Читать книгу A Complete Parish Priest Peter Green (1871-1961) - Frank Sargeant - Страница 10

CHAPTER TWO: WORK WITH LADS AND MEN

At St Philip’s, Green developed his work with men and boys in the Barrow Street Mission which had been established by Hicks, his predecessor. Here he housed the mission work and the Temperance Society which held a concert every Tuesday evening, which he attended as a priority whenever possible, on the first floor. The Scouts occupied the second floor, and a permanent boys’ club the third floor. He converted his rectory into a centre for women and girls. Donald Coggan in a Prideau lecture on Peter Green at Exeter University said that Green had no interest in women.²⁰ He was wrong. For one thing Green expressed the view that women were more spiritual than men. It is true that he regarded work with lads and men to be a challenge. As far as the lads were concerned, Lloyd in The Church and People 1900-1914 stated: “Given the juvenile problem, nearly all the experienced parish priests of the day agreed that the boys’ club was the best solution.” He went on: “Canon Peter Green for instance argued for it at some length in The Town Parson and How to deal with lads. The chief difficulty was that of discipline. Better no club at all than a club which was a bear pit. Canon Peter Green was full of suggestions for the nervous curate who was told to go to the club and keep order.”²¹

The fact Lloyd quoted Green as an example and his books on the subject were accepted as written by an expert indicate he had a genuine reputation in these fields with both boys and men.

In his earliest published book How to Deal with Lads²² Green demonstrated attitudes and themes which were to reappear throughout his writings which extended from 1910 to 1953 and so there is good reason to examine his work with lads and men.

Lloyd’s analysis of the work of a parish priest at the beginning of the Twentieth Century indicated that the priorities were visiting the homes of the parish, helping to relieve poverty, and running clubs mainly for boys and men.²³ In a speech reported verbatim at the diamond jubilee of the Salford Adelphi Boys Club in 1948 Green stated: “I have had six clubs, one at Cambridge, one in the Old Kent Road, one at Poplar and three in Salford. Nothing has had a more beautiful effect on building up of citizens and the formation of character than our great lads’ clubs. That is the absolute truth. It is the personal touch that does it. To turn lads into citizens is the glory of the club and the rewards of its workers.”²⁴ However, for Green himself the club provided the opportunity to teach Christian doctrine and evangelise for personal conversions. He devoted himself to running clubs for working class lads because he considered them to be a worthwhile challenge. He had an optimistic attitude towards them as his experience was that “the boy is naturally a most religious creature.”²⁵ This indicated his optimistic approach generally to human beings on the one hand and the importance of first hand experience on the other. Combining these important aspects of his mind-set he wrote: “Human beings are interesting and loveable just in proportion as one knows them.”²⁶

Throughout his books he wrote as a philosopher emphasizing what to accept and what to reject in decision-making. Hence, in the practical running of clubs for lads he included only working-class boys, excluding the clerical and the destructively rough ones as he was looking for results. He included only those who had reached the upper class of Sunday School and ran the club as a benevolent despot. Although the club was held on every week night to keep the boys off the streets the two main aims for Green were to know the boys, not to entertain them, and to bring them by stages to acknowledge Christ as Lord and Saviour as the only power against temptation. Hence the nature of Green as evangelist was demonstrated and this is a recurring theme throughout his books. He held a compulsory Bible class for the members of the club as this provided the opportunity to interest them in religion as “The boy is an essentially reasonable young animal.”²⁷ He realized that “Amongst the simple and uneducated people the familiar is more welcomed and enjoyed than the novel or original.”²⁸ This seemed to encourage him to repeat his material.

As he was conscious of the temptations besetting the society of the day he never failed to condemn: “As occasion serves the sin of drink and of gambling and of foul language.”²⁹ Drunkenness and gambling became two of his targets in his writing on morality. The care of his parishioners on the broader front was most important to him as “the destruction of the poor is their poverty,”³⁰ and he believed by their conversion to Christianity they would attain a life worth living.

