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9. General Secretary of H.C.M.S.
The move from St Kevin's Rectory to the C.M.S. house in Kimmage Road East [now renamed for snobbish reasons Terenure Road West] took place while I was still at Foxrock. I seem to remember being there on Christmas Day and partaking of a very modified form of Christmas dinner. We were very pleased with our new house which, though semi-detached, had five bedrooms and was really very comfortable. I had no study as such, but my desk was in a corner of the back room [which could become one big room with the front room by means of folding doors] and of course I had an office in the centre of the city. The garden was not too large to manage. Before we moved David had already started at Mount Temple School, and it was a little nearer to our new home. Both the other children went there eventually, and got a fine foundation for their education.
The job of H.C.M.S. Secretary was what one made it, and I dare say I did not meet with universal approval. There was an office to be run, with a staff of four, including Mae Clarke, the Women's Secretary, and two colleagues, one in Belfast with a somewhat independent position and an office and staff of his own, and one in Cork. In Belfast we had Bishop Hinde, formerly of Fukien, and in Cork an ex-Kenya missionary named Lancaster. I saw myself not as an office manager, but as a messenger to the Church of Ireland about the World-wide Church, its mission and its message. It was my job - or so I interpreted it - to get out and about, and to use every opportunity to preach the gospel. I had also, of course, to keep the office running, to deal with correspondence, and to guide the committees whose members were my bosses.
I began somewhat gently with a Medical Missions Exhibition in our splendid hall in Dublin at which the speaker was a Dr. Allen from Kenya. I was later to take part in the same exhibition at Cork and Bandon. But my first C.M.S. weekend was at Dundalk, the last town in Eire on the way to Belfast. I was really improving in health, and by February 10th was addressing crowds of 1500 at the Belfast Young People's Convention. That year I gave Holy Week addresses at St Philip's, Milltown, and had quite a heavy load at the Portstewart Convention, including making the appeal at the Missionary Meeting. The summer months, when the office was slack, were a good time for gettting to Conventions, and in July I had a full quota of speaking at Warrenpoint and at Dun Laoghaire. We were at Foxrock for our holiday that August, and I went in at weekends to do the service at Milltown. We did manage to get to the Greystones C.S.S.M. once or twice too.
Opportunities were enormous. The various Societies had their special month in each diocese, so we tended to have towns of the diocese arranged by the local secretary. But one was free to go anywhere for odd Sundays, and at Harvest time one might have a plethora of festivals. In that same 1944 I have a record of 21 harvest addresses given between September 17th and October 27th. Some of these were in the Sligo area, and the Dean of Ardagh who was rector of Calry, and about to retire, wanted me to succeed him. The headmaster of Sligo Grammar School was one of the nominators and would have backed the suggestion. But I thought otherwise, and so far my health had stood up fairly well to the travelling. A big test was to come at the end of October when I took a ten day Mission at Omagh. I had promised to do this before ever I accepted the C.M.S. job, and in any case I regarded a mission as very much part of C.M.S. witness. It was a really big event, with I believe much blessing. The first conversion I heard of was of a young man who later became a missionary.
I do not believe my taking missions and conventions not directly connected with C.M.S. did anything other than further the cause of the Society. People came to associate C.M.S. with evangelism. and I certainly did not neglect normal deputation work. For instance I got back to Dublin from the Omagh Mission on the Wednesday, and the following Sunday began a fortnight of meetings in the Dublin - Glendalough diocese which took me to Ballybrittas, Dublin, Greystones, Malahide, Calbridge, Delgany, Greystones again, Arklow, Glenealy, Wicklow, Killiskey, Kilbridge, Newcastle. I got home for some nights, but all travel was by public transport. During the same period I fitted in the Bible Society Committee, the C.M.S. General Committee (which included writing up the minutes), and the Missionary Council of the Church of Ireland. I was back in the office on the Monday, but off to Castlerea on Tuesday, speaking in Dublin on Thursday, and then to Belfast for the weekend and back for a whole week of meetings in the Dublin area. And so it went on. Many of the meetings involved showing a film, one about Nigeria being then the latest. By present day standards it was poor, but it aroused much interest, and C.M.S. were the first to use films. I notice that I was speaking twice even on Christmas Eve (a Sunday) but I did have an engagement with turkey and plum pudding, together with E. D. D. and R. on December 25th.
