Читать книгу A Complete Parish Priest Peter Green (1871-1961) - Frank Sargeant - Страница 12

1920-1930

CHAPTER FOUR: ALL-ROUND PRIEST

In 1924 Green published a revised version of The Town Parson with his firmly held view the pastoral care of parishioners was vital to the religious life of the nation. He wrote: “Next to the influence of the home, especially the mother, nothing is so vital to the religious life of the nation as pastoral care.”⁵⁹

An important aspect of his work was that he aimed to enable a wider clientele than his own congregation to learn for themselves as adults reflecting on their experiences. He attempted to help them discover skills: how to pray, confess, grow in holiness, to study the Bible, to meditate, approach Holy Communion, to live the good life. He gave practical demonstrations on how to do them. Green had delivered lectures on pastoralia, how to be a clergyman, in 1914 at Cambridge and London University. Their publication as The Town Parson was delayed by the war and he dedicated it in 1919 to the memory of the fallen and to those who “having served their King and Country in the Great War desire now to serve the King of Kings in the ministry of his Church.”⁶⁰

The Church was, indeed, in need of ministers. Many clergy had been killed in action as chaplains and the number of deacons ordained in the Church of England in 1919 was 261 as compared with 610 in 1914. Green felt he had something to offer.

The material in The Town Parson was recycled later as lectures at Durham and London Universities and published as The Man of God in 1935. Green’s attitudes to the ordained ministry can be deduced from these books.

Green put the pastoral care of people at the centre of Christian ministry. He quoted Dr. Knox, Bishop of Manchester, saying there had been recent developments in Church government such as the establishment of Parochial Church Councils and Diocesan Conferences but no advance in the spiritual life of the nation.⁶¹ Such church business Green believed had led to the neglect of parochial duties and he remarked: “Few people of the world want the opinions of the clergy in matters of business, but they do want direction on moral and spiritual matters.”⁶²

After World War I there was a lack of clergy and inadequate money to pay them, and Green’s contention was the laity had to play a rightful active role in the cause of the Gospel. In The Man of God Green condemned clergy who engaged in politics. It was the laity who should be allowed to witness to their Christian faith by engaging in political and social issues, thus keeping the Gospel in touch with all. If the clergyman did these things he was denying the laity their opportunities and was neglecting his own duties. He admitted he thought he would be active in reform movements on behalf of the poor, but he had discovered such action was not a valid, nor best, use of his resources. He considered that clergy should be the brick-builders of the social system, preaching sin and turning out good people. Green wrote: “I am sure the clergy must exercise real self denial and have a great many things they do themselves to be done by others.”⁶³

As far as he was concerned a clergyman would do well to obey the ordinal in the 1662 Book of Common Prayer and “set aside all worldly cares and studies.” His task was to be an ambassador for Christ as set out in 2 Corinthians 5:20, whose aim was to do spiritual work; that of preaching, teaching, pastoral visitations and administering the sacraments. The rest could be left to capable laity. Green warned the twin dangers for the clergyman are “the Spirit of the seminary, which cuts a man off from his fellow men, and the Spirit of the World which cuts a man off from God.”⁶⁴

What kept Green in touch with the world, and so with God in one respect, was close contact with his people as their pastor.

Hence, high on Green’s priorities was visiting in his parish. This was neglected by many parish priests but for him it was the only way “to know my sheep” after the model of Jesus the Good Shepherd. His visiting was not intended to be inquisitorial, but to meet two necessary needs “to love and to be loved”⁶⁵ as he said in The Man of God.

His visiting was characteristically systematic, house-to-house, as he had been instituted to the cure of souls in the parish and not the care of a congregation. Visiting in this way enabled Green to know those who did not go to church, understanding them in their own context as he held a moral responsibility for them. He believed visiting was missionary work to make relationships with “the flotsam and jetsam of humanity, the sick, the poor, and the impotent.”⁶⁶ He believed his contact with them improved their lives. To this end he was always looking for the opportunity to link them with the Church. Whenever possible he would prepare for his visits by scanning school registers and parish lists for an opening in conversation but his main aim was to get into the house. He seized every opportunity to pray once inside. In The Town Parson he gave an insight into his love of his parishioners when he said “Working people are much less reserved in religious matters,”⁶⁷ presumably than the other classes. He made every effort to reach the men who were protected by their wives and portrayed as man-eating tigers. Green, noted for his humour, wrote “the tiger sat up and mewed most piteously.”⁶⁸

Green reserved his early evenings before the clubs and Temperance concerts for visiting the families of the members of his Bible classes, delivering quarterly reports, recruiting new members and seeking out the lapsed.