With his lads in Bible class he aimed to bring them to a living experience of a relationship with God, helping them to recognize in their own souls’ experience something analogous to that of the Biblical characters since, for him, human nature does not change. He told the Bible stories in his own words, drawing out the meaning and illustrating them with personal anecdotes. In this way their interest was maintained and the Bible became a storehouse of spiritual experiences. The lads were encouraged to look for vital experiences as Green stressed the importance of experience and discipline, the lads trusting him with their characters in the process of formation and the men with their life experiences on which to reflect. This demanded an orderly development from the religion of the discipline of childhood to the freedom of manhood. However, the recognition of biblical experiences should lead to the desire to receive dogmatic teaching, which itself is definite and the condensed statements of past experiences formulated by the Church. Green considered it necessary to explain what the Christian religion is, and what it is for. He believed the Catholic Faith should be accepted as the philosophy for life, which needed plain and definite explanations which could be understood, believed, remembered, and acted on.

He presented a progression in three stages. The first was to encourage the boys to accept their physical, mental and spiritual resources which made up their characters as God-given. The second was to encourage them to accept the love of God. As Green believed faith comes before knowledge he asked them to have faith in him and to trust what he said and then to find out the truth for themselves through their experiences in life. The third was the triangular nature of the Christian religion with duty towards God, towards self for the development of the soul, and towards their neighbour. He developed this theme with duty to God at home, at work and amongst companions.

This orderly, three phase course of instruction was given in Teaching for Lads under ‘Our Religion’.³¹ The Bible Class members were first presented with the demands of religion and, relating them to their experience, were encouraged to accept the demands. There are twelve lessons mapped out in ‘Our Religion’ including 34 illustrations of which 29 are from Green’s personal experiences, three are historical and one each from the Bible and from missionary accounts. This included the love of God, the spirit of discipline and the development of a prayer life.

The second course aimed to relate the experience of Bible characters and incidents to the boys own experiences. He instilled in the boys that Bible Class was not worship, nor a substitute for it, and that a Sunday without worship was miss-spent.³² His optimism was shown in the fact that he believed that boys of about 12 to 14 years of age could understand simple teaching about God, their own souls, the strength which comes from Christ pleading his sacrifice, and the power of prayer. He knew the worst years to try to influence boys were between 15 and 16 years when their psychological and physiological years were against them.

The third course was the preparation for Confirmation if requested and with the parents’ and Green’s consent. The syllabus was based on the doctrine taught by the Book of Common Prayer, but stressed that Confirmation is not so much about making promises but the conscious receiving of the Holy Spirit.

As Green was convinced of the need for sound, dogmatic Catholic teaching he regarded Confirmation preparation to be the only possible chance to present an “absolutely, satisfactory, reasonable and consistent philosophy of life.”³³ There is little mention of God the Father in the Confirmation preparation as this doctrine had been covered extensively in the previous two courses, but he introduced the need and object of religion to be the means whereby fallen humanity is remade by the Holy Spirit in the image of Christ.³⁴ On a practical level he explained the benefit of auricular confession and absolution as a way whereby temptations are met and conquered. His knowledge of literature as illustrations for doctrine is indicated by Kipling’s ‘Thrown Away’ in his Plain Tales from the Hills.³⁵ On a practical level the Confirmation Service was explained word by word. It was a community event and the whole congregation was expected to attend the rehearsal. The confirmees had to attend a service of Holy Communion before work on the day at 5am and their mothers at 9.30am! Each candidate had a sponsor. As an indication of his personal interest in each candidate Green taught them individually how to pray and gave each a notebook for subjects and intentions. He stressed the need to pray regularly. “Otherwise God was being mocked and it was better not to pray at all.”³⁶

Thereafter, the demands on a communicant were extensive with public worship every week and the reception of Holy Communion once a month, although Green regretted that “Matins had usurped the place on the Lord’s day which rightly belongs to the Lord’s own service.”³⁷

Before the monthly reception of Holy Communion a preparation class was held when the communicants were led through self-examination leading to confession to strengthen the soul, leading to good resolutions. This was done by the help of guidelines on a card for the participants to complete as he believed boys needed rule, regularity and order. The preparation included also a short meditation on a biblical text with an explanation and an illustration.

