One man who has made a major change to his life is the Rev. Richard Coles, whom I first met in the 1980s when my daughter played violin in the ‘Communards,’ a highly political, left-wing pop group, fronted by two openly gay men – musician and composer Richard and the Scottish singer Jimmy Somerville. Intrigued by the path taken by Richard (a journey in a different direction from that taken by many members of SOF), I went to meet him at the church of St Paul’s in Knightsbridge. Completed in 1843, this Gothicstyle building has an impressively ornate interior with richly coloured stained glass windows, and it stands in one of the wealthiest parts of London, where builders’ skips regularly contain treasures – gold-plated taps, marble basins and refrigerators so they big they could house a family.
In an area of conspicuous consumption, where money is ‘a state of nature,’ it is not impossible to imagine a city financier requesting an adjustment to the time of a church service, in order to fit in a visit around his busy schedule. (Visions of camels struggling to pass through the eye of a needle spring to mind.) There must be as great a need here, as anywhere, for spiritual guidance.
In the course of a two hour conversation held in the small office at the back of the church, Richard, who, as a boy sang in his local Anglican Church choir, told me that, from an early age, he had realised human love is conditional: ‘If you are a good boy and come in to lunch, we will love you.’ He recalls lying awake on Christmas Eve in order to catch his father out in the act of filling his stocking. (I, on the other hand, so completely believed in Father Christmas that when I heard his sleigh landing on the roof of our house, I had to feign sleep in case he caught me peeping.) Not being a journalist, I tend to chat rather than interview, and I foolishly failed to pick up the lead Richard gave me when he quoted The Windhover by Gerard Manley Hopkins, a poem I have long known by heart. Hopkins came from a family that knew and loved the arts, especially music and painting. In a life-changing move, as a young man he left the Anglican church and became a Jesuit. I can very well see why the poet’s work might be important to Richard, and later reflection led me to think about the interconnectedness of all people. This theme is explored in a piece Richard wrote for the Observer newspaper last year, in which he considered the juxtaposition of homeless people in his parish who were sleeping rough, and the European leaders, assembled in London for the G20 summit, cocooned in a centrally heated grand hotel a few yards away.
I said goodbye to Richard believing that, however imperfect we humans may be, and even if we do not have a religious faith, it is through the example of Christ, Gandhi and other great spiritual leaders, that we may yet find a way to live peacefully and generously with one another. I stepped out into the temptations of the Knightsbridge emporia, knowing that with ministers like Richard Coles in place, there will always be plenty of food for thought, occasions for celebration and that life in the parish of St Paul’s will never be dull.
Cicely Herbert is one of the trio who founded and continue to run Poems on the Underground. She is a member of SOF.