Much has changed in the nation’s life and religion
Changes from post-war years of 1945 described so affectionately by Melvyn Bragg
MY bedtime reading at the working class lad born in moment is an enjoyable the Cumbrian market memoir by one of our town of Wigton in 1939, most respected UK writers and who fell in love with books broadcasters. and went on to win a place
‘Back in the Day’ relates the at Oxford University. early years of Melvyn Bragg, a Older readers of this column will recognise the home life of a boy who got into scrapes, noticed everything, belonged to a gang, and developed a talent for telling whoppers when required.
He brings vividly to life a time and place where the piano dominated the parlour, linoleum covered the floor, the coal shed occupied the back yard, and the outside lavatory provided the necessary resource of ‘ a wad of neatly cut squares from the newspaper, strung up and hung on a nail’.
Bragg joined the local church choir at six and was paid every quarter: ‘four pence for every service you attended’ and a shilling for every wedding.
Church music enthralled him. He was taught anthems, hymns and psalms that he has never forgotten.
Outside the church, the old graveyard was perfect for hide and seek, especially on dark winter nights. The unquestioning faith of his childhood was tested by adolescence and
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Old certainties died along the way. But what has remained with him throughout his long and successful life is ‘the sense of the ultimate mystery of why and how we were here’.
Just now, as the Church prepares for another Holy Week and Easter , I imagine that childhood memories of singing in the choir will be especially vivid to Bragg. Much has changed in the life and religion of the nation from the postwar years of 1945 that he describes so affectionately.
Congregations were larger then; the Sabbath was a day where nothing much happened except church. Shops closed, games were frowned on and ‘the town was as silent as a tomb’. Ordinary people were familiar with the words of hymns and bible passages and used them in daily conversation. Now we inhabit a world where a majority no longer describe themselves as Christian, the Bible is a closed book, pop songs have largely replaced hymns at the crematorium, and Sunday is business as usual.
I’m not about to argue at this point for the old ways, much as I still value what they gave me in my own formative years. Change is one of the few certainties in life and the challenge is how to respond to it creatively and faithfully.
So... a batch of new palm crosses has arrived in my study, waiting to be blessed and distributed as Holy Week begins. I’m working on special music and readings to help deepen the faith and understanding of worshippers as they draw closer to Good Friday and Easter. And as I write this column, cards with times of services and an Easter message are being mailed through many doors by a team of volunteers.
For me, what underpins these various activities is the question of how the death and resurrection of Jesus retain significance when many no longer ‘do religion’ but still recognise a need to make sense of their fleeting years and the ups and downs that attend them. Forty years on from planning, observing, and leading others in the most important week of the Christian year, I remain moved and challenged by the death of Jesus and all that preceded it.
And in the events that followed - the Resurrection and the spread of a gospel that continues to direct and inspire millions across the globe - I find a faith that can endure the worst of times. I also know that this particular story only begins to change lives when it is felt, experienced, and understood from the inside.
It’s never enough to be a detached observer. We have to come as learners, inhabit the story, test its claims, make the journey to Easter and beyond with others, and be prepared to be renewed in the light of new discoveries.
It represents a challenge to the faithful, doubters, and unbelievers alike. After all this time, can any of us claim that we have really grasped what the story means and, ultimately, why it matters?