I notice in my diary that next Monday is listed as Spring Bank Holiday but no reference is made to the traditional Christian religious festival of Whitsun.

Older readers, especially those from North and South Wales, will remember Whit Walks, when Sunday schools would walk in procession through their towns, often finishing up with a tea-and-a-bun fight.

It was for one of these Whit Walks the well-known hymn "Onward Christian Soldiers" was written.

The Church still celebrates the significance of Whitsuntide by calling it Pentecost and this is also a feast of the Jewish community, who celebrate the Spring Harvest Festival and, in this country, the giving of the law (the Torah).

The name Whitsun comes from the early Church when candidates for baptism wore white garments - hence White Sunday or Whit Sunday.

The significance of Whit Sunday or Pentecost is it commemorates the coming of the Holy Spirit and the birth of the Christian Church.

Christmas and Easter may be regarded as past historical events with little meaning today but Pentecost is a reminder that God is alive and working today.

We see evidence of this in our own city where, in spite of church closures and, in the case of some churches, declining congregations, Christianity is alive and well, for there are other churches which are alive, active and full of people of all ages.

The homeless are cared for in the St Patrick's night-shelter and, on the Knoll estate and in the Elm Drive area, we have been helped not only by our parish churches but also by members of The Church of Christ The King who, last summer, helped us with our gardens and did odd jobs in our homes free of charge.

They also ran an Alpha course in conjunction with the Goldstone Church where we have been able to enquire about Christianity and the general meaning of life.

At these courses we have been served with a delicious two-course meal, all free of charge.

These things are only part of the work the Christian church is doing in our own city and show a vibrant community which has its roots in the coming of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost, or Whitsun.

That is something for all of us to celebrate.

-Reverend John Webster, Hove