Fr Gresham Kirkby was the vicar of St Paul's, Bow Common, a church in east London in the Anglo-Catholic tradition, for over 40 years until his retirement in 1994. I first went there around 1991, and so I only knew him in his later years. He died in 2006 aged 89 years.
Vicarage Life
I was also a lodger in Fr Gresham's vicarage. I can picture him from that time, seated on a wooden chair in the living room during the day with the Scriptures open in his hands. He thought we should read the Bible more.
He hardly watched television; a small black & white set was stowed away somewhere: you had to bring it out and plug it in if you wanted to watch something. And he didn't take a daily or evening paper; only the Observer on a Sunday. Nor did Fr Gresham listen to the radio. There wasn't one in the vicarage, so when the women's ordination debate was to be broadcast live, a 'music centre' was brought in from the jumble sale stock in the church hall and tuned in to the correct station. But he hadn't requested this; nor did he make a fuss when it appeared. He did settle down to follow the proceedings, though.
I remember a significant anniversary (perhaps the 50th) of Fr Gresham's ordination when other priests were around to celebrate mass with the bishop at St Paul's, Bow Common. I happened to be in the vicarage lounge, together with one of the other priest's, when Fr Gresham made a joking remark, related to the preparations going on, that relied on an Old Testament reference. I understood that much, but I didn't get it. The other clergyman was wanting to go along with the jest, but I didn't think he got it either. But Fr Gresham was in a good humour; it didn't matter.
Sunday mass at St Paul's, Bow Common
Fr Gresham would give his homily in a straightforward way. He didn't try to sway or lull the congregation. It seemed to me his focus was on the teaching he wanted to convey: he would sometimes direct his gaze at the ceiling as he gave the sermon.
He could be humourous though. I remember one instance, though it's not exactly funny. He said something in a sermon and then he added, with a twinkle in his eye, "Pace, Mrs Thatcher" ('pace' - the Latin word for 'peace', pronounced 'par-chay'). Because she was then in office, and his remark might have troubled her.
He could be angry also. Once in a sermon I saw his eyes seem to burn as he spoke about the school photocopier being broken due, I think, to vandalism. He used to make copies of his hand-written Sunday mass-and-notices sheet on this photocopier. But although his displeasure was evident, his words and demeanour were orderly.
He didn't sit down briefly after the sermon to let it sink in, as happens often now. However, sometimes a solid silence would stand in the church for a few moments after his words. That was something that struck me.
The music for the mass was from a tape machine operated by one of the congregation. Fr Gresham would play this music on the church organ during the week and tape it for the coming Sunday.
I was an altar server at St Paul's, Bow Common. When I was clearing away, in the emptying church, after mass on a Sunday morning, I would see Fr Gresham kneeling, immersed in prayer, before the reserved Blessed Sacrament. Then he would join the others in the hall.
Almost all the small congregation stayed for refreshments in the hall after the service. One of the faithful parishioners, Isabelle Rowe, used to bring slices of buttered home-made bread, and I found this better than biscuits to go with your tea or coffee.
Some Talk
Then, for a few years in his retirement, I would pay a weekly social visit to Fr Gresham at his Church alms house in Islington. We would have a beer; Fr Gresham one can, and me two. We would also have fish and chips, taken out of the freezer and cooked in the oven by me, followed by a banana. Then we would watch the 6pm news on the BBC, and then the television would go off, and there would be a cup of coffee and talk. Sometimes I would bring a parish magazine I had picked up from one of London's Anglo-Catholic churches. I would ask some question or other, which Gresham would answer from his knowledge and experience.
He would typically quote what someone else had written, said or done, more often than he would give his own views. As an example, in the course of a conversation, I asked how Christ's crucifixion overcame evil? He said that was a hard question, then spoke about a verse in Gabriel Gillett's hymn "It is finished" that addresses this (verses given in the 'Music and Hymns' page.) He would always give you a helpful answer, even if your question had stumbled a bit, and would move things along, if needed.
My visits to Fr Gresham in Islington were full of interest. So I used to write up, on the way home, what I remembered of his conversation. I wanted to learn from it. I never told him about this diary writing. This account here uses those notes, together with memories of that time.
Some of the topics covered
Mother of God
I once spoke to Fr Gresham about a congregation member at another church, an old soldier and a faithful churchgoer, who declared, during a discussion, that he would never call Mary 'mother of God'. Of course, the 'Hail Mary' prayer uses this phrase. Fr Gresham responded by saying, "Yes, but we don't call her the mother of the Trinity." I found this helpful; it enabled you to think about it, and seemed, to me anyway, to solve the difficulty the old parishioner had raised.
The Kingdom of God
Fr Gresham told me about an incident when, "I was writing, at about 10pm, a sentence about the phrase “second coming” appearing nowhere in the old or new testaments. I was midway through the sentence. I think it may have been for the article in “essays radical and catholic”. I was midway through that sentence when there was a knock at the door. I got up to answer it. A man was there with his bible. The visitor announced that he had come to talk to me about the second coming of Christ."
Fr Gresham continued, "His was the King James Bible. I didn't give him the RSV because he wouldn't have regarded that as legitimate. I asked him to find the phrase “second coming”. He went to Rev 19:11-18, which some take to describe the second coming, but the phrase appears nowhere there."
"So he next went to John (Fr Gresham may have said John's letter, (2 John?)), but again I said to him the phrase doesn't appear. It doesn't say Christ will return again."
"It is amazing that he came just at that moment. Sometimes co-incidences can be amazing that happen like that," Fr Gresham added.
