Torch bearers

There’s a breathless hush in the Close tonight –

Ten to make and the match to win –

A bumpy pitch and a blinding light,

An hour to play and the last man in.

And it’s not for the sake of a ribboned coat,

Or the selfish hope of a season’s fame,

But his captain’s hand on his shoulder smote –

Play up, play up and play the game!

– Sir Henry Newbolt, 'Vitai Lampada'

EVEN by these columns’ curious courses, the opening lines may be considered as irreverent as they are irrelevant.

The occasion is the induction last Monday evening of three new Methodist local preachers – Anne Coates, Luke Denley and Sylvia Ward – in the Darlington circuit.

There is nothing of cricket and while there may be an occasional hush, it may hardly be considered breathless.

Monday has also long been 5s and 3s night throughout the Darlington district. Despite conflicting loyalties, duty calls to Cockerton Methodist church. Playing up will have to wait.

If not the steep and rugged pathway of which the hymnist writes, the pavements from the town centre remain treacherously slippy, nonetheless.

It probably explains lower numbers than expected.

A placard outside the church advertises a Weight Watchers class, which may not be considered a counter-attraction at all.

Probably we’ve explained about Methodist local preachers before.

Unpaid lay workers – local lads, and lasses, made good and studied hard – they lead services, preach and carry out pastoral work, operate to a quarterly appointments rota known as The Plan.

Ron Davies-Evans, the longest serving on the active list, was a wartime navigator with Bomber Command, a linesman in the 1960 FA Amateur Cup final at Wembley and has been an accredited preacher since 1959. He’s 88.

Barbara Carter, marking 40 years, receives a commemorative certificate at Monday’s service. “I love doing it, but I still get scared every time,” she says.

Darlington – the town and surrounding villages – has welcomed a good number of new local preachers of late, though Monday’s service also hears from circuit steward Bob Robinson details of the “circuit review”

presently being undertaken.

When the Darlington north and south circuits were amalgamated in 1963, says Bob, there were 39 churches and about 3,000 members. Now there are 13 churches and fewer than 900 members.

The review won’t just be about finance and buildings, he stresses.

They’re going to look at how they can be effective as a church. It would be a major surprise, nonetheless, were it to recommend four new churches and half a dozen additional ministers. It would be a major surprise, in truth, if there weren’t fewer of both.

The paradox is that so much goes on that is innovative, energetic and selflessly and sacrificially committed.

“I am asking myself the question ‘Is this as good as it gets’? Is this what Christ went to the cross for,”

says Bob. “The simple answer is No, it isn’t.”

Anne Coates was an education lecturer in York but is now seeking ordination into the church’s full-time ministry. Sylvia Ward had been converted at a Billy Graham rally at Sunderand football ground, Luke Denley and his wife, Joanne – married just two weeks after they got the job – are full-time lay workers at Cockerton.

“The church is still as relevant today as ever it was, still the best place to be,” says Luke afterwards.

“There’s no way we’ll just give up. It’s an incredibly vibrant organisation.”

The service is led by the Reverend Phil Clarke, the circuit superintendent, who talks of “examining knowledge, competence and convictions”

and gives each new preacher a bible.

The Anglican service for admitting lay readers is quite similar, though – unlike Church of England bishops – Methodists decline the royal we.

THE sermon’s delivered by the Reverend Graham Morgan, a former Darlington minister who’s now superintendent of the Shildon circuit and a gifted and oftamusing preacher. He’d lost his voice at New Year but, happily, found it again by Monday.

Graham’s also one of those Methodist ministers who rarely wears a clerical collar. “My daughter knew I was going somewhere special when she saw I was wearing the tie she gave me for Christmas,” he says.

He also recalls that, as a young preacher in the early Eighties, he’d written to the Methodist Recorder expressing his doubts – “I wondered if the time had come to turn my back on the pulpit” – and had been overwhelmed by more than 100 letters of support.

The Methodist Recorder, says Graham, is second only to holy scripture.

Third, he adds – for this is a man who knows his audience – is The Northern Echo.

His charge is inspiring. “I hope there are people who will be amazed at your preaching but I also hope there are people who will be irritated by your preaching, and I don’t mean deliberately winding them up.”

Graham also admits there are churches which (shall we say) welcome some preachers more than others and some congregations which can be hard work, too.

“There are times when you will look at the plan and think ‘Here I am Lord, send someone else’.”

The service lasts nearly 90 minutes, after which there are interviews and a two-minute coffee. Outside at 9pm, I ring the skipper of the 5s and 3s team. We’re winning 4-3 but no one to play the last game. Get down sharpish, he says.

Hush money, it ends happily, hand smiting on the shoulder. Vitai lampada apparently translates as “They pass on the torch of life.” For Anne, Luke and Sylvia, finally preaching what they practise, there may be relevance after all.