Travelling was a bit of a nightmare. I must have taken a taxi to the bus terminus on Burgh Quay, for I had innumerable packages. These included personal luggage, robes, cinema screen, lantern, carbide apparatus, books for sale, missionary boxes, slides and films. Only about half the country parishes I visited had electricity, so lantern slides with carbide lighting had to take the place of films. In some ways I preferred the slides. When I was out in the more distant places it meant staying in a different rectory nearly every night. There would be four services on a Sunday, and on weekdays frequently a talk in the school and a film or lecture in the evening, with occasionally a Mothers Union meeting thrown in. For instance, at the beginning of January 1945 I did a tour of Kilala Diocese (Tuam, Kilala and Achonry) and gave fifteen talks in eight days, staying in four centres. I remember a very nice Canon Ewart at Ballina whose wife was deeply troubled over some parochial matter. She received great encouragement when I spoke about Appolo of the Pygmy Forest at the M.U. meeting. Very often the most fruitful part of deputation was the encouragement given to clergy and their wives in lonely and difficult situations. Ewart had invited me to take a mission at the end of my time at St Kevin's, but by that time I was ill, and Charlie Strong did it instead.
Coming back to Dublin by bus from that tour I met a Roman Catholic priest who was going to Nigeria as a missionary. I invited him to the office to see the Nigeria film, and he gladly accepted. I was soon off again on a tour of West Glendalough lasting eight days, and then back to welcome Geoffrey Rogers, candidates secretary of C.M.S. This was a lovely visit and he saw a number of possible candidates, including Stanley Giltrap, later to do great work in the Sudan and Kenya and then, after ordination in Emmanuel, Northwood, in Australia. About the same time Dick Rees was in Dublin for some meetings and I arranged a breakfast for a number of clergy who I though would be interested to hear him speak on evangelism. It was a bit of a dirty word in the Church of Ireland. It was a joy also to have a visit from Raymond Joyce who, since we last met at C.U.M., had been a missionary in Central Asia. Tours carried on, with very heavy programmes, though there was a fair amount of slack time spent just talking with the rector. Before Easter 1945 I had been for an eight day tour in Meath and another in Kildare, undertaken a number of individual engagements elsewhere, and finished up with a ten day Mission in Ballymacarratt, Belfast.
The rector of Ballymacarratt was A.T.I. Ford who had been C.M.S. secretary in the North, In those days there was still a lot of bitterness between C.M.S. and B. C.M.S. in Northern Ireland, and some Ballymacarrat people were strongly anti - C.M.S. I rather felt Ford wanted me to take a Mission partly to show that C.M.S. people could preach the gospel - not a very worthy motive. However, we had quite a good Mission, with large congregations. I got back to Dublin on Easter Monday and after lunch went straight to the office to help with the end of year accounts. It was then I began to feel how exhausting the Mission had been, and I soon gave up and went home. About this time was the annual Refresher Course for clergy at St Columba's college. I was asked to speak in a series of three sessions on Evangelicalism and my subject was "Its Practice." The Bishop of Cashel was in the chair and was not at all sympathetic, and gave me no opportunity to reply to the debate. Some of the speakers talked nonsense, but T.N.D. Salmon, later to become Dean of Christ Church, though not accepting my position, was helpful and constructive.
The week of the General Synod in May was the time when all the Societies had their annual meetings, and C.M.S. was on Friday afternoon, with a smaller meeting in the evening. In 1944 it was impossible to get speakers over from England, for security reasons, and I had to speak myself, repeating the talk ten days later at the Belfast Annual Meeting, which was always an enthusiastic affair.