On another occasion, for some reason, in the context of a discussion about elections, I asked, "So we pray and go to church and take the sacraments to be our best selves?". Fr Gresham kept our talk about wider society. "Yes, some say that if people are good, if in whatever circumstances they are good, then this brings about the Kingdom of God. But I believe that people need help to be good, by having good government."
A few days later I happened to buy the Herald Tribune newspaper (June 12-13th, 2004, weekend edition), and read a story on page 2 about the recent, protracted fighting in Sierra Leone. At an enquiry into the war a spiritual leader and imam, Sheik Conteh, thought that a key cause was political instability. He said, "It was due to bad governance that people yielded to Satanic temptations". Thus I came upon an independent assertion of Fr Gresham's view.
Music
Fr Gresham was knowledgeable about music and hymnody. Sometimes these subjects would come up in our talk. I noted the following in a 29/06/2002 diary entry, set down here as an example:
'Fr Gresham said, "........ What makes Vaughan Williams' music so good is that he was well grounded in folk tunes. He wrote the tune for 'Hail thee, Festival Day'." I mentioned 'Gonfalen Royal' as a tune I liked. Fr Gresham said it was a lovely tune by Percy Buck composed around 1920, and used for the office hymn for Ascensiontide. ........'
'As the talk continued, Fr Gresham sang, from memory, verses from various hymns, to illustrate points. In doing so, he made real in the room, fleetingly, a world not sentimental, but greatly attractive, almost strange. You found the same experience in the worship at his church, St Paul's, Bow Common. It seemed to me, then, what music and worship offered: something real, something to live in.'
A Project
In his retirement he set about a revision of the Roman Catholic lectionary. He commented, "This is something I feel I can do"; and that "instead of four snippets of readings a day (as in the Anglican lectionary), people should have just one longer reading. And the scriptures should be covered over two years. The Book of Job every year would be a bore. But re-read after two years, I enjoyed it." I have kept a copy of this revision, but haven't kept up with the readings, so far, at least.
Clergy Unbelief
When a survey was carried out in 2002 of clergy beliefs in the Church of England, Fr Gresham was concerned about the findings. Though he once said he wished to have to believe as little as possible (in the context, I think, of talk about the Marian Shrines) he had a full belief in the Creed. This survey revealed that a third of those questioned doubted or disbelieved in the physical resurrection of Christ, and only a half were convinced of the truth of the Virgin birth. Fr Gresham was somewhat aghast when he spoke about it.
What Others Said
At a service at St Paul's, Bow Common in 2007, the Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, said, "I utterly repudiate that Fr Gresham Kirkby was a charming eccentric. That is to trivialise him." He quoted Prebendary John Pearce, a local priest to whom Fr Gresham went for confession before Christmas and, I suppose, Easter. "John Pearce said that Gresham was the holiest priest he knew," announced Bishop Richard who, as the suffragan Bishop of Stepney, used to go to the early mass on Tuesday mornings at St Paul's, Bow Common.
Bishop Richard also said, "It is hard to see the shape of the new Kingdom; Heaven transforming this present Earth to bring it about. But we should assay a sketch of it. This in turn may help others to more perfectly bring in the new Kingdom." He added, "Fr Kirkby looked over the horizon, and this kept him fresh even when he was ancient".
In another sermon at a mass for the 50th anniversary of the church of St Paul's, Bow Common in April 2010, Bishop Richard Chartres remembered Fr Gresham testifying that, "To me the Kingdom of God is the great existing reality which is to renew the Earth."
A Late and Humourous Scene
Towards the end of his life, in June 2006, I was visiting Fr Gresham when the lady from next-door called in to see how he was getting on. He answered, "I think this is the end for me, I feel so heavy. I'm dying, my dear. Face up to facts. My girlfriend died at 90 years of age."
Propped up on the welsh dresser was a fading postcard-sized photo of a young boy and girl, both about 8 years old and dressed in finery, taken when they danced together in Cornwall at some great occasion. It was a picture of himself with the childhood girlfriend to whom he was referring. Fr Gresham remained single: she married and had recently died.
An international football tournament was in progress and that evening England were due to play Trinidad and Tobago. Quite a few St George's flags, with their red crosses on white backgrounds, were draped from the first-floor window-ledges of nearby terraced houses. The locals were backing England, of course. So the neighbour asked Gresham if he had his England flag ready for the big game.
He replied, "A plague on all their houses. I'm Cornish. I support Trinidad and Tobago. David should beat Goliath." Then he placed his hands together and raised them to his chin in a take-off of petitionary prayer, and intoned in a mock-pious way, "O Lord, please send Trinidad and Tobago a goal, Lord. Help them to win, Lord. O Lord, Trinidad has suffered at the hands of Britain and the Empire. Help them now to smite the enemy on its hindquarters, O Lord, send them a goal." Gresham was being funny and making us laugh. And, of course, there was David and Goliath, and 'smiting on the hindquarters', from the Scriptures that so filled his mind.
He did die from cancer a day before his 90th birthday, less than two months later.
In the 'Pages' listed below and on the right, I have sorted these notes approximately into subjects. He spoke about the same things on different occasions. Also set out there is Fr Gresham's published essay on the Kingdom of God, and some of his sermons as a vicar in the early 1990's.
(In another tribute the author explained that Fr Gresham preferred to be addressed as 'Fr Kirkby' or 'Gresham', rather than Fr Gresham. I did not know this. I hope here 'Fr Gresham' is ok here in print.)
Fr Gresham Kirkby, born August 11th 1926, died August 10th 2006.
