From the minister... 

Dear friends,
The waiting is over. After what have seemed like endless delays and having wondered at times if it would ever happen… Bond is back!

The release of No Time to Die, Daniel Craig’s last outing as 007, has sparked the usual flurry of debates and publicity which invariably accompanies the release of any Bond movie. It will be compared to the preceding 24 films in the franchise while numerous articles will include lists of the best car chase, the most thrilling action scene, the nastiest and most iconic villain.

And then there’s the question which is raised most often of all: who do we consider to be the best Bond? It was when listening to a recent conversation on this topic that I came across an intriguing theory, the idea that the Bond we prefer most is the actor who starred in the role when we were growing up. My own childhood Bond was Roger Moore, he of the sardonic one liner and constantly arched eyebrow. 

You might be interested to know that this theory of cultural attachments formed in our youth doesn’t just apply to films. In recent years, research has uncovered new evidence to explain why the music we listen to in our teens also takes hold of our imaginations and memories in such a profound way. ( Those who want to find out more about this can do so at: https://slate.com/technology/2014/08/musical-nostalgia-the-psychology-and-neuroscience-for-song-preference-and-the-reminiscence-bump.html)

In part this is to do with the complex way in which the many different parts of our brain process music. Rhythms and notes are translated into a whole piece by our auditory cortex. At the same time, we will use our premotor cortex to help us dance to the beat and our parietal cortex to process lyrics. And when we listen to the same song years later our prefrontal cortex will go to work to take us back to the time and place in our lives when we first heard it. It’s no coincidence, therefore, that the songs of REM, Crowded House and the Beautiful South transport me immediately to my student days in Belfast in the early 1990s.

It’s also important to note that the reasons the music of our youth take hold of us so forcefully is about more than neurological wiring. Psychologists have also described a theory which goes by the catchy title of the ‘reminiscence bump’, which explains why we remember our younger years more vividly than other periods of our lives. These are the memories you form as your very sense of self is emerging, hence another reason why the soundtrack to these years becomes so embedded within us.

This doesn’t mean that it’s impossible for our tastes to change. Ask me now about my favourite Bond and I won’t hesitate to name Daniel Craig. My musical preferences are increasingly inclined towards the mellow and acoustic. However, there’s no denying that our formative experiences shape us profoundly and sometimes blind us to the ways in which the good old days weren’t always all that we make them out to be. In my mind, I am still convinced the football was better in the 1980s, but it usually takes just a few minutes on YouTube to bring me to my senses.

I’ve been thinking on this recently and pondering how these ways we are wired make us the people we are. In doing so, I’ve also reflected on what this might mean for our journey of faith and our memories of church. When each of us is asked which worship songs we prefer or which era we consider to be the church’s high watermark, how many of us instinctively hark back to the past?

In light of this, how does God want us to grow and relate to one another? Let me offer three suggestions:

Firstly, and most importantly, we love one another. We keep at the forefront of our minds Paul’s words to the Corinthians: ‘Love is patient, love is kind… It does not dishonour others, it is not selfseeking…’ (1 Corinthians 13:4–5). Had he been writing to a congregation in Britain in 2021, I wonder if Paul might have used phrases familiar to us: ‘Love gives the benefit of the doubt… love means we cut each other some slack…’ All too often we rush to judge. In debates on worship within our church, what saddens me most is a tendency many of us have to move to criticism or make generalisations. He is old-fashioned or set in his ways, she is shallow and only wants to sing songs about feelings.

The truth is that we are all products of the time and place when we grew up, the culture we inhabited in our formative years. Can we all try a little harder to understand this as we journey with each other to build a church for people of all ages and backgrounds and one which is attractive to those who don’t yet know Jesus?

Secondly, let’s try to be more honest and curious about the past. Having planned to do so for many years, lockdown finally gave me the opportunity to digitise the many photographs of James and Hannah that we took during the years when they were babies and toddlers. I often felt very nostalgic as I looked through these pictures, longing for what seemed like a simpler and less complicated time in our lives. These were special years, but the truth is more complicated than that. We were often exhausted and sleep-deprived as we looked after these little people. But this is often how we remember the past, each of us has a tendency to idealise it, to filter out the challenges and remember only the good bits.

In Psalm 51, his famous prayer of repentance, David says to God: ‘You desire truth in the inward being’ (Ps 51:6, NRSV). Sometimes seeking after truth will mean we need to be more honest with ourselves about the past, in our own lives and that of the church. We remind ourselves of what was good and is to be celebrated while also acknowledging what was wrong, the problems or prejudices of years gone by from which we are now being released.

Thirdly and finally, let’s be willing to change, to recognise that, even though our background and experience makes each of inclined to worship in particular ways, it’s unhealthy to be closed to new possibilities. I often find it striking that the first words we find on the lips of Jesus, as he begins his public ministry, are a call to repentance. ‘The time has come,’ he said. ‘The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!’ (Mark 1:15). The Greek word which we normally translate as repent is metanoeō, which literally means ‘change your mind’. I’m sure we would all agree that God is calling each of us to a process of constant repentance, becoming aware of the habits and attitudes within us which fall short of his best. If we believe this to be true, then surely he is also calling us to constantly be open to changing our ways, both as individuals as a church. 

Wishing you God’s grace and peace
Trevor