Bishop Hinde retired about then and his place was taken by Mr Coulin, also from Fukien. But alas his health gave way after a comparatively short time. In Synod Week we also had early morning meetings in Trinity College, Dublin, on some theological subject for three mornings, and a missionary theme for the fourth. I served on the committee which arranged these meetings, and on one occasion read a paper on "The Holy Spirit and the Individual." Synod Week was quite a field day, and as many of the missionary meetings were held in our C.M.S. hall I was able to keep in touch with other societies, especially the Church of England Jews Society (C.M.J.) on whose committee I served during all my time in Ireland. I was also on the committee of the Hibernian Bible Society where I met prominent members of other denominations.
It was a great joy, in May 1944, to take the Whitsun Conference for the Trinity College Evangelical Union at St Valerie's, Bray. They were an outstanding bunch of men and women, many of whom have done great work since. The Rector of the parish asked me to preach on the Sunday with a particular request that I would instruct on the doctrine of the Spirit, as he confessed himself to be no theologian! Portstewart Convention was another great privilege. I had been there in 1942 and 1943, and in 1944 it was an "all Ireland" team as speakers were not allowed to travel from England in those days of tight security. the marquee held about 1500 I think, and was well filled. It was marvellous to be taking part with people like Montague Goodman, Lindsey Glegg, Tom Rees, Theo Bamper, and the New Zealander Robert Laidlaw. The Chairman was Stephens Richardson, a Quaker of the old school. In the "Ireland only" year James Dunlop and Parkinson Hill were speakers. Hill was Rector of Zion in Dublin, the church we attended as a family. Dunlop later became Moderator of the Irish Presbyterian Church.
It would be tedious to enumerate all the tours and engagements of the years I was with C.M.S., and some of the events are now only vague memories. The tours covered an immense amount of ground, and I felt it was well worth while going to small country parishes to give them a vision of what God is doing in the wider world. The collection of money for C.M.S. was secondary, though the amount did go up each year. We also got some good recruits, though some did not come forward till later. I tried not to spend too many days in the office, though on many such days I might have an evening meeting as well. I had little time for home and family, though I did manage to get some gardening done. For part of the time we were in the C.M.S. Emily's mother lived with us, so Emily was not left on her own too much. My mother came over to stay with us for a fortnight in May 1945. I had been over to see her in the summer of 1943, but we saw all too little of each other, and in 1944 travel between England and Ireland was very much restricted.
By 1945 there was more of a flow of visitors from C.M.S.. Tom Isherwood came for the Annual Meeting and Geoffrey Rogers for candidates affairs. Handley Hooper and his wife came in the autumn and went on to have a holiday in Co. Wicklow. It was in that same year that the post of Northern Secretary became vacant and I did everything I could to persuade Handley Vaughan to take it on. He was doing a great work as Rector of Portrush and it was he who persuaded me at one point to think seriously about C.M.S.. So it was now my turn to use the same arguments to him. In many ways the job in the North was bigger than in the South, and Handley did it magnificently for (I think) eleven years. It was eventually my joy to get him offered St John's, Blackpool, where he was also very successful.
I have an idea that 1945 was the year we had our holiday in Foxrock, with me going in on Sundays to do duty at Milltown, but it was all upset by my getting chickenpox. David and Robert both had it lightly, and I caught it from them, and my dose was anything but light. I believe Emily and I were to have had a few days at Ballina, where I was to preach on the Sunday, but it had to be cancelled, and in the end I had a few days on my own at Bangor, Co. Down, where the good air and sunshine set me up. I went very soon after that to take a week's Mission at Mallow. I was still doing all journeys by public transport, and am amazed, looking back, at the ground I covered. For instance, in the second half of October 1945, my programme was as follows:
17th General Committee and Harvest at Lucan
18th a day in the office with interviews and two committees
19th Harvest at Newtownstewart
21st Harvest at Markethill in Northern Ireland.
