Amy – a Tribute

(To the tune of Be Thou My Vision – the first two verses and final verse with 3 beats in a bar as per the hymn, middle verses with 4 beats in a bar and syncopated).

Farewell to Amy, your time here is done.
We’ve played lots of music, we’ve had lots of fun.
And here in St John’s Music Group we wanted to say
How much we’ll miss doing things the true ‘Amy Way’:

The thing is, with Amy you can never quite tell
How a hymn’s going to go, even one you know well.
It may be as expected, but we always know
When playing with Amy, you just go with the flow…

5, 6, 7, 8!

Jazz up the rhythm and pick up the pace!
Mainly to see the look on Simon’s face!
He hates syncopation – it’s harder to play,
But that’s how you do things the true ‘Amy Way’.

Amy quite likes it when we go ‘off-piste’;
She expects us to add in a few notes at least.
The music is just a guide as to how things might go,
‘Cause often with Amy there’s a lot we don’t know:

Is there an intro, and, if so, how long?
It could be one line or the whole blessed song!
Amy’s so spontaneous we just have to guess.
And then there are other ways we can land in a mess:

Are there three verses? No, maybe it’s four?
Are there two bars between verses? Or more?
At least we can tell when the end is in sight.
But it’s always possible that Amy just might
Go back to the chorus! We have to think fast!
But this time we’ve come to the ending at last.
Or maybe not quite.
You can never be sure…

Nicky at the Appleby Horse Fair. Blessing, not buying

Café Church May 2024

Here you will find contributions from the people in the pews at St. John’s. Please contact the Website Team via the contact form (click here) if you have anything you would like to put here that you think others might find useful in their Christian life (e.g. recommendations of books, films. prayers, poems).

Mike and Nicky Chater were at the recent ordination of Kat Marjoribanks as deacon at St Mary’s Church, Melton Mowbray. Kat and Tim worshipped regularly at St John’s during their time as students in Durham and later played a leading role in our church’s youth ministry over several years, before moving to Loughborough where they now live. Please pray for Kat and Tim and all the family as she begins this new ministry in Jesus’ name

A poem by Peter Thorns, in response to the reading/sermon on The Calling of the DiscipleThe Desert

I saw the Lord today, in the market.
I knew it was Him,
Different from the holy images, of God in the form given by man.
Compelling in His normality, divine in His unreligion,
It was Him.

And the Lord saw me.
He asked me to follow Him, leave everything and go on His way
And I cried “How Lord?”
Could I leave my wife, my family, my job, my life?

I saw the pity, the understanding, the love.
“Then stay and follow me here, among the homeless, the unloved.
Give them your home, your love.
Share your life”
And I baulked at the call to love
To unconditional acceptance
To do, to live out the Word.

We live in a desert of plenty
A world of easy virtue,
Pennies for the charity
Pounds for our bank account,
Our time our own.
A plenty of comforts,
Food, drink, shelter, warmth.
And yet withered in love,
Unsmiling fearful shadows,
Passing but never touching,
Leaving no trace of our being
In the arid wastes of unfeeling.

I saw the Lord today,
But He couldn’t reach me.