Gaza

This is not a poem about politics, except insofar as people are politics. So many are caught up in this conflict, a conflict not of their own making, but of their own suffering. I am not concerned here with the political excuses and blame games, but with mothers and children. The true cost of any war is not measured in political points, but in civilian displacement and trauma.

Gaza

My child is forgotten, one of many,
As we trek on, searching for any
Place for refuge, to call home;
Until then we simply roam
Dispossessed. The sky at night
Brightened by the shooting stars:
But these are the harbingers of Mars,
Not cosmic, but man-made,
As rockets come and many slayed;
I will fear the terror by night,
Breaking open in explosive light,
As we cower, and pray for life,
To just survive within this strife;
Rubble of fallen buildings all around:
Aftermath: cries of the wounded sound;
It was another day, and it was bad:
I weep for my children, I am sad,
That no one sees our plight,
And day brings no respite.

TESSON CHAPEL: 1861 – 2001 – Part 1

TESSON CHAPEL: 1861 – 2001 – Part 1
By Richard and Gwyneth Syvret

INTRODUCTION

In Jersey in the Middle Ages an ancient right of sanctuary for outlaws existed which enabled those accused, and possibly guilty, of crimes to take refuge in one of the twelve parish churches or its nearby cemetery. This was a parallel, although not a close one, to the establishment in Old Testament times in Israel of cities of refuge in which a person who had unwittingly killed another could live without fear of reprisal. In Jersey however long-term existence in a church or churchyard was impossible and, while the friends of an accused could bring him food there for nine days, he had after that time to take an oath to leave the Island and never return. The church authorities would then escort the outlaw down specified routes from each parish church to the sea. Whilst on such a route or 'perquage' the accused could not be arrested.

The perquages of St Mary, St John and St Lawrence met together at the point at the foot of a cotil on Les Monts Greberts in St. Peter's Valley where Tesson Chapel now stands. Looking out from the porch of the chapel, were one able to step back in time some four or five centuries, one might have seen fugitives passing occasionally from those parishes and on through Beaumont marsh to the sea of St Aubin's bay.

Such ecclesiastical arrangements did not however outlive the Reformation but what has remained for later generations is the ability to find a different but more enduring sanctuary for time and eternity in the Lord Jesus Christ.

THE BIBLE CHRISTIANS

The story of Tesson Chapel must of course begin prior to its construction and even prior to the purchase by contract dated 2nd November 1861 of the small piece of land (44 feet by 30 feet) on which it now stands by trustees representing the Bible Christian Society. The work of the society, which was later to become a part of the Methodist denomination, was commenced in Jersey on 20th August 1823 when Mary Ann Werrey arrived from England to evangelise the Island.

She was a follower of the founder of the movement - William O'Bryan (whence the nickname 'Bryanites' which was attached to members of the movement for many decades). She preached energetically both in a room used generally for dancing and in the open air. A larger room was obtained and pews and pulpit donated. By October 1823 reports regarding the missionary activities of the Society stated that many in Jersey had been blessed and converted to the Lord Jesus Christ. Mary left Jersey before the end of the year and Mary O'Bryan, daughter of William O'Bryan, took her place. Mary was then only seventeen but a preacher in both French and English.

In 1825 the Society erected a small chapel in Great Union Road St Helier. Numbers there fluctuated over the years - 69 in 1827; 14 in 1834; 100 in 1847 - but the Society continued to send itinerant preachers to labour, alongside the local people, on the Island. During the 1840s there came to settle in Jersey Mr John Cory who was a member of one of the families in England which greatly supported the Bible Christian movement. He was followed to Jersey by several of his brothers and became a leading figure in the building and maintenance of the loyal and prosperous churches established in the 1860s and 1870s in the Island.

Improvements were made in 1849 to their small chapel at Great Union Road and these enabled it to seat 700 when opened in January 1850. That chapel was further enlarged in 1864.

It was from the work at Great Union Road that a Sabbath school for children developed in St Lawrence Valley.