22nd Dublin Synod Missionary Meeting
23rd to
November 2nd Bagenalstown, Fenagh, Lorum, Bonis, Carlow (two days),
Urglin, Tullow, Aghade, Baltinglass.
Then straight up to Lurgan to preach three times on the Sunday and to speak to a big Church of Ireland Youth Conference on the Monday on "Does it matter what a man believes if only he is honest?" Bishop Kerr, whom I had known first when he was Dean of Belfast, was in the chair. I had engagements in Dublin next day and each day that week until I started out on the Saturday on another tour, this time to Dunganstown, Wicklow, Inch, Arklow, Avoca, Ballinastone, Newtownmountkennedy, Calary and Newcastle! So it went on.
In January 1946 I paid another visit to England, this time taking David with me. We stayed a night in a hotel in Chester and then went on to my mother in Weston. most unfortunately David and I both got some kind of virus so we had to stay longer than planned. David missed some school and I had to cancel a fortnight's tour in Cork, which I hated doing. I tried to get O.A.C. Irwin, who had taken Lancaster's place as Southern Secretary, to undertake it, but he backed out. I occupied the time by reading a good deal of Eugene Stock's History of the C.M.S.. And I remember that I preached at Holy Trinity, Weston, and at Congresbury. When we got back I did an extensive tour of Meath, and took a Mission at Thurles. This was a short Mission, Sunday to Thursday, but was a real blessing, especially to a clergyman who cycled a long distance every night to be present. He was Ernest Broadstock, and he told me later that the week had brought him to an understanding of the gospel, and revolutionised his ministry. He became secretary of the H.B.S., and later rector of St Catherine's and St Victor's, Dublin. Alas, he died while still quite a young man.
Amajor change in my manner of life was when I got the car on the road in March 1946. Several rectors had given me some instruction, and the son of the garage proprietor behind our office gave me three lessons, and then I was away - without a test of any kind. My first trip on my own was to Blessington where my friend Joe Blackwell was now Rector. Easter was late that year (April 21st) and I did a Holy Week - Easter Mission at Blacklion, where Coslett Quinn was rector. He later wrote a good book on the Holy Communion. It was quite a good Mission, I think. The parish was on both sides of the border. For the Annual Meeting that year we had Murray Walton and Tom Isherwood, both of whom stayed with us and took part in the World Church Exhibition we put on at the Mansion House. This was taken from an idea developed by Max Warren in Cambridge and later imported to Portrush by Handley Vaughan. our preparations were a bit chaotic, but it turned out to be a great success. Some time during his stay - presumably on the Monday after the Exhibition was over - we managed to take Isherwood and Walton to Glendalough. Murray had spent his honeymoon there.
In June I came to England for the Organising Secretaries' Conference at Ridley Hall, Cambridge. I had been the year before, combining it with the Conference of British Missionary Societies, and on that occasion took my very first flight, Dublin - Liverpool. At the Conference I took the Quiet Day, from Bible studies on Haggai. I spent a weekend with Mother at Weston. In 1946 Stephen Neill took the Quiet Day. These gatherings were an inspiration, but I remember feeling that the sort of men (with exceptions) who became Organising Secretaries were not spiritually quite A+. I was perhaps hypercritical, but I did feel very much for the honour of C.M.S. among my very keen evangelical friends. Back in Ireland I remember vividly one health relapse in July 1946. It was in the parish of Newtownbarry at the fourth (or fifth?) service of the day. I was overcome with giddiness in the pulpit and had to stop. I think it was probably the strawberries I had eaten at tea!
