Today marks the end of our Anniversary Year in Glencraig; 150 years! And we have had some notable occasions, not least our recent Christmas Concert near the beginning of this month which helped wrap up the year – not to be forgotten!

But every year brings its anniversaries and they’re not always happy ones. Almost our first anniversary to note this year (2009) is the 4^th January and the first anniversary of the death of our dear friend Hubert Murphy. That very same day is an anniversary of another dear friend from this Parish, Mary Jackson; she died ten years ago on this Sunday. (And as I was writing these very words, I received a phone call to tell me that Noelle, Gladys’ sister had died last Monday night).

On a personal note, I have this year a birthday to think about, one with a zero in it, and also a Wedding Anniversary with a zero in it. There are also for us other anniversaries this year which are less pleasant, but important to remember.

Why is it important to remember?

I didn’t particularly enjoy history in school, but student days brought me in touch with ancient history, and pretty well since then I have been fascinated by it.

I don’t know history well, but I find it appealing. So much so that I now have an abridged history of Britain beside my bed that I got from Santa, and the kind of book I wish I had had when I was doing what we called the ‘Inter’ in school – it’s now the ‘Junior Certificate’.

The programme ‘Who do you think you are?’ is often incredible. All the time and research that must go on behind the scenes must be astonishing. It looks easy when archivists and the like just happen to turn up with records and Birth Certificates and all sorts of things with seemingly consummate ease.

I know the programme has reduced most participants to tears. I remember the actress, Patsy Kensit, knowing that she came from a line of fairly dodgy characters in the East End of London with criminal links and all the rest. The more the programme delved in to her history, the worse it seemed to get. Until, at last and very suddenly, researchers came across a saintly, saintly, Church of England Clergyman in the East end of London, who was obviously adored by his people and acutely aware of the poverty which surrounded him. So much so that when he died, he was buried in a crypt under the Holy Table of his Church.

At last, Patsy Kensit had found a relative with wonderful redeeming features and she sobbed for a relative that had died years and years ago.

I kind of made a decision over Christmas that I would try and find the grave of my paternal grandfather – if it even still exists. I have an address to write to, and I have the letter half written in my head. I have heard, from first hand experience, that it can be a very emotional journey.

Why is it all so important to know our past, not just as individual families, but as a people?

I love the Jewish Festival of Pesach; we all know it well as Passover. Seder is the Passover meal and it is a participatory event. Everyone joins in reading, discussion and songs. One of the highlights, near the beginning, is the ‘four questions’, sung in Hebrew by the youngest child, who may well have spent weeks training to do this and looking forward excitedly to being allowed up so late with the grown-ups. Jews never forget the words (in Hebrew) ‘Why is this night different from all other nights?’ Every element of ‘Passover’ has a significance and it has been acted out over hundreds and hundreds of years. It completely identifies who they are as a people.

Our past tells us who we are and where we have come from. It also tells us of the grace, providence and goodness of our Father God. Why certain things work out the way they do, we will never know. A decision here and a decision there could have changed the course of our whole lives. If my mother hadn’t returned with her family from America when she was only 12, I might have been born in Providence, Rhode Island. But then I wouldn’t be me! I would have a different genetic make-up, and I would be a different person, if you see what I mean! It’s all very complicated!

But I am who I am, and I can’t help it! It’s the same with you. Each of us has been knitted together, as it says in Psalm 139, “For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made.” This gives us reason enough to praise God for his goodness, his providence and his grace.

As we approach the end of this year, we thank God for all that has been this year, and all the years, and we pray that we may remain faithful to him in the year to come, just as he has been to us. Amen.