Welcome to
Haywards Heath United Reformed Church

‘LINGA LONGA’

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A Wednesday morning in May this year. About 9 o’clock the phone rings; the little panel is saying, ‘International Call’. Not unexpectedly but sadly it is our family in Tasmania. ‘S. has passed away…..Pain and anxiety are over’.

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Numbly in HH I’ll do my Wednesday chore, taking the bins to the Refuse Room – green one, blue one, black one. The day passes, evening comes. TV time.  A few minutes with the House of Lords online. Then a minute or two with a transplant surgeon bringing new life to a patient - too poignant to linger long. What was that holiday cabin called on that Tasmanian campsite we all stayed at such a long time ago? I remember the spelling , ‘Linga Longa’!

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I have to move on. I find, or maybe God shows me, a TV channel with the London Philharmonic Orchestra playing in the wide, open, spaciousness of London’s Royal Festival Hall. Every note of every instrument seems to be saying something unique, beautiful, authentic, true, as does every expression on the conductor’s life-filled face, every movement of his deft hands.

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I notice the choir behind, all in black robes, sitting, humming gradually more loudly, They all stand. Now I see the two soloists, not in black, who punctuate the orchestra and choir with phrases such as:

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NOTHING IS LOST… I SHALL DIE AS TO LIVE… YES, YOU WILL RISE AGAIN…