A Celebration of the Life of michael whelton
15th September 1923 - 2nd June 2009
Epsom Methodist Church
Friday 19th June 2009 at 2pm
On 19th June 2009 about 500 people packed Epsom Methodist Church. to give thanks for the life and ministry of the Revd Michael J Whelton. It was a mark of the respect so many had for Michael that staff from Epsom General, the local Ambulance Service, the Metropolitan Police, our congregation and those from the Circuit, District and other groups and organisations attended the service.
The Revd Simon Leigh reflected on Michael’s life; the importance of his family and his long marriage, almost 60 years, to Monica. For Monica and the family it must have been so comforting to know just how deeply loved Michael was by so many people.
Michael had a varied life, from wartime service in the Royal Navy, having a successful career as a solicitor and finally 21 years as a Methodist Minister. In his heart Michael was a Pastor and gave hugely of himself in the depth of his pastoral care, both at EMC, the hospital and more widely still.
The following messages were read by Revd Leigh at the service.
Dear Michael,
It is a great disappointment that I was not with Monica and your family at Randall’s Park today, to say a final “goodbye” to you that familiar place, where you have guided and loved so many families through their sorrow. I am also sad to miss the praise and thanksgiving to God for your life and ministry that must be bursting from Epsom Methodist Church.
I said my final “goodbye” just a few hours before you took that quiet step to glory. In fact, you were already making your way when we prayed for God’s breath of new life to go with you.
You were always humbly confident and joyful about being ‘forever with the Lord’!
I imagine that you arrived in Heaven with your arms wide open, ready for a glorious greeting. Although, I was not so confident that your first embrace would be the ‘big one’ not if you happened to meet a few huggable angels on the way! Why change the habit of a lifetime?
You would be embarrassed to hear the sorrow being expressed here…. and the ‘thanksgiving’! “Michael came everyday when my husband died,” says one, and, “He was our support when our son was in trouble,” says another. Then “When my life was in the balance Michael seemed to know just when I needed him.” Here, in the hospital, a nurse told me, “If a child had died, Michael would always come back, after supporting the family, to be sure that we were OK.” For years you have been like a strengthening angel to so many Thank You.
On the other hand many of us know what a little devil you could be with your practical jokes, endless teasing and constant clowning!! That was one of the many treasured things about you! Your authentic Christian life and character embraced such a rich variety of human attributes – loving and laughter, pranks and prayer, the reverend and the ridiculous, deep faith and full humanity.
You have left us quite a challenge your energy for living, your zeal in Christian ministry, your love for the Lord and your compassion for people. Even when you were poorly in hospital you would ask, “Is there anything I can do for you?” They said that Jesus ‘went about doing good.’ You have done the same! You have revelled in being a ‘good shepherd’, although you were always more aware of your weaknesses!
Michael, thank you for your support for my ministry, from the moment I arrived in Epsom, and for the privilege of working with you in the team at Epsom Methodist Church. Thank God for giving you such an enormous capacity for caring and for you is personal, warm and genuine, trust in Christ.
You have left a deep sense of loss here – But you have left an even greater sense of gain!! You have left a smile in this person’s life and a blessing in that person’s. You have left faith here and sustaining strength there inspiration,
encouragement, guidance, understanding, hope and love I am pretty sure that by now the Good Lord has looked you straight in the eye and said “Well done, you good and faithful servant. Enter into your Master’s joy. Come and share the Kingdom prepared for you, for, whatever you did for the least of these my children, you did for me.” But I bet you were too embarrassed to even keep a straight face!!!!!!
Your loving friend and colleague,
David Winwood.
Remembering Michael
Chaplain and Friend to Many
Michael Whelton died on Intensive Care at Epsom on June 2nd. Perhaps that was appropriate, for it was the place to which he had devoted so much time and spiritual energy as our Hospital Chaplain. His Ministry encompassed those of all faiths – and none – but all of us, staff, friends, patients and relatives somehow felt the calming power of his presence and appreciated his care and concern.
He was very special as a hospital Chaplain. Not one to sit in an office, he walked the wards and corridors early in the morning.
