10. Vicar of St. John's, Blackheath

I was instituted to St. John's on Tuesday, November 23rd 1948 by the Bishop of Woolwich, and our furniture was delivered the next day. To make a downstairs study for myself I had to throw out old parish furniture, and David Stephen, the excellent curate I inherited, helped me with a bonfire in the garden. He was an Irishman from Belfast, an ex London City Missioner, and about my own age. His wife Lily was an excellent cook, and his two daughters were round about Dorothy's age. David was an enormous help to me in those difficult days of settling in. The house situation was really ghastly. We had one living room upstairs which, when we arrived, had no grate in the fireplace. The whole house was bitterly cold. When it was all used as a vicarage, with probably two maids in attendance, it may have been quite a gracious house and garden. The garden was still a joy, and, even in its wilder parts, a happy playground for the children. The youth club had the free run of the garden, and the downstairs part of the house was used by Sunday School and other groups. In the state it was all in, it was not an ideal place to set up home again.

It turned out too that the stipend was not all it should be. I had been told it was £600 p.a. but that did not reckon with £84 rates I had to pay. When I was presented with a bill for rates during the interregnum that really did seem to be the last straw. We had used the last of my savings to pay for the move: I think the bill from the remover was over £150, a lot of money in those days. No one enquired if we were able to manage, and I do not know how we got by, but we did. I remember that a refund from the Dublin electricity people seemed like manna from heaven, though it was a mere £1 - 10. All this changed later, and the people became very friendly. They were never really anything else, but just a bit thoughtless. We got to know and love many of them very much indeed. [Dad gave Mum a copy of Dickens' Hard Times for Christmas, with a relevant inscription. I can't find the book to quote it. D. P.]

The first event, two days after the Institution, was the Christmas Market which raised a large amount for C.M.S. It was held in the Boys' Brigade Hall which the B.B. lent to us for that one day in the year. This was quite contrary to B.B. rules as the movement is supposed to work with the Church all the time. Our B.B. was much too independent and a source of constant worry to me. My predecessor Tony Waite, a genius with young people, had built up his own youth work, which rather tended to push the B.B. even further away. I believe the situation is much better today. The only other hall we had in the parish was the Memorial Room, built in memory of Elsie Marshall, daughter of a former vicar, who was murdered in China. But the old Mission Hall, destroyed in the Blitz, was later restored and much used.

Tony Waite came back for the wedding of Wilfred and Ruth Mumford on my very first Saturday. The reception was at Greenwich Town Hall, and on the way home we got completely lost in dense fog on the Heath. The next day was very foggy too, and the congregations were small, especially in the morning. The evening service was Family Communion, with 129 communicants. Eight years later, on my last Sunday, the figure at a similar service was 250. Youth work continued under Charlie Cope, a Women's Meeting which Emily took over from Mary Warren, a branch of the Mothers Union, and - a very great opportunity - a flourishing Church School. Sunday School was in three age groups - in the church, in the Memorial Room, and in the Vicarage, and numbers were good. David Stephen looked after the Pilgrims, Mr Dick and his son Alec the Pathfinders, and Miss Hendry, daughter of our verger, the Sunbeams. On Saturday evenings there was a group called Disciples, who met in the Vicarage. On our very first Sunday David went off to Crusaders, to which he had belonged in Dublin, and Dorothy and Robert went to their appropriate Sunday Schools.

David had been at St Andrew's College in Dublin and had done well. He was down for Monkton Combe when he was thirteen, and for the year or so till then we sent him to Christ's College on Blackheath. The Headmaster, Mr Crombie, told me David would have more competition in his school, but the reverse proved to be the case. There was one good master who recognized David's potential, and told me he would one day get a "sizzlingly good degree." Otherwise Christ's College was a bit of a flop. Dorothy and Robert both went to the Church School. All the children quickly lost their Dublin accents, and Robert especially became the complete Cockney.

We had a quiet start to our ministry at St John's, but I was able to do a good deal of visiting, which people appreciated. Weddings were far more than at St Kevin's, and funerals meant a longish journey to Shooter's Hill or Charlton, either on a bicycle or by bus. Cremation was very rare indeed in those days.

Our first Christmas in Blackheath introduced me to Midnight Communion, which was not the custom in the Church of Ireland. My mother was with us over Christmas. We found ourselves plunged into all the activities of a busy English parish, with innumerable Christmas parties. But I insisted on having one party to which all were invited, and called it the Vicar's party. This became a feature in every parish I was in. I soon developed my own technique in preparing people for marriage, a ministry which was neglected in Ireland. It took a lot of my time, and after I had written on the subject I was supposed to be something of an expert. I don't think I really was.

