AM the resurrection and the life, sayeth the Lord: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: and whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die.  (John xi. 25-26)

 E brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.  The Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.  (1 Tim. vi.7,  Job i.21)

Psalm 90

ORD, thou hast been our refuge: from one generation to another.
Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever the earth and the world were made: thou art God from everlasting, and world without end.

Thou turnest man to destruction: again thou sayest, Come again you children of men.  For a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday: seeing that is past as a watch in the night.
As soon as thou scatterest them, they are even as a sleep: and fade away suddenly  like the grass.

In the morning it is green, and groweth up: but in the evening it is cut down, dried up, and withered.  For we consume away in thy displeasure: and are afraid at thy wrathful indignation.
 Thou hast set our misdeeds before thee: and our secret sins in the light of thy countenance

For when thou art angry all our days are gone: we bring our years to an end, as it were a tale that is told.The days of our age are three score years and ten; and though men be so strong, that they come to fourscore years: yet is their strength then but labour and sorrow; so soon passeth away, and we are gone.

But who regardeth the power of thy wrath: for even thereafter as a man feareth, so is thy displeasure.O teach us to number our days: that we me apply our hearts onto wisdom.  Turn thee again, O Lord, at the last: and be gracious unto thy servants.  O satisfy us with thy mercy, and that soon: so shall we rejoice and be glad all the days of our life.

Comfort us again now after the time that thou hast plagued us: and for the years wherein we have suffered adversity.  Show thy servants thy work: and their children thy glory.  And the glorious majesty of the Lord our God be upon us: prosper thou the work of our hands upon us, O prosper thou our handiwork.

Glory be to God most high.  As it was in the beginning is now, and ever shall be: world without end.  Artenn.

ENNY found particular comfort in some of the words of Psalm 91 and even made a small pottery sculpture incorporating Psalm 91, the symbol of the feathers enveloping a cross, somehow keeping her safe.  She really was a gentle soul.  This sculpture was from a time in 1975 when she was ill in the Yorkshire Dales
 

Psalm 91 vs 1-9

HOSO dwelleth under the defence of the most High: shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.  I will say unto the Lord, Thou art my hope, and my stronghold: my God in him will I trust.  For he shall deliver thee from the snare of a hunter: and from the noisome pestilence.

He shall defend thee under his wings, and thou shalt be safe under his feathers: his faithfulness and truth shall be thy shield and buckler.  Thou shall not be afraid of any terror by night: nor for the arrow that flieth by day;

For the pestilence that walketh in darkness: nor for the sickness that destroyeth in the noon-day.A thousand shall fall beside thee, and ten thousand at thy right hand: but it shall not come nigh thee.

Yea with thine eyes shalt thou behold: and see the reward of the ungodly.For thou Lord art my hope.  Thou hast set thine house of defence very high. 

RIAN was first drawn to The Lost Chord in 2002.  He and Jenny wanted to go out to something together and Jenny saw an advert in the local paper asking for singers for the South Auckland Choral Society.  One day in October, someone mentioned The Lost Chord to Brian during a phone conversation about The Holy City.  A couple of days later Brian found a record with it on and then two days later heard it in the middle of a hymns cassette on the very morning they were to attend their first choral church service.  The organ had long appealed to Brian, symbolising as it does the voice of God, with its enormous range.  It can be gentle, when required yet at other times have such incredible power, but always precision. And somehow ‘all the perplexed meanings’, all the strange coincidences did fit into ‘one perfect piece’. But it was in those last days both at home and in the Hospice that The Lost Chord  seemed to be again emphasised to them both.  Perhaps it was because they both knew that Death’s bright Angel was drawing close for Jenny. 

And on that first Saturday in the Hospice, Jenny had a lovely spa bath.  There was a hoist which they could use to lower her in or lift her out.  It was so sad that she had finally become so incredibly weak.   As Jenny relaxed in the bath looking at the sunny vista of the botanical gardens, Brian noticed a cassette player and a pile of tapes.  Most were opera but one had a variety of tenor songs.  He noticed that The Holy City was at the start of the first side and The Lost Chord at the end of the second.  So he realised he could play The Holy City and turn  it over to play The Lost Chord without lots of rewinding.  However, instead it played the song before The Lost Chord - I dream of Jeannie with the light brown hair.  That was when Jenny told Brian how fifty-odd years earlier her grandmother Nancy had sung it to her as I dream of Jenny with the light brown hair.  There was so much about Jenny that Brian still didn’t know even after twenty five years.    And that was why the men carried Jenny in today to I dream of Jenny with the light brown hair.    And that came out of The Lost Chord.

The words of The Lost Chord are by Adelaide Proctor, but for many years there was no music which seemed to fit. Arthur Sullivan, of Gilbert and Sullivan fame, had tried several times before, but only found the tune coming to him as his brother lay dying.  It is a good example of God’s inspiration at precisely the right time, inspiration being particularly strong around death..