This could be quite time-consuming as he would know most of the people he met and their problems. He was a superb Chaplain in so many ways. He recognised that staff and particularly those in the front line in Accident and Emergency and in Intensive Care were working sometimes under extreme pressure and he did all he could to help them.
As one Staff Nurse on ITU said to me on the day of his death: “He was a lovely man. We could call on him at any time of day or night and he would come. The patient could be Catholic, Anglican or Protestant; it made no difference to Michael. He never let us down.”
Michael maintained the highest professional standards in every way and will be sadly missed. For my part as a physician, I would sometimes tell him of patients that needed his help much more than mine. He never let me down.
At Epsom we mourn his passing.
We have all lost both a friend and a Pastor.
Dr Geoffrey Robb,
Honorary Consultant at Epsom & St Helier Hospital Trust
The service was a fitting tribute to a husband, father, brother, minister and friend.
God bless you Michael.
Audio recordings of the full Thanksgiving Service are
Available for a donation to the RNLI.
Please contact the Church Office on 01372 728535
Conducted by the Reverend Simon Leigh
ENTRY MUSIC
panis angelicus by Cesar Franck
WELCOME
The Reverend Simon Leigh
And so I’d like to welcome you all to our service of celebration for Michael Whelton’s life and his ministry among us in this place.
First of all, I’d like to ask Joe Michael’s grandson if he’s going to come and share a few words.
My granddad was a very, very nice man. He was very funny. He could rub a grape into his bald head and it would come out somewhere else. I still don’t know how he did it. Joe, aged 8.
HYMN
To God be the glory, great things He has done;
So loved He the world that He gave us His Son,
Who yielded His life an atonement for sin,
And opened the life gate that all may go in.
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the earth hear His voice!
Praise the Lord, praise the Lord,
Let the people rejoice!
O come to the Father, through Jesus the Son,
And give Him the glory, great things He has done.
O perfect redemption, the purchase of blood,
To every believer the promise of God;
The vilest offender who truly believes,
That moment from Jesus a pardon receives.
Great things He has taught us, great things He has done,
And great our rejoicing through Jesus the Son;
But purer, and higher, and greater will be Our wonder, our transport, when Jesus we see.
Frances Jane van Alstyne (Fanny Crosby) (1820-1915)
OPENING PRAYERS
Revd Hazel Yu
Gracious God, we have come together in your presence and in the Name of Christ. We come with sorrow but with hope to express loss but to give thanks, to recognise death but also to celebrate life, to look back at all that has been and also to look forward to all that is yet to be. We entrust Michael into Your everlasting care. We thank You for all we owe to Michael, for the innumerable ways in which he has enriched our lives. For the memories we always have as a lasting tribute and an enduring legacy. Gratefully we come, lovingly we give thanks. God has promised in life and in death, He is with us. God gives to those who truly believe assurance of His eternal blessing. Through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen
READING
john 14:1 - 6 and 27 read by Dr Geoffrey Robb
Do not let your hearts be troubled.
Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."
Thomas said to him, "Lord, we don't know where you are going, so how can we know the way?"
Jesus answered, "I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives.
Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid."
HYMN
Guide me, O thou great Redeemer,
Pilgrim through this barren land;
I am weak, but thou art mighty,
Hold me with thy powerful hand:
Bread of heaven,
Feed me now and evermore.
Open now the crystal fountain
Whence the healing stream doth flow;
Let the fiery, cloudy pillar
Lead me all my journey through:
Strong deliverer,
Be thou still my strength and shield.
When I tread the verge of Jordan
Bid my anxious fears subside;
Death of death, and hell's destruction,
Land me safe on Canaan's side:
Songs of praises
I will ever give to thee.
William Williams (1717-1791), tr Peter Williams (1727-1796)
what is success?
by Ralph W Emerson read by Mark Binnington, granson
What is Success? To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty; To find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived;
This is to have succeeded.
Simon’s introduction to the hymn, Eternal Father, strong to save.
Now Michael, as many of you will know, was in the Royal Navy during the course of the Second World War and he was a Chief Petty Officer. They had decided Michael should be trained for a commission and Michael was going to go and train for a commission for the Royal Navy. Sadly, Michael fell out of a tree somehow shortly before he was due to start training. Goodness knows what he was doing up a tree but he managed somehow to fall out of it. Thus his career as a naval officer went no further and the Royal Navy was spared the prospect of Admiral Nelson or even Admiral Whelton, of course, being forced upon them.
