Latest Bulletin

Penn Free Methodist Church

CDs available on the recent BRITAIN’S ONLY HOPE CONFERENCE

A two CD set is available of the various addresses, including the Minister’s introductory address entitled

‘The Reality of National Crisis’.

Please send a cheque for £4 (which includes p & p) made payable to Penn Free Methodist Church to :

Pastor Peter Simpson, Chapel Cottage, Church Road, Penn, Bucks, HP10 8NU.

The special day conference, held in June 2010, was entitled ‘Britain’s Only Hope’, and it focused upon the nation-changing labours of the early Methodists., and the lessons which we can learn from them to help us out of the appalling national malaise which afflicts us today.

Pastor Roland Burrows (Cradley Heath) described the labours of Wesley’s itinerating preachers, some 800 men, who, over a 50 year period, engaged in tireless and courageous endeavours to take the Gospel around the country, particularly targeting the newly arising industrial and mining areas. These ‘lay’ preachers were most definitely called of God, and systematically travelled through their circuits, working around the basic building block of the local Methodist societies. They saw the general prevalence of wickedness and unbelief in the nation, not as obstacles, but as their opportunity, because Christ came to call sinners, not the righteous, to repentance. Concerning the content of their preaching, they focused upon justification by faith, the new birth and salvation by grace.

Mr. Peter Murcott, a Methodist local preacher on the Isle of Man, spoke of the way in which the early Methodist preachers separated themselves both from the world’s ungodlinesss and from the bland, lifeless deism of the 18th century churches; but they certainly did not separate themselves from their lost, unbelieving neighbours. Dealing with the matter of persecution, Mr. Murcott, a former lecturer in law, made an interesting comparison between the law with which the early Methodists had to contend, namely that of seditious libel, and modern hate crime legislation, including the Public Order Act of 1986, which is now being used against Christians. He also described some of the persecutions which the Primitive Methodists endured in the early 19th century.

Pastor Peter Simpson’s (Penn) concluding paper dealt with John Wesley’s emphasis on the need to preach God’s law to unawakened unbelievers before telling them of His love and mercy, and he also spoke on the way in which the early Methodists had a national perspective, teaching the people that God deals with nations as nations. This is a factor which needs to be re-emphasised in our own day, as political correctness tends to spurn the very concept of nationhood.

PENN FREE

METHODIST CHURCH

CAMPAIGNS AGAINST

INDECENT ADVERTISING

Below is a copy of a letter we sent to our local newspaper, the Bucks Free Press,

about the highly inappropriate advertising displayed recently by the Wycombe Swan theatre.

In response to this, the paper then carried a front page article.

WE APOLOGISE FOR GIVING A DESCRIPTION OF THE VULGARITY, BUT THIS HAS BEEN NECESSARY TO PROVE OUR CASE THAT THIS ADVERTISING WAS AN OFFENCE TO PUBLIC DECENCY AND SINFUL IN THE SIGHT OF GOD

For the newspaper’s report see :

http://www.bucksfreepress.co.uk/news/8118413.Reverendhitsoutatvulgartheatreadvertising

Dear Sir,

Wycombe District Council gives a subsidy to the Wycombe Swan theatre. Therefore local taxpayers’ money is involved in the putting on of the theatre’s productions. The Swan of course has to cater for a wide variety of tastes, but that does not mean that an ‘anything-goes’ approach is therefore appropriate. Both the Council and the theatre have a responsibility to ensure that certain standards of public decency are upheld.

The current advertising campaign for the ‘Girls’ Night Out’ show to be held at the Swan in May breaks the bounds of public decency. We see the rear view of a male stripper, holding his thong in his hand, and parading himself in a state of full-frontal nudity before what we are meant to assume is an audience of women frenzied at the sight.

There is a full page advert showing this scene in the latest Swan brochure. There is also a large sign in the window of the theatre itself and a huge poster on the outer wall facing in the direction of Marlow Hill. Other adverts adorn the ticket-checking machines at Wycombe train station; so passengers have to look at them, whether they want to or not.

This kind of salacious imagery cannot be dismissed as “a harmless piece of fun”. What message does it send out to the many children and young people who cannot avoid seeing it. The advert is a vulgar attempt to pander to sexual lust. We even have the comment ‘No Batteries Required’. One of the reviews on the Girls’ Night Out website commends the production for having “plenty of naked flesh on show”. I dare say that some will argue that the show has a touching storyline, but even if it does, that is not the focus of the advertising campaign.

How sad that contemporary society, delighting itself in being so ‘progressive’ and ‘liberal’, revels in what would have shocked previous generations to the core. What has Britain come to that it no longer cares about such public displays of immorality? How shall we ever tackle the problems of the sexualisation of children and of teenage pregnancies, if the adult world sets this kind of appalling example?

Such advertising is one of the numerous symptoms of Britain’s abandonment of its Christian inheritance. If anyone asks, What right has Christianity to impose its moral teachings on others, I reply, What right has anything-goes secularism to do so? Society has to make a stand somewhere, and I submit that the Christian way is infinitely superior.

May I pass on the words of Proverbs chapter 14, verse 34 : “Righteousness exalteth a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people”.

Yours faithfully, Rev. Peter Simpson, Minister of Penn Free Methodist Church.

In addition to the above the following statement has subsequently been issued following the coverage of this matter by BBC Three Counties Radio.

“On BBC Three Counties Radio on April 27th a spokesman for the Girls Night Out production company said that he was “surprised to hear” that the publicity for the show is thought to be a bad example to children. So the company’s position, and also that of the Wycombe Swan, seems to be that there is no problem at all.

Yet we are talking about the image of a male stripper with outstretched arms holding a thong in his hand in front of a female audience. I submit that this must have a detrimental effect on children’s impressionable minds. It also cheapens the sexual relationship, which God designed, not for raunchy popular entertainment, but solely for the beauty and intimacy of the marriage bond.

The show was also defended by the production company as being “suggestive rather than explicit”, but God looks at the thoughts and the heart, as well as at the outward actions. If a show deliberately encourages unwholesome thoughts, then it is just as inappropriate as one which is more explicit.

My particular purpose in objecting to this advertising is to expose it as one of the many symptoms of Britain’s abandonment of its Christian inheritance. We really do need to ask, Where is our nation going that we now so happily accept what would have shocked our forbears to the core?

The eminent social anthropologist, Geoffrey Gorer (1905-1985), described England in 1950 as being one of the most gentle, courteous and civilised places on the face of the earth. My contention is that this was entirely due to the influence of the Christian Gospel upon ordinary people, who knew that there was sinfulness in the human heart which needs to be repented of. The concepts of personal responsibility and the fear of God took precedence over “me and my rights”.

I do not pretend that the 1950s, (before the 1960s’ permissiveness set in) was in any way a perfect golden age, but I do assert that our society’s turning its back upon Biblical Christianity is leading to appalling moral decline and the loss of the special quality of life which we once enjoyed as a nation”.

Rev. Peter Simpson, Penn Free Methodist Church.

RECORDED SERMONS

Catalogues are available of all sermons preached by the Minister

over the last three years to the present time.

Please send an e-mail enquiry, if you would like to know some of the subjects and passages covered,

or would like a copy of the catalogues.

The CDs usually contain 2 sermons (am & pm), though sometimes just the one.

We do encourage the use of these recordings to facilitate

deepening knowledge of God’s word, for in the Bible is found,

not only the wisdom to live,

but also the wisdom leading to life everlasting.

The CDs may be borrowed on free loan, or purchased at £1.00.