A young neighbour, who often came to chat to Jenny as she beavered away in her garden, wanted  to sing something today.  Patrick Smith felt it was the last thing he could do for Jenny.  So Patrick will now sing The Lost Chord, accompanied by the organ, naturally.

 The Lost Chord                                 

EATED one day at the organ,  I was weary and ill at ease
And my fingers wandered idly,  over the noisy keys                    Play Tune The Lost Chord
I know not what I was playing or what I was dreaming then,
But I struck one chord of music like the sound of a great Artenn,
Like the sound of a great Artenn.
 
It flooded the crimson twilight, like the close of an angel’s psalm
It lay on my fevered spirit like a touch of infinite balm
It quieted pain and sorrow like love overcoming strife
It seemed the  harmonious echo of our discordant life
It linked all perplexed meanings into one perfect piece
And trembled away into silence,  as if it were loathe to cease. 
I have sought but I seek it vainly, that lost chord divine
Which came from the soul of the organ, and entered into mine.

It may be that Death’s bright Angel will speak in that chord again
It may be that only in heaven I shall hear that grand Artenn
It may be that Death’s bright Angel will speak in that chord again
It may be that only in heaven I shall hear that grand Artenn.
 

Address by Brian Cocksey 

Finding Destiny and Purpose in Jenny’s Life and Death

Second Hymn   Nearer, my God, to thee,   To Bethany      Play Tune Bethany

EARER, my God, to thee,
Nearer to thee!
Even though it be a light
That raiseth me
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to Thee
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee!’
 
Though, like the wanderer,
The sun gone down,
Darkness comes over me,
My rest a stone;
Yet in my dreams I’d be
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee’
 
Then let my way appear,
Steps up to heaven;
All that thou sendest me
In mercy given;
Angels to beckon me
Nearer, my God, to Thee
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee
 
Or, if on joyful wing
Cleaving the sky,
Sun, moon and stars forgot,
Upwards I fly,
Still all my song shall be,
Nearer, my God, to Thee
Nearer, my God, to Thee,
Nearer to Thee
 
Sarah Fuller Adams (1805-48)                      
 

Closing Prayer  - Celebrant 

 GOD, from whom all holy desires, all good councils and all just works do proceed; give unto thy servants that peace which the world cannot give; that both our hearts may be set to obey thy commandments, and also that by Thee we  being defended from the fear of our enemies may spend our time in rest and quietness.  Almighty Father , hear our prayer we beseech thee.

 
Recessional  -  Go Now in Peace 

HIS is a recording made in the Selwyn Chapel in Papakura on 13^th October, 2002.  It was a special 1662 Evensong service to mark the 140^th anniversary of the old church.  Holy Trinity Anglican church like most Anglican churches now did not have a choir, just a music group.  So, Brian and Jenny sang in the small choir put together  specially for  this service.  It was  the only time they ever sang in an Anglican choir, although the old Anglican church was the nearest place they ever had to a spiritual home. .Brian had already discussed with Jenny using this anthem here in this service.  It was such a very strange coincidence, that Flo,  the nursewho was helping Brian at the moment Jenny died, closed Jenny’s eyes and then said the words ‘Go now in peace!  She had to have been inspired by God at that moment.  In that and many other ways it was a sign to Brian that Flo had been meant to be the nurse on duty that night.  Flo was on ‘permanent nights’ , but he later discovered that the night Jenny died had been her last shift before a month-long holiday. Nurses are very variable.  Some are good, some are not.  Brian and Jenny had found so often in those many visits to Auckland City Hospital, that when Jenny needed a really good nurse, when it really mattered, a good nurse was on her ward on that shift.  That last night in the hospice, Brian needed Flo at least as much as Jenny had, before she went to the light.

 Go Now in Peace  

 O now in peace, never be afraid
God will go with you each hour of every day.
Go now in faith, steadfast strong and true
Know he will guide you in all that you do
Go now in love and show you believe
Reach out to others so all the world can see
God will be there, watching from above
Go now in peace, in faith and in love.
 

Refreshments

EFRESHMENTS will be available in the Church Hall after the service.  Please join us and remember Jenny and her love of life which never failed her despite her eight year struggle with cancer.  She was a shining light to us all.

 Burial

ENNY’S burial will take place at Purewa Cemetary,  Meadowbank .  She has a beautiful plot looking down a little valley, with old graves ahead and, naturally, an obelisk behind.  All around are deciduous trees, now  cloaked in red and gold, so reminiscent of the English autumn she so loved. It is so peaceful, disturbed just occasionally by a train passing in the middle distance.  Brian was led to the site last Friday, rather akin to the way Akhenaten was led to the site for his city, Akhutarten.  God’s hand, the hand of Artenn, is always there when you really need Him.

 The Cortège will depart for Purewa after the refreshments

 21^st April 2009 - 12:31:26 a.m.

Burial Service

at

Purewa Cemetary

Auckland

 At  1.30pm  on  21^st April, 2009

Remembering

The Plains of Heaven, the Celestial City

and the Rivers of Bliss