This Sunday school was a satellite work of the main St Helier Sunday school and a lease for two rooms at "St. Lawrence Valley" for £3 per annum was agreed in June 1858, it being decided at the same meeting to take down the partitions dividing the rooms. The positions of superintendent and co-superintendent at St Lawrence Valley were filled from time to time from those engaged in the children's work at Great Union Road. Names like Scard, Job, Bragg and Newbury feature in those positions in the second half of the 1850s. A practice seems to have grown up of combining a tea for the pupils there with an outing for the townsfolk. Combined numbers envisaged were thirty children and fifty adults in 1857 in late summer.

THE WORK COMMENCES

The year 1861 however became a turning point for the Sunday school at St Lawrence Valley because the elders of Great Union Road chapel in October of that year received a report from a special committee appointed relative to the building of a chapel in the valley. On November 2nd 1861 trustees purchased the land from Mr and Mrs Richard Simes for £5. The trustees were bound by the deed of purchase to conform to the orders and directions of the 'conference' of the Bible Christian Society both in respect of the ground and of the chapel that would be built on it.

The chapel building itself was erected on a piecework basis with certain individuals responsible for each aspect of the construction. The work commenced in November 1861 and went on through to the summer of 1862. One record shows a total cost including land of just over £163, another £135, A part of the money needed was borrowed for the purpose from individuals - mainly from a Mrs Burton who advanced £50 -and by June 1866 £60 of debt remained outstanding. The Bible Christian Trustees on the island however, in the year to June 1866, had much larger financial matters on their hands, Great Union Road chapel had recently been enlarged and work had commenced at Gorey with initial borrowings of £300.

In 1867 the foundation stone of a new church designed to seat 1200 people was laid in Royal Crescent, Don Road, St Helier on the site of an old theatre and, whereas by 1880 no debt was outstanding for St Lawrence chapel, the total circuit debt was £3,305

What of the spiritual work of St Lawrence chapel during this time however? Weil, the first recorded service there was on 7th September 1862. Quite a number of seat rentals were charged (at one shilling per quarter year) and until 1868 the only Sunday service each week was in the morning, this being altered to 3 p.m. in November of that year. The chapel was part of the circuit that appointed and supported two full time ministers and it participated in the missionary endeavour (for which the Bible Christians were noted) by having missionary speakers on a weeknight. The key work however does seem to have remained with the Sunday school. A number of changes of superintendent occurred and there was talk of a library for the valley school. The circuit Sunday school outing was also held each year at St Lawrence Valley - in 1864 for 350 persons, in 1869 the 'Mill Room' being requested (presumably a room in Tesson Mill) for 200 and in 1871 the chapel when 100 persons were expected.

The register of baptisms solemnised by the Bible Christian Minister in the Jersey circuit for that period show at least three infant baptisms at St Lawrence chapel in those years (1865, 1871, 1875). The children concerned were the offspring of Samuel Gilley who was a miller - probably again at Tesson Mill. In 1864 the chapel had 9 members (compared with 179 for the circuit), in 1870 15 members and in 1874 6 members. In the latter year a decision was taken to discontinue the preaching service although missionary and deputation meetings remained.

By 1880 the membership had fallen to three (circuit - 243) and the scene was beginning to be set for another change.

DECLINE AND CLOSURE

In 1883 a decision was taken to close the chapel and to request the trustees to sell it. The sale cannot have been proceeded with however for on 18th June 1884 the report of the circuit minister - Revd. John Luke - was that "at St Lawrence, where we have re-opened our chapel, we do not find much to encourage".

It would seem that Beaumont had more residents at that time than the area of St Peter's Valley where Tesson Chapel now stands because in March 1886 it was decided by the Bible Christian Trustees to purchase from a Mr Voisin the Friendly Hall at Beaumont with St Lawrence chapel being transferred to him as part consideration. This however also did not materialise.

Instead, on 29th October 1888 Mr. James Cory, one of the trustees, auctioned the property following a decision of the trustees to that effect. Advertisements had been placed in four Jersey newspapers and the reserve price of £80 was also the selling price. Two days later decisions were taken regarding the disposal of the harmonium, seats, inside porch, rostrum and other items. The net proceeds of sale were shared equally between Great Union Road, Royal Crescent, Gorey and St Martin's chapels and the general circuit funds.

