Social changes: Keep calm and carry on serving

by Josie Smith.

I was born at the beginning of 1930.    World War 1 had left the country exhausted.    The thirties are now regarded as a time of hardship and deprivation.     Not that I was aware of that – it was just normal.

I want today to point up in a mere thumbnail one or two of the more obvious changes in society and church over my 95 years.

The standard family pattern was two parents and their children, with grandparents probably living close by.   Father the breadwinner, mother the housewife, three or four pounds a week a good wage, and houses available to rent or buy.   

Then came World War 2.  Eight years of severe shortages where we all had to Make Do and Mend, salvage and recycle, buy second hand, do without things.    I still have some of the frugal habits of those times, and today’s throwaway society appals me.

Sunday was set apart.   No work, except for essential services.  Church in the morning, Sunday School in the afternoon, church again in the evening for the grownups.    Our church was huge, with two ministers and two deaconesses as they were called then.   Everything was church centred, apart from the occasional classical music concert.    That 2,OOO-seater Wesley Octagon has been replaced by apartments.    Homes for people.

There was reliable public transport.   Babies and small children had prams. Mother and child could look at each other, and the child was encouraged to look and listen and absorb.   Look, a pussy cat, or a policeman!   Listen to that bird singing!    Push chairs now face forward, so there is no eye contact or talk, and the grownup is on the mobile ‘phone.

Children were at home until school began at the age of five, learning how to live in a family.    Meals were at tables and taken together.   In winter the heat source was one coal fire, and the family would follow their pursuits together.    Now, both parents are in paid work from the time a child is weaned, children go to nursery, later migrate to their own rooms with their computer games, and connect with their friends remotely.     Once, they would have knocked on a nearby door and asked if their friend was coming out to play.

More and more children are obese, or are diagnosed with mental health problems.    Is there a connection?

After W.W.2 came cheap flights and the opportunity to travel abroad. Meanwhile public transport deteriorated and more and more people found cars a necessity.   Climate change eventually made itself felt.

I was once asked whether the church I belonged to at the time was primarily focused on maintenance or evangelism.    I replied that I would say SERVICE.    Church is firstly about the worship of God, and if this means anything it has to be demonstrated in love for our neighbour.

A teenager whose family had no connection with the church, explained why she had committed herself to the Way.    ‘These people had a quality of life which I wanted for myself.’   John Taylor, at one time a minister in Sheffield, said ‘I have never yet met anyone who became a Christian by studying the Creeds.    I have known many who were loved into faith by a saint.’

God who is LOVE needs us to love our neighbour.    This requires that we know our neighbour, work with others, join forces with seekers after truth,  justice and peace.    WE must be the saints – we are the Church, seven days a week, just by being who we are, loving people into faith.  

I think of vibrant churches I know.   Busy all day with community groups, choirs, local historians and dieters – volunteers serving meals to all comers, free, with voluntary contributions (nobody’s counting) or at reasonable prices to cover costs.    Christians and non-Christians alike serve and are served – we all get hungry!! – and find themselves in a good place.

I am looking forward joyfully.  

Onward and upward, fellow saints!’