The Rev John Kennedy

I also like the spirit in which we do things here. The spirit of the Aldershot fellowship is best represented in the qualities that we found and admired in Derek Morgan, whose life we celebrate at his funeral service on Tuesday 8th April. He was a very special kind of man-thoughtful, caring and gentle. He was also more of a fun loving person than most of us realised! Derek's passing at Easter recalls for us the hope of eternal life that God gives us.

The event of the Resurrection was so unexpected and so unbelievable that it took the disciples some time to realise what had happened. The disciples expected Jesus to re-establish the Jewish State, just as the Hebrew Scriptures proclaimed so often. Something quite different happened- the creation of a universal and eternal community that recognises and celebrates its risen Lord.

So it is no wonder that it took the Church a generation to understand what God had done in such an extraordinary way. It's best summed up in the first Epistle of Peter, who says what nearly all New Testament writers say. They proclaim that the death and resurrection of Christ are central to God's purpose from before Creation, as much part of the natural order as light or gravity. For God, people are that important.

But the outcome of this cosmic event is simple and equally astonishing. it is that we must be "obedient to the truth and purified until you can love like sisters and brothers, with a love for each other that is real and from the heart."