He regarded the pastoral role of the priest to be superior to the prophetic one. His long incumbency had great benefits in “knowing my sheep.”⁶⁹ For him the best work was done developing the characters of those whom he had prepared for confirmation to mature. Patience was required in all things. He pointed out he had taught in the Ragged schools and visited the Temperance meetings, giving a talk every week, for four years before obtaining any confirmation candidates, but he believed the time to have been well spent. By visiting homes he created a spirit of understanding. He was convinced it was necessary for the ordained man of God to be certain of his vocation to be a pastor and to find happiness in the role. He also needed to live a disciplined life.

As he considered the work of a priest to be a vital part of the life of both the church and nation, Green laid great stress on the training of curates in the priestly discipline he exercised himself, and especially in the ordering of his time, as the clergyman was his own master. Green was aware the clergyman had a greater variety of things to do than other professionals and so needed to provide himself with a timetable which included a fixed time of rising in the morning. Green did not regard it as a sin to break the timetable, but he did consider slackness to be a sin. His own method was to look ahead to the next day at his evening prayers in order to establish his priorities but to allow for emergencies. He advocated patience and an unhurried attitude to life in order to give time to people, and to garner the fruits of experience by reflections. For Green daily private prayer was at the heart of his priestly ministry. Neither the celebration of the Eucharist, which he valued greatly, nor other acts of public worship, were substitutes for private prayer. He said throughout his writings the Church suffers from prayerlessness. Apart from the advocacy of prayer, on a practical level he thought intercessory prayer for others prevented anxiety about oneself.

He practiced the devotional use of scripture, with a daily meditation in his quiet time.

Green devoted four mornings a week to study, reading serious theology in order to be able to teach and preach Christian doctrine to his parishioners. He regarded doctrine as a skeleton, which is invisible, but gives form to the body. He complained throughout that the clergy did not know the Catholic doctrines and so did not preach and teach them. Consequently the members were ignorant of what they should believe and left the church. He believed that clergymen should develop their own intellectual interests. His advice, which he followed, was to plan a book.

He was an enthusiastic reader of general literature including poetry and novels, which he commended to others, as they provided illustrations of the experiences of real life to be used in sermons. He recommended biographies, essays, poetry, travel and accounts of missionary endeavours.

Green was a keen supporter of overseas missions. He was convinced the Church which was alive to mission in this country would show a lively interest in supporting missions overseas. He considered that the Church of England could claim to be Catholic because it had spread to the British colonies.

His time was divided between parochial work in taking services, visiting parishioners and attending the numerous clubs and societies associated with the Parish Church.

He was disciplined in keeping records of all kinds – of the sick and the poor, and confirmation candidates. His eye for detail is seen in The Town Parson when he advised neo-cyclo style cards should be used for filing information – an advanced method for his day! In Man of God he included a necromancy list to remember the faithful departed on the anniversary of death and an address book for those not directly associated with the Church.⁷⁰

Green emphasized the need for the clergyman to be business like especially in handling money, noting all expenses paid for official duties for income tax purposes. He was scrupulous and prudent in his responsibilities as bursar of the Manchester Cathedral finances. He summed up his own approach “be orderly, be business like, be punctual, be courteous, and strive for the highest standards of efficiency.”⁷¹ Courtesy in all things was necessary for “courtesy has been defined as love in small matters.”⁷²

Green regarded his duty as one under authority was to provide the fullest round of services to meet the needs of the people. The doctrine of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer was of the utmost importance and its worship to be workable although he was to support the revised 1928 Prayer Book. He aimed by worship to put God and his glory first, as he believed that was the purpose of the Church. The response of the people to worship was limited only by the opportunities offered to them. Green was a super-optimist with faith in human nature and was always anticipating an opportunity for the revival of religion. However, he was most concerned that the Great Commandment of the love of God and neighbour was being reversed in order of priority with the duty to neighbour coming first in social action, and the duty to God being neglected. He tried in this case to make the correction as he believed the health of nation and parish depended on having worship at its heart. In this way Christian doctrine could be expressed in worship as “There is no impression without expression”⁷³ to use a favourite phrase of Green.

He aimed unashamedly to build a large congregation because for him numbers of converted, instructed and missionary minded people did count. They were all workers for the Gospel and by their shepherding and teaching helped to retain the young in the church.

