At Romsey I very soon found the Baptist church in Bell Street. The minister, Rev W G Black, soon claimed one of those coincidental acquaintances with which church life abounds – he had previously been minister at Wollaston, just after my father. We got on fine (despite that connection!). The church itself was at that time fairly traditional, but had a thriving youth work, centred around Girls and Boys Brigade companies. After a period of not being quite sure whether I was to keep flitting back to Southsea or not, I became a member here (accepted 8th Dec 1966, welcomed 1st Jan 1967).
One of the best things about church life in Romsey at that time, was the inter-denominational YPF group; Baptist, Methodist and URC young people shared a common youth fellowship group, meeting in homes or in one of the three church buildings on Sunday evenings, and at the Baptist church for worship on Sunday afternoons – and doing “sundry and various” outings at other times. We also held youth services at each church in turn[73], so each church saw the whole group regularly. We tried to avoid any impression of one church dominating, as we knew that that would cause difficulties; on the whole it worked remarkably well, and I have always been able to refer to it as a model. It worked well because all three churches, and especially the three ministers, were willing to let it – had any one become proprietorial it would have collapsed. From the young people’s point of view, there was a greater “mass” of keen young people, to act as a model and focus, than would have been possible in any church group alone.
In our own worship times, we used songs from the “Redemption Hymnal”, a hymnbook with which I was unfamiliar; it had the “standard” hymns and songs, but a number that were radically different, and after a while it began to dawn on me that this book came from a Pentecostal background, a denomination I hadn’t really heard anything about. This led to my finding out about the subject matter of the songs – the person and work of the Holy Spirit, a subject most churches at the time covered in a rather vague way on Whit Sunday only. Over many months, I read books and studied the scriptures. Then came a turning-point in my Christian life; the Methodist minister, Rev Kirk, asked me if I’d be willing to join his rota of lay preachers. This was something I knew I could not fudge over, and could not do. In the end, one of my friends in the YPF gave me the right advice; as a result of which I said to God “OK, I’m willing to do it, but You’ll have to give me the power to do it, because by myself I can’t”. So I said “yes” to Rev Kirk, and waited – and about a fortnight later, in the middle of the night, God filled me with His Spirit in a way that even now fills me with joy at the recollection. So I started going round a number of Methodist and Baptist churches in the Romsey area, sometime alone and sometimes with one or two of the younger YPF members. This continued until I left Romsey in December 1968. One or two incidents from the later part of this time led to me recognising when God had a message to say, and being willing to say it.
Two sets of friends from Romsey days remain on our Christmas correspondence list. Bill and Jenny Eldridge, and Lyn and Pete Clarke. Bill was one of the Boys Brigade senior helpers, and Jenny’s mother was a Girl’s Brigade leader. Lyn was another Harris – no relation, but we always thought it strange that the two Romsey YPF Harrises both ended up marrying Clark(e)s! Both friendships started during schooldays for them, both continued, and they are now both (all) still married, and grandparents.
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[73] This was a chance to introduce the “songs of the day” into church services – at this time, the “Youth Praise” and “Twentieth Century Hymn” books were the main source of new songs.