That year we were back again at Delgany for our summer holiday, and Lydie and the three children [Peter, Joan and Anne] were with us. It was great fun. We went to the C.S.S.M. regularly, and of course it was a great joy to have the car, though Peter and David often used bicycles. I left soon after for the C.M.J. Summer School at St. Peter's Hall, Oxford. I gave the Bible Readings on Jesus dealing with individuals as seen in St John. I also preached for C.M.J. at St Barnabas (High Mass!) and St Mary's (a small select vac - time congregation). after Oxford I spent a night with Wilfred Robbins at St Albans, and spoke to a men's group there. The following night I spent at Byfleet, where Mother was staying with Aunt Jessie, and then on to High Leigh for the I.V.F. Leaders Conference, at which I was speaking. I gave four of the five Bible readings I had given at Oxford. That autumn was notable for the longest time I ever spent away from home. I started on November 3rd with a tour of Tuam, speaking at seventeen centres and one clerical meeting. Then four days rest and preparation for which Emily joined me, at a little hotel near Clifden we had all to ourselves. This was followed by nine days in Limerick for a Mission, when I stayed with the Bishop and took services by turn in the Cathedral and the three other churches. I had two days to rest in Cork, and then a tour of West Cork speaking at about a dozen centres. I got home on December 17th, but only to preach at St Kevin's on the 22nd, and at the Y.M.C.A. that same night at "the 8.30." 1946 had been some year!
1947 was not much different, except that tours in February and March held perils by snow and ice. I did not miss a single engagement, but some of the meetings were very small as it was really quite dangerous to venture out. [David had pneumonia for the second time, but by now penicillin was available, administered by injection. uncomfortable but effective.] Newtownbary was again my unlucky spot, for it was there that I almost got stranded. The thaw set in on St. Patrick's Day, and then of course there were floods to deal with. At home we ran short of fuel, and I was able to bring back a supply of logs from Avoca, where the Rector felled a small tree specially for me! Everywhere in my journeys I met with the greatest possible kindness. In Holy Week 1947 I again took the services at St Philip's Milltown, speaking on Hymns of the Passion. It is interesting that, though my evangelical position was well known to all, I was inundated with invitations from all sorts of parishes. After Easter that year Emily and I got away for a few days to Aglade, where some people named Lecky-Watson had paying guests in their country home. Winnie and Diny [Diana Davis, whom Winnie looked after and wanted to adopt, but was not able to in the end] came to stay with us for about a week in April and we managed to take them about a bit. Other visitors included Harold Anderson, the C.M.S. Medical Secretary, Bishop Hind, Bishop Percy Stevens, and Kenneth Grubb. The last two were the speakers at the Annual Meetings that year.
Iremember that the Missionary Council of the Church of Ireland had tried to arrange a united meeting one evening in General Synod Week, but when they failed to get Archbishop William Temple that packed it in. My reaction was to phone the Dublin Y.M.C.A. and book the Metropolitan Hall for C.M.S. alone. It was a venture of faith as we had never had big evening meetings, but it paid off quite well. The Bishop of Meath (James McCann, afterwards Primate) was in the chair but had obviously taken little trouble about it. We organised a choir, but it had been too ambitious in its choice of anthem, and broke down in The Heavens are Telling! The following day we took Kenneth Grubb for a drive to Glendalough.
In May I again came over to England, this time to take a weekend for the C.I.C.C.U. It was first ever, though I had spoken at a missionary breakfast in 1938. I stayed with Norman and Pat Anderson at Tyndale House and we fixed up for them to come over to Ireland and share our holiday in Delgany Rectory, but in the end they had to cancel as Pat was expecting Hugh. The Bible Reading was on the Holy Spirit, and the Sermon about the New Birth. Geoffrey Groebecker was C.I.C.C.U. President at the time. I went to spend a night with Jakob and Joan Jocz at Goodmayes, and then to High Leigh for an important C.M.S. Conference about the new look for home propaganda. I stayed a night at the C.U.M. in Bermondsey, and preached at Oak Hill, where L.F.E. Wilkinson was Principal. He offered to give my name to the patrons of St Paul's, Cambridge which was becoming vacant. I said I could not possibly leave H. C.M.S. just then, but in spite of that the offer came later in the summer, and I said No. It would of course have been a fine sphere, but Kenneth Hooker went there and did a great work.