But Michael, as we all know, had a very strong affinity for those in the Royal Navy and for those who work on the sea and at the end of the service you are invited to make donations to the RNLI. And so we sing a song that is associated deeply with those who travel by sea, for seafarers across the world, and this is part and parcel of who Michael was.
So we stand and sing Eternal Father strong to save.
HYMN
Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm hath bound the restless wave,
Who bidd'st the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.
O Christ, whose voice the waters heard
And hushed their raging at thy word,
Who walkedst on the foaming deep,
And calm amid the storm didst sleep:
O hear us when we cry to thee
For those in peril on the sea.
O Holy Spirit, who didst brood
Upon the waters dark and rude,
And bid their angry tumult cease,
And give, for wild confusion, peace:
O hear us when we cry to thee•
For those in peril on the sea.
O Trinity of love and power,
Our brethren shield in danger's hour;
From rock and tempest, fire and foe,
Protect them whereso'er they go:
Thus evermore shall rise to thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.
W. Whiting (1825-78)
TRIBUTE
Revd Simon Leigh
As we approach a tribute to Michael I want to use these words from Ephesians, from chapter 3, words that meant so much to Michael that he used them as a prayer often as he was travelling to work and throughout the course of his ministry with us. So let us pray. With this in mind then I kneel in prayer to the Father from whom every family in heaven and on earth takes its name that out of the treasures of His glory He may grant you inward strength and power through His Spirit that through faith Christ may dwell in your hearts in love with deep roots and firm foundations. May you in company with all God’s people be strong to grasp what is the breadth and length, the height and depth of Christ’s love and to know it though it is beyond knowledge. So may you be filled with the very fullness of God. Now to Him who is able through the power which is at work among us to do immeasurably more than we can ask or conceive. To Him be glory in the Church and in Christ Jesus from generation to generation for ever more. Amen.
First of all from the family. Michael of course was born into a large family in Tottenham in north London and family of course is right at the heart of who Michael is. And so it is appropriate that we start with a reflection from them on Michael. Trying to put together a service for today about Michael with the Whelton family was difficult in the extreme because most of the time they spent in fits of laughter and giggles. There wasn’t a moment really where there was a serious word being said because at the end of every sentence there would be a “do you remember, Dad did this and Dad did that?” and the funny side of Michael was never too far away. But we reflect on these words. You all know how energetic, involved and committed Michael was at the church and at the hospital. You’ll understand too that maintaining that level of energy at home would simply be impossible. Having spent the day supporting patients and their relatives at the hospital planning or leading one of the 150 or so funerals he gladly took on each year, having been called out to A&E at 3 o’clock in the morning an 85 year old man needs to spend the following day slumped in front of the television speaking occasionally, monosyllabically, and drinking tea.
And that, of course, is what Michael did. That was the way his life was. In the morning as soon as he opened up the greenhouse he watered his beloved tomatoes. Then he’d drive over to New Malden to ensure his granddaughter had a cucumber for her lunch, popped in on the way back to see half a dozen friends and neighbours, came home, played an over of cricket in the garden with his grandson, and then set about reorganising the furniture in the conservatory. It was a common suspicion around Epsom that the silver Honda that he was so fond of driving was not in fact a car at all, it was Dr Who’s Tardis, so quickly he could travel through time and space to respond to people’s calls. From the family’s point of view Michael regularly sat down to start a meal but very rarely actually managed to finish it. When he did so do and share with the family in a meal the grandchildren of course would behave impeccably until Granddad decided to liven things up with his karate skills on the crisp bread. Monica suffered this for a long time. Her pleas of “Mike please stop it” resulted only in a wicked chuckle from Michael and the grandchildren rolling around helplessly with giggles all around. Family holidays, as you can imagine, when they happened involved very little lying on the beaches. Boats were navigated along the Norfolk Broads, caravans towed across Europe. Even here Michael would be found under the bonnet of a stranger’s car helping as always and employing his language skills in that peculiarly English way that when someone does not understand one shouts the louder.