Guernsey in 1974 – Part 4

Guernsey in 1974 – Part 4

Guernsey in 1974 – Part 4

This is an extract from Peter Haining’s guide book of 1974, which is as much interest today for the historian as to the tourist, as many of the places and industries described in his book have long vanished. Please do not take it as a current guide. Italics are my notes on the situation today.

St. Sampson:

St. Sampson is the only other port apart from St. Peter Port on Guernsey. It has lost some of its importance in recent years with the slowing down in exports of granite, once a very large industry in the hinterland just behind the harbour. (Old granite quarries and mills are still visible there today.)

Despite this St. Sampson is worth visiting as it is now a centre for boat repairing and craft of all shapes and sizes can be seen in the dry docks. Coal, timber and oil are also delivered here.

 St. Sampson has transitioned from a gritty 19th-century granite-exporting and commercial cargo port into a modern residential and leisure boating hub. While old granite quarries are now utilized as freshwater storage reservoirs and the inner harbor has become a marina, traditional commercial operations like coal deliveries and dry dock repairs are largely outdated. You can read more about Guernsey's history and geography.

On the actual seashore is St. Sampson’s Church, the oldest on the island, which dates from the 12th Century. St. Sampson, an English monk, landed on the island in the 6th Century and built a tiny chapel which was later replaced by the present church. He is now regarded as the Patron Saint of Guernsey and has a feast day on July 28th. He is also credited with a number of miracles, including banishing all moles, toads and snakes from the island. (It is interesting to note that these types of creatures are still never found on Guernsey.)

Samson of Dol, a Celtic missionary monk traveling from Dunmonia in England and Brittany, landed on this exact spot around 550 AD and erected a primitive timber chapel or oratory, introducing Christianity to Guernsey. It is true that Guernsey has no native snakes or moles. However, this is due to post-glacial geography (the island separated from continental Europe earlier than neighbouring Jersey, preventing these slow-moving animals from colonizing the landmass), not a miracle.

There are several monuments to seamen in the harbour — all in French—and one of them (commemorating Daniel de Lisle Brock) is believed to have been a menhir. 

Daniel de Lisle Brock was one of Guernsey's most celebrated historic Bailiffs (serving from 1821 to 1842). Near the slipway at St. Sampson's Harbour, there is a large, upright granite pillar erected in his memory. Local antiquarians and modern archaeologists strongly believe this stone was originally a prehistoric megalithic menhir (standing stone) repurposed by the islanders.

A further strange memorial is to be found in St. Sampson’s Church, and it must surely be among the most unusual. The tablet reports the death of Thomas Falla, an 18-yearold Guernsey Lieutenant, who was killed in the Siege of Seringapatam in 1799. What killed him was a 26 lb. cannon ball which lodged itself between the two bones of one of his thighs—and went undiscovered by the surgeon who examined him! The explanation given later when the unfortunate man eventually died and a post-mortem was carried out, was that the hole made by the shot had become so inflamed that it had closed over, leaving the ball further hidden behind the thigh bones. A working knowledge of French is needed to read the tablet—but this does not prevent anyone from feeling horrified amazement at the incredible tale it tells.

The French-inscribed marble tablet is located exactly inside St. Sampson's Parish Church. Lieutenant Thomas Falla of the 12th Regiment of Foot was wounded on 6 April 1799 during the assault on Tipu Sultan’s stronghold in India. The guidebook's gruesome medical details are completely correct: a massive, heavy solid-iron shot did indeed pass deep into his thigh and wedge perfectly between his femur and surrounding structure. Because the entry wound was heavily swollen and inflamed, the military surgeon missed it during a physical examination.Falla tragically survived in agonizing pain for six hours after the injury before dying, at which point the military doctors extracted the ball during a post-mortem to the absolute shock of the regiment. The plaque remains a popular spot for dark-tourism enthusiasts visiting the church today.