Green was sympathetic to boys from bad homes but, optimistically, considered them to be rarer than imagined, and he put on probation a boy who lapsed with a point of honour to admit his relapse. He was convinced that “it is the personal touch that saves.”³⁸

In the final section of Teaching for Lads Green gave the outlines of addresses for communicant classes. Under ‘Faith’ he gave his concept of mind. This is important as it was the definition made by St Augustine of Hippo: “We say that the mind has three ways of working, or three powers, namely, the intellect by which we know, the affections by which we love, and the will by which we choose. Faith, working through your mind knows God as your creator, and Jesus as His Son. Faith, working through your affections, loves God as your father and Jesus Christ, who died for you. Faith, working through your will, chooses God as your Master and Jesus Christ as your pattern. And each of these helps the other.”³⁹

In How to deal with Men he contrasted the work with men with that of lads. He regarded lads as “tabula rasa”, beginners in the making, whereas men were individuals already in character and temperament, stiffened by habits and complicated by previous training or miss-training. Hence, “men are the most difficult work to which a clergyman can devote himself and his only motive is the true love of God and souls, and the only power to do the work is “prayer and self-examination.” Women have more physical and moral courage than men and so men are the Church’s weakness, but also its most valuable asset.⁴⁰

Always the optimist, Green considered the time, 1911, was one of growing religious opportunity. The revival of religion due to the Oxford Movement in the 1860s and 1870s had been followed by causes of decline. The Church had to reconcile its teaching with the new discoveries of science, especially Darwin’s The Origin of Species in 1859 and The Descent of Man in 1871. Darwin was not a threat for Green although he realized he was to others.

On the 19th August 1925 in an Artifex article entitled The Church’s Debt to Darwin Green wrote: “His great value for us is that he taught us to apply the genetic method – the method that is to say of studying origins in every sphere of enquiry.” He went on: “If the world had originated by a successive evolution, as it were by a continuous creation, then it declared that God is still working to bring it to perfection.” Nevertheless the Church had to come to terms not only with the fall-out from the theories of Darwin but with the new theological insights of historical and literary criticism of the Bible known as Higher Criticism.

Furthermore, the 1871 Education Act introducing universal and compulsory education had made men look to social, political, educational and economic reforms for improvement rather than spiritual influences. He thought the situation had now changed and considered there was no conflict between science and religion. Higher Criticism had shaken the church but left it stronger. The leaders of the Labour Party, although not orthodox Christians, recognized “man shall not live by bread alone.”⁴¹ He detected an increased dependence on personal experience which would be of benefit in transforming traditional, handed-on, religion into a personal Christian faith, witnessed in daily life.

Furthermore, social problems were waiting to be solved and the emerging nations needed “not the cast off clothes of our civilization, but power to evolve a civilisation of their own as an expression of their own character.”⁴² All in all, the time was right for the revival of religion and the concentration should be on men.

Green’s own work with men was done mainly in the Bible Class held on a Sunday afternoon with the intention of having influence leading to conversion and their attachment to the church. He was persuaded men needed “The Gospel of Jesus Christ fearlessly and plainly put before them by anyone who himself believes in it and knows its power.”⁴³ That was a reflection of his own attitude. The Bible Class was not to be confused with worship; it was organised by class secretaries who administered attendance cards and took weekly contributions for the book scheme and hospital fund. Scriptural teaching, personal visiting, and prayers were the three necessities, and the aim was to yield better men, who would become upright and trustworthy regular worshippers who had submitted to the Holy Spirit. He would not countenance apologetic teaching on Bible difficulties, but aimed to make the contents of the Bible a living reality and to identify the formulated experiences of the men with those of Biblical characters. He indicated his informed reading by providing experiences of conversions from modern histories and biographies and encouraged the men to provide their own illustrations, but discouraged personal testimonies. Green considered that the enthusiasm for the Bible Class was maintained by the prayers of the members kneeling. The portion of scripture was explained and always led into prayer. This became a training ground for extemporary prayer and devotional teaching. With his ordered mind Green admitted the worship of God is hard work but leads to joy, so duty comes first and pleasure afterwards; discipleship first and then the experience of freedom; submitting to God’s word leads to liberty, but the main outcome would be the provision of communicant members.

Attendance at the Bible Class was the passport to belonging to the Men’s Club as an ordinary member – other worshipping men were allowed as “privileged members.” If either an ordinary member lapsed from the Bible class or a privileged one from Sunday worship they forfeited their right to attend the Men’s Club. Membership rules were few but they included the prohibition of gambling, drinking and the use of bad language but smoking was allowed.