So many new careers and areas of interest did Michael embark upon that Monica was given to certain trepidation when the announcement of the death of Pope John Paul was announced. Sadly for Michael but fortunately for Monica the phone call never came – though many people of course have referred to him as Holy Father. It came as no surprise to the family when Michael announced that he was to study for an honours degree in theology to study at Oxford at the age of 75 they weren’t quite sure whether to make him a don or to confer the degree upon him. Michael had that wonderful propensity to act the goat as Monica has always described it but this really fooled no-one. Michael did have an extraordinary thirst for knowledge, life experience and curiosity. He was a man who hid his intellect. He wouldn’t have claimed to be an academic. But that doesn’t mean at all that behind the smiles and the mirth there wasn’t a man who was capable of serious thought, contemplation and exploration. He thought deeply about his faith and of course took his responsibilities extremely seriously.
For many of you, you will now that Monica and Michael met through a church drama group. Michael was a Roman Catholic for many years and he grew up in a Roman Catholic church in Tottenham where of course he met Monica. He was yet again as Monica would say acting the goat directing a play but then sadly the leading man could no longer take the part on and of course Michael stepped in. And that, as they say, is how it goes. Michael stepped in; the two of them fell in love and had a long and happy marriage. 60 years, almost. Of course it’s perfectly clear that Michael could have achieved little without Monica being there by his side. She had a difficult job to fulfil because it fell to Monica to curb Michael’s excesses in certain ways and on this she had a full-time job. There were four children to bring up and of course the family grew and there were grandchildren and you know what the Whelton household was like. The family reflects in a moment of thoughts and sadness in a moment of commiseration with Epsom’s greengrocers for example. They, they know, will heave a collective sigh of relief as they realise finally local residents will need to buy from them their tomatoes. The weeds in the garden at 45 Wallace Fields will burst forth now with new vigour and the slugs who inhabit the garden are now breathing a sigh of relief and no longer have to skulk nervously in pairs on the verges of the garden. The family express that knowledge that Michael was a one-off.
Michael as we know too was not only in the Royal Navy; he had done many things. Chiefly and for most of his life he had been a lawyer. There was something rumple-esque about Michael, it has to be said. That didn’t mean that he was not a capable, shrewd and talented lawyer. He had spent many years in Lincolns Inn. Then he went on to build up his own practice. He worked with MENCAP as their legal adviser, and that, I know, was a huge pleasure to him. His legal advice has been received by many over the years and so often unlike many without a fee note attached. He gave of himself because he had it to give. So many people in this church and this circuit, indeed in this district and beyond, have benefited not only from Michael’s spiritual work but also the temporal acumen that he had as a lawyer. And so for that I know there are many people who are indebted who have had problems solved who have gone to Michael to seek advice and found a true friend but also a man of wisdom. But here was a man indeed who had integrity and could be trusted. The things spoken to Michael remained with Michael. But when you went to see and seek his advice there it would come. He was a man who knew himself was indeed comfortable in his own skin and the advice he gave, whether you choose to accept it or not, was always sound, always welcome, always gently given.
At an age when I suppose most people would be contemplating retirement, of course Michael decided that that wasn’t to be and for him of course retirement was not a word that came naturally, and had been almost removed from the dictionary because retirement if Michael’s life was not something he particularly relished. So in his 60s he found something new, something special, something that as a Christian already spoke to his very core. He was a Roman Catholic as we have said. He had been part of the community of the Roman Catholic Church here in Epsom but fortuitously for us Methodists he came under the careful eye of the Reverend Dr Peter Graves. Peter can’t be with us today, but I know his prayers and thoughts are very much with Monica, the family and all of us. And it was through, I suppose, Peter Graves’ prompting, the support of one such as Donald English that Michael set upon a certain path. He trained as a local preacher under the tutelage of Rev Glyn Lister and I know that for those who shared that particular period of training Michael’s presence added a certain puissance to the meeting. His experience of secular life, his deep faith and his curiosity was part and parcel of that foundation in preaching that the Methodist Church invests in their people.
