Christ Church Huntingdon Blog

“Send her victorious, happy and glorious, Long to reign over us, God save the Queen”.  Despite calls for it to be updated or replaced in recent years, the National Anthem has been sung countless times over the decades at everything from sporting events to national ceremonies. If like me you watch the Queen’s speech at Christmas, you’ll be familiar with hearing it each year, and you may even have had older members of your family who would stand when the music starts up.  According to Wikipedia, no-one is absolutely sure when and where it originated though the first published version of the tune came in 1744, though the melody may go back far earlier to a combination of an early plainsong melody with an early dance rhythm.  In 2002 Brian May played it on the roof of Buckingham Palace at high volume from his red special electric guitar for the Golden Jubilee, which was an idea he had which he called the most “incredible energizing moment, but terrify...

I like signs. Over the last few weeks I’ve spotted a few around Huntingdon. Most of them grown out of the pandemic in some way. We still need them… ·       Opposite St Anne’s school in Godmanchester it says “Well done Kids”. ·       Near Hinchingbrooke school there’s a sign saying “NHS- National Hero Service”. ·       Again in Godmanchester a hand painted sign saying “You got this”. I wonder if you’ve ever heard anyone say “I’ll believe in God if he gives me a sign”. You see many people carry on their everyday lives wondering if God is there. Surely if God is real he would break in and show me? In the King of the Belgians pub in Hartford there’s a sign that says “Beer is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy”. Well I’m not sure that’s the sign you are looking for. You see the question is, even if God did send us a sign, would we recognise it. Woody Allen, the comedian once said “I’...

I wonder if any of you saw Spiderman: No Way Home in cinemas last year? It saw three versions of Spiderman from three different universes, uniting to help save some famous villains from the people they’ve become. It was the highest-grossing film of 2021, so I’m sure you’ve heard of it. And I think the fact that it was so popular says something about our tastes in this day and age.  What won the hearts of so many fans of the film was the appearance of the previous actors to play Spiderman – Tobey Maguire and Andrew Garfield. These references to older films fill us with a sense of nostalgia, a reminder of how things used to be. Escapism, not only into a good story on the screen, but escapism into our own past.  It's all over cinema these days – whether it’s the Jurassic world franchise bringing back Alan Grant and Ellie Sattler from the first film, or a new Downton Abbey feature, filmmakers play on our emotions by reminding of us of things we have loved in the p...