In July that year, when touring was not really in season, I did an eight day Mission at a place called Monart in Co. Wexford. Practically all the Church of Ireland people came out every night, but I remember feeling that the response was rather wooden. Who knows? Later in July I did a series of meetings in Co. Cork with George Stevens who had come over to be Secretary of the C.I.J.S. We made each meeting quite a variety performance, with costume talk, slides, film, a dialogue I composed specially, duets etc. We did this in a number of places later and it was always voted a great success. For holiday in 1947 we again did the locum at Delgany, but finished up with a few days at Kilkee in Co. Clare, just the two of us. On the Sunday I preached in the five churches looked after by Canon Elliott: Miltown Malbay, Lahinch, Kilfenora, Lisdoonvarna and Ennistyme [? can't read]. We had been there once before, also at the end of August, but as we had tried to do the journey from Ennis to Lahinch on bicycles, and both felt ill after the experience, it had not the happiest memories. Having the car made all the difference. I remember the few days in Kilkee chiefly for the lovely swimming off the rocks.
At Harvest Festival time I was doing a tour of Limerick, Ardfert and Aghadoe, my first visit to the remote Valencia Island. I seem to have preached at a prodigious number of Harvests that year, and was busy right up to the eve of a Mission I took at St Nicholas' Belfast in November. Jack Mercer was the Rector, later to become Archdeacon, and it was a very lively ten days. I was lodged in a hotel, and the first Sunday got up an hour too soon, not realising that summer time had ended! There were only a couple of days between the end of that Mission and the beginning of a long tour in Kilmore Diocese. Here, for the only time, the old ulcer trouble became so severe that I had to give up in the middle. I was bitterly disappointed, but there was nothing else I could do. I retired to bed for about three weeks on the strict diet, and had to cancel another tour of Waterford and Lismore.
Early in the New Year I was full at it again, a fortnight in Cork in January, eight days in Meath in February, followed by an eight day Mission at St Mark's, Ballysillan, Belfast. While there I met Fred Crabbe who was over for C.M.S. and I got him to speak at one of the evening services about his work in the Sudan. In March, in between tours of West Glendalough and Killaloe, we had a visit from Oliver Allison, now Bishop-Designate of the Southern Sudan. [I thought Bishop-Designate was far grander sounding than mere Bishop! - D. P. ] He spoke at the Drawing Room Meeting we had annually in our house [The folding doors were opened, and the room so opened out was really large - D. P.] and at a large and successful clergy lunch we laid on in C.M.S. Holy Week that year I did at Rathmines. In the week after Low Sunday Emily and I attended the Missionary Conferrence at the Lake Hotel, Killarney. This was a delightful few days, with talks by Bishop Lasbury and others. There were several English honeymoon couples in the hotel, and one young husband wearing a Crusader badge turned out to be a man I had been in camp with at Felixstowe.
By April 1948 we were beginning to build up for the C.M.S. Third Jubilee. It had been decreed that we observe the whole of the 150th year, with climax in November 1948 (April 12th 1949, the actual birthday, falling in Holy Week). For the Annual Meetings we had Max Warren and Bishop Michael Chang of Fukien. The Bishop stayed witth us from Saturday to Thursday, and then went to the Divinity Hostle. Max came on the Thursday and stayed till Monday. The Bishop was invited to read the lesson at the great Synod Service in St. Patrick's. I was his chaplain and felt more honoured than if I had been chaplain to the Primate. His reading of Ephesians ii.11-end was superb, and I think there were many moist eyes. The evening meeting on the Friday was in the Mansion House, and was a memorable occasion. On the Saturday we took Max for a drive in Co. Wicklow. It was a beautiful sunny day.
