From sectarianism to dialogue

Iain Frew is an elder in the United Reformed Church in Birmingham and a member of the URC Interfaith Committee. He was brought up in the Church of Scotland. He qualified as a doctor and worked in the local hospitals as a consultant haematologist in Birmingham for 26 years before retiring in 1993. 

Growing in faith together… a journey from sectarianism to dialogue

I grew up in a Christian home that was steeped in the Church of Scotland.    My great grandfather had helped to build the fine new Old Parish Church in Nairn, my grandfather was an elder, and an uncle was a minister of the Kirk. Each Sunday I walked with the family to our church and for years I did not question the fact that to do so we walked past another Parish Church.     Apparently that church had been part of one of the many schisms that have fragmented the Kirk in times past but although the wounds had long been healed my grandfather would not cross the doorstep of the “errant” church so we always walked past it.     How would my grandfather have reacted if he knew that our family home is now the manse of that church.    As I grew up I was under the strictest possible orders never to have a Jew or a Roman Catholic as a friend because they were dreadful people.   That was awkward because one of my best friends at school Raymond Epstein was a Jewish orphan.    We had good times together but could never dare to invite him to my home. Eventually Ray moved to Dublin to be cared for by other relatives and we lost touch.

Things began to change when I went to University in 1952 and joined both the Railway Club and the University’s music club the Cecilian Society.   Here I met people from different backgrounds including some from the banned categories and found that they were all normal pleasant interesting folk whose church backgrounds could not possibly be a problem – or so I thought.    The University Chapel, the First World War Memorial to students who had died in that dreadful conflict, had never had a choir but one was now formed from members of the two clubs that I had joined.   The choir included Christians from many branches of the Church and for a time a Jewish friend as well.   The sectarianism that had dominated my earlier years was still rife in Glasgow when I graduated and brought home Wilma as my prospective bride.   She attended our local Congregational Church and this caused near panic. Would we be properly married if the service was not held in a Church of Scotland?     It took a long discussion with my minister Uncle who assured my mother that “it would be all right”.     When we went house hunting the antagonism against Jews and Roman Catholics was immediately evident.   What were our full names?   What schools did we go to?   Any hint of a RC background and we would have been shown the door. I knew that this was totally wrong but what could I do?    It is ironic that today the areas that tried so hard to exclude the forbidden groups now have, following changes in the law, one of the highest proportions of Catholics and Jews in Glasgow’s suburbs.   Homeowners soon found that they could sell their houses easily and quickly to the excluded people.    Somehow I feel that rough justice has been done at last!

A couple of years later we moved to Newcastle-upon-Tyne and what a difference. Nobody was in the least interested in what branch of the church we attended - or indeed whether we went to church at all.    Relationships between denominations were cordial and joint activities frequent.   At last I got to know what other churches and their people were like.   They were just like me and my church!     Another couple of years took me to Birmingham where I have spent the last 40 years.   My local church has always worked with the others in the area and how good it is to be totally relaxed when working alongside our Roman Catholic friends. For years the Healing Ministry has had a special place in my life and I have had the privilege of taking Healing Services in United Reformed, Congregational, Methodist, Baptist, and C of E churches.      I am now one of the Healing Ministry Group at St Philip’s Cathedral, Birmingham, and wonder sometimes if my mother is turning in her grave at the thought of me rejoicing in being there.   The process of learning about others has been a great healing process.

During the past couple of years I have become a member the URC’s Interfaith Committee and have particular duties across the West Midlands where I try to build bridges with the other great faiths.     I have found an antipathy against the Muslim community similar to that which I experienced against Jews and Roman Catholics during my childhood.     I have been able to befriend the Muslim Community in my own locality and my local church has extended the hand of friendship to them.    We are growing in faith together.    The Hindu community has just built a wonderful and massive Temple near West Bromwich and I have found that it is run by people with whom I once worked in our local hospitals.    Immediate friendship!     However the Hindu people are worried at the actions of the Churches in India where tens of thousands of tribal, dalit, people are joining the church (and Buddhist communities).   We are accused of gaining converts through “bribery”– the provision of schools and hospitals.   My work now is to convince my troubled Hindu friends that the church is simply extending the love of Christ to ALL people, rich and poor, and if any choose to join the church it is entirely their own decision.

I think I have moved a long way from my sectarian childhood.   I still sometimes visit my first church.   It is as full as ever on a Sunday morning and I note with pleasure that it does now have happy relationships with all the other churches.   “Churches Together” really does now happen in comfortable suburb of my birth.   We have all moved on a long way.

Iain Frew