REV. IRENE WRITES:

Our Advent hymns tell us of the child to be born: Familiar words for the season of Advent:

‘Come thou long expected Jesus, born to set thy people free;

from our fears and sins release us;

let us find our rest in thee.

A simple message that tells us we all can find rest in Jesus, his role on earth to set the people free, to release us all from sins and fear and to let us rest in the promise of his love and eternal life.

In the busyness of this season it is so easy to forget this promise and be merged into daily tasks. We are all very different but can we put aside a time for God each day in whatever way suits us best.

TOOLS WITH A MISSION

Have you heard of the charity TWAM (Tools with a Mission). The charity collects tools that are no longer needed and they are sent to a refurbishment centre where, once refurbished, they are packed into kits and sent to skills training centres in Africa.. If you have tools in your shed that are no longer used then please contact me on: irene@hullminster.org and we will arrange to pick up from you on his next visit to the area.

Many thanks in advance – great charity to support.

DECORATING THE MINSTER

This last week, some of the congregation spent some time decorating the church, whilst others watched!

MUSIC IN THE MINSTER

In Dulci Jubilo Our fabulous concert was held on Sunday night at 7pm - In Dulci Jubilo - a collaboration with Gabrieli Roar. It involved all of our school choirs, the MInster choir, and the Gabrieli Consort in a spectacular evening of the polychoral music of Michael Praetorius and Heinrich Schütz.

CHRISTINGLE

Our Christmas services began with a Christingle for a small group of children, led by Rev. Louise.

A LITTLE BIT OF HISTORY continued

Eyewitness report of a pirate attack on a merchant ship:

The M/T Eagle rounded the point and entered Dos Bocas Bay in Brazil, early on a Saturday morning, bound for the small chemical port of Aratu. The city of Salvador sparkled on the headland in the early morning sunlight, like bleached bones rising from the green tropical forest surrounding it. A sight to lift the hearts of the crew of this banana yellow chemical tanker as it slowed down inside the bay to meet a pilot. Aratu, one of the busiest chemical manufacturing ports in Brazil was busy with a line-up of ships and its two loading berths would not become available until the next Tuesday, so the vessel had to anchor in the inner harbour of Salvador city to await their turn. A much welcome break for the personnel aboard the Stolt Eagle, who could rest and relax over the weekend and visit the shopping centres and tourist areas of the city. A boat full of brightly coloured and noisy Brazilian girls arrived after the ship anchored and “booed” loudly when they were turned away. Its illegal to allow visitors aboard ship, except those concerned with the cargo transfer operations and ships business, however, the agent boarded with a supporting group of young ladies, who swarmed aboard and dispersed before the gangway watchman could stop them. The authorities would fine the ship and detain it should they find girls aboard and now the authorities were on their way to clear the ship and crew into Brazil.

