"What my Godly mother didn't tell me"

For some years, Margaret has played the organ for church once a month. She offered to do this, not out of passionate interest in the church but for her great love of music. She has obviously enjoyed the experience and gives great leadership to our congregational singing. Our reputation for singing arises partly out of the enthusiasm and competence of our three organists and she contributes much more than her share of both.

She comes from a very devout Christian family but half a century ago outgrew what she found to be a rather repressive understanding of the faith. So it was some diffidence that I asked if she would share something of her experience with us. We billed the service as “What my Godly mother didn’t tell me” and we had a dialogue around Faith, Scripture, Conversion and Future Life.

We sat in comfortable seats to one end of a large circle of chairs. Margaret spoke briefly about how her mother used to enthuse about the topics we had chosen. Faith was having Jesus in your heart; the Bible was absolutely to be believed, word for word, Conversion was signing a pledge card at Easter Camp (“I think I was converted 27 times”) and the Future Life was all about heaven and hell. After she introduced each topic, I offered another point of view and we then shared lively conversation.

For me, it was an opportunity to offer my views more firmly than is always appropriate in “the pulpit” and the pastoral setting. For Margaret, the whole experience was a kind of epiphany, she told me later. She says that when she retires and looks for some university study, the Bible is now at the top of her choice of topics.