ABOUT PEOPLE

John Groser, priest

25/11/2004

"John Groser was a good speaker. He gave a good straight sermon on Ephesians, then, when he had the meeting where he wanted them, in the last five minutes, he delivered words on socialism.

Nowadays no-one knows what is meant by socialism. Is it what they had in the Soviet Union, or is it Tony Blair?"

Mr Watt, Headmaster of St Paul's School

25/11/2004

"I had the arranging of the plaque in the School. The lettering is by Ralph Beyer, who did the lettering in Coventry Cathedral, and is beautiful. I included T E Watt, Headmaster and R G Kirkby, Vicar. I know Mr Watt was upset. He wanted his MC (Military Cross) recorded, but I was determined to have it absolutely plain.

Mr Watt had a sort of wisdom. If he had to tell a boy off, he would afterwards ask the boy to do something for him. In his old-fashioned way he was a good headmaster. 

He came at 8am, and was away by 4pm, when he had done his day's work. No after-school activities. But he ran the school well. He started very strict with staff and pupils. After a while he could then afford to relax and still maintain discipline.

He was a magistrate; so he was away from the school on Tuesdays carrying out this duty. But he had everything under control. "

Fr Thornton - A Brilliant Lecture Remembered

24/02/20005

Fr Gresham spoke of Fr Thornton, a tutor at Mirfield when he was there, who was brilliant but shy and so didn't have much conversation. But Fr Thornton could be humourous, and once, when Fr Gresham told him he was going to Gloucester, advised him where to get the best pint.

Fr Gresham went back to Mirfield for a conference with the Methodists and Baptists at which Fr Thornton gave a lecture. The Methodists and Baptists were astonished at Fr Thornton because he quoted verbatim and without notes, extensive Old Testament and Gospel passages.

In the lecture he started by saying that the writing on the Cross was in three languages, Hebrew, Greek and Latin, and that these were three original strands of Christianity. "The Hebrew gave a sense of God acting in history, of events having a meaning and working out God's purposes for humankind. We lost this strand; it had died out by the second century AD. 

The Greek strand was the questioning of everything, the working things out, and flowering in the formulation of the Creeds, including the Athanasian Creed." (The Athanasian Creed - God the Father is incomprehensible, God the Son is incomprehensible, God the Holy Ghost is incomprehensible, yet there are not three incomprehensibles, but one incomprehensible, ....etc.) "This traditionally was said at (?) matins on six or eight festivals a year, though it has almost died out now. It is sometimes said in a shortened form as the (?) 'Song of the True Faith', especially on Trinity Sunday."

"This Greek strand died out in the 4th or 5th century, when the Eastern Church stopped thinking." (In the notes I put a question mark (?) after this to indicate maybe I was not sure if Fr Gresham said this. Whether or not he did, I think this is a funny statement in itself, perhaps disagreed with by the Eastern Church.)

"So we are left with the Roman Church, which has a legal emphasis. So we are left with an emphasis on laws. It influences the way we understand the Gospels and the Letters. We understand the New Testament today with the minds of modern society."

Winnie, Vicarage Housekeeper

25/1/99 

In his homily, at the bestowing of the icon of 'St Paul with St Luke', at St Paul’s church, Bow Common, Fr Gresham told us it was given in memory of Winnie, his former housekeeper. He remembered when Winnie showed love to an alcoholic woman who called at the vicarage late one evening. Winnie undressed, gave a nightie to, and kissed the woman, as she put her to bed.

"When we look at the Icon," he said, "we are to remember Paul & Luke in prison. It was designed for a gloomy place/corner, so it doesn't need special lighting." He added that, "Objects are made sacred by the use to which they are put."  

"The conversion of St Paul was the second most important event, after Pentecost, in the Church’s history. It allowed Christianity to break out, through Paul’s journeys and teachings, of Judaism and become the religion of all nations."    (The Icon is now at the back of the church at St Paul's, Bow Common.)

Ken Leech, priest

25/11/2004

Fr Gresham spoke about the book, 'The Sky is Red', by Ken Leech. Fr Gresham did not agree with some of it and had said this to Ken, whom he had known since he was a young man, and I think was as an ordinand or curate at St Paul's, Bow Common. On another occasion Fr Gresham mentioned that during a busy time - perhaps in the run up to Easter - he was exasperated by Ken spending the day in church praying, when he could have done with a hand preparing for the upcoming services. 

