Back after a Long Time

It has been an extended time in which I have not posted. Holidays have been one thing, and then the riots, which started in my former parish. The carpet store with the block of flats above which became the symbol of the rioting was just opposite the church and Vicarage where I lived until February. I have been incredibly proud of S Mary's. The faithful had the church open 16 hours a day, and the positive way in which the whole community has responded has been fantastic. Enfield Town and Ponders End are also in the Archdeaconry as is Chalk Farm where there was extensive looting of shops. 

The rioters are a tiny minority of the population, but what damage they have done to the prospects and reputation of whole sections of the communities. Young people in Tottenham have said to me that they now feel much less likely to find jobs and are angry with those who have made life so much more difficult for them. 

Police and young people in Tottenham - the real story

A century and a bit ago there were fears, sparked by Chartism, of revolution in Britain. Part of the response then was the Public School Mission movement in which the great schools set up work in the poorest parts of the great cities. Marlborough founded S Mary's Tottenham; Haileybury had the Boys' Club in Stepney; others had their parishes and initiatives. In fact most of the work was initiated and led by those who felt not so much a social need as a spiritual call, but it was certainly supported by many whose motives were socio-political rather than religious. 

Visiting the Tottenham Rest Centre last week and seeing the generosity which has provided material help for those who have been burned out I was moved. Medium term help is being provided by the local authority whose advice and help is being praised by the shop keepers and others who are in need. There will be a need for the long term staying power which only commitment to living and working in the communities affected can bring about. I pray that among those whose A Level results come out this week will be some who will make that commitment for the good of us all.  

Lift Up Your Hearts

I was at Marlborough today to give a talk entitled "Speaking in Many Tongues" on the work of my former parish, S Mary's Tottenham, which was founded as the Marlborough College Mission. It was all booked before I knew I would by now have moved, and was part of a day organized by the Old Marlburian Club for OM clergy and their spouses, Clergy who are parents of children at the school and others who work for the church in other ways. We all had a very jolly time, and it is an idea I would like to copy for Haileybury.

Marlborough College Chapel

The themes of service to neighbour and community came up time and time again, notably in Bishop Tom Butler's sermon at the Eucharist with which the day kicked off and in the talk on The Principles of Christian Education by The Rev'd Douglas Dales, chaplain to the College.

I discovered in researching the history of S Mary's that on occasion Haileyburians had come to help with the work of the Mission. After one such visit in which Haileyburians provided an entertainment in one of the Mission Rooms (what this consisted of is not recorded), the editorial of the Marlburian for November 1885 commented:

“That an OM should do all in his power to help any work that has been undertaken by Marlborough is fortunately no new thing; but that in such matters active sympathy should be shown by one Public School towards another is not quite so common. May it in the future become more common, and may the good feeling between Marlborough and Haileybury, of which the Rev’d E. F. Noel Smith [OM, first Vicar] spoke at the end of the entertainment, ever grow to the benefit of both schools.” 

Our Service must be open and transcend the boundaries we tend to fix round things. It is so easy to think we are being generous and offering ourselves to others when in fact we are working well within the comfort zone. Lent is an opportunity to break down the boundaries we put about our generosity, by fasting from our insularity. 

Cycling

With the summer weather there are definitely more cyclists about. Here is a splendid picture from Imogen Thomas's Haileybury 1806 - 1987. The caption says that it was taken in 1886 by the 'in' gate at the end of Avenue. There are seven Penny-farthings; a more modern looking machine on the left, and a wonderful contraption on the right that looks a bit like a wheel chair. Does it have a special name?

I was intrigued to discover a couple of years ago that my parish had a cycling club at just this period, the late 1880s and that a favourite ride was to Haileybury. The trip meter in my car tells me that it is sixteen miles from the church to the school, but that involves a bit of  a detour from the modern A10 down into Hoddesden and then back on yourself up the road to the Heath. I guess in the old days it would have been possible to get off the London Road and come up Hailey Lane. Maybe those with a better knowledge of the road layout at that time could confirm this?

The goal of the cyclists from Tottenham was tea with The Rev'd WD Fenning, an Old Marlburian who taught at Haileybury from 1875 - 1910; he then became chaplain to the Christ's Hospital girls' school in Hertford. My parish is the Marlborough Mission, so we are to Marlborough what Stepney was to Haileybury, hence the link with Mr Fenning.

I do cycle a bit round the parish and a bit further afield in London, but I am not one of those people who goes to Brighton and back in a day. To get to Haileybury form Tottenham on one of those machines muct have ben no mean feat. It is amazing just how far people cycled before cars became ubiquitous. I have a little book called The Country Round Haileybury which details the geology, biology and history of the whole region round the school. It was designed to be a practical and educative guide for use on field days and at other times when the school would empty and boys would go off on long walks and longer cycle rides. The walks are further than I would cycle and the idea of riding to St Alban's and back on an old bone shaker bicycle without gears is something that fills me with admiration.

Fenning by the way, was a keen photographer and because of him there are two fine photographs of my S. Mary's in the Haileybury archive. I wonder whether he cycled to Tottenham with his equipment to take them?