I made a personal visit to Portsmouth Museum recently and found an exhibit about the evolution of the Girls Brigade in Portsmouth since 1893. The exhibit appeared to have been originally curated in 2013 to celebrate the 120th Anniversary of the founding of the first organisation that later became the Girls Brigade. On display were a number of different uniforms and various memorabilia related to the various Girls Brigades that have met in Portsmouth over the years. There was also a television showing interviews with people who had been associated with the Girls Brigade over that time. There was also lots of other exhibitions within the Museum including a reproduction of a 1950’s room, which had a lot of objects we remembered from the 1970’s a few of which we still have.
More information about the Museum can be found at
http://www.portsmouthcitymuseums.co.uk/portsmouth-museum/visitor-information-for-city-museum
It’s not often that a service in church begins with the question ‘Have you had your five a day?’ No – not fruit and veg, but spiritual input! Jill Baker used some verses from Acts (2.42-47) and from Luke’s gospel (11.1-8 – where Jesus teaches his disciples the Lord’s Prayer) to talk about the need for a rhythm for our spiritual life. It can be as structured as the regular prayers throughout the day and night in a monastic community, or a regular but attentive use of the Lord’s Prayer, with its reminders of God and his kingdom, provision, forgiveness and grace. Or it could be a discipline for our daily life, in which we give time each day to read and reflect, to give thanks, to pray, to keep silence, and to act. And with that ‘five a day’, we should grow in our spiritual life as individuals and as a church. This growth was summarised by the prayer of St Richard of Chichester, sung as a solo by Brian; ‘Day by day, dear Lord, of thee three things I pray: to know thee more clearly, love thee more dearly and follow thee more nearly, day by day.’
