Devotionals

By Hal and Christine Thomas

Christine Thomas was born in Isleworth, Middlesex in 1942 into a strongly Baptist family. Her father was a Sunday School superintendent and Church Deacon whose beautiful singing voice was enjoyed in churches all over London. Her mother was a miniaturist of some renown. Her miniatures hung in places such as the Royal Academy of Arts, Paris Salon, Italy and New York. Moreover, Christine’s mother had gifts of arranging church flowers, dressmaking, even making a dress for the Queen as a teenager! Christine remembers that she and her elder brother had to attend church both morning and evening, and Sunday School in the afternoon. 

Canon Kovoor is the Principal of Trinity College in Bristol, England, a Personal Chaplain to the Queen of England, and the Canon of Worcester Cathedral. Other responsibilities include being the international co-coordinator of the Evangelical Fellowship in the Anglican Communion and having active involvement in the Orthodox family of Churches, the Church in China and the Black Majority Pentecostal and Charismatic Churches.

Rita Hart is a great person to talk to. Just being in her presence makes you smile. You wouldn’t be able to tell it by her appearance, but she has quite a story to tell. You could say she was brought up in a Christian home, but that would not be completely true. Sadly the only person who was not a Christian in her immediate family was her father. He had served in the Navy and was unfortunately a mental wreck. He would go out almost every night, get drunk out of his mind, and when he came home poor Rita as a child had to witness this example of a father. She was often beaten for no reason.

My mother was a Christian and went to a congregational church near Southampton, and she encouraged my brothers and I to go to Sunday school. When we got to the senior level we were asked to teach the infants; I remember teaching I Samuel 1 and 2. I went to church until I started working at age fifteen, then stopped going completely. 

My parents were both Christians; they went to a Brethren Church in the village. My grandparents on both my father and mother’s side lived in our home, it was a big country house, that Grandfather Thomas built.  They were also Brethren. My grandfather on my mother’s side died early, I believe during the First World War.