Quite early in 1949 I was invited to preach at the London College of Divinity, then still at Lingfield. I had renewed contact with Donald and Jean Coggan when they were in Ireland on holiday, and now began a renewed association with the College which was to last a long time. I was soon to join the Council and later to become Whitehead Professor (no less!) of Pastoral Theology. I tried not to get too much involved in things outside the parish, but I did lecture at Liskeard Lodge, the C.M.S. men's college near by, and also at Foxbury, the women's college at Chislehurst. I was soon on the C.M.S. Executive representing H.C.M.S. and remained a member for over 20 years. I also joined the I.V.F. literature committee. I had compiled a six months Bible Study Course on Great Chapters of the Bible: this I did while still in Ireland. And I was soon to edit a small book called Roman Dogma and Scripture Truth. I was glad to be compelled to study in order to prepare for lectures and talks.

The days were very busy, but I found time to visit R.A.F. Kidbrooke every week as officiating chaplain, and in the early days to go weekly at lunch-time to a factory at Kidbrooke. In the latter venture I involved the C.M.S. candidates. Almost at once I started a young people's Confirmation Class for the Thursday Club that Charlie Cope ran. They were just ready when I arrived and I found them a rewarding bunch. Gavin Reid was of their number. they were confirmed before Easter. Michael Brettell was with us for one weekend during the time of Confirmation preparation, and I think what he saw and heard there helped to decide him towards coming as curate later. He was sent to us by L.F.E. Wilkinson. Faulkner Allison had previously sent us two possibles, Ross Tully and Guy Bookless, but neither fitted in to our time schedule. Both became notable C.M.S. missionaries.

Our links with C.M.S. were very strong. Max and Mary Warren, with Rosemary and Pat, were pillars of the congregation. Very soon after we went, the Bewes family also came, and Liskeard Lodge was just outside the parish. The Principal, R.R. Young, helped me sometimes, and I remember that it seemed right to give him £10 out of the Easter offering which amounted in all to about £50.

I wanted to introduce the kind of Holy Week we had had in Dublin, but it was not easy. But we did have Communion each day and an evening service, which on the Wednesday was the [Stainer's] Crucifixion. the Good Friday programme was Children at 10, Communion at 11, Quiet Hour 2 - 3, and Evangelistic Service at 8. Easter Day there were services at 7, 8, 11, 12, 3, 6.30, 7.30. And then we had to be up on Monday for what was called a Ramble but turned out to be a hike! A week after Easter there was always the cruise on the Broads, but the first year David Stephen went with them and I stayed at home. Each year after that I went myself as chaplain.

The Deanery of Greenwich was quite lively. Our Rural Dean was Ken Drewett, Vicar of St Luke's Deptford, an evangelical. Jack Crockford, also an evangelical, was Chapter Clerk. Tom Livermore was at St John's, Deptford, and Tom Pownall at St Nicholas'. we had a Deanery Missionary Exhibition at St Paul's, Deptford, which went quite well. There was good fellowship in the Chapter, in fact about the best I ever knew anywhere.

I was very happy in the work, and the lay people backed me well. We became great friends with the Bartons, an old Blackheath family. Mrs Barton was the sister of Mrs Elton, the churchwarden's wife. The other churchwarden, Mr Thomson, was also a great help. Albert Smith, a Belfast man, and a bachelor, was a tower of strength, as was Marjorie Balchin, secretary to the Bishop of Woolwich and also parish honourary secretary. The time came when Albert and Marjorie announced their engagement, and I think I had a hand in persuading Marjorie what an excellent plan it was! Another outstanding man in the parish was Alec Mason, an Old Wykehamist, ax B.B. Captain, and vice-chairman of the P.C.C. He had only recently married and I baptized his two children. He died of cancer and I came very close to him during his illness. He was a saint. His brother was an officer in the B.B. and later became Captain. He was a totally different type, and not an easy man to get on with.

There were two long-standing engagements made before I accepted St John's. One was a weekend for the O.I.C.C.U. in May 1949. I stayed with Michael Brettell at Wycliffe, and he told me that he had fallen in love with Mary, whom I met during the weekend. I gave the Bible Reading on Colossians ii. 8-15. On the Sunday I preached at St Ebbe's on the doctrine of Holy Communion, and then gave the O.I.C.C.U. sermon at 8.15 in the City Church. I was nervous, but it was a happy weekend. The other engagement was a Mission at Lurgan in November. This was a twelve day mission in every parish in the Deanery, and I was conducting it in the Parish Church, the largest church building in Ireland. Huge crowds came night by night and it was an inspiration. The Mission ended with a big service for the whole Deanery, at which I had to preach. Archdeacon and Mrs Gransden entertained me as they had done before when I had visited that great parish. There was real blessing, and I was specially struck by the number of men who attended.

