059 - Chapter 59

(Illustration: Church of the Good Shepherd, Battle Hill; the  cross in the chancel)

I got yet another taste of what it would have been like to have been a vicar, when I entered my third interregnum in 2005. Richard had announced he was retiring, and he and his wife Catherine were getting ready to move into their new home. I had already picked up Richard’s organisation duties months before, when he became more poorly and my workload had increased as a result. Two new vicars had arrived in our team, Sue Wilson, who was based at St Paul’s, and Roger Kindly, Team Rector, at St Mary’s, so 2005 was a very busy year. We all presided at each others services across the team on a rota basis, and I was still doing all the schools work and assemblies. It became a constant round of morning prayer, weekly staff meetings, (unless I was taking a school assembly) home communions, pastoral visits, planning worship, taking funerals, and children’s outreach i.e. Godly Play etc

Sadly, Richard died in February of 2006, so Catherine and he didn’t have much of a retirement together. The parish really needed a full-time priest to take his place, and not a part timer like me. Yet it did have a very capable and steadfast church warden in David Abernethy who kept all our wheels in motion.

I do have some lovely memories of my time at Church of the Good Shepherd, (COGS) where I was mainly based.

A music group called Saintz helped with our family service each month, which is where I met Andrew Ridgwick, their pianist, who would later assist me in recording radio programmes for hospital and community radio stations in the North-East of England. 

Also at COGS there was a band of volunteers who were willing to perform dramas, many of them written in my time in United Folk. This little team consisted of an enthusiastic bunch of ladies who took on many acting challenges for use in worship. Sometimes a husband or two got roped in, Bob included.

 One young dance student in her twenties, a daughter of a member of the congregation, helped to train a small group of our teenage girls for the occasional liturgical dance. We even bought red and black Lycra tops for them. Our worship in family services then, was exciting, a beautiful challenge.

Being a vicar, definitely wasn’t meant to be for me though. I soon realised that all of the administration, organisation and all the various committees a vicar must chair, would have finished me off, and left little time for evangelism outside of church!

I believed that God had something for me to do, and he would in time show me what it was, once Richard’s replacement arrived.

During that interregnum, I remember a former pupil coming to see me in Church of the Good Shepherd, with a baby ensconced on her hip. She was enquiring about baptism, and she brought a friend with her, for support. So we all chatted about baptism, but it was her friend, who asked me the most questions, really deep questions, even though she wasn’t the one seeking baptism.

After some time, the teaching session came to a close, and they got ready to leave. As they walked away, the friend turned around and said,

“I’ve one more question Sheila, can God put a curse on you to stop you smoking? I smoke so many cigarettes every day, it costs me a fortune, but I can’t give them up, and I’ve really tried hard to!”

I smiled and replied, “God doesn’t curse anyone, he wants to bring healing through the prayers of those who believe in his power to heal?”

“So, why don’t you pray with me right now?’ she said.

I thought to myself. “What have I just talked myself into?”

It was a clear challenge, a throwing down of the gauntlet almost, and both girls stood and looked at me, awaiting my response.

“OK!” I replied. “Come over here, and let’s see what God can do for you.” I carefully explained all about the laying on of hands and the way I prayed ‘in the spirit’, I was keen to emphasise that the power to heal came from to God, and not from me.

What followed was quite dramatic.

As I placed my hands upon her head and her shoulder, praying in tongues, and in English, inviting the Holy Spirit to take away her desire to smoke, she began to yell loudly, “Agh my chest is burning!” I told her not to worry, for it seemed that God had a healing for her.

As I said this, she sank to the ground in my arms, and just lay there. In fact she lay for some time, relaxed and smiling.

My former pupil, stood watching by the door, mouth open wide in surprise, chewing gum frozen in mid chew, with the baby still perched on her hip. She had only one thing to say, when I turned to look at her, and that was: “Creepy!”

The friend, after a short while, got to her feet and walked towards the door, telling me she felt very different, and she was going to see if she was now free from her smoking habit.

To cut a long story short, I met this girl again the following year, and she introduced herself to me, and reminded me who she was.

I asked about her ‘healing’ and she told me that for roughly six months she’d successfully stopped smoking, which to her was miraculous, considering how the habit had such a hold over her, but then later on she had fallen back into her old ways.

I had a lot to learn about ‘follow through’ then, I know that now. Looking back, I should have arranged more meetings with her in order to invite God to complete her healing, and to discuss commitment, but for some reason I didn’t.

I would invite her for further prayer if I met with her now. But I know she will always remember that special moment. I wonder where she is now, and whether she still smoking?

Mark’s gospel 16. 17-18 says this:

And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.”

So why, some may ask, do some get healed and others don’t?

It’s the million-dollar question, but that’s for God to answer one day, not me.