Forget-me-nots
grow everywhere in Ontario, Canada. The flat, 5-lobed blue flower with yellow
centres grow in most gardens or wayside verges, often with lily-of-the valley
which the Canadians regard as a weed! In German folk lore God named all the plants when a tiny unnamed one cried
out, "Forget-me-not, O Lord!" God replied, "That shall be your
name." Henry IV adopted the flower as his symbol during his exile in 1398, and retained
the symbol upon his return to England the following year. Prior to
becoming the tenth province of Canada in 1949, Newfoundland (then a separate
British Dominion) used the forget-me-not as a symbol of remembrance of that
nation's war dead. This practice is still in limited use today, though
Newfoundlanders have adopted the Flanders Poppy as well.
A packet
of Forget-me-not seeds were given to mourners who came to my grandson, Dylan’s
funeral service in January 2014. Seeing Forget-me-knots in Canadian gardens and
on Manatoulin Island reminded Ki and me of Dylan.
These
wildflowers grow unashamedly in a brief season that soon passes, a fleeting
time of the year, the yellow eye florets ephemeral in their beauty, they are
tenacious and resilient in their blue glory. The flower, however, speaks to me
not of remembrance but the possibility of newness. Beds of Forget-me-nots
provide me with a flamboyant celebration of life, they speak of generosity and
humility in the extreme and a complete and free acceptance of death. Their
seeds are found in small,
tulip-shaped pods along the stem to the flower and in sacrificial giving the
shriveled seeds are flung into the wind, with utter trust and abandon.
It
was during my time in Niagara of the Lake, Ontario that I heard the good news
from Jesmond URC, Newcastle. News had been received that following positive
recommendations from the Synod’s Listed Buildings Advisory Committee (LBAC) and
English Heritage, synod’s Mission Executive Committee finally approved an
amended listed building application and gave an encouraging “yes” to the
overall proposed scheme.
Jesmond
United Reformed Church is a Free Gothic Victorian Church built in 1887-1888 by
William Lister Newcombe; solidly built and intended to last, an architectural
feat, constructed with the eternal glory of God firmly in mind, and then
sternly bequeathed to generations of Reformed Christians to come. It is a grand
monument to confident faith holding the collective memory of the Jesmond
community. These places are special and sacred, yet we worry about the walls
and roof, the organ and the future use of these spaces and how much of our best
creativity can be poured into more imaginative fundraising schemes in an often
futile bid to keep the building intact. The challenge to the listed church is
huge.
The
determination of the Jesmond URC to continue their ministry and mission is to
welcomed and applauded. The elders and church meeting have the strength of mind
and resolve that the church with its history and musical tradition will not be
forgotten. Of course it may be regarded by some that it is reckless in our
modern culture of investment and forward planning to pour all its resources into
the present moment. We have to admit that part of the general church’s core is
dying and perhaps is already dead. And after all the musing and praying and
meditating is done the cost to make new may after all be too great.
Given
the size of the church and the costs of redevelopment it is nothing than a
courageous act of bravery for the church in Jesmond to look to the future and continue
its hospitable worshipping ministry in new and exciting ways. The community in Jesmond have not for
forgotten their reformed memory nor identity nor from whence they came. And like
the forget-me-not out of the death of the old flower will rise a new and more
glorious blossom, a sign of a future new life to come in a new season, and the
promise of a renewed glory.
But
I know that out there in the Canadian fields and gardens the forget-me-not has
become a sign, drawing me into family memory but also into new depths of
freedom in prayer and daring me to follow their lead in embracing the
life-releasing glory of anonymity and impermanence. May what I take with the
frustrations and restlessness of the church prove to be seeds of new life to be
cast on the Spirit, freely and with utter trust.
Ray Anglesea
Sabbatical Blog
3:Forget-me-not: Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario, Canada.
May 2014
