Christ Church Moreton Hall

There was great joy at Christ church in July when we welcomed over 100 Mayors, Counsellors, Council Staff and friends from across Suffolk to Patsy Warby's Civic service as Mayor of St Edmundsbury. It was good to honour all those people who do so much to make Suffolk what it is today. They really are the back bone of our democracy at a time when so much respect has been lost by those who serve in Westminster. It was also good to gather in the Community centre afterward and we thank them for their hospitality.

The sadness comes from the wanton vandalism of our beautiful Church plum tree a few days later. It was given by a former Curate to say thank for his time here. Year by year is has produced an abundance of beautiful blossom and large plums which anyone can take and eat. This year it was going to produce a bumper crop. But now someone has shaken all the fruit of before it was ripe and ripped one the largest branches. This has left such a gash in the main trunk it will not survive the winter frosts.

Just for a bit of a laugh, something of beauty which gave pleasure to many, has been wounded and will die. Lovely plums lay un-ripened in the dirt. What a slap in face to those who keep the church gardens so nice.

There are many lessons to learn from this. If people abuse the community so blatantly, and I don't just mean vandalism, then fewer and fewer will volunteer to help. Especially if they see their work ruined and destroyed. This is happening everywhere in society. The result is good community groups of all sorts are disappearing never to be replaced. Without the good offices of local counsellors how much worse off would we all be and if we continue to treat volunteers, as I have seen them treated recently then everyone loses.

We can also see if we teach people good values, especially ones from the Bible, then this sort of thing may not happen. For sadly today vandals are not content with one act he or she often goes on to bigger and worse things.

However we can also learn from Jesus. He gave nothing but the best to all he met. Seeing him was to see the beauty of God, to be fed by him was to receive the best of nourishment. He was wounded and died horribly on a tree. Yet his teaching, like scatted plums fell to the ground, took root and grew up to maturity and fulfilled his purposes. The church, his new body, is now hundreds of millions strong and doing good and beautiful things every day all over the world.

Evil will never prevail while good people do their duty. We will replace our tree. We will continue our work, and through it God will keep doing his miracles. For He brings beauty in the face of destruction, plenty despite cruelty and waste; and in the place of death He gives life.