their lives.”

God smiled at his little group of angels whom he loved so dearly. Then he shook his head and sighed, “I know just what you mean. So many dark things are going on at the moment, causing many of the little ones to suffer. The vulnerable ones have so many things to deal with. That’s why they need their Guardian Angels now more than ever.
The Angels twitched their wings and began to feel guilty, though God reminded them that there in no room for guilt in heaven. You must brush away your guilt with love. Go and love those in your care more than ever.
They knew God was right, of course, but it was hard to do that right now.

Then God smiled. “I know a way to cheer you up, and maybe some of the humans too.”
He beckoned them into his studio where he kept his art material. It was the Creative heart of heaven where God made things.
The Angels noticed the design of a tiny flower. Angel Vocalis said that, though it was pretty, the flower didn’t look that much. It was hardly worth making. Then he flung a wing over his mouth, “Sorry, Father God, I shouldn’t have said that.” “Don’t worry,” God replied, “who gave you your mind to think, to have opinions, to speak. But let me tell you about this flower.
As you say, it’s tiny and most people won’t notice it. It could so easily be ignored. That’s why I’ve painted it pinky-purple with dark foliage – and there’s something I want to show you but I need all your help.”
The angels looked at God expectantly.
“I’ve made lots of copies and I need you to colour them in for me. Now get on with that whilst I go to Evensong and listen to all the voices singing throughout the world, and listen to their prayers.

After God had gone, the Angels got busy and carefully and quietly painted the flowers and the foliage. A hush descended as it often did when they were doing creative things.
It also helped that they were absorbed doing part of God’s work. As they worked skillfully, they remembered how much of Himself God poured into the things he made – including themselves. The secret was that everything was made by Love as love.

When God returned he brought the Holy Spirit with Him and together they examined what the angels had done. “Tove!, Tove!” said the Spirit, which was a Hebrew word meaning Good, Beautiful.
The angels were pleased because God was pleased.
They all looked at their paintings and loved them. The tiny flowers were bursting with life.
God agreed that they were little and would be dwarfed by bigger, brighter, more showy flowers. Some would be hidden by the grass and would be mown when the grass was cut but God had a plan, as always!

First, he explained something very important. He told the angels, “It’s not always the big flowers, or the big things or big people who show people what I am like, nor is it always by big gestures that people serve me. My dear daughter, St Teresa of Calcutta , once reminded people that we don’t necessarily do big things in our life but rather little things with a big love. These little flowers are signs that we can bring beauty and peace and love to others by the little things we do – smiles, thoughtfulness, acts of kindness, just ordinary things which make others feel better and wanted and loved.”
“Now put your paintings next to each other”.

When they did, there was a carpet of colour and the table, the floor, everywhere was covered in beauty. Then God, the Holy Spirit blew on them and the little flowers came alive and danced, and danced. And as they swirled to the music the Holy Spirit made, tiny seeds flew from the flowers. “Catch them!” said God, and they did.
“Go now” said God as he smiled on them and they were filled with joy. “Be off with you to the earth especially to dark and sad and lonely people who need brightening up, but go everywhere – cast the seeds all over the place. It’s the tiny seeds of love which bring joy to life, even in the difficult and broken places. Place some of your seeds gently in the cracks and reclaim people’s hearts with beauty and love. May these little flowers bring hope and joy and remind people that little things make a big difference, especially when those little things are joined to each other in a big carpet of love and care.

“Tove! Tove!” said the Holy Spirit, blowing God’s love over them… and they went gladly and willingly.

It is in little things that we show people what God is like. Simple things like caring, smiling, showing people that they matter and are valued, holding a hand, giving a hug, acts of practical kindness, praying for people, breathing God’s love over them. It is such things that really change the world and make it a better place.
Every time you see a little flower, give thanks to God for making it and breathing the same love into it as He does into us …. And remember the words from the Book of Genesis: “and God saw all that He had made, and it was very good”.

[Mr G]