29th November, 2020.
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My dear friends,

 The Order of St John is best known in England for running St John Ambulance. However, since 1882 the Order has also run St John Eye Hospital in Jerusalem. This is a Christian foundation which offers eye care to Christian, Muslim and Jewish patients, irrespective of their religion, ethnicity or ability to pay. 30% of patients are children aged under 18. As well as being your county chaplain, I am also the representative in Essex of St John Eye Hospital.

     In addition to running the eye hospital in Jerusalem, the Order of St John runs another eye hospital in Gaza City, clinics at Anabta and Hebron, and a number of travelling eye-clinics which go out to treat patients in the countryside. The work of St John Eye Hospital is heavily dependent upon donations. Everything is run on a shoe string, and St John boasts that of every pound it receives, 8 pence goes on administration and 92 pence goes on eye care (not all charities can say that).

The Coronavirus pandemic has had a dramatic impact upon the work of our eye hospital. Israel and Palestine have twice been placed under ‘lockdown.’ In Gaza City, where things are tough enough at the best of times, the death rate from Covid-19 has been very high. Electricity has been restricted to three hours per day and fuel oil is scarce.

The hospital staff has gone above and beyond the call of duty, but because of the lockdown, they have for the most part only been able to treat emergency cases. It is estimated that during the first lockdown, 18,000 patients missed appointments and 1,200 major sight-saving surgeries were cancelled. The doctors and nurses realize that there is likely to be a huge back-log of patients when they finally re-open after the pandemic, and tragically for some patients it may be too late.

The Coronavirus pandemic has had a major impact upon the finances of St John Eye Hospital. There is a deficit of £1.5 million which is expected to grow to £1.8 million, and the hospital needs to raise £700,000 for its work with children this year. There is an immediate and urgent need to raise £500,000 to get St John Eye Hospital through the next few months.

Could I appeal to everyone in Essex who has a connection with St John to rally round and support our eye hospital in this difficult time. I fully realize we have all had a very tough year with Coronavirus and we have many calls on our wallets and purses, but our problems pale into insignificance compared with the problems faced by people in Gaza City or the poorer parts of Israel that the tourists never see. To set the £500,000 urgently needed in context: £15 will pay for three bottles of post-operational eye-drops, £100 will fund laser treatment for diabetic retinopathy, and £2,000 will pay for a set of lenses to examine children’s eyes in the paediatric clinic.

May I appeal directly to you to send something to St John Eye Hospital this Christmas: it will be the best Christmas present we give anyone this year. No amount is too small, and every penny we can spare will help. Cheques should be made payable to ‘St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group’ and sent to St John of Jerusalem Eye Hospital Group, 4 Charterhouse Mews, London, EC1M 6BB. Alternatively, if you give your cheque to me, I will see that it gets there.

Another pleasant way of supporting our eye hospital is to buy its Christmas cards. There are six different attractive Christmas cards available this year in packs of ten, price £5.00 including delivery. There are available from the online shop at the hospital’s website: Click Here

​​With my prayers and all good and warm wishes,

The Rev. Dr ROBERT BEAKEN, County Chaplain
ADVENT SUNDAY – 29th NOVEMBER 2020
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Gospel: St Mark, chapter 13, verses 24-3
I don’t know if you remember, but a few years ago there was a most tragic railway crash in North Yorkshire. The driver of a Landrover fell asleep at the wheel. His vehicle came off the road, down a railway embankment and onto the railway line, precipitating a crash which involved two trains.
All of us who drive motor cars can immediately picture what must have happened, and we know the vital importance of keeping awake at the steering wheel: drowsiness kills. This message – keep awake – might easily sum up today’s Gospel reading.
 
Keep awake, therefore, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming. But understand this: if the owner of the house had known in what part of the night the thief was coming, he would have stayed awake and would not have let his house be broken into. Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an unexpected hour.
 
Jesus is here referring to his Second Coming at the end of time. We say in the Creed: ‘He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead, and his kingdom will have no end.’ We none of us know when this Second Coming will happen, nor indeed, the hour of our death, when we shall meet Jesus Christ, our most just judge; but we do know it will happen one day, for Jesus tells us repeatedly in the Gospels.

            It is traditional in the season of Advent which begins today for Christians to ponder our own mortality. But I suspect that these words of Jesus with their call to keep awake also have another meaning for us. The best way to prepare for death and the day of judgement is to live life to the full, consciously sharing it with God, and taking advantage of the many opportunities that God sends us to serve Him and to grow in faith. If our human life on earth has its sad and difficult times, life is nonetheless a most wonderful gift, to be enjoyed, and also a great opportunity to good and be creative. At the end of our lives, we Christians should like it said that we did something with our years on earth and didn’t just fritter away our time. The danger, though, is that we may all overlook and miss the opportunities that God sends us.

            We all need routine, for routine is healthy for human beings. Unlike chaos, routine enables us to grow. But there is a danger that our routine may turn into a rut. We can become stale. We can end up doing the same old things, over and over again. Our Christian vision can become limited. What fed our souls once, feeds them no longer, because we have changed. “Keep awake!” Jesus calls out to us, “look where you’re going, or rather where you’re not going.” We may need to do something to blow away the cobwebs: perhaps we need to try praying at a different time of the day; try some new Bible notes or a new devotional book; go to confession; go on a retreat, a quiet day; take part in a parish mission.

            God sends us many opportunities to serve Him, many signs of His love for us, many little nudges to guide us in the right direction, each and every day. “Keep awake” says Jesus, “or you may miss them.” It is all too easy for us to think that God speaks to other people, never to us. They do all the glamorous things, not us. We just bumble along. Well, of course, that is not true. We must look out for God in our lives day by day, and have a high and confident expectation. God has high hopes for each of us.

            The four weeks before Christmas have become very hectic in recent decades as we all rush around, trying to find the perfect Christmas presents, cook the perfect Christmas dinner, be the perfect family. Covid-19 may change things a little; but not, I suspect, by very much. The advertising people continue to suggest that we shall be made happy by food and presents, and we pretend to believe them; but deep in our inner hearts we realise that this is not true. True happiness comes from recognising the real meaning of Christmas: the birth of a baby who was the Son of God. Let us try to spend a little time over the next four weeks pondering the significance of Christ’s birth for us and our lives.

“Keep awake,” Jesus insistently urges us.