... no, not from the day WW1 was delcared, but the birth of respected Baptist minister, college Principal and theologian R E O White was born... his date of birth was 4th August 1914, the day war was declared.

Back in the day, when I was a ministerial student (as we were then called) I worked in a church where one of the members was one George Farr, then in his nineties, the former Principal of Manchester Baptist College before its merger with Rawdon to form Northern and a respected OT scholar with a love of Deuteronomy.  I used to amuse me to hear him speak of "Freddie Bruce" and "Reggie White", scholars we knew only as FF and REO respectively.

On my shelves I have a number of REO White's books and pamphlets - but back then I'd never have imagined that I'd serve the church where his widow is still a member all these years on.

As the old hymn says "time like an ever rolling stream will bear us all away" (20th century inclusivised version) and for most people REO White (and George Farr for that matter) are just names on the covers of dusty tomes in college libraries.  But behind those names are men who laughed and cried, who toiled over sermons and spent hours in prayer, who listened to the heart cries of church folk and who spoke their minds on occasion.  My fleeting contact with George Farr, and longer contact with REO's wife and daughter have been a privilege and a blessing for which I am very grateful.

One hundred years on from the birth of REO White, who knows which future ministers may have been born, women and men who will take the baton on into another new century long after we have all been forgotten (except, of course, by God)