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Fr David's Sermon 15th March 2006

Myrtle Frith RIP

Once upon a time the things of faith were intimately bound up with life. Christianity was woven into the fabric of life and death, so much so that you could not fail to see that the living and the dead belonged to one community, what the Church calls the Communion of Saints.

Once upon a time, in 1913 or there about, Myrtle was brought to this Church to be baptised. Later she would be confirmed and married here. Over the years she worshipped here (and at the former daughter church of St. Francis). Yesterday her body was received into the church and we celebrated a requiem mass for her. Today her body lies here for her funeral, according to her wishes and clear instructions.

Christianity was very much woven into the fabric of Myrtle’s life, it sustained her through the years, the happy times of marriage to Lionel, difficult times of war and tragic times when her adopted son Stephen was killed aged 16 in 1965. Or we might say, more properly, that Myrtle’s life and death was woven into the fabric of Christianity. In the communion of saints she and us are in Christ’s presence.

As we reflect on Myrtle’s 93 years we have a sense of the completeness of her life, full and well rounded. We give thanks to God for this. We remember her life spent entirely in Watford, save for the early years of her marriage spent in Wembley, where she was bombed out leading to her return to her mother’s house in Raglan Garden’s. We think of her interest and concern for Church Social work, expressed in her involvement in Church Moral Welfare (what we would now call an adoption agency), in the Watford & District Association for Church Social Work and in ‘Grow’, an organisation for the homeless.

She will also be remembered as a member of the Townswomen’s Guild and a resident of the Gables, until memory loss forced her to move into St. Anthony’s Nursing Home. Myrtle was a keen gardener, knowing all the Latin names of plants. She also loved dogs and birds. There is much then to be thankful for as we look back over Myrtle’s life.

I’ve spoken off the interconnectedness of the living and the dead, woven into one fabric in Christ, the communion of saints. Our Christian faith rooted in the death and resurrection of Jesus gives us hope in the face of death. We can look forward. To end I would like to set before us the vision of heaven described by St John in the Book of Revelation. It was given to him at the end of a long and hard life, a life sustained by his Christian faith. It is in that same faith and hope that we hand Myrtle over to God in this service today.

Amen

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