Soon after this we had our Third Jubilee Summer School at Carrig Eden, Greystones. The speakers were Geoffrey Rogers and Leslie Fisher, with John Taylor to give Bible Readings (the [Francis] John Taylor who later became Bishop of Sheffield [1962 - 1971]). Leslie stayed on and came with me to Belfast for their anniversary weekend. With us in the car were O.A.C. Irwin and Noble Hamilton. Irwin treated us all to lunch at a nice hotel, and Fisher was always wanting to stop to take photographs! I was in England for the Organising Secretaries' Conference again, held this time at Rose Hill, the Salvation Army centre near Reading. While there I was doing some preparation of Bible Readings for the Summer School at Cheltenham in August. I remember too that Brian Isaac, General Secretary of Ruanda, asked me if anyone had approached me about being a bishop. Nobody had, and I thought no more about it. At some point earlier in the year I had spoken to the Archbishop of Dublin about how long I should stay in the C.M.S. job and he thought five years was enough. He hoped I would stay in Ireland.
Some time in July came a letter from Max Warren asking if I would allow my name to be sent to the Archbishop of Canterbury for appointment as an assistant bishop of Uganda, to take charge of the Ruanda Mission area. This was a challenge to prayer. I consulted W.H. Coulter who was chairman of committee, and wrote to the Archbishop of Dublin who was at the Lambeth Conference. He already knew of the proposal from the Bishop of Uganda, and he thought I should go. I was due to go to England for the Summer School, so arranged to see the Bishop of Uganda and also Dr. Anderson for a medical check-up. Anderson said that if I was sure it was right to go I should be all right; otherwise the ulcer trouble might flare up again. This did not help much as I wanted to be sure. On the train to Cheltenham I talked to Max who assured me there was no on more suited for the job. While at Cheltenham I had a long talk with Handley Hooper, Africa Secretary.
It was an agonising week, but in spite of the inner turmoil I was able to give myself to the Bible Readings on Revelation i, ii and iii. I think they were some of the best talks I ever gave, spoken with a deep sense of responsibility, and listened to and discussed by 500 keen people, many of them seeking God's will for their lives. My predicament was made no less by the arrival of a letter just before I mounted the platform one morning, offering me the living of St John's, Blackheath. Wilfred Mumford and Charlie Cope may well have had a hand in this. Max urged me not to refuse lightly, though he rated the Africa job as of far greater important. At the end of the Summer School I was still undecided, and very few people knew of the proposal.
I travelled by car to Birmingham with Alan Cross whom I knew from Highbury days, and I spent some hours with Sydney Crowson, then Vicar of Yardley. I confided in him and he prayed very nicely about "someone facing a big decision" at the intercession service I attended. I went on by train to Holyhead and crossed to Ireland. We werre having our holiday in Delgany, as usual, and took full part in the C.S.S.M. Somehow a decision had to be made. Only I knew what the continuous ulcer trouble really meant. Emily was willing for either decision and our prayer was that God's will alone be done. [I remember Dad asking me if I thought we should go out to Africa for him to be a bishop, and saying "You know, if it isn't that then it will be England." - D. P.] I think in the end my tummy was the deciding factor, but the children's education was a consideration too. An d deep down I had no real conviction that the Africa job was for me. Perhaps I should have trusted the wisdom of people higher and wiser, but I think the decision not to go was right. Having decided thus, it seemed the obvious thing to say Yes to Blackheath. I wrote to the churchwardens to ask if they really wanted me, and they said they did. So without going to see the parish, and trusting only to what I had ben told about the vicarage and stipend, I wrote off to Talbot Mohan accepting the offer. And then I spent a lot of time studying Forder's monumental book, The Parish Priest at Work, and preparing Bible Readings on 2 Peter.