How to Deal with Men indicated Green’s pastoral experience, his love for souls and his strong but sensitive character. These qualities qualified him to deliver lectures on Pastoral Theology at Cambridge University at the outbreak of World War I. Hence to Green’s reputation for his work with men and lads was added pastor and evangelist. He was a complete priest but he was not a loner. Michael Hennell, a fellow residentiary canon, quoted from Green’s Artifex column in 1913 indicating that he advocated a team of priests in big towns and cities. Green held clergy teams should have a parochial population of between 50,000 and 60,000 souls with a central clergy house with a staff of five or six clergy. Green wrote: “A large staff would admit every man being put to the work he could do best and the comradeship and healthy criticism of a large staff would keep everyone up to the mark.” Hennell commented that the paragraph could have been a contribution to the 1980s report Faith in the City.⁴⁴ Green was to return to this theme in an Artifex article on 11^th July 1944.

Whilst maintaining a demanding parochial workload Green published three books before World War 1, namely Studies in the Devotional Life⁴⁵ in 1913, and Studies in Popular Theology,⁴⁶ also in 1913 and Studies in the Cross⁴⁷ in 1914. In these early books he set out an integrated scheme of Christian belief and practice which he was to develop in his later ones. His basic argument was that Christianity, although revealed, can be shown to be rational and reasonable. His Theology linked the doctrines of God, the Holy Trinity, the Fall, Redemption through the Cross of Christ, and the Church.

The existence of sin and suffering is attributed to the fall of humanity and the created universe. As mentioned earlier, he proposed a three-fold path of right belief, right affection and right action to be followed with an exploration of Christian doctrine leading to appropriate devotion and a system of ethics or moral behaviour. Throughout his writings he emphasized the need for discipline and personal holiness, and so the need for a guiding rule for the ordered life with the three-fold resources of Bible study to discover how God has dealt with souls; of prayer as personal intercourse with God; and Holy Communion as sacramental union with God.

Studies in the Cross was based on Green’s firmly held view that the Cross draws folk to it. This was the basis of his evangelism and the preaching for conversions in his own church.

At the same time he took his duties as a residentiary canon at Manchester Cathedral seriously. Hennell recorded that Green held all the posts on the Cathedral Chapter, Registrar, Bursar, Collector of Rents and from 1934 Sub-Dean. He said Mattins and celebrated the Eucharist at St Philip’s before doing so at the Cathedral.⁴⁸

Green was appointed a Royal Chaplain to King George V and spoke of his respect for him as a Bible reader. Queen Mary took a personal interest in Green’s parish and the Ragged Schools.

1914 saw the outbreak of World War One. Green did not have a day off during the War in respect for his “lads” in the forces. Most of them were not to return.

²⁰ F .D. Coggan: These were his Gifts (Devonshire Press, University of Exeter, 1974), p3.

²¹ Roger Lloyd: The Church and People 1900-1914 (SCM Press, London, 1964), p164.

²² P.G.: How to Deal with Lads (Edward Arnold, London, 1910).

²³ Roger Lloyd, op. cit.

²⁴ Henry Hill, The Story of Adelphi (Birch and Simpson Ltd., Manchester, 1949), p123.

²⁵ P.G., ibid, p6.

²⁶ Ibid, p11.

²⁷ Ibid, p55.

²⁸ Ibid, p65.

²⁹ Ibid, p66.

³⁰ Ibid, p83.

³¹ PG: Teaching for Lads (Edward Arnold, London, 1917), p29ff.

³² PG: How to Deal with Lads, p67.

³³ Ibid., p114.

³⁴ PG: Teaching for Lads, p125.

³⁵ Ibid., p132.

³⁶ PG: How to Deal with Lads, p110.

³⁷ Ibid., p146.

³⁸ PG: How to Deal with Lads, p167.

³⁹ PG: Teaching for Lads, p160ff.

⁴⁰ PG: How to deal with Men (Edward Arnold, London, 1911), p4.

⁴¹ PG: How to Deal with Men, p10.

⁴² Ibid., p14.

⁴³ Ibid., p34.

⁴⁴ Michael Hennell: Deans and Canons at Manchester Cathedral 1840-1948 (published privately, no date), p36.

⁴⁵ PG: Studies in the Devotional Life (Wells, Gardner, Darton, London, 1913).

⁴⁶ PG: Studies in Popular Theology (Wells, Gardner, Darton, London, 1913).

⁴⁷ PG: Studies in the Cross (Wells, Gardner, Darton, London, 1914).

⁴⁸ Hennell, op.cit.