Continued from Part 5.
In this part Ina discusses the role of religion in her childhood.
Religion was the thing. We had prayers every evening. When I was proficient enough I played the piano for the hymn we would sing. I also took week about with Joy playing at assemblies. To alleviate boredom we would do tricks. A certain sign would indicate we would miss out a verse. We would all stop together and the member of staff concerned would look somewhat puzzled. Similarly we would repeat a verse as if we hadn't sung it before. More bewilderment and we would try to keep straight faces. We would also ask questions earnestly but with tongues in cheeks. On Sunday mornings we had a service in the library with boys as well. Evening prayers were single sex. People visiting the College or students or visiting parents would take this 'meeting'. In the evening we went up to the College to the Conference Hall which had a stage pulpit. Sometimes we would be asked to sing duets or quartets. This was good because we saw different people. We especially liked seeing the students who came from other countries usually - Ukraine, Latvia, Switzerland and so on. Some girls had 'crushes' on various students - not having even exchanged a word. Joy got friendly with Edmund, an Irish student, and had to jump out of a window when she heard someone coming to the door of his room. It was not on the ground floor either. In later years we also got a bus on Sunday afternoons and went in to Swansea to Mount Pleasant Baptist church for Sunday School. This was also popular because we felt free and we would sneak on bits of lipstick at the bus stop. We always wore special clothes on Sundays. One person who came to the College was Gladys Aylward who wrote a book and who had a film made about her - 'The Small Woman' I think. She led a group of Chinese children out of some difficult circumstance - Communist threat? [LM She escorted orphans away from an area where the Japanese had invaded prior to Mao coming to power]. Other missionaries would tell tales of adventures rather like tales of foreign correspondents today. One from Colombia told of having to eat his own shit. Eastern Europeans told tales of persecution too. I remember one woman had a mean way with a piano - she hurtled up and down doing fancy stuff with a Christian hymn. I was enthralled and wished I could do the same. One one occasion a parent practised his healing powers on Grace Trotman who had one leg shorter than the other and wore a caliper. How she felt after this stunt when nothing changed I can only imagine. From time to time we had 'revivals'. They acquired historical status - there was one in 1947. Altho' it had never occurred to us in our tender years to be anything but Christian this wasn't enough. We had 'to be saved', 'to be born again'. Dutifully on May 8th, 1947, I agreed to 'believe in Jesus' and I was saved. As time went on cynicism set in. On another occasion the image was of a drowning man getting into a boat. This was supposed to be a top-up, I guess, rather like renewing marriage vows. Ripples of excitement would spread "_____ is in the boat' and the person concerned would acquire an aura and a smirk and there would be pressure on others to follow. It was like an election, waiting for the results. 'Who's in the boat now?'. I remember distinctly my determination not to be press ganged and I refused to follow suit. People would give testimonies explaining how this was really really the real thing. They hadn't been fully committed before and suddenly in a blinding flash they had realised this and taken new vows.
More formally and staidly I was baptised in Mountpleasant Baptist Church. This was all pre-planned and was part of convention as engagements and marriages used to be. I was dunked under the water but I can remember nothing else - no excitement, vibes etc. But I suppose these religious happenings added a sort of colour to lacklustre lives - not just to ours (because being young we anticipated lustre ahead) - but to out carers who had no relationships, sex lives, holidays, amusements not even retail therapy or walks or TV.
One accessory of the faith was a Daily Light. This had a verse from the bible and a little commentary for every day. There were also promise boxes. These contained what were like short cigarettes - little pieces of paper with a verse from the Bible written on them and rolled up. They were then propped up and squashed together in a box so that as you looked down it was a bit like a honeycomb. You took one and it would give you an indication of your fate rather like a horoscope. Of course, you could make what you like of them, eg 'All things work together for good to them that love God'. Good-ee! - I'll pass my exams. So long as I keep 'following the Lord'. There was a whole dictionary of clichés such as this.
When my parents furlough was over there was a valedictory service to see them on their way. This would be attended by other missionaries, officials of their mission (Evangelical Union of South America, now Latin Link) relatives and supporters. The hymn 'God be with you 'till we meet again. In his Loving arms enfold you....' was always sung. It was a dirge, made 'Abde with Me' sound like a jolly folk song. I can play it now on the piano - 6 flats. The chorus was 'Till we mee-ee-eet! Till we mee-eet, till we meet at Jesus' feet' and repeated. It still induces a sense of mournfulness in me. There were other conferences which we sometimes attended and sure as God's little apples people would come up to us and say 2 things. 1) How marvellous our parents were. 2) How marvellous we were allowing them to leave us (as if we had a choice!). It was immensely irritating.
