THE CHURCH NEWSLETTER Emerald/Fernlees Uniting Church Cnr. Borilla & Yamala Sts., Emerald www.emeraldunitingchurch.org.au 30TH MAY & 6TH JUNE Minister:Jim Pearson th 49 Yamala St., Emerald Jim’s Jottings 30 May 2021. PH: 49821405 The Rev Wilbert Awdry (1911-1997) first penned Thomas the Tank Engine Mobile: 0408756364 Email:
[email protected] in 1945. www.emeraldunitingchurch Excerpted from a story in The Guardian, 23rd May 2015, by Joanna Moorhead. .org.au Image: A Thomas the Tank Engine themed JNR Class C11 train in Japan, 2014. Wikipedia commons licence. Christopher Awdry doesn’t re- member having measles – he Mission Statement was only two at the time (1945). As Followers of But he does know, from family Christ we seek to legend, that he was already a know Him:worship railway enthusiast, like his fa- Him and share His ther and grandfather. So it was love with all people entirely predictable that, during his brush with measles, his fa- ther would entertain him with stories about trains; stories Regular Meetings Christopher enjoyed so much st that they continued when he was 1 Sunday: Bring & share lunch after restored to health. “Father used church to tell them to me every night,” 3rd Tuesday: he says. “But they were never Church Council/ exactly the same and I was a Worship & Pastoral stickler for detail.” That is why Care Meeting at the his father, Wilbert Awdry, wrote Church office the stories down. Thomas the Tank Engine was born. The family home was near the Brunel-designed Box Tunnel in Wiltshire, England. Wilbert would lie in bed at night, listening to the trains puffing up the incline, imagine their personalities and hear them Lam 3: 22-23 egging one another on.