ginning, with an era of distaste for religion and antipathy to students. It springs to my mind whenever I read a discussion of church attendance on the part of the majority of students. We Donald McGavran's "Giant Step in Christian Mission." Unless interpreted this as a reaction against the somewhat rigid church something happens soon to neutralize this internecine fray, it is parade regulations of the boarding schools from which most had to be feared that the "untouched millions" will sooner or later come. Happily this situation has since changed substantially for be condemned to a very mixed blessing. the better. But my greatest cause for distress and anxiety at the It is my opinion that the Christian cause in Ghana is at present time was the quite unchristian relationship between the two in very good heart. Many agencies, groups, and individuals are Christian student groups on the campus, the evangelicals or actively engaged in spreading the gospel and nurturing the Chris­ "born-agains" and the Student Christian Movement. So in­ tian spirit in daily life, though very unseemly acts continue to be tense was their mutual hostility (only thinly veiled by cramped heard of, even from high places. Church attendance, especially efforts to be decent to one another in public) that as chaplain I in the central towns, leaves nothing to be desired, and collections could only tiptoe my way warily and gingerly between the two are surprisingly high. The interrelationships of the fifteen major groups, applying my utmost care and skill to avoid getting on churches (fourteen in the Christian Council and the Roman Cath­ the wrong side of either. Each side was cocksure that it was olic Church) have become amicable and generally quite satisfac­ unquestionably in the right, and that the other side represented tory. Let me conclude with a heartwarming true story. only a lesser breed of Christians. Not long ago, during one of our recent transient regimes, a My own view has always been that the two approaches are man was falsely denounced, arrested, severely mishandled, and complementary and ought never to have been separated at all. jailed. Soon afterward, his denouncer himself fell from grace to To aim to make people the best that they can be as humans (called grass, and found himself in the same prison. They knew each by the Germans Humanisierung) can never be really opposed to other and were both well aware of all that had happened. The an emphasis on the preached evangel. And I have never myself denounced man hailed from the south and his family lived in the known any person on the Humanisierung side who did not also, town where the prison was situated; the denouncer came from in word and deed, in fact proclaim the gospel. From my reading the north and had neither relations nor friends anywhere around. of publications in the older churches of Britain, Germany, and This was during the near-famine of 1983, when prisoners were the United States, it is to be gathered that this baneful polarization often very hungry. It was permitted for outsiders to take food to not only persists, but has even flourished since the Uppsala meet­ their people in jail. Without their differences having been sorted ing of the World Council of Churches in 1968. This grievous out, the denounced man, whenever food was brought to him, fissure in the Christian fabric cannot be concealed from outsiders, regularly invited his enemy to eat with him, and he did so, often and it provided an easy excuse for sitters on the fence among my in tears. Uncontentious Mission!

The Legacy of Norman Goodall

Paul Rowntree Clifford

orman Goodall was one of the most influential person­ achievements of his long and varied career. In One Man's Testi­ N alities in the missionary and ecumenical movements of monu,' a little gem written shortly after the end of World War II, the twentieth century. The adjective has been chosen deliberately. he set out in clear and simple terms the faith that had held him To have called him outstanding would have given entirely the throughout the years. By that he lived, and the graciousness of wrong impression. In spite of the high offices he held in the his personality was a reflection of the grace of God in Jesus Christ, International Missionary Council and in the British Free Churches, which had shaped his character from his earliest days. I first came and his service as moderator of the International Congregational to know him when he was nearly seventy years of age, ostensibly Council, his worldwide ministry was chiefly exercised behind the retired, but still full of vigor, lecturing, writing, counseling, sup­ scenes and out of the limelight: an assessment pointedly empha­ porting: sharing with the younger and less experienced the treas­ sized by his own choice of Second Fiddle as the title of his delightful ures of a richly stored mind and a profound faith. To see him autobiography published toward the end of his life. 1 But his influ­ striding up the path to a meeting over which I was to preside at ence was wide-ranging, not only on the development of inter­ the Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham was to know that, whatever national structures of cooperation, but more particularly on the difficulties of the agenda, his wisdom would keep us from individual people of many races and cultures who were grateful making any serious mistake. to be able to call him their friend. Norman had extraordinary clarity of mind and a capacity for expression, both in speech and in writing, which rivaled the best The Christian Disciple of English prose. This was all the more remarkable in that in his youth he had lacked any formal education beyond the age of All those who knew and loved Norman would want to speak fourteen. Leonard Wilson, the bishop of Hong Kong interned by more of the impact of the man himself than of the considerable the Japanese and later bishop of Birmingham, once said of him, "He is my mentor for English style," and after a particularly elegant speech of welcome to a conference of church leaders, a Paul Rowntree Clifford, former president of Selly Oak Colleges in Birmingham, bystander was heard to remark, "Don't you long for that man England, served for many years as treasurer of the International Association for to split an infinitive!" Mission Studies. He is now retired nearOxford. This pellucid clarity of thought and expression was a reflection

