My Adventures with God 52: "Who Can Stand Against Such Reckless Hate"

52: “Who Can Stand Against Such Reckless Hate”

As fellow fans of J.R.R.Tolkein may recall, when Theoden is in Helms Deep being besieged by orcs who are attacking as though (to quote from farther on in The Lord of the Rings) “the whips of Sauron were behind them”, he looked at the waves of frenzied attackers and said “who can stand against such reckless hate”. Looking back now this seems an apt description of the situation I faced then. The “superspirituals” and through them some of their acolytes were attacking with just such a “reckless hate” seemingly indefatigable and heedless of the hurt it was causing the congregation or even the toll it was taking on themselves.

I have quoted Nick’s words when he said that I had to be got out of the ministry even if the parish had to be destroyed to accomplish this. I have quoted from the then vestry secretary about the “hate-speak” that was hurled at me during vestry meetings, and the promise by a spokesman for Shirley’s supporters that they would drive me out of the parish or drive me to a nervous breakdown within six months.

But then from June 1993 when I disbanded the music group, excluding Shirley from the new one and dismissed Nick Elith their rage knew no bounds.

At the church service the Sunday after I had disbanded and re-formed the music group I announced simply that I had dismissed Nick. Immediately a man who was one of Shirley’s home group leapt to the microphone (he must have come prepared) read out the Gospel passage where Jesus warns against “false prophets” and says we will know them by their fruit. He then shouted “David Greentree is a false prophet - you can see it by his fruit: he has dismissed Nick and Shirley!”

Interestingly a few years later this same man - who had by that time not been attending our church for I suppose eighteen months told an investigating committee that he felt “completely buggered”. I would say the cause of this feeling was that he had been eaten up by this own reckless hate.

The day I announced that I had dismissed Nick and most weeks thereafter Nick staged sit-in demonstrations in church. Yes, in church during the service! Typically he would pick a prominent position in the church and ostentatiously kneel in prayer throughout the service - taking no part in the liturgy or singing - and at least the first week when people were taken by surprise, his actions forced people to climb over him to be able to go up to communion. He of course did not take Communion but knelt there with a pained expression on his face so that people could see just how hurt he was.

The Nick and Shirley supporters also tried to disrupt church services week after week. They would sit as a body and very conspicuously not take part in the service - sitting there resolutely not saying the liturgy or singing. At the passing of the peace they refused to pass the peach with any outside their number, spurning any other members of the congregation who tried to pass the peace with them. One very heavily built man - the same one as it happens that abused me when I first came as locum because I was living in “Jack’s house” - actually threatened to punch me in the nose when I tried to pass the peace with him! This group would noisily chat amongst themselves or ostentatiously read books during the sermon.

This made worship difficult for many people and some stopped coming to church because of the bad atmosphere these people were working very hard to create.

I also found on more than one occasion that when new people came to the church, members of this group would seek them out after the service and tell them not to come back saying things like “there is evil in this church” and “the minister is evil”.

This went on without relief for month after month. Even after this group as a body had left and were worshipping elsewhere they kept sending a group - it looked as though on a rotating roster - to try to disrupt our services.

The supporters of Nick and Shirley said they were “Holy Spirit people”, and considered themselves a sort of spiritual elite, more holy than the other members of the congregation. and indeed they were very eager for the “gifts” of the Holy Spirit particularly the more showy ones. But I noticed early that they were not at all interested in that work of the Holy Spirit in a believer’s life that “puts to death the old sinful nature” and trains us to become more like Jesus in all we think and do and say. This held no interest for them.

The Bible tells us that the “fruit of the Holy Spirit” in a believer’s life is: Charity, Joy , Peace, Patience Goodness, Fidelity and Self-control. If you accidentally flicked the pride of one of these people they reacted swiftly with a very animated display of all the opposites of these! The bible exhorts believers “Do not be quick to take offence” They failed that one 110%!

You may be thinking that I am exaggerating, or that over the years my memory has played tricks – which indeed is a common problem in law courts where even the memories of honest witnesses become notoriously unreliable after a time. You may also (I hope) be gasping in disbelief and saying “Surely not! Surely no one would stage sit-in demonstrations during church services!” So let me quote from the statutory declaration of a member of the congregation made in 1996 when events were still fresh in their mind:

“After Nick xxx was discharged from his position of part –time youth minister of St. Luke’s in mid 1993 he continued to attend church for some months after.

During the services he did not participate in the liturgy, but knelt to pray rather ostentatiously throughout the service or parts of it, sometimes praying out loud while David was preaching. He usually knelt in the back pew next to the isle where everyone went past him to go up to communion.

There were a number of others of that group that came to St. Luke’s after Nick and Shirley were discharged from their former involvement in the church. These included Shirley and Peter xxx, (another 13 people are named). Not all of them came at any one time.

When they did come they chatted among themselves during the services, particularly when David was preaching and they did not participate in the service. They did not sing the hymns.

For a while, at Communion there was usually one other person besides David administering the bread, and these people went to that end of the communion rail and thus avoided taking communion from David. When David discontinued that practice and he alone administered the bread, then they did not go up to take Communion.

At the passing of the peace, the members of this group (however many there were at a time) would turn their backs on any of the members of the congregation, and especially on David, who tried to pass the peace with them, they would shake hands with each other.”

All this time they were very busy lobbying the regional bishop, the archbishop and anyone else they thought might do what they wanted. They went about this with a frenetic fervour and indefatigable energy. I feel Tolkien would have thought of them that “the very whips of Sauron” were driving them on,

As they still held a majority on the church council, you can imagine what fun those monthly meetings were. I only survived by a great deal of prayer and the protection of the Holy Spirit. I would pray earnestly before each meeting for God's protection, indeed for Him to be my shield and strength. I then went to those meetings with what in my minds eye was a bodyguard of angels. (I know that is only imagery – Jesus only needs to say the word and it is done! But that was the image I had and it was very kind of God to let me have that symbolic reassurance.) So at the meetings it was in a spiritual sense like being behind bullet proof glass. I could see what they were doing but I was not killed by it. Something still got through and Sue and I had to pray afterwards for God to remove those spiritual or psychic barbs which had penetrated.

It was not pleasant, I would not wish it on anyone else, but because of God's protection, I survived.

It is (almost) laughable that God's protective shield must have been evident to them. One complaint the archbishop passed on to me was that they said that at vestry meetings I was like a diver in one of those heavy deep sea diving suits – I needed to take it off and allow myself to be vulnerable!