Yesterday Sharon visited the Wellspring Victory Church, in Puerto de Mazarrón, to say thank you to everyone for all their support during her illness and recovery.
The church has been wonderful in keeping an eye on her and remembering her in their prayers and Sharon wanted to say thank you. “It was so nice to be so warmly welcomed and to see and talk with everyone,” she said.
However, although we left home in plenty of time, the devil must have been at work for a wrong turn on the motorway added about half an hour to the journey and we, therefore, arrived with the service well under way.
Sharon insisted on walking in with her crutch, leaving her wheelchair in the car, and the comment was made: “If anyone doesn´t believe in miracles, one has just walked in.”
The enthusiastic congregation was singing the lovely old hymn, When I Survey The Wondrous Cross, by Isaac Watts, which was published in 1707.
Sharon said: “A few weeks ago when we were in London, Phillip wheeled me past the Abney Park cemetery in Stoke Newington. There is a big statue in there of Isaac Watts. What a coincidence that his most famous hymn should be being sung when I arrived at the church.”
Isaac Watts, who was born in 1674, was one of the many people who would not follow the established Anglican Church and who were described by numerous names, such as dissenters, non-conformists or independents. He wrote some 750 hymns, many of them while staying at the beautiful home and grounds of Sir Thomas and Lady May Abney, at Abney House. After Sir Thomas died, he lived there with Lady May from 1736 until his death in 1748. Isaac Watts is recognised as the first major writer of hymns in English.
At the time he was writing, non-conformists were buried in the Bunhill Fields cemetery in the City Of London, and his actual grave is there. However, when this burial ground became full, in the early 19th century Abney House and its grounds became the new non-conformist cemetery for the capital. There are thousands of graves there and a major conservation and restoration project is now under way. Amongst the distinguished deceased are the Booths, the founders of the Salvation Army. A large statue to Isaac Watts was erected at Abney Cemetery in 1845, sculpted by Edward Hodges Bailey and paid for by public subscription.
“I can´t believe the coincidence,” said Sharon. “Seeing the cemetery and then hearing the hymn.”
The picture shows the chapel in the Abney cemetery, near which the statute of Isaac Watts can be found.
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©Phillip Bruce 2009.
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