Re-Emerging Christian Thinkers: G.K. Chesterton

G.K. Chesterton is experiencing a significant resurgence among contemporary Christians who value his unique blend of childlike wonder, masterful use of paradox, and sharp intellectual defence of orthodox Christian faith. Decades after his death in 1936, groups like the Society of G.K. Chesterton (formerly the American Chesterton Society) have fuelled a renewed interest in his massive library of over 80 books and thousands of essays. [1, 2, 3, 4, 5]

Modern readers are reappraising Chesterton's work for several distinct reasons:

1. The Dynamic View of Orthodoxy

Chesterton famously flipped the idea that secularism is daring and religion is boring. In his masterpiece Orthodoxy, he presented the Christian faith as a wild, romantic adventure—describing orthodoxy not as a stagnant cage, but as a "chariot thundering through the ages, swerving past heresy after heresy and staying upright by an inch". This positioning appeals directly to modern believers looking for a lively, resilient, and counter-cultural faith. [4, 6, 7]

 
2. A Philosophy of Wonder and Gratitude

In an age plagued by cynicism and mental exhaustion, Chesterton’s emphasis on "cosmic gratitude" serves as a spiritual antidote. He viewed the mere existence of the universe as a wilful miracle and an invitation to wonder. His realization that "the world involved magic" and therefore "involved a magician" provides a simple yet profound framework for intelligent design and faith. [2, 3]

3. Lasting Influence on Major Thinkers

Chesterton’s writing continues to be studied because of how heavily it shaped the pillars of modern Christian apologetics: [7]

C.S. Lewis: Noted that Chesterton's The Everlasting Man was integral to his conversion from atheism, calling it the "best popular apologetic" he knew.

Archbishop Fulton Sheen: Credited Chesterton as the single greatest influence on his own writing style.
Contemporary Authors: High-profile writers like Philip Yancey openly cite Chesterton as a primary anchor for their spiritual direction. [7]

4. Socio-political Relevance

Chesterton does not fit neatly into modern political boxes, which makes him highly attractive to independent thinkers. While conservative Christians praise his defence of the traditional family, his skepticism toward mainstream media, and his battle against raw scientific materialism, he was also a fierce opponent of unbridled capitalism. Alongside Hilaire Belloc, he championed Distributivism—an economic philosophy rooted in Catholic social teaching that advocates for the wide distribution of property ownership rather than its concentration in the hands of the state or mega-corporations. [1]

 
5. Pop Culture Presence

Chesterton's ability to weave profound theological insights into popular fiction ensures his ideas reach beyond academic circles. His fictional Roman Catholic priest-detective is widely known globally through the long-running BBC period drama Father Brown, which uses the character's deep understanding of human sin and divine mercy to solve crimes without relying on graphic violence. [1, 8]


[1] https://www.wsj.com
[2] https://reformedjournal.com
[3] https://www.youtube.com
[4] https://www.facebook.com
[5] https://www.youtube.com
[6] https://www.facebook.com
[7] https://www.logos.com
[8] https://www.themoviedb.org

Proofs and Refutations in Historical Jesus Research – Part 3

Proofs and Refutations in Historical Jesus Research – Part 3

See also the other two parts:

An Introduction

https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2026/10/proofs-and-refutations-in-historical.html

The Ultra-Literary Camp: Robyn Faith Walsh and Ian Mills

https://tonymusings.blogspot.com/2026/10/proofs-and-refutations-in-historical_01499385032.html

When we map Imre Lakatos’s four strategies onto the high-stakes battlefield of Gospel scholarship, we can see exactly why NT scholars and historical-Jesus researchers rarely change their minds.

Because the text of the Gospels is ancient, complex, and open to interpretation, it provides the perfect raw material for academics to build a "Protective Belt" around their core theories.

In these posts, I will illustrate how historians deploy the four basic Lakatosian strategies to defend their views against troublesome textual data:

N.T. Wright

A Lakatosian critic analyzing N.T. Wright would deliver a diagnosis that is the exact mirror image of the one given to Walsh and Mills.

While the ultra-literary camp is running a degenerating research program by choking on obvious historical data, Wright is running what Lakatos would call a "Hyper-Progressive but Insulated Research Program." 

Wright’s model possesses immense, spectacular explanatory power, but a Lakatosian critic would point out that he has built his "Hard Core" so masterfully that it has become a closed loop, almost completely impossible to ever falsify.

Here is exactly what a Lakatosian critic would say to N.T. Wright:

1. "Your 'Protective Belt' is Actually a Black Hole"

Lakatos argued that a robust research program needs a protective belt of auxiliary hypotheses to absorb anomalies. Wright’s protective belt is one of the most brilliant ever constructed in modern intellectual history, but a critic would warn that it acts like a black hole: it swallows every single counterexample and magically turns it into proof.

