Dear Friends and Colleagues,

I was reminded recently of a scene in a fairly recent television presentation of the life and times of Queen Victoria. The fatal disease of cholera was spreading around an area of London, and the doctors of that time were unable to cure it or to understand how it began. The young Queen Victoria (so the presentation goes) organised a meeting about it with a group of established doctors as well as a young doctor from the north of the country who had some unusual ideas which were immediately pounced on by the established doctors who advertised to the Queen that this man, who had a stammer, had nothing useful to say. However when the meeting ended the Queen called him back and gently encouraged him to show her his researches. 

It was due to the line of his work that the cause of the disease, and the locus of that particular outbreak, an infected water well not far from the Palace, were identified, and eventually the authorities were persuaded to close the well. Consequently the spread of the disease was quenched, and further research into the disease bore great fruit.

It wasn’t the wealthy and well-established physicians who got things right at that time, but the modest man with the stammer who looked diligently for the truth about the matter. Similar accounts can be told in many fields of study. 

Today, however, do we trust only the well-established and wealthy to find out the truth? Have the physicians of the world given up their thinking to worldwide centralised bodies rather than being brave enough to carry out their own researches and properly test out their results? How can it be that many local doctors are discouraged (even “forbidden”) from treating people with anything except what they are told to do from some central authority whose integrity is increasingly seen to be questionable? In truth, has this become the pattern for professionals in many fields of tenured academia? Let it not ever be so! 

The Collect for the Eleventh Sunday after Trinity is

O God, who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity: Mercifully grant unto us such a measure of thy grace, that we, running the way of thy commandments, may obtain thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

This Collect contains the great phrase “who declarest thy almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity” where it refers to the Great King of all, God Himself. This goes to the heart of the relationship with our Maker that Christians claim to have. It is not a relationship predominantly of weight or manipulation, as our Lord continually pointed out. It is a relationship resting upon “such a measure” of the grace of God that “running the way” of His commands we may receive the fruits of His promises and “be made partakers of” his "heavenly treasure” - “through Jesus Christ our Lord”.

It is the God of this character in whose Kingdom we dwell; by means of this truth we can continue to stand as Christians, no matter whatever may happen all around.

For directions about the services this Sunday the 28th August 2022, the 11th Sunday after Trinity, please see the website www.TruthWithLanguage.com .

In faith in the holy Name of our Lord Jesus, who will continue to provide guidance and joy by the Holy Spirit to all His people.

+ Nicholas