Fr Gresham added that, "Ken Leech could have been a leader of the Church. He has an acute mind. He is very gifted. But he should have joined the Franciscans. He was so gifted, he needed a community to control him." I think he also added, "or find a good wife." But I'm not sure of the last point. Ken Leech has since died, after retiring back to the north west. 

Stanley Evans' concern for local people

24/02/2005

"Stanley Evans wrote a booklet about a pilgrimage he went on. It was called, "To Jerusalem in Evening Dress". It was humourous, but his point was that pilgrimage parties have no thought for the society into which they go; they don't care about the local people, but he was more concerned about the local people, than about holy places."

Some  Bishops of Stepney

25/11/04

Robert Moberly 

"Bishop Moberly  was a good Bishop of Stepney. You would receive a post card saying he would visit you on such an afternoon. He would turn up on the day of the visit and ask you how you were getting on. It was all done without any fuss. He cycled round the East End all the way through the Blitz. He loved the East End." (Bishop of Stepney from 1936 - 1952)

Cosmo Lang

"It was said he lived and entertained in a high style that went down well in the East End. He held open house on Tuesday evenings, at which he gave his guests sherry. He said we got by on sherry and prayer." (Bishop of Stepney from 1901 - 1909)

Trevor Huddleston

I raised the name of Trevor Huddleston as he was a famous priest. Fr Gresham replied by saying that his heart was in South Africa. (Bishop of Stepney from 1968 - 1978)

Richard Chartres

I was a lodger in St Paul's vicarage when Richard Chartres was made bishop of Stepney. I remember Fr Gresham, after meeting him, commenting approvingly to a few of us that Bishop Richard "has no 'side' to him, you see". 

A number of us went to a crowded service or meeting at another east London church to see the new Bishop of Stepney, Bishop Richard Chartres. Amongst other things he boldly and sternly told us to rejoice if we had been hurt, because it is through our wounds that the Holy Spirit can enter us. I forget the context now, but I thought it was a good message, well delivered.

After the event, in the evening dark, on a footpath outside the venue, Fr Gresham caught up with our small group. Mary MacKenzie, a church warden, straight away asked him something, to which he replied that he had told the Bishop that we have mass on Tuesday mornings and .... I couldn't catch what else he said, but I understood that Mary had asked Fr Gresham if he had invited Bishop Richard to come to St Paul's Bow Common. Evidently Fr Gresham had; and Bishop Richard did subsequently, other engagements permitting, regularly attend the 7.30am Tuesday morning mass at the church.

One Sunday Bishop Richard and his wife came to mass at St Paul's, Bow Common. I think it was an informal visit, and a surprise to Fr Gresham, who seemed so pleased by the visit. In the past I think he had unfairly suffered from episcopal disapprobation. 

For instance, Fr Gresham had been involved in the early days of CND. I think he was a founding member of the first UK nuclear disarmament movement? He took part in a non-violent, sit-down protest and was arrested along with others, and refused to pay the subsequent fine. As a result he was sent to prison for 7 days. (He told me how the rules then allowed you to take a certain number of books into prison with you.) This had not gone down well with his bishop, but when I asked if he got into trouble with him, Fr Gresham said words to the effect that it wouldn't have looked good for the bishop if he had tried to take action against him, as many people were against the nuclear bomb at the time. Here I can add a word about Ken Leech. Fr Gresham said Ken Leech had been present and had wanted to join Fr Gresham with others in the 'sitting down' anti-nuclear protest. Fr Gresham had absolutely refused to allow him to do so. Because, he said, he himself was an established priest. At his stage in life it didn't matter if he was arrested. But Ken was either still a student, or in the early stages of his ministry, when to be arrested would have been damaging for him.

Perhaps Fr Gresham was also frowned upon by the bishop for his Anglo-Catholic churchmanship? I'm not sure about that. But Fr Gresham was completely orthodox in his Christian beliefs. And he didn't follow tradition for the sake of it. He thought about the worship at St Paul's Bow Common, and tried to make it as good as possible. I remember Terry Dible, his church warden, telling me that Fr Gresham's church was the first in the area to change to a mass  celebrated with the priest facing the congregation, rather than facing east with his back towards the congregation, as was traditional. (Up until 'Vatican II', I think?) (Richard Chartres, Bishop of Stepney, 1992 - 1995)