I was Chief Officer aboard this tanker and had to order the crew to round up the girls and send them back ashore, but the agent’s boat had left, and we had no option but to wait for the customs and immigration boats to collect the girls and take them home to Salvador. Being early morning, the authorities would not arrive until officer hours later in the day, so were greeted by a crowd cheering young ladies, who had been aboard for several hours and had been entertained by our enthusiastic crew. Some of them were already drunk and provide a lively sceptical for the boarding authorities, whilst I negotiated their safe passage back to the city on the Immigration and Customs launch. Not a good start to our stay in port, but as we were to remain at anchor for the next few days, there was no point in detaining the ship and we just received a stern warning for having illegal visitors aboard and the threat of big fines. A few of the girls had been gathering information about the ship’s layout and the likelihood of there being money and valuables aboard, which they passed on to a criminal gang ashore, so at 02:00 on the Sunday morning we were targeted by this criminal gang, which we refer to as Pirates. They boarded the ship with ropes and grapples and swarmed into the accommodation, where they surprised the few crew members on duty. Four of the Pirates reached the Bridge and assaulted the duty officer and his watchmen, before proceeding down the main inside stairs to the crew’s sleeping area and the machinery space. The duty officer had the presence of mind to activate the fire alarm when he saw the pirates coming aboard armed with guns and knives. I was asleep in my cabin and on hearing the fire alarm rushed to my fire station in the central hall of the accommodation, but encountered the pirates coming down the stairs, with the duty officer and watchman tied up and bleeding profusely from head wounds. In confusion I challenged the pirates, demanding that they release their captives immediately. This was the wrong move, and I had a knife thrust at my stomach. I grabbed the blade of the knife and the pirate twisted it about, cutting my fingers to the bone and causing a spray of my blood to cover them. I was thrown to the floor and saw that a gun was aimed at my head. Just at that moment the duty engineer emerged from the engine room door and distracted the gunman, who shot him in the head. Pirates outside heard the pirates inside shooting and assumed we were resisting with our own arms, so swarmed into the accommodation, shooting at shadows and everything that moved. In the chaos I was freed and ran to a nearby washroom and locked myself in, where I bound my bleeding hand with a towel to stop the blood spraying from my partially severed fingers. Ten minutes later all was quiet outside the washroom, so I ventured out to see what was happening. All the crew who had not locked themselves in their cabins were ties up on the poop deck with one of the pirates guarding them. I turned tail and ran back to the stairs to check up on the captain, who had the safe and payroll money for the crew. The captain was being forced to open the combination safe but was shaking with fear and could not set the combination correctly and was being beaten by one of the hornet like pirates. His cabin was being torn apart and his mattress split open by other pirates, searching for money and valuables. On seeing this scary sight, I ran out of the master’s cabin and headed up for the bridge, followed by one of the pirates, who fortunately took the stairs downward in his pursuit. I managed to get the crew on the bridge to let me in and I started to send May Day messages on the VHF radio to summon help. The Brazilian navy responded that they did not work at weekends and the police said they would come, but they did not have a boat. The pirate, seeing that the alarm had been raised, fled from the ship with their loot and 12,000 US dollars from the safe. I saw their boat leaving and a crewman and myself fired pyrotechnics into their craft. These were parachute flares, which must have caused the pirates some serious inconvenience, but did not prevent their escape. It was some twelve hours later that the police and our agent arrived aboard in response to our call for help, by which time I had lost a large amount of blood and had fainted. I was rushed to hospital, where an American trained surgeon stitched my fingers back in place, after finding and reconnecting the cut tendons and nerves in my hand. It was a long operation, and I was told that the surgeon had done a brilliant job and saved my hand and fingers. I am eternally grateful to him, though I had to stay in Oddstock hospital in Salisbury for three months waiting for my hand to recover and learning to use my fingers again. In the Hospital, the hand injury and burn patients were tasked with caring for the stroke and head injury victims, who were almost completely helpless as they recovered from their strokes. This was a wonderful way to help and assist people and I would have volunteered to do this even if I had not been seriously injured. It was very rewarding and very much appreciated by this group of wonderful people.

The Eagle eventually had all the injured crew attended to and was able to proceed to Aratu, to load chemicals for the USA. The authorities made a big fuss about the pirate attack, but never found the criminal gang who came aboard and robbed the ship. It was our theory, that some of the pirates were actually off duty policemen, who treated the piracy operation as a training exercise. Our agent, Marifaldo, who normally wore several items of gold jewellery, had come out to the ship without any jewellery, so we assumed he had been aware that the ship would be attacked, despite his loud denials.

John Swain

CANDLE LIGHTING SERVICE

On Sunday 11th December at 2.00 p.m. a special service will be held for those who have lost children and siblings. A reflective service with candle lighting and thumb print tree. Names of loved ones will be read out and tea, coffee and friendship offered to all.

CHRISTMAS CARDS

Do look out for the Christmas Card board if you wish to send just one card to your church family and friends

BIBLE STUDY GROUPS

During December there will be a break in the Wednesday Bible teaching groups. Details of new studies and courses will be announced in Lifeline before January.

WARM SPACE IN THE MINSTER

This continues this Thursday and throughout the winter months. Anyone is welcome, drinks served during the morning and afternoon and soup and a roll at lunchtime.

PRAYER POINTS FOR THE SECOND WEEK OF DECEMBER

We pray for Dominic’s phased return to work; that he may feel strong both physically and mentally
We pray for the ‘warm church’ initiative. May we reach out to those in need
For all the services and events that are being held in the Minster throughout December. Praying that God’s love will shine in all that we do.
We pray for all those caught up in conflicts and natural disasters around the world. We pray for our friends from Ukraine as we continue to build warm relationships with them.
We pray for all in the Minster choir as they prepare to worship through music this Advent/Christmas and particularly for Mark Keith Director of Music

COLLECT FOR THE THIRD SUNDAY OF ADVENT

God for whom we watch and wait

you sent John the Baptist to prepare the way of your Son

give us courage to speak the truth, to hunger for justice

and to suffer for the cause of right, with Jesus Christ our Lord.

AMEN

READINGS FOR 11TH DECEMBER