Then, of course, he candidated as a Methodist minister, became immersed in the life of this church that through the support of Peter Graves and many, many others besides he grew in stature and in the commitment to the ministry to which he was called. Having candidated and successfully done so he went through training and as we understand even at the age of 75 such was his mind that he obtained his bachelor of theology from Oxford University, and not just a simple pass degree, he managed it with honours. He was ordained into the Methodist ministry at the Conference at Cardiff in 1990. Monica said it was somewhere in Wales but Cardiff was where it actually was. From then on he practised his ministry in this place. This, to a greater extent was his spiritual home now and he relished it and he loved it. And as much as he loved this place, and though he did many things and those who are part of Care and Share and numerous other activities that Michael sponsored here, his work was really as a hospital chaplain. That’s where he found his grounding. That’s where he found that he had his perfect niche. That’s where he became known to so many at times of difficulty, at times of stress, at times of bereavement or bad news, so often it was Michael who in the middle of the night was called out whether he was on duty or not and never ever was Michael found to be wanting in his commitment to the hospital.
So many of you have come here this afternoon because you can pay testimony to the way Michael was with patients and staff alike. When I first came here as a minister Michael was delighted to take me round EGH. He said he had to go and pray with a patient before they went into surgery and I thought we would be heading for the ward, but burst into the operating theatre as Michael did, I though very soon after a surgeon or somebody would throw him out by his ear. But, no, straight into the anaesthetic room he went and prayed with the patient and the staff in there. I was quite bemused really because I though that they may have objected. But they took it all in good part because I suppose by now the doors bursting open and the Reverend Michael being there was not an unusual occurrence. He prayed with the patient, smiled and walked away. I said to Michael “I just don’t know how you got away with that” and he just looked at me, smiled, and said they wouldn’t dare stop me. We heard from Dr Robb earlier on in the service that he has written this. I want to share it with you because it’s his testimony to Michael’s ministry in the life of the hospital.
“Michael Whelton died at intensive care at Epsom General Hospital on June 2nd. Perhaps that was appropriate for it was at that place to which he had devoted so much time and spiritual energy as a hospital chaplain. His ministry encompassed those of all faiths and none, but all of us, staff, friends, patients and relatives somehow felt the calming power of his presence and appreciated his care and concern. He was very special as a hospital chaplain, not one to sit in an office he walked the wards and the corridors early in the morning. This could be quite a time-consuming activity as he would know most of the people he met and also their problems. He was a superb chaplain in so many ways. He recognised theatre staff and particularly those in the front line in accident and emergency and in intensive care were working sometimes under extreme pressure and he did all he could to help them. As one staff nurse on ITU said to me, “On the day of his death he was a lovely man. We could call on him at any time of day or night and he would come. The patient could be a Catholic, an Anglican, and a Protestant; it made no difference at all to Michael. He never let us down.” Michael maintained the highest professional standards in every way and, of course, he will be sadly missed. “For my part” as Dr Robb says, “as a physician, I would sometimes tell him of patients that needed his help much more than mine and so too he never let me down.”
We mourn his passing. We have lost both a friend and a pastor. It always struck me that with Michael at the hospital there you had someone who truly had been placed by God because chaplaincy was like breathing to him. He could get alongside people with that enviable knack of just being there at the right moment, having those right words just to be able to say, to speak to the people in a language they could understand, to use humour and wit, though it has to be said whether Michael’s humour or wit could be described as such is a debatable thing. But he had the words. He was the right man in the right place. And I know how jealously he guarded and cared for and looked after the people under his care. Dr Robb is quite right when he says that it’s appropriate that Michael died in intensive care because that’s whether in the hospital or in the church or in so many other places (and let it not be forgotten that Michael was involved with a special school, with MENCAP, with the Queen Elizabeth’s Foundation, with the Metropolitan Police, with really, if you look at the list, it’s Uncle Tom Cobley and all).
He was involved and gave freely of his time and unstinting effort. If Michael died in intensive care, the type of Christianity as a minister that Michael practised was intensive Christian care. And that he gave to the utmost. John Wesley’s words that don’t go to those who need you but go to those who need you most were most appropriate to Michael’s ministry. As we reflect on Michael’s ministry here I think it can be said without any offence to Michael who I’m sure is tuned in now. As he’s tuned in I suspect he would be reasonably embarrassed. He’d wonder possibly how the hospital could be continuing with so many of you folk here and would say to me “don’t keep them longer than you must.” But as Michael tunes in, even though he was not a man to whom fuss came naturally, I’m sure he will be pleased that so many have come by to pay tribute to that ministry.