Another fairly common thing was open air meetings. I never see/hear of them nowadays. Very occasionally the Salvation Army are around but in Swansea these used to be on the beach on a Saturday. Usually music would be provided by an accordion. People would form a semi-circle. Pamphlets would be given out. People would be accosted. Sometimes these open air meetings would be in market squares etc. I am very grateful for my religious background in one respect - so much art of the past was religious and I understand the stories, eg, Abraham sacrificing Isaac and being stopped at the last moment and offering a lamb (handy) instead and Samson and Delilah etc. The Saints' tales were not told to us so I'm a bit lost with those at times.
I also believe very strongly in the Christian ethic as set out in the beatitudes in Mathew: 5 and in many sayings of Jesus. For example, he lauded a widow who donated only a mite - her offering was as valuable as that of the rich; he slated the Pharisees for being whited sepulchres - hypocrites. And much more.
At this period - fifties - American evangelists were very popular. The most famous of these was Billy Graham. He came over twice with his entourage and I went to Haringey Stadium to hear him. People went in their hordes. We came down in a special train - God knows who paid - and passed thro' High Wycombe. Little did I know how meaningful a place it would be in future years [LM - about 1974 or so my parents moved to Bourne End which is near High Wycombe and have lived there ever since]. It was a nice little market town then by repute. Billy Graham had two sidekicks. One had a deep throaty voice (Beverly Shea) and the other was his sort of warm-up guy - Cliff something or other. There was also a choir. Billy Graham would bounce in as the main act and at the end people were urged to 'come up' and there was a great rustle as people stood up and padded down to the front. There was a team of counsellors and at the end they were all prayed with etc. Don't really know too much as I didn't 'go up'. Brian also came down from W'ton [LM Wolverhampton, this was before Ina had met Brian] but I think he went to Wembley. It was quite exciting for me - the first time I had been on the tube. I had been in London before once when my parents went back to Peru the first time. They spent the latter part of their furlough in a mission house in London and went from Tilbury. My Uncle [LM, George] and Aunt Izabel (her one and only time down south) came to Swansea and picked us up and took us to London for farewells. Beth and I both had books in thick brown wartime paper. We read avidly on the journey and A.I. kept saying we should be looking at the scenery. En route we had finished our books and chattered relentlessly and they stopped and bought us books. In fact, I'm not sure if they really did or only said they wished they had........ That is all I remember of that first farewell. I have no memory of the goodbyes but I remember uncle commenting on the volume of traffic. Other famous but less illustrious Americans came over and they had an air of glamour about them but they always ended up by importuning the congregation for money - the more you gave the more blessed you would be. Of course in USA several have been caught out in fraud and promiscuous behaviour while preaching morality - Jesus' pharisees. It's interesting to speculate on why there was this surge of evangelical fervour - glamorous Americans after the grim, belts-in war? And quite, quite gone a long time since.
Another religious scenario was the Faith Missions. This seems to have only been in Ireland/Scotland and one or two northern rural areas in England. Auntie Edie belonged to it - those who worked in it were 'pilgrims' [LM, Edie looked after the sisters in Newburgh, Fife, Scotland in the summer holidays, a major figure in Ina's life]. They worked in twos going to small towns and setting up in church/village halls for a week or two and having meetings, visiting with pamphlets and so on. The women wore bonnets not dissimilar to the S.A. but all plain navy. My Aunt seems to have loved this life. She had a fine singing voice and a small zither and she could play the organ and was a confident speaker. She was a gregarious person and loved travelling about. She spoke of the Shetlands and Orkneys and many places in the Highlands where she had been on missions. That is how my uncle met her - when he attended one of her missions. All much more modest and personal than the American missions. Once a year there was a faith mission in Perth. All the pilgrims met and hobnobbed and their fans went. It was a weekend I think. There was a big buzz and special speakers. It was usually when we were there so we attended of course. My Aunt loved seeing all her old cronies. They would come and visit her from time to time and talk of old times.
The words 'backsliding/backslider' were much in use in evangelical circles to speak of Christian believers who had ceased to believe. To believe and then renounce belief was the worst thing of all - better to be pagan.
I was curious about other beliefs. There was a Quaker place in Swansea and when I was allowed some freedom I attended a service there - mostly silence. The Christadelphins paid a visit to Newburgh once and I went along - my uncle was not best pleased. He was a deacon at the Baptist Church. On a slightly different note I went to a Scottish nationalist open air thing with a famous speaker in Newburgh - and in Belfast I heard Ian Paisley.
In the next Part 7 Ina goes on to talk about politics and social issues.