These were for the I.V.F. Leaders' Conference held at Rose Hill in September. Here I met Maurice Wood for the first time, and Archbishop Mowll who paid us a visit. Emily was with me, and we went to Blackheath to see our new home. The Vicarage was in a shocking state, the ground floor having been given over for parish activities, and filled with dreadful old furniture. It was an occasion for depression and tears. of course everything in England was shabby after the war, and the church was no exception. But the people we met were nice, and I am sure we were right to go. We went back to Rose Hill for a C.M.S. weekend run by John Cavell, now Bishop of Southampton, and then home to Ireland. I think there was genuine sorrow all round that we were leaving, but in the mean time it had to be business as usual. I know that some people thought that if I had stayed in Ireland I might eventually have become a bishop, but I do not regret our decision to follow where we believed God was leading us.
The autumn was very busy. Harvest Festivals and tours as before, and intensive preparations for the big Third Jubilee celebrations. We got Garfield Williams over for a service in St Patrick's, which was broadcast. Our three overrseas visitors were Mrs Chang, daughter of Bishop Song of west Szechwan, Moses Hsieh of Fukien, and Archdeacon Spiff from Nigeria. We also had Bishop Curtis from China. The big meeting was on Tuesday, November 2nd in the Metropolitan Hall, admission by ticket only, and 1300 were crowded in. The Primate was in the chair, the Archbishop of Dublin took the prayers, and the platform was bedecked with Bishops! In the notices I asked for £150 thankoffering, and it reached that sum next day. then our national speakers went out through the country, Spiff with Irwin, and Hsieh with me. We went to centres where a whole Diocese could meet together: Kilkenny Cathedral, Cashel Cathedral, Roscree, Cork, Tralee, Limerick, Ennis, Gort, Ballinasloe, Athlone. Moses Hsieh preached every time. I was just the chauffeur, but it was a fine way to say goodbye to lots of people.
Back in Dublin there was a farewell by the Committee, who gave us a lovely dinner service (on which we had to pay a lot of duty) and an album with signatures including the two archbishops. we stayed a night with Granny Wynne in Dun Laoghaire, to which she had moved, and set off on the evening of November 19th. Our furniture had gone in two enormous containers by sea to London. Sophie came with us to stay three months till we got settled, and Anna, Aunt Irene's faithful retainer, also journeyed with us to help, and to go on to see relations. So as to have a quiet Sunday we stayed the weekend in lodgings at Rhyl, and went to London on the Monday. David and I stayed at the C.U.M., the rest of the family at the Eltons.
We had been happy in Ireland, and in terms of spiritual work I think some of my best work was done there. Our children spoke with Irish accents. We left behind very many good friends. My health had not suffered unduly from the great amount of travelling, though indigestion was pretty continuous. The nerves that had given me so much trouble at one time seemed completely cured - until I was preaching to a huge crowd in Belfast, and suddenly I felt the old stage-fright again. This was at the Harvest Festival at St. Jude's, and it began a period of more nervous trouble. Until then no church or platform had really daunted me, and I had preached to great crowds. the loyal office staff stayed on - Mrs Smith, Doris Comben, Miss Gifford and Dorothy Miller who had replaced Mae Clarke when she retired. O.A.C. Irwin was eventually appointed General Secretary in my place, a decision which Max Warren, when I told him, did not think inspired.
So we were back in England. It was hard on Emily, leaving her mother, but she came to stay with us in Blackheath and in Northwood, and Emily used to go over to Ireland, usually to be with Granny for her birthday. My mother was at Weston, and I think by this time Howard and Margaret were married and living in part of Mother's house, 12, Clarence Grove Road. His marriage with Gwen had come to an end, and his health was not too good. I think Stanley and Lydie were still in Kuala Lumpur, and Winnie and Tom moved about this time from Northam in Devon to Tunbridge Wells. It was a battered England to which we returned, and food was still rationed. St. John's, Blackheath was my first experience of an English parish, and I was a bit green, even though I had been ordained 18 years already.
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