079 - Chapter 79

(Illustrations: Wallsend Hall, and the Central Middle School reunion)

In 2013 I was invited by former pupils to organise a reunion for Central Middle School, and I decided to explore a venue which was situated on The Green, Wallsend, namely Wallsend Hall. It had been owned in the distant past by Lord Mayors, then by Robert Richardson Dees, who donated 18 acres of the Hall grounds to be used as a park for local residents to enjoy. Then Sir GB Hunter bought it and donated it to the council to be used as a hospital and maternity ward. During World War II, it was used temporarily as army headquarters, before becoming the ‘Civic Hall’.

When I booked this venue for our reunion, it served as a tearoom downstairs and wedding venue upstairs with access to a grand dance hall. The residents were a small Christian fellowship group, and I reckoned that they would get right behind our venture, pray for its success, and for all who might attend, and I was delighted to find that they were allowing us to hire the hall upstairs at a very reasonable rate, which was very generous of them. 

Wallsend Hall was perfect for our reunion, and  accessible to those former pupils who still lived in the area.

Incidentally I called in to the tearoom one day, to sort out tickets, and I met a couple of Christian friends I knew who were enjoying afternoon tea, one of whom was on a holiday break from Australia where she lived. Being a priest, she asked me to pray for healing for her arthritic knee. I was quick to tell her I couldn’t heal, but I believed that God could. She told me later she felt relief after the prayer, and reported no pain later on, which was wonderful.

The Christian group who ran the Hall mentioned they had fellowship upstairs on Sunday afternoons, so I decided to go along to join them before the reunion took place. I more or less invited myself along.

Now before I go any further, I must explain that there are many Christians denominations, in other words, many ways we choose to worship differently: through time we have all been 'off-shoots' and given ourselves ‘labels’ such as Roman Catholic, Anglican, Methodist, United Reform, Pentecostal, Plymouth Brethren, Baptist, Salvation Army, Quakers etc., which is all very confusing to a newcomer; but we also have certain preferences too. There’s the Liberal who searches for truth; the Catholic who reveres all things traditional, the Charismatic who longs for openness of the Holy Spirit, the Evangelical who guards and preaches scriptural truth as set out in the Bible.

I really don’t know what it is we all don’t understand about Jesus’ prayer:-

“Father may they be one, as we are one!” 

But there’s always the argument put forward that we have unity in the spirit, but that does not necessarily mean ‘uniformity’ in the ranks!

I thought I could worship anywhere, as in my lifetime I’ve enjoyed worship, and worked in outreach, in many of the different churches I’ve mentioned above, and I also think if I had a label myself, I would be a mixture of them all. But there are extremes also, and the fellowship I attended that Sunday afternoon was one I’d never experienced before. There was no bible reading, or recognisable hymn, a loud guitarist played constantly as the preacher spoke and I couldn’t hear a word he said. Then the floor cleared and there was time for ministry, with people falling in the spirit everywhere, and it was all so noisy and chaotic.

Lord forgive me, if I sound judgemental, but never have I attended worship which has given me an instant intense headache before like this one did. I’ve always expected worship to be “be done decently and in order”, as it says in 1 Corinthians 14. v 40

I’m afraid it was not for me, but I have to ask as I say this . . . do we give God a headache, with all our different preferences and divisions, with our wariness and suspicions of one another, with the impressions we might give that ‘we are the only ones who’ve got it right!’

“Father may they be one, as we are one!” is still his prayer.

Surely, we ought to be one body as the church, with all gifts being utilised in the building up of the body of Christ, of whom we are all a part. The church that gets it right, the true church, will exemplify the love that St Paul speaks about in 1 Corinthians 13. v 4-8 which says:

‘Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends.’

You can find my song on this theme in Chapter 51. But let me offer you another which has a very similar theme to it.

SONG: Help me see with your eyes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS45TWyktXg...

When the Central Middle School reunion eventually took place, a short while after the worship session I attended, our former pupils were fantastic and so delighted to see each other again, and be ‘reunited’ with former friends and a few teachers, along with their former headmaster.

The evening began with a bit of fun; we held the kind of school ‘assembly’ we used to have each morning, with announcements, and a story too, believe it or not; and with favourite hymns and songs that we used to sing, led by Mr David McRae, our former music teacher who was playing the keyboard that evening. There were two solos sung by a former pupil who had made her name in the ‘pop world’, namely Brooke Barber (nee Mc Arthur). Brooke never sang in any of my choirs or productions back then at school, even though she probably had wanted to, as she was extremely shy at school, but she has blossomed since then into a real Suzie Quatro! That evening she sang, ‘His eye is on the sparrow’ and ‘Amazing Grace’, you could tell she was destined for a great future in the music industry.

There was one lad, a bit of a mischief at school, who always wore an impish smile, I was really looking forward to seeing him, in fact I'd planned to ask him for lines that he hadn’t handed in all those years ago, (just for a bit of a laugh) He had told me, by text message that he was definitely coming to the reunion, but he didn’t arrive, and I was so disappointed.

We lit candles in a niche in the fireplace for pupils who were no longer with us, which was very moving.

Sadly, this same pupil died not long after that reunion! I so hate it, when people die young! If only he had come along that evening, I would love to have had a chat with him.

The love we shared that evening , and the joy we all felt in being together again; that sense of oneness, is something we should be seeking to achieve today in our churches together. It was amazing.

My old headmaster WAB at the Wallsend Grammar School, used to keep up to date information about his former pupils in his little notebook, which he carried around in his inside pocket. I still keep in touch with many former pupils on Facebook, as my husband Bob does with his pupils. This is a much better vehicle of communication, where we can hear all about forthcoming weddings, new born babies, job successes and we can add our own personal comments.

Our former pupils, along with former staff, really enjoyed each other’s company that evening, promising that perhaps we’d all meet again someday, but as yet we haven’t. 

But you never know!