Dear All,

I was baptised as a teenager in January 1976. I had been brought up in the Salvation Army (an organisation that does not have sacraments) but through winning a scholarship at Hereford Cathedral as a chorister I was immersed in the life of the Church of England. It was only when I left the choir that I had a decision to make and decided that my Christian journey would continue in the Established Church: I decided to offer myself for baptism and confirmation whilst I was old enough to make this decision for myself it was still deemed appropriate for me to have some Godparents. Finding suitable candidates was hard but my school Chaplain came to my rescue: one of those he proposed was 'Wilbur' , a maths teacher at the school I attended.

'Wilbur' was Canadian, hence his nickname. He was a wonderful musician having sung as a student in King's College Cambridge. His son was in the Cathedral choir alongside me and we knew each other well enough for me to be pleased that he agreed to be my Godfather. Over the years I got to know Wilbur better He was one of the most gracious men I have ever known: one of the 'old school', he won over the heart of my 'bride to be' simply by standing up when she entered the room on a visit one summer. He could get cross - as a school pupil I had seen that - but I never heard him take out his anger on anyone or run them down. His speech and his ways of thinking were shaped by his upbringing but also by his lifelong Christian faith.

Wilbur died some years ago but I always associate him with the bible passage he wrote in a card he presented to me on my baptism.

Philippians 4 verse 8 reads:

Finally, beloved, whatever is true, whatever is honourable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is pleasing, whatever is commendable, if there is any excellence and if there is anything worthy of praise, think about these things.

There is so much in the newspapers at the moment that is concentrating on the worst sides of our human nature: greed, envy, cynicism, vicious judgementalism hypocrisy, selfishness, quarrelling, petty feuding and blind moralism The list is endless and it will drag us to hell and back. As Christians we need to remember that there is another way: Grace - it is not just our politicians who need this the picture painted of us as a nation at the moment is pretty ugly and we all have a responsibility to work to change it.

Alec