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Defend, O Lord, This Thy Child
It must have been the Confirmation service that did it, started the memories rolling back. It was a good Confirmation, with Benediction and all the trimmings, and, as I knelt there, rather painfully on the hard floor, the thought struck me that it will soon be fifty years since a bishop first laid his hands on me. There must have been several who restrained themselves from doing the same, for a different reason, since that day.
How, I mused, had I come to be where I am and what I am? I suppose that I had gone through all the correct procedures en route; church choir (very unsuccessfully), Sunday School (equally so), confirmation classes (mainly because I fancied some of the girls), altar server, sidesman, Sunday school superintendent, churchwarden, and, finally deacon and then priest. But when I think about it, I didn't become a Christian because of church. Conversely, I became part of church because I was a Christian.
My spiritual formation came about because of outside influences. Initially I was encouraged by a Lay Reader, who was never to know what fruits his labours were to bear. When I joined the army I read the Bible, a dangerous occupation even in those days. I was taught how to pray in a hostile environment by a Staff Quartermaster Sergeant, a fierce and manly man, affectionately known as Mad Dan. The light of Christ was not kindled by the bishop who I knelt before almost half a century ago. Ignition came through Church of Ireland Padres who, in a short week's Christian Leadership course at Bagshot Park in Surrey, really lit the lamp. From then on the path was smoothed by a whole host of people, clerical and lay, whose holiness impressed me. Some were unwitting mentors, ordinary people with extraordinary spiritual luminance.
In today's world there are fewer and fewer parochial clergy. If they were wildlife they would be classified as an endangered species. That means that the task of passing on the baton falls to the laity. My own experience demonstrates that they more than are equal to the task. True, there have been priests who have inspired me, but much of the work has been done by words to the wise from men and women who thought themselves unexceptional. Go and do thou likewise.
May God bless you all, Fr Allan
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