Green conducted services reverently and slowly. He insisted on the services being held at regular times and punctually. He avoided mannerisms and affectations. The conduct of the service of Holy Communion had orderly and disciplined movements and he advocated his own practice of knowing the service off by heart. He was demanding of his congregation when the occasion required. He celebrated Holy Communion at 5am whilst a Mission was taking place in the parish. He timed the service of Holy Communion for mothers at 9.30am on a Monday morning saying that it prevented Monday morning drinking. Illustrating his disciplined approach to small things he wrote out and read his church notices with items in the same order each week.

Green took care with the occasional offices of marriages, funerals and the churching of women. His far-sighted preference for marriages was that all parties should be married in civil register offices with a following blessing in church if requested. Services of Holy Baptism and those of the occasional offices gave him the chance to meet his parishioners on a more intimate basis but he regarded them as evangelistic opportunities when people were open to religious influences.

Green was always open to meeting people. He was noted for the fact that he travelled by tram, even to funerals to the appropriate cemeteries, and so was well known on public transport. He was also sensitive to the needs and privileges of his parishioners to exercise their rights of baptism, marriages and holding funerals in the church although they were not regular worshippers there.

Although Green was hard working, and disciplined in taking services and in study he had firm views on recreation. He had the habit of keeping from 1.45 to 2.30pm for “a pipe and a good book.”⁷⁴ He read the daily paper to keep up with the news and for information for prayer. He advocated a circle of friends and a regular day off except in the two World Wars in respect for his lads away fighting for their country. He said any decent recreation for a layman could be enjoyed by a clergyman. If one of his curates was engaged in sport in the parish that did not count as time off, but if it was pursued out of the parish he should not have been there! Green said that he was not a gifted sportsman and he decried muscular Christianity but as already noted he rowed and boxed at Cambridge. There is a reference in Beeson’s The Canons⁷⁵ to him taking part in a boxing competition in a fair ground and winning a prize for lasting five minutes with the prize fighter. He said that it was not worth it!

He was insistent on his curates having a day off each week and proper holiday time in the summer and breaks for spiritual refreshment either before Lent or after Easter. His practice was to go away into Retreat each year, mainly in silence, and to have quiet days in his own church.

Preaching was important to him. For Green the method, style, and language of a sermon or address should be suitable to the congregation and the occasion, but it should always have a definite aim either to edify or convert, to encourage or instruct, whether he was preaching in church or in a works yard. The circumstances had to be considered as to whether the sermon was preached from notes or read from a script or delivered ex tempore as in a hospital ward or in the open air.

Green followed the principles of the analysis of Augustine of Hippo addressing the intellect, the affections and the will. The intellect was addressed with some substance of church doctrine or history, the affections with the love of God and the will aroused to a sense of penitence with a call for conversion by reproof, correction and exhortation. According to the occasion emphasis on one of the component parts would be made, but all should be present. Although he aimed to be an effective teacher, using appropriate illustrations, especially with regard to the Sacraments, the supreme end of the sermon for him was the conversion of sinners, by instruction, edification, and encouragement.

Green kept a notebook for illustrations to use from the Bible, from secular sources and from his own life experiences. He considered that the place of pain and suffering, common matters raised constantly with him, should be explored and explained as Green had a rational outlook on life and thought that explanations were possible and desirable. He believed in what he called “unconscious cerebration”⁷⁶ for sermons allowing his thoughts on a preselected topic to “boil and simmer” for six weeks whilst he prayed about it. He then “saw” the shape of the sermon in his mind and proceeded to write it out, revise it and then to put it in final form. If it proved to be satisfactory after delivery and receiving any immediate criticisms from his hearers he considered it was worth repeating. He was not shy of advocating the use of the sermons of others if they were worthwhile. Green recycled his own material all through his writings as he expressed his views repeatedly. He was enthusiastic about his preaching, and preached as often as he could to a wide variety of congregations. He aimed to be terse and simple and welcomed response. When he did not have enough time to prepare, or if he thought that his sermon was not up to the mark, he would do a Bible exposition as an alternative, but did not regard this as preaching.

