Rector's Letter - October 2002

 My dear friends,

 I'm currently labouring over my speech for Arnhem, the first half is to be delivered in Dutch.  I stare at the words on the page, each one looking like a losing hand at Scrabble.  I wonder how on earth all these strange arrangements of consonants and vowels are meant to come out.  I sit and practice at the computer and pause regularly to clean the screen of the deposits my guttural attempts at speech leave there.

 I am well coached it must be said.  Eileen & Tony Sargeant lived in the Netherlands for many years, and Eileen has worked hard at making me at least sound like I understand what I am trying to say.  So as I pack my bag to leave you for the weekend, let me share with you too the words I shall be saying on those battlefields of Holland:

 "Idere jaar, ben ik de eerste man uit de vliegtuig te springer…" hang on, perhaps I'd better give it you in the English version:

 "Each year at Arnhem I am the first man to jump out of the aircraft.  Three hundred follow me.  As I stand at the door and look out on the beautiful Dutch countryside a few hundred feet below, I always say a few words of prayer. Usually something like "Oh God please help me!"  I won't be the only one praying.  When we jump everyone is a believer!

Fifty eight years ago, many men must have said similar prayers. Today we honour them, and perhaps we also say a few words of prayer ourselves.  Life always stands on the edge of the unknown.  And in a world where battles must still sometimes be fought and where the outcomes are far from certain, I think that simple prayer is much the best:  "Oh God please help us".

I shall certainly teach it to the men I jump with, but I think perhaps they know it by heart already!"

 Jeff Cuttell.

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