My Big Grandad

My Big Grandad, Walter Harris, was a Methodist Local Preacher.

Born in 1901, married in 1925 and died 1988. Father of three, Grandfather to five, Great Grandfather to ten and alive for the first 6 weeks of my life.
He was a Baptist by birth but married into a Methodist family. He lived and preached in Burton-on-Trent, and worked as a Brewery Clerk.

A few years ago his daughter (my Granny) passed on his preaching notes to me. I have lots of small pieces of paper with hymn numbers on, many hand written notes and orders of service (including who did which reading which often included my Granny and her Sister) dating from the 1930s to 1980s and best of all his typed up sermons.

As with any sermon writer there are occasional short hands, mentions to what is happening at the time and language that we might not recognise today. As I've typed them up I've tried to keep as close to the original, though sometimes his hand written notes have not been easy to decipher. I've added the dates I think they were written or used when possible.

He often preached from just one verse or took a bigger theme, some are based on hymns and others include poetry or images from Winnie the Pooh. Do check out his World War Two Beatitudes sermons before he volunteered to join the army.

I hope you find nuggets of wisdom, ideas to riff off and snapshots of Methodist history.

Walter Harris' Great Grand Daughter, Rach.