In his teaching he laid great stress on how to make a private confession as he had experienced the power of confession and receiving absolution for himself immediately before his ordination as priest and he emphasised the power of sin in stopping God’s grace. He knew the Church of England had the reputation of being obsessed by sin but thought himself that it was not obsessed enough and quoted Amiel’s mediaeval Journal: “The great defect (of the Church of his day) is that its conception of holiness is a frivolous one, or, what comes to the same thing, its conception of sin is a superficial one.”⁷⁷ Green did not regard it necessary for private confession to be habitual but he warned that “sins forgotten but not repented have great power to weaken the character and to hinder grace. The watch against sin and active striving after holiness become necessary as we grow older.”⁷⁸

Green had a fixed time and place at St Philip’s and at the Cathedral to hear confessions and give absolution, which he regarded as “medicine not food.”⁷⁹ He heard confessions in the open church, and he rebuked vice fearlessly with a view to penitence ending to the restoration of self-respect. Although he aimed primarily at the individual to enable them to find integrity in combining faith and action he was equally fearless in rebuking vice to the general public especially with regard to drinking and gambling.

Following what has been said about the clergyman leaving social action to the laity, it must not be assumed Green considered that ministry was the province of the ordained ministers only. He believed in shared ministry. As early as 1919 he advocated women should be allowed to preach in church and raised the matter of the ordination of women. When a pamphlet was prepared on the subject for the bishops in 1930 he challenged the Church to decide on the words of Galatians 3:28 “In Christ there is neither male nor female.” As far as his men were concerned his aim was to get them “on their knees to pray, and on their feet to speak for Christ.”⁸⁰ He trained them in study groups of eight to become public speakers. Those who survived World War I returned to become street preachers, to run the Sunday afternoon Men’s Convention and to devise and present a service in Lent with sermons on a Sunday evening with other participating church groups including the women’s groups, which was attended by 360 people from 9.30pm to 10pm.

According to his account in The Man of God Green must have been one of the first priests in the Church of England to establish house meetings or cottage meetings with Bible study groups, prayer circles and missionary guilds, as adult activities although the Methodist church had established their classes long before.

For all the importance of church groups and activities which had a religious base, individuals were more important to Green, “the good shepherd who knew his sheep” and they were mainly his parishioners who lived in poverty. He had an aggressive stance on the well-to-do, as he experienced extreme poverty in his parish and considered that the rewards in life should go to the needs of the poor not to the benefit of the rich as he had the welfare of his people at heart. He had learned from visiting the wounded soldiers in hospital during the war that, in his view, “the Englishman is the most lovable” and some of his returned lads were now out of work.⁸¹

He said that he was amazed daily at the virtue of his poor people and he berated the clergyman who was critical of the members of his flock and did not love them. Green preferred one of average ability, who loved his people and encouraged them to good results, doing all to the Glory of God, and the salvation of souls. He came to the support of such clergy when he replied on 18^th August 1922 to criticism of them in the correspondence columns of the Church Times. He contributed an article entitled The Inexcusable Laziness of the Clergy as “one of them” and outlined his own punishing workload, as he was single-handed at that time in a busy parish with a population of over 10,000 inhabitants. However, this could not be achieved without them being converted Christians.

Although he was hard-pressed his main object was to convert his people. Green’s approach to evangelism and the importance of Parish Missions follows to investigate his firmly held view: “It is not enough to get them to church. We need to get them to Christ. I fear that there are congregations in which a very large percentage of the regular members have never really faced the question of the entire surrender to Christ.”⁸²

⁵⁹ PG: The Town Parson (Longmans Green & Co., London, 1924), Author’s Preface to new edition.

⁶⁰ Ibid.: Dedication.

⁶¹ Ibid.: Preface xii.

⁶² PG: The Man of God (Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1935), p39.

⁶³ PG: The Town Parson, Preface xiv.

⁶⁴ PG: The Man of God, p103.

⁶⁵ Ibid., p100.

⁶⁶ PG: The Town Parson, p41.

⁶⁷ Ibid., p50.

⁶⁸ Ibid., p53.

⁶⁹ Ibid., p35.

⁷⁰ PG: The Man of God, p222.

⁷¹ Ibid., p229.

⁷² Ibid., p226.

⁷³ PG: The Town Parson, p80.

⁷⁴ Ibid., p23.

⁷⁵ Trevor Beeson: The Canons (SCM Press, London, 2006), p124.

⁷⁶ PG: The Town Parson, p141.

⁷⁷ The Amiel Journal, translated by Mrs Humphrey Ward (Macmillan, London, 1898), p155 (quoted in PG: The Man of God Hodder & Stoughton, London, 1935), p61.

⁷⁸ PG: The Man of God, p61.

⁷⁹ PG: The Town Parson, p222.

⁸⁰ Coggan, op. cit., p10.

⁸¹ PG: The man of God, p100.

⁸² Ibid., p141.