Wednesday 28 September 2011

Beryl the Methodist

I've had a lot of Beaker people ask me about our use of Beryl pottery. It's a strange thing to ask so I've been ignoring them or, where possible, throwing a nigh-on unbreakable saucer at them. But enough's enough. So here you go.
1) We use Beryl because it reminds me of my Methodist heritage. Whenever a new Methodist fellowship was founded, John Wesley used to send them a crateload of Beryl as a foundation present. 250 years later, most of it is still going.
2) Beryl is uniquely suited to drinking cheap instant coffee.
3) My great-aunt was called Beryl.
4) We've always drunk coffee out of Beryl cups and we're not going to stop now.
5) It's incredibly resilient (see (1) and (2), above).
6) What are you, some kind of heretic or something?
7) That the tea service at the Last Supper was in Beryl is a fact as indisputable as the Grail legend itself.
8) If the Beryl goes, I go.
9) There's loads of it around second-hand. Basically there's more on the market every time a church, nursing home or humanist association closes.
And in closing, I pass on this Methodist joke.
Q) How many Methodists does it take to change a light-bulb.
B) Depends how many Methodists are on the Light Bulb Committee. And how many are on the sub-committee they task with deciding whether the bulb needs changing. And the people on the sub-committee charged with doing the actual changing. Although you have to subtract all the people that on all all three committees - which may well be all of them.

1 comment :

  1. I am happy to report we have lots of Beryl pottery, and some of it is still in use. Some of it simply fills up valuable cupboard space.

    As for the light bulb we do hope the sub-committee bring a proposal to Church Council soon using candles is not only tiresome some say it is papist and that won't do!

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