| That
we were eligible for two Sunday School treats excited a certain
envy among the rest of the village children! But I went on to take
my place as chairman of the Baptists' Little People's meeting -
at the age of ten! Sadly, on a recent visit, I discovered that
all trace of what had been a strong Baptist tradition had entirely
disappeared. Later I was to spend Sundays with my godfather who took me to the
village church for matins. In the late afternoon we caught the bus
for the county town of Aylesbury and its ancient parish church where
my godfather could be sure of a `good' sermon. This was my first
contact with the `High' church; why did the curate turn east for
the Gloria?
My sisters and I were confirmed in Melton Mowbray parish church
after the family moved to Leicestershire. My confirmation was
a real spiritual experience. I felt the Holy Spirit did come
down in abundance as the Bishop laid his hands on my head. There
followed a fairly regular attendance at Holy Communion with my
brother.
My first teenage job was as junior clerk on wartime Aerodrome construction
followed by a period with the local Auctioneer and Estate Agent,
which included rent collection on Mondays and cattle vending in the
large market on Tuesdays. A monthly furniture sale was to give me
a lifelong taste for antiques and fine porcelain. There followed
National Service in the Royal Navy where I was one of two churchgoing
youths in a Mess of 24! Demobbed I found myself back on a farm which
gave me a little insight into the then rigours of agricultural life;
I have never sung the Harvest hymns with more gusto! By then I was
a sidesman and choir member in the village church, and ere long I
became Secretary of the PCC. While serving here I felt the first
stirrings of a call to the ministry and I was soon off to London
to study for my A Levels. I have vivid memories of the blizzard conditions
on 1st January 1954 as I waited for the train.
It took me 18 months to acquire my A Levels that, after selection
by CACTM to my parents' great joy, gained me admittance to St. John's
College, Durham and Ordination. It was while studying for A Levels
that I became aware of posters on the London Underground advertising
the Billy Graham Crusade at Harringay. There I heard a message which
seemed fresh and entirely new: how Christ had died for my sins! The
smartly-dressed figure in the limelight was a long way off but I
felt I was hearing these words for the first time. They made a deep
impression on me as the tears rolled down. I had been brought up
in the Church of England. At the same time I had good cause to be
thankful for the influence of the village Baptist Church and I was
already an Ordinand, but at this precise moment the enormity of my
sinful past hit me. To the world I was a godly church youth but inwardly
I was a Jekyll and Hyde character. I had no excuse. I was guilty.
All I could do was to repent and receive Christ as my personal Saviour,
Lord and King.
I concluded that while I came from a solid church background, which
I in no way wish to denigrate, I was now an Evangelical Christian.
This was evidenced in the next five years at Durham University where
I took a B.A. degree, later an M.A., and a Diploma in Theology. I
found time to stroke the College boat in racing on the Wear. I also
valued my membership of the Christian Union. It was at the Saturday
evening meetings that I first heard those great Evangelical hymns: "And
can it be that I should gain an interest in the Saviour's blood?”, “O
for a thousand tongues to sing my great Redeemer's praise!",
and, to a tune recently arrived from America, "Amazing grace
(how sweet the sound!) that saved a wretch like me!"
There followed Ordination at Rochester Cathedral and curacies
at Gravesend, Streatham Common (where I met and married my
wife, Chris - a former member of the Lee Abbey community) and
livings at West Bromwich, Tiverton, and Poole where we were
well supported and received incalculable blessings. While Rector
of Poole I was made a Canon of Salisbury Cathedral, and I still
make a monthly trip to Salisbury to do duty as a chaplain,
which includes officiating at the Thursday morning Prayer Book
Communion.
Retirement has set me free to apply myself to other interests,
including the privilege of serving on the Council of the Protestant
Truth Society. I am very conscious that John Kensit was an Anglican
and that as long ago as 1898 he protested at the idolatrous kissing
of the wood of the Cross in the Good Friday Liturgy - something,
I very much regret to say, is still carried on in Anglo-Catholic
parishes to this day.
In my latest Broadsheet I venture to remind readers that in its
official formularies the Church of England is a Bible Church
and is entirely subject to Biblical authority. It is the duty
of its ministers to preach a biblical message. All ordained Anglican
clergy still affirm their belief in the historic Anglican Formularies
including the 39 Articles of Religion, the Book of Common Prayer
and the Ordinal (the Making of Presbyters, Bishops and Archbishops).
In my Broadsheet The Triumph of Anglo-Catholicism Challenged,
I call upon all clergy who cannot sincerely affirm these historic
formularies to leave the Church of England and for Anglo-Catholics
to go to their true spiritual home, the Church of Rome. I also
call for a second Reformation in the Church of England, a reformation
according to the Word of God beginning with the abandonment of
the unscriptural use of the title "Father" (Matt
23:9) and the wearing of a hat in church by the Bishop (1 Cor 11:
4). A second Reformation would clean out the Augean Stables of Anglo-Catholicism
and leave the Church of England as our Protestant Reformers intended,
Protestant, Reformed and preaching the Gospel of Grace.
Canon Stanley Holbrooke-Jones |