It was here, not so much as a preacher but as a pastor that he exercised his ministry. His preaching had its own quirkiness and there was always the inevitable visual-aid that he brought along with him. With relief I have to say I’m glad none of them are with us this afternoon. On one occasion after a service Michael was stood at the door of the church to say cheerio to people and one of the congregation came up to Michael and said “That was awful, I couldn’t hear a thing.” Donald English who was standing nearby nodded his head and said “Yes, I could and it was truly awful.” As Donald and Michael sit there this afternoon playing their harps together in that great synod of Methodist ministers in heaven, I just hope Donald is taking care of him.
There is also too that side of Michael that we didn’t always see – the tired side, the times when, you know, he had just about let the batteries run down. But it was there too that he found the depth of his faith and our reading from Ephesians spoke of that a little earlier. He was a great supporter of many people particularly in the life of ministry of Rob Frost and Easter People. When I was at the superintendents’ course just the other day there were so many there who remember Michael and his prayerful ministry at Easter People and of course beyond that. He’d served here under various superintendents. David Coote who was the superintendent of this circuit a number of years ago sadly cannot be with us today but has asked me to express to Monica and the family and all of you his sincere condolences and his fond memories of working with Michael, of the fun and the good times that they enjoyed together, of his colleagueship and being part of that happy band of brothers and sisters who are Methodist ministers.
The first time I met Michael Whelton was when I came for my interview here as a very young callow youth a few years ago – well, not that few. Michael was sitting on the interview panel and said not a word during the course of the proceedings until right at the very end he looked at me in the eye and said, “We have been looking forward to a really good probationer coming to this church, sadly we’ve got you.” I’ve always enjoyed Michael’s ministry of affirmation and over the years we’ve teased each other unmercifully. And that has been good. Michael has served this circuit professionally if we can use such a word, but he has. He has been a minister here, but not only here. His willingness to be flexible, to take up a challenge knew no bounds.
He became the minister in pastoral charge at Cheam Methodist Church and there I know his ministry was deeply appreciated. Michael was himself, comfortable in his own skin, a man who told it as it was. There were times in his ministry where he received criticism and Michael was always robust in the defence, not pompously, not arrogantly, but honestly and with integrity. That he did so with a loving kindness. And where those stood in his way where he perceived Christ was calling, with that loving kindness and charity he would speak to people in that gentle way to let them know that if they impede the will of Christ Jesus, Michael would have no truck with it.
And so there were time there were those who found Michael at times a little challenging, but in his challenging, he challenged in the love of Christ and it was never in his own strength or for his own self-importance. He had a good ministry in the life of that church. He encouraged. He prayed with. He stood along side. He laughed with and he cried with. He hoped for and was with the people in that place. And what he gave was immeasurably more of himself than ever he could have known.
Not only as at Cheam, but also at Banstead where he enjoyed the fellowship there with the people and they too loved him. So for the time he was there I know there are many who will give thanks for the presence of that man in the life of that church. At Great Tattenhams as well with similar sentiments, to those across the circuit, for those in the district, all who owe an immeasurable debt for the presence of Michael Whelton.
And that’s why so many of you are here today. This service in some respects is not just about Michael. It’s all about you. You all have your individual stories to tell and the stories of Michael need to be told because his legacy is that of living an authentic Christian life. That in that authenticity there was Christ. In that living for Christ there was power. In that power there was humility. And in that humility the Holy Spirit worked.
The depth and breadth of Michael’s ministry has touched so many. The power of his presence was a little glimpse of the Kingdom of God. For Michael has been a servant of the Servant King and that is something in which he rejoiced. So for his work as a lawyer, for his ministry as a Methodist minister, for his presence as a man of integrity, loyalty and depth, we give thanks. For his love of wife and family we are touched. We cherish it and we acknowledge it before God.