• The Anomaly: The historical Jesus was a first-century Jew who explicitly preached that the literal, cosmic end of the world would happen within his generation (the Albert Schweitzer / Dale Allison thesis). History kept moving; therefore, Jesus was factually mistaken.

• Wright's Defense (Monster-Adjusting): Wright sweeps in and redefines "apocalyptic language." He argues that when Jesus talked about stars falling from heaven and the Son of Man coming on the clouds, he was using standard Jewish political metaphors for the fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD.

• The Lakatosian Critique: A critic would look at this and say: "Dr. Wright, you have engineered a classic Lakatosian linguistic trick. By redefining 'apocalypse' to mean 'geopolitics,' you have ensured that no matter how many failed end-of-the-world verses someone hurls at your Jesus, your theory can never be falsified. You have insulated your Hard Core from reality."

2. "You are Using 'Lemma-Incorporation' as an Apologetic Shield"

As we noted earlier, when faced with the glaring historical contradictions between the various Gospel resurrection accounts (the different women, the conflicting locations of appearances), Wright uses lemma-incorporation. He argues that these messy, un-harmonized discrepancies are the exact proof that the stories are raw, first-generation eyewitness memories, because a later church inventing a myth would have cleaned up the contradictions.

A Lakatosian critic would smile at the sheer brilliance of this, but issue a stern methodological warning:

"You have created a 'Heads I win, Tails you lose' scenario. If the text is perfectly harmonious, you will argue it proves historical accuracy. If the text is messy and contradictory, you argue that the messiness proves historical accuracy. When both harmony and contradiction serve as proof for your thesis, you are no longer doing Popperian falsifiable history; you are running an insulated Lakatosian protective program disguised as historical science."

Your Program is Progressive, but at the Cost of Historical Neutrality"

To be fair to Wright, a Lakatosian critic would highly praise him for having a "Progressive" research program. Unlike Walsh and Mills, who are constantly stuck on the defensive trying to explain away clunky text, Wright’s multi-volume Christian Origins and the Question of God series has immense "heuristic power." It elegantly connects Second Temple Judaism, the psychology of Jesus, the explosion of the early Church, and the theology of Paul into one grand, unified narrative framework. It naturally predicts and explains why the early Christians behaved the way they did.

However, the Lakatosian critic would deliver their final verdict: Wright’s entire historical edifice is built upon a profound, hidden metaphysical commitment (his faith).

Because Wright is operating within a confessional paradigm, his "Hard Core" (that Jesus is the Messiah who rose from the dead) is an absolute, immovable theological axiom. He will deploy every Lakatosian strategy in existence - barring monsters, adjusting definitions, and inventing auxiliary hypotheses about Jewish metaphors—to ensure that his historical reconstruction perfectly aligns with orthodox Christian theology. He hasn't broken the mirror; he has just built a massive, beautifully decorated, historical-theological cathedral around it.

Next Monday - James D.G. Dunn

Religion, History and G. R Balleine – Part 4

Religion, History and G. R Balleine – Part 4
(The Reformation in Jersey)
By Jason St John Nicolle
From "The Pilot", 1991

Part IV The Victory of Protestantism

SO the Court of Jersey History reconvenes once more; the jury take their seats, and Advocate Balleine rises to his feet.

Last month, the counsel for the defence argued that it would be wrong to assume that Jerseymen and women were dissatisfied with Catholicism on the eve of the Reformation, and I am prepared to accept that Islanders continued to spend time and money on ensuring the provision of anniversary masses, even as late as the 1540's.

"But so what? Whatever the popularity of pre-Reformation Catholicism, it did not prevent Protestantism from gaining a strong and almost immediate hold over the hearts and minds of Islanders. Their religious enthusiasm was simply transferred from the old faith to the new.

"It took but five years for the Reformed faith to achieve its victory. The official propagation of the new faith seems to have begun in 1548, when the first moves were made towards confiscating church property. The same year saw the start of the destruction of 'objects of superstition', such as wayside crosses, stained glass and statues, as well as a States' grant to two Frenchmen, Martin Langeois and Thomas Johanne, for 'teaching the people the pure and sincere word of God, according to the Gospel text.' They must have been effective teachers: less than two years later„ we find the King's Counsellors writing to thank the Island for 'earnestly following and embracing his Majesty's laws and proceedings in the order of the Divine Service and ministration of the Sacrament.'

