Welcome to the May 2000 On-Line Edition of

St George's News

Waterlooville's Parish Magazine

LOOKING BACK ON ONE HUNDRED YEARS OF WORSHIP

The End of the Century

The years of war we thought were over but really there was a war going on somewhere in the world, we tried to ignore it but hatred has its seed everywhere under the surface of peace. Russia had become a great Communistic State and one of the greatest evils of the time was Communism. Stalin had complete control over countries to the East of Berlin which he had as his spoils of war whilst Britain and America shared the rest of Europe. France got rid of her Vichy Government and de Gaulle came back to France. Previous monarchs returned to their thrones from which they had been removed during the war, except to the countries under Stalin. Spain had been a neutral country after her own revolution and she kept her own Dictator, Franco.

Now Communism ruled in many countries and infiltrated to places far from Russia. Stalin built a wall across the East of Berlin to stop any refugees fleeing from his rule to the West, so now nobody could get in or out of the West so Germany was now a divided country.

Communism in England was subdued and thrived mainly in the big industrial areas where the workers were on strike or hardship had struck the community, but our law of freedom of speech allowed them to have their say as well as others so it did little harm. Even about this time there was a Red Dean of Canterbury. Once I heard him preach and it was amazing how a clever tongue could alter the meaning of words, and only on reflection you realized how one can be led astray by oratory. As far as I could make out he told us, "We need not pray to God as the State would look after your well-being!" I don't think he lasted very long as nothing much was heard from him, we had heard all this before. There were others like Burgess and MacLean and their friends who had important posts in our government departments of that time were found to be in the pay of Russia and when exposed were exiled and I think spent the rest of their life abroad where they hopefully did no harm.

America made a great stand against Communism and the F.B.I. rooted them out tooth and nail, they were refused entry into America if they were connected in any way or ever had been at any time in their life.

Then came the time when John Kennedy was President of America and had trouble over Cuba. Cuba was a Communistic island ruled by a Dictator but uncomfortably near to the coastline of the United States. Russia wanted a presence and talks had got very threatening to America as Russia ordered her Navy to put to sea, Kennedy answered that threat by ordering his Navy to be ready for action if the Russians did not turn back. While the West waited that was just what they did and that was the end of any Communistic aggression in the West.

The wall that had been built had to come down and Germany became united again. The population poured in from the East thankful to the Americans for their escape. It was years before a full recovery came to Europe which of course it did, people settled in different parts of the world but I doubt if any who were caught up in this episode would ever forget it. The church of course had to change as well and this was brought about early in the 60's. Pope John XXIII opened up the Roman Catholic church which had always been inflexible and the second Vatican Council put the New Openness into Law, allowed services in the vernacular rather than Latin, and sought friendship with other denominations. The Pentecostal Movement was strong in America and began to affect parts of Europe. Then there came on the scene a new Pope, he was the first non-Italian Pope since 1523. This was great news as he was Polish and was keen for all the subjugated people to be free. He came out of the Vatican and visited many parts of the world and is still doing it in spite of his age. The fall of the communist regimes in Eastern Europe came about in 1989 and the end of the Church's state persecution.

The Anglo Catholic Church of England has followed in the general opening up of the church. This was good in many ways. It helped women to take a bigger part in the running of the church, they can be servers or sidespersons, serve on the P.C.C. which they have done for some years now, run most of the organisations of the Church, read the lessons during a service, also offer the chalice used during a Mass, and in 1992 the Church of England accepted that women could become priests. This has not come about easily or hastily, accepted by some, put up with by many, and soon it will be taken for granted as the older generation leaves this mortal coil.

Children are welcomed in the church where they can do their own thing, some run about, some cry, some scream, some talk and play, but they all settle down to the Family Service once a month and when they join the Sunday School, they seem to enjoy their Sunday Morning outing to church.

Sadly there are not as many regulars as there were, the weekend now is used for pleasure and leisure, and Sunday is no longer a day of rest. Shops are open, business is carried on so it is no longer a quiet day and church going seems to be the last choice for a lot of people, which leaves too many empty seats. However the church will survive, as it has survived these last 100 years, changes will come along and generations will get used to new ways and means and it will still be here for us all for as long as it takes.

Ruby Bullock

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