And all of this we return to the God who gave us Michael in the first place, with unending praise, with deep thanks and joy in our hearts.
In the Name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
Amen
PRAYERS
Revd Sarah Sewell, Chaplain for Epsom and St Helier National Health Trust
And so we come now to do something that Michael was wonderful at, and that is praying and being with each other in prayer. And so, let us pray.
At the beginning of these few moments, I want us to spend a while in quietness, so that we can bring our own personal and private prayers before our God, or our own personal and private thoughts of Michael and his life and what he meant to each one of us. So let’s have a moment or two in quiet.
Silence
Father God, we bless You that in bearing Your image Michael has brought light into our lives. For we have seen in his friendship reflections of Your compassion; in his integrity demonstrations of your goodness; in his faithfulness glimpses of Your eternal love. Father God we give You thanks for Michael and all that he means to each one of us, whether as friend, or father, whether as husband or patient. We thank You for what you’ve given us through him. In Jesus’ Name. Amen
Eternal God, in Your hands are the souls of the living and the spirits of all of us. We turn to You in grief as well as in joy for Your mercy is always with us and Your love and truth support us at all times. Though at times we walk through the valley of the shadow of death, we fear no harm, for You are beside us, Your rod and staff they comfort us.
Lord, Michael has gone from us. In Your mercy bear him life everlasting. May the memory of his life and his good deeds bring blessing and comfort to those who mourn for him. May it give all of us courage and strength to continue bravely in our daily lives trusting You in our hearts.
God of mercy, help those who mourn and comfort them in their grief. Lighten their darkness and console them in their sorrow. It is said that as a mother comforts her child so will I Myself comfort you.
And so we ask for Your help in our memories, in our joys, in our laughter when remembering Michael. We ask that in those moments in the darkness of the night when we feel the grief worst that we would know Your love reaching out to touch us, to be alongside us, to enfold us, because we ask this in the Name and for the sake of Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.
And so we pray together that wonderful prayer that Jesus taught us:
Our Father, Who art in heaven
Hallowed be Thy name
Thy Kingdom come
Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven
Give us this day our daily bread
And forgive us our trespasses
As we forgive those who trespass against us
And lead us not into temptation
But deliver us from evil
For Thine is the Kingdom, the power and the glory
For ever and ever. Amen.
HYMN
O Lord my God! when I in awesome wonder
Consider all the works Thy hand hath made,
I see the stars, I hear the mighty thunder,
The power throughout the universe displayed;
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
Then sings my soul, my Saviour God, to Thee,
How great Thou art, how great Thou art!
When through the woods and forest glades I wander
And hear the birds sing sweetly in the trees;
When I look down from lofty mountain grandeur,
And hear the brook, and feel the gentle breeze;
And when I think that God His Son not sparing,
Sent him to die - I scarce can take it in,
That on the cross my burden gladly bearing,
He bled and died to take away my sin:
When Christ shall come with shout of acclamation
And take me home - what joy shall fill my heart!
Then shall I bow in humble adoration
And there proclaim, my God, how great Thou art!
Russian hymn Tr. Stuart K. Hine
FINAL BLESSING
Now most merciful God, grant to the living, grace, to the departed, rest, and to the world, peace, and to us and all the faithful, life everlasting.
And now but remains the blessing of God, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, be with us all, both now and for ever. Amen.
EXIT MUSIC
jesu joy of man's desiring by J.S. Bach
Michael's family would like to thank everyone for coming today. We have held a private family committal earlier today so that we can be present at the church after the service to greet as many of you as possible.
Thank you too for all your kind wishes and for your support at this difficult time.
You are invited to join us for refreshments in the church hall after the service and to sign the books of condolence.
Particular thanks go to all at: Staff at Epsom and St Helier Trust, Epsom Methodist Church,
Longhurst Undertakers, Epsom and Randalls Park Crematoriumwho have given so freely of their time and services.
We are so grateful to Randalls Park Crematorium for planning a memorial garden in Michael's name.
I am delighted to let you know that £927.05 was given at Michael Whelton's memorial service for the RNLI Royal National Lifeboat Institution. A further £210 has already been received from later donations and the Undertakers have further gifts currently totalling £625.
All this comes to £1,762.05.