Starting a new series of articles by Fr Ron Bowles.
The Lantern Tower of St Nicholas Cathedral, Newcastle upon Tyne
The coronation of the Queen took place on 2nd June 1953. Two days earlier on Sunday 31st May I was made a deacon in the cathedral of St Nicholas, Newcastle upon Tyne. I was to serve my Title in the parish of Berwick-upon-Tweed in the diocese of Newcastle.
It had taken me a long time to get to this stage of ordination. As a child Sunday was spent cycling - none of my family went to church, and I was never sent to Sunday school. It was through the YMCA, that I had my first contact with church. I'd a small snooker table at home, and longed to play on a full size table. The YMCA had one, but to join the club you had to attend a church service on Sunday. Hence I turned up, found I enjoyed it, and started to attend church with some friends. It was in fact, a Methodist church. Gradually, I qualified as a local preacher and started to take services.
During the war I served in the RAF, preaching in churches in South Africa, when we weren't flying. After the war, I went to college in Bristol and qualified for the Methodist Ministry. The Church of South India, a united Church between Anglicans and Free churches seemed to suit me, and I served the church in Madras. Though I found India fascinating, the united Church did not seem quite right, and I decided the Church of England was where I felt at home.
So, after acceptance to the Anglican Church I trained again, this time at King's College, London. Whilst I was there the Bishop of Newcastle, issued a call to go North. I had expected some industrial parish, and it was a surprise to find myself in the most northerly parish in the Church of England.
Berwick-upon-Tweed, North of the river, is still part of England, though many seem to think it is in Scotland. It was probably a part of Scotland that England claimed.
When the Prayer Book came out in 1662, it says that the services were to be used in England and Wales, and in the parish of Berwick-upon-Tweed. It's the only parish mentioned in the Prayer Book. By the l9th century, the name was not included, because by then it had been recognised as part of England.
The parish Church (Holy Trinity) was one of the few built during the Commonwealth (from 1649-1660, England had no King, and it was governed by Cromwell and Parliament, when the Prayer Book was not allowed to be used). Berwick is a market town; its walls are still largely intact; there is a castle, but the main railway line's station is in the castle. Three bridges cross the Tweed. A l7th century one; a magnificent Railway bridge, and in the 20's, a suspended road bridge.
Just off the coast is Holy Island (Lindisfarne). This was where Christianity in the North of England began. It was where St Aidan and St Cuthbert had their base for the mission to England. All this was before Augustus brought Christianity to Canterbury. You can walk across to Holy Island at low tide, and our parish led some of the pilgrimages that go there. We led a pilgrimage with Michael Ramsey, then Bishop of Durham.
My very first service at Berwick was a Coronation Day service. We were then invited to one of the few houses, which had TV. A large number of us sat around a very tiny set, amazed that we could see all this as it happened. My vicar was from Northern Ireland, and had just come up from Wallsend in the city of Newcastle. At this time, the church was going through the period known as "Parish and People".
The churches then tended to be of two types. High church services were usually a Sung Eucharist at 11, but only the priest took communion. The theory behind this was that it showed that the Eucharist was a sacrifice. Receiving communion was only part of it. If you took communion you were expected to fast, and receive at the 8am service. Going back at eleven was a thanksgiving.
Some were feeling that this was a bad idea, and the two should be brought together. In Berwick, we had just started a 9 o'clock Sung Eucharist with communion. As you still had to fast, breakfast was provided after the service. Matins was still sung at 11am, and continued for many years. I still feel that some of the canticles, like the Te Deum, could be used at the Eucharist.
My vicar was a great teacher. Sunday after Sunday he explained everything about the Eucharist. The meaning of the vestments, of the Gloria, of the Eucharist prayers. It must have had an effect on me, because I followed a similar pattern over the years. After a year, I was ordained priest and said my first Eucharist on St Barnabas Day.
Berwick was our first home. It was a stone terrace house, looking out over the North Sea. In those days, there was no central heating, and it was very cold during the long winters. Both our children, Kate and Stephen, were born there. Mary and I took it in turns to get up in the night, so we both shared the hardships. But in the summer it was a splendid place to take walks by the river, and on the walls and by the sea. I used to go and support Berwick Rangers, who played in the Scottish League. And, of course, I couldn't resist going to Newcastle and St James' Park to cheer on the local lads. I must confess that the local dialect was hard to master, and as I was often not understood, I began to feel that the North wasn't quite the place for me.
As a young curate, we never got to visit Northumberland, and determined that one day we would. After 30 years, we did go up to Newcastle for a holiday and visited Hadrian's Wall, Hexham Abbey and the Cheviot Hills. We went back to Berwick one Sunday. It was a joy to see a full church, and hear a great choir. A few people recognised us, just. "You've lost your black hair," someone said "The church has done very well since you left"! Was it because we had laid a good foundation? (This was not something I thought of at the time.) Altogether, it was a good experience, and we made a promise that we would visit every County in England, and spend time there. We succeeded in doing this, and it has turned out to be very worthwhile.
Fr Ron Bowles
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