FACTORY CHAPLAINS

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume 79, 7 February 1944, Page 2

FACTORY CHAPLAINS

BRINGING THE CHURCH TO THE WORKERS SUCCESS OF INTERESTING MOVEMENT One of the most interesting movements, reports the “Scotsman”, which have ev'er been set in motion by the j Church of Scotland was the subject j of a Press Conference held at the | Church of Scotland Offices in Edinburgh, where newspaper representatives met a number of the indus- | trial chaplains who have been work- j ing during the past year in fac- j tories and shipyards, and heard from them—and from a representative of the factory workers—the reactions so far shown by managements and the working men and women to this approach of the Church direct to the worker. One of the chaplains who was present is himself, each alternate week, working his full shift as an employee in the factory where he is also chaplain, and lives with his wife in a three-roomed worker’s house. It was explained by the Rev. Robert Mackintosh, M.A., secretary of the Home Board of the Church of Scotland, who presided, and who was responsible for the inauguration of the movement, that it began about a year ago. Up to the time of the General Assembly in May this year, 100 chaplains had been appointed, and the number had been steadily increasing since. NOT A “STUNT” Several of the chaplains present used much the same phrasing concerning the kind of reception which was given to them when they first began their work—namely, that they were met with some suspicion by the workers, and the question: “Is this a ‘stunt’ to boost production?” All agreed that those feelings of suspicion began to disappear as they continued to move among the workers, helping them with thpir home groups, or holding services, taking their meals with the employees, and, in general, endeavouring to show that the Church was coming to them as a friend, ready to help. “Our belief is,” said Mr Mackintosh, “that it is becoming apparent more and more that the Church needed to go to meet men where most of their time is occupied—in the midst of their work—on the same principle as our chaplains in the Forces are stationed constantly with the men.” BIG GAP BRIDGED The Rev. lan Fraser, who was one of the most distinguished graduates in Divinity at Edinburgh University, being Cunningham Fellow in his year, and who is now a worker in a paper mill as well as chaplain in the same mill, said that he got the background of his working life in a butcher’s shop, owing to the fact that his father became blind when he was a child.

“I came to the conclusion that there was a big gap between the ministry and the laymen which was not being bridged. I felt that the Church had by-passed, to a considerable extent, the working classes in Scotland, and had not given them a square deal. I thought this over for a long time, and the year before I finished at college I got into contact with the staff of a paper mill. “I went to the mill after graduating, and spent the first six months working my full time with the men and working my way round the various departments. I now spend one week working with the men, devoting the other to the things neglected during the first six months—study, visiting, and preparation. EXCHANGE OF KNOWLEDGE. “The first step,” said Mr Fraser, “is for the minister to learn from men, than men learning from the minister. There should be interchange of knowledge and belief. The knowledge that each has to share should be brought out instead of hidden one from another. The main part of my work is not conducting services. . . The main part is being with the men.” Mr Fraser, who explained that he conducted three short services on Sunday mornings for the workers besides two services in churches in the district, said that the workmen talked to him about their families, their ideas for the future, and their ideas of life. “Very often direct talk on religion comes out, and we have it out on the spot.” INFLUENCE OF BACKGROUND Asked whether he ever attempted to discourage men from betting in football pools or such matters, Mr Fraser said he did not try to influence them in things of that kind. “Very often,” h e added, “we jib at things done by others which we would not jib at if we had the same kind of background as those others.” The Rev. James K. Fairbairn, Union Church, Clydebank, who had his manse destroyed by a direct hit in the Clydebank “blitz,” and whose young son narrowly missed death at the same time, is now chaplain ! in a Clydebank factory. DESIRE TO WORSHIP * “The fact that we have all suffered and been through the mill together,” he said, “gives a sense of companionship greater than ever before. The men are finding that they need God. They want to worship, even although the bulk of them have never darkened the doors of the Church. What the men want is not discussion but to worship God. “I have seen men walk by me with eyes pretty full, especially when we had discussed the deep things of their own inner lives. I started esrvices among the fire-watchers of all the departments. “I have had Roman Catholics at the services, and I attribute the desire of the men to worship simply to the tremendous suffering that we all went through. There has been no hostility towards me. Even those who say that they disbelieve come to me. They want to know what it is that they disbelieve.” IN A SHIPYARD The Rev. T. B. Stewart Thomson, of Govan Old Church, who is chaplain in a shipyard, said he was quite convinced that the future of this work lay along the lines of Mr lan Fraser’s ministry—lull-time chaplains with a full-time job in the workers’ life. “In my visits to the shipyard, where I am on the staff as chaplain in addition to my pirochial duties, I found at first some diffidence. A proportion of the workers are ‘agin the kirk.’ I started meetings in a little room off the canteen, where we have a discussion group composed of some Church people and some antiChurch people, and begin the meeting with a hymn to let others know we are there. The only difficulty is to get the discussion stopped at the allotted time, which is only twenty

minutes. The men prefer discussions to the orthodox type of service.” Among other points brought out at the meeting was the fact that a chapel is now to be installed in a shipyard on th e Clyde as a result of the work done there by the chaplain. The conference was attended by the Rev William Bodin, St. Luke’s Church, Lochee, Dundee, Church of Scotland Home Board Organiser of Industrial Chaplaincy work, who said that the Church was at present engaged with the mining industry with regard to the possibility of having chaplains at the coal face.