"The re-imposition of Catholicism during the short reign of Mary, Edward's successor, merely served to underline the Island's commitment to the Reformed Faith. Some of the Island clergy resigned their livings rather than renounce their Protestantism. A Calvinist chronicler, writing in Jersey some thirty years later, tells of Islanders who used to cross over to Protestant churches in Normandy, having 'no wish to assist at Mass or in the Idolatry and Superstition of the Papists.' And on Mary's death in 1558, the Island lost no time in reasserting its Protestantism; within a year, the English government was commending its conformity to the new Elizabethan Church Settlement. By 1562, Jersey's Protestantism was being held up as an example to her recalcitrant sister Island.

"All in all, the evidence points to but one conclusion: the victory of Protestantism was complete by the early 1550's. So the prosecution has re-affirmed the case for a Reformation "from below"; how will the defence respond?

Was Protestantism really established in Jersey by the early 1550's? Let us consider the evidence on which the prosecution has based its case.

"We should not make too much of the letter of 1550, praising the Islanders for 'earnestly following and embracing' the new Protestant services. If the King's Counsellors were certain of the Island's commitment to the new faith, why does so much of the letter go on to deal with what the Islanders should do 'percase any scruple or doubt arise' amongst them? If they had already willingly embraced the new faith, why do the Counsellors finish up with a heavy-handed reference to the benefits of conformity: 'whereby his Highness in all your reasonable suits may be more and more inclined to be your good and gracious lord and we the readier to advance the same .. .'?

"We should always be suspicious of taking such public letters at their face value, especially when their authors have no first-hand knowledge of the situation they are describing. Fortunately we can compare the official version of events against a much more reliable source: the private correspondence which passed between the Duke of Somerset and Henry Cornish, his Lieutenant on the Island. Part of their correspondence has survived, and can be found amongst the Seymour Papers at Longleat House in Wiltshire. Two letters from 1549 show Cornish worried about the activities of certain preachers who were going about the Island persuading the 'poor and ignorant' that Catholicism would be restored. Catholic priests were still preaching against the new faith some three years later, when we learn from another source that such a sermon had caused a tumult at St Martin's.

"But what about all those Jerseymen who refused to accept the re-imposition of Catholicism under Mary? Is it not significant that the Calvinist chronicler can only come up with the names of some fourteen 'men of means' who did so, when the population of Jersey numbered about seven or eight thousand? And does not seem strange that there is no reference to underground Protestant churches in Jersey, tending the flame of the true faith during the Marian night?

"And did the accession of a young Protestant prince really affirm the Victory of Protestantism in his realms and dominions? If Elizabeth had died after short reign, or indeed at any time in the 1560's or 70' she would have been succeeded on the throne by Catholic — Mary Queen of Scots. Jersey's conformity might well be held up as an example by outsiders, but the Island authorities were bothered about Catholic sympathisers well into the 1560's, ordering destruction of Catholic service books and a public flogging for a man caught asserting the truth of the faith. In short, even twenty years after its introduction into Jersey, the Victory of Protestantism was far from complete.

At this point, the jury see Advocate Balleine rising on more to address the court. How will he respond to to arguments put forward by the defence? Unfortunately, they will have to wait another month to find out.

An Echo of the Train

Written as we approach the death of my dear Annie on 13th October 2009. A trip to the steam museum the other day brought back memories, and the trains which we used to enjoy riding at the Steam Fayres, now sadly also a memory of a lovely past. 

An Echo of the Train

A trip to nostalgia and sadness past
Glory days when the train departs
Until one day, final whistle at last
Memory of love lost, of lonelyhearts

Streaming round the well worn track
Sitting in the carriages, watch the view
Wheels on the rails, go clack, clack, clack
Such were days of joy, of me and you

A stranger train had left one black day
Into a tunnel, darkness hides the light
And my dear, no words enough to say
Death’s one way journey into night

Now an echo of a train haunts me still
Nostalgia can sometimes be a bitter pill