We had our holiday for three weeks in August at Newton Purcell between Buckingham and Bicester. It was a very quiet spot where the celebrated Douglas Horsefield was Vicar, and we enjoyed it immensely. Some days we did not go further than to fetch the newspapers for there was plenty of exercise playing cricket in the garden.Our au pair girl, Andree, was with us, and we all went one day by bus to Oxford. I left for the inside of a week to go to B.B. camp in the Isle of Wight. Here I shared the chaplain's duties with Edmund Roberts of Bexleyheath, a keen evangelist [who later married Jill and David]. It was a Battalion Camp, well run, but less effective spiritually than it would have been if all the officers had been keen Christians. I also went back to Blackheath for one day to marry Ron and Jean Le Corney.

David Stephen left in September to become curate in charge of St Andrew's, Chorley Wood, and Michael Brettell was ordained to the curacy of St John's. He had a bed-sitter on the ground floor of the Vicarage. He was a very capable curate who worked hard. Sometimes we exasperated one another, but I still consider him one of my best friends. He built up the Pilgrims remarkably. It was good that he was engaged to Mary and he wisely let this be known from the first. As a conjurer he was, and is, superb.

an evangelical. Ken Druitt, as was our chapter clerk, Jack Crockford. In the deanery also were Tom Livermore at St. John's, Deptford, who contributed much as a proctor in Convocation, and Tom Pownall at St. Nicholas', Deptford. But the fellowship included men of all shades of opinion and I was on very good terms with the anglo-catholic vicar of St. Paul's, Deptford. During a discussion on holy communion he whispered to me: 'For years I have thought that fasting communion is a fetish.' We once had a wonderful coach outing for the clergy and their wives: a spell on the river and picnic lunch at Tonbridge, tea at Tunbridge Wells, and evensong at Cowden, a lovely village on the borders of Kent and Sussex. The location makes me feel I must have had a hand in organizing it! We also had some hilarious Christmas parties.

I was very happy at Blackheath. The two old friends who had a hand in my going there—Wilfred Mumford and Charlie Cope—continued in the work. Wilfred was married the very week we arrived and settled later on the other side of the Heath, though he continued his medical practice in Bermondsey. He was our family doctor, for a short time a churchwarden, and always a very firm friend and supporter. Charlie Cope, more than any other single person, carried on Tony Waite's work with the young people, which included a week sailing on the Norfolk Broads. I used to go as padre, and shared a cabin with Charlie. We would grumble at the hardness and narrowness of the bunks, but always came back the following year!

Besides those I have mentioned already, there was a whole host of good friends. I think especially of the Barton family—Mrs. Barton was a sister of Mrs. (Churchwarden) EIton. The Bartons were an old Blackheath family and their whole life revolved around St. John's. The effect of their Christian witness is quite incalculable. One of their daughters, Valerie, later married Alex Dick. She is a deaconess and they exercise a joint ministry on a vast housing estate. Valerie was one of my candidates for confirmation. So was Gavin Reid, and when he wrote a book on confirmation he dedicated it to me and to Emily 'who smiled away in the background and simply lived it out.' I appreciate that very much.

Fairly soon we started having an annual parish week-end away. Four times we went to Hildenborough Hall (the original house, before it moved to Frinton), and twice to Herne Bay Court. We had such speakers as Geoffrey Rogers, Leslie Wilkinson, Norman Anderson, and a C M.S. team. Such week-ends not only taught people a lot, and brought new commitment, but also helped to break down barriers of age or background. I think they were one of our most effective efforts. I only once tried a parish holiday in the summer, when we took a party of about 20, including our own family, to Greystones, Co. Wicklow, for a fortnight. Several years I went with the Boys Brigade to camp in the Isle of Wight. Once I had the family in a boarding house nearby and we stayed on an extra week. The camp site was taken over by another battalion and when their bugle sounded Reveille at 6.45 it was bliss to turn over in bed and go to sleep again. All honour to those laymen who give up their own holidays to run camps for their boys.

Our own holidays were almost always locums, and these were the times when the family really functioned as a unit. The time soon comes when young people are ready to go off to camps on their own, so it is good to make the most of the days when they are still young. At first we missed the C.S.S.M., so we ran our own mini-beach service in the garden. David, who went to Christ's College, Blackheath, for a year, moved on to Monkton Combe. It was from there that he wrote to tell us that he wanted to be ordained—information which moved us deeply. Dorothy was at Blackheath High School till our move made a change necessary. She started at our Church School, as did Robert. He passed the 11+ exam to the Roan School, and at 13 took the Common Entrance to go to Monkton Combe. He also owes a great deal spiritually to that fine Christian school.

