Remembering Frank
From the 'These Have Inspired Me' Department
I've been thinking a lot about Frank, today. When I first came to this parish, he was a parishioner, and a regular worshipper. He was also a professional politician, at one time a junior minister in a former Government, and out of office was still a doughty campaigner in the Cause. He had a special interest in social justice and development issues. I admired him greatly, so it was enormously valuable to me that he also appreciated my ministry and preaching. I got nervous when he complimented me for being 'very courageous' when I ventured to say anything mildly political in the pulpit. Like at the fall of Communism, when I preached on 'Actually, however evil the practice of communism was, in its social ideals it may have been closer to the policies the Kingdom of God might espouse, than the policies of aggressive capitalism are.' That seemed so obvious to me, that I wondered if, rather than being courageous, I may just be foolish and naive to say it.
On that ghastly day in 1992, when Labour expected to win the General Election and were trounced again by a morally bankrupt sitting Government, I was in despair. I went whinging to Frank about it being the end of the world, and what hope could there possibly be for us, and how could any of us carry on after this?
I'll never forget his reply.
"Well," he said, "we'll just pick ourselves up, and beginning first thing tomorrow morning, we start campaigning to win the next time."
I've been thinking a lot about Frank, today. When I first came to this parish, he was a parishioner, and a regular worshipper. He was also a professional politician, at one time a junior minister in a former Government, and out of office was still a doughty campaigner in the Cause. He had a special interest in social justice and development issues. I admired him greatly, so it was enormously valuable to me that he also appreciated my ministry and preaching. I got nervous when he complimented me for being 'very courageous' when I ventured to say anything mildly political in the pulpit. Like at the fall of Communism, when I preached on 'Actually, however evil the practice of communism was, in its social ideals it may have been closer to the policies the Kingdom of God might espouse, than the policies of aggressive capitalism are.' That seemed so obvious to me, that I wondered if, rather than being courageous, I may just be foolish and naive to say it.
On that ghastly day in 1992, when Labour expected to win the General Election and were trounced again by a morally bankrupt sitting Government, I was in despair. I went whinging to Frank about it being the end of the world, and what hope could there possibly be for us, and how could any of us carry on after this?
I'll never forget his reply.
"Well," he said, "we'll just pick ourselves up, and beginning first thing tomorrow morning, we start campaigning to win the next time."
posted by Tony at 11/03/2004 07:10:00 pm
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