To be invited to preach at Monkton was like a command performance that one could not refuse. I was asked once in David's time and once in Robert's. The first time my visit coincided with a lecture on the Saturday evening by John (now Sir John) Betjeman on Tennyson. He was most entertaining both at dinner beforehand and in the lecture itself. On my second visit, when Emily accompanied me, I also preached in the evening at Bath Abbey. The headmaster and his wife were very generous hosts on both occasions. I had known Derek Wigram at Cambridge: he did a lot for the school. Other major events in the preaching line included visits to Oxford and Cambridge. Both the O.I.C.C.U. and the C.I.C.C.U. were lively bodies and it was an inspiration to meet these keen young men and women. I sometimes had to return to London late on Sunday night, stay in a hotel, and make my way next morning to Lingfield for the lectures at L.C.D.

An added interest came my way when I was invited to become a director of the Church Society Trust. Patronage is an awe-ful responsibility and I entered upon this work with a deep sense of its importance. I can think of some very good appointments that were made, some of which were my suggestions. But later I found that I was out of sympathy with some of the other Trustees who wanted to enforce too rigid an adherence to the letter of the Prayer Book rubrics. The Alternative Service Book now makes the whole controversy seem hopelessly out of touch. Anyhow, I eventually resigned, and was immediately able to accept an invitation to join Simeon's Trustees, of which more later.

While at Blackheath I received a number of offers of other parishes. One was a very large church in the North, another a parish which was looked upon as a position of leadership. It was flattering to be asked to consider these and others, but I quite frankly felt the time had not come to leave Blackheath. One of the things that kept me was my link with L.C.D. The lecturing and also the work of the Council both seemed to me to be very important. When Dr. Coggan was appointed Bishop of Bradford it was even more important to stand by the College. And the College itself was on the move—to Northwood, where the new buildings were going up. Emmanuel, Northwood became vacant, and when I was offered it by the Church Trust Fund Trust I had no hesitation in accepting. I felt I was being offered a sphere which could have a wide influence on the church at large, and I was delighted when my old friend Hugh Jordan was appointed principal and we could look forward to a close partnership between parish and college.

There had been eight happy years at St. John's, Blackheath. The period, 1948-56, included the Billy Graham Harringay Crusade which affected the parish, I think, only marginally. I did not feel it right to drop everything in the parish for the Crusade, and I may have been regarded as luke-warm about this. Naturally I had, and have, a great regard for Dr. Graham's evangelistic gifts. Much good work was done. But there were also, in my experience in following up commendations, many professions of faith which came to nothing. Also in my time at Blackheath came my one and only experience as a speaker at Keswick, apart from a six-minute slot in the missionary meeting in 1938. This was in 1 955. We enjoyed the fellowship of the speakers' hotel, but I do not think my contribution was up to the standard Keswick demands. When I left Blackheath I had been only a short time a proctor in Convocation for the Southwark diocese. As I was only moving across to the London diocese I thought it best to continue to serve in this way. I did not contribute much to either Convocation or Church Assembly, and at times my conscience would not allow me to vote with the few evangelicals there were. On the vestments issue, for instance, I thought the compromise position the only right one. I am glad to have been a proctor, especially to have been at the debate when the Church of England entered into limited inter-communion with the Church of South India, but I realize that I am no debater, and I did not stand at the next election.

So we prepared to leave Blackheath. I believe the people were sincerely sorry, as we were sad to go. We had come to love the place and the people. Emily had found a real niche running the Women's Guild and the Mothers' Union. She also found good friends among some of the older parishioners, notably Mrs. Weatherhead, who with her late husband had spent years in Uganda, and who was a sister of our well-loved Archbishop Barton of Dublin. She would come into the kitchen, collect the socks off the line, and return them beautifully darned! In England of course, unlike Ireland, a maid was unheard of. But one dear friend, Mrs. Wilkin, helped Emily through the years, and we keep in touch still.

The children, too, had, I think, been happy. The garden was big, though wild, and they and their friends made good use of it. While the children were young we seemed to be very near to the people through them. The work had been satisfying, not least my weekly taking of assembly in the School—a captive audience of about 300! I developed my own technique in marriage preparation, and gave quite a lot of time to this work, which had been sadly neglected in the Church of Ireland. At a recent week-end house-party of St. John's it was good to meet middle- aged people who a quarter of a century ago had started out on the Christian pilgrimage, and are still heading for the goal.

We made our farewells and were given lovely presents. The vans came, and we were off—away from the Heath and Greenwich Park, the Naval College and the Meridian, Shooters Hill and Charlton Park. It had all been part of our life. But most of all we were going away from a congregation and parish whose friendship we greatly valued. As our beloved treasurer, Arthur Barker, said—one of the real old Blackheath residents who lived with his sister and brother: 'Clergy come and go, but we have to carry on afterwards!' And they did. When the patrons took some time in finding a successor we felt somewhat aggrieved that men were not queuing up to come to our beloved St. John's.



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