168 International Bulletin of Missionary Research of the high standards and self-discipline that were among the guished career in governmental service, for Norman was brought most striking characteristics of Norman's whole life. But they did to the notice of someone who was to play a prominent role in not make him, as they might have done, a formidable person in the Civil Service during World War I. That is to anticipate, how­ whose company others felt diminished and ill at ease. He was ever. In the meantime Norman had to work his passage in the essentially a gentle soul, sensitive to the feelings of others and junior ranks of local government. with a compassionate understanding of human foibles and faults. In 1915 Norman enlisted in the Royal Army Medical Corps, It is dangerous to describe anyone as Christlike, and Norman and after a short spell of service was seconded for clerical duties would have found it acutely embarrassing to have had this as­ to the Ministry of Munitions, to which Arthur Collins, the Bir­ cription applied to him. But there can be no doubt that he mirrored mingham City treasurer, had been lent as financial adviser. En­ the Lord in whose presence he lived and whom he rejoiced to countering his former employee as he was leaving the ministry, serve. The impact of this on countless people of all ages and races Collins handed Norman a note to take to St. Ermin's Hotel, West­ was his principal legacy. minster, adding, "You are the first member of the staff of the Department of National Service. The hotel has been comman­ deered by the Office of Works and the residents are beginning The Foundation of Goodall's Career to move out. I shall be joining you there before long and Neville Chamberlain will arrive as soon as he can free himself from Bir­ Norman was born in Birmingham at the industrial heart of Eng­ mingham.?" Thus began Norman's wartime service in what was land on August 3D, 1896, the twelfth of thirteen children of Thomas to become a major government department in which he rapidly Goodall and Amelia Ingram. The family lived in cramped con­ assumed increasing responsibilities as Arthur Collins's private ditions over their father's sweet shop in Handsworth and poverty secretary. This brought him into close contact with ministers of was never far from their door. Thomas Goodall was the son of the Crown and high-ranking officials, giving him the opportunity "an amiable drunkard," to use Norman's own description, to display the administrative gifts that in later years were to be and in his youth belonged to a gang that secured notoriety by placed at the service of the world church. breaking up political meetings. Intent on a similar venture one When the war ended, Norman was urged to enter the per­ Sunday evening, they entered Wesley Chapel. While his com­ manent Civil Service, in which he would doubtless have had a panions slunk out, Thomas stayed and was soundly converted. distinguished career. But he felt an irresistible call to the Con­ Some years later he shared a hymn book there with a young gregational ministry. The problem was that he had no educational servant girl whom he courted and subsequently married. To­ gether they made a home that became the formative influence on Norman's life. Thomas had no schooling, began work at eight years of age, JJ[Norman Goodall] and was taught to read by a local barber. Amelia was illiterate mirrored the Lord in and remained so to the end of her days. But their deep Christian faith and their standards of excellence were the matrix in which whose presence he lived Norman developed his love of literature and music. A young and whom he rejoiced to violin teacher was given the use of the Goodalls' little parlor and in exchange Norman was offered free lessons. His tribute to this serve." unnamed musician, but above all to his father and mother, con­ stitute the most moving passages in his autobiography. The young teacher opened up a world of beauty and delight in the midst of qualifications for admission to training and his heart was set on ugly surroundings. Norman's father was a sterling example of entering Mansfield College at Oxford, which was open only to the combination of resolute faith and radical politics, informed postgraduates with a first degree in another discipline. Norman by an inquiring mind and a remarkably developed sense of literary had not even a school-leaving certificate. style. But it was obviously his mother's influence that shaped Nor­ He was encouraged to seek out the principal, the renowned man's character. "There was a moment at the end of her days," Dr. Selbie, to whom he explained his predicament. This wise man he wrote, "when a brother and I were looking at her hands, obviously spotted the latent gifts of the young civil servant and lined and worn with the years of labour in the service of those promised that he could sit an entrance examination if he would she loved. Touching one of her hands my brother said, 'They prepare for it over the next six months by learning some Greek remind me of the words "I bear on my body the marks of the and Latin, reading the Bible, and practicing essay writing. Thus Lord Jesus." , He was right. In the whole realm of human rela­ it came about that Norman entered Mansfield in 1919 to read the tionships I have known no love greater than hers."? Norman Honours School of Theology under a distinguished faculty, which would undoubtedly have said that the legacy of his own life included C. H. Dodd, G. Buchanan Gray, and Vernon Bartlett. should properly be ascribed to these three people. He secured a respectable degree, which was underwritten thirty Formal education beyond the age of fourteen was not an years later by an Oxford award of a D.Phil. for a thesis on "The option for any boy with Norman's background. The straitened Principles and Characteristics of Missionary Policy during the Last circumstances of his parents made it necessary for him to take a Fifty Years Illustrated by the History of the LMS." To the end of job as an office boy to supplement the marginal family income. his life he was a devoted son of the college that had given him However, the routine duties of a junior clerk in the South Staf­ such an unexpected opportunity, serving for many years as a fordshire Water Authority quickly failed to satisfy the ambitions member of its governing body. and abilities of a youth who was taking every advantage he could of evening classes, and he was encouraged by an older employee Ministry and Mission to apply for a clerical post in the Birmingham City Treasurer's Department. He was interviewed and appointed by the treasurer In 1920 Norman married Doris Stanton, a medical doctor and the himself: a circumstance that might well have opened up a distin- daughter of a barrister. They would have two sons and one daughter

October 1988 169 in the years ahead. On completion of his Oxford course, they However, the keynote of the conference was the conviction offered for service abroad with the London Missionary Society, that henceforth the missionary task could be undertaken only in but the regulations in force prevented them from being accepted full partnership between the younger and older churches: a con­ because wives were not allowed to take appointments alongside viction that was to take time to be established among those upon their husbands. So Norman was ordained to the ministry in 1922 whom the missionary societies relied for support and who found at Trinity Congregational Church, Walthamstow, where he re­ it hard to recognize and break with the past assumptions of im­ mained in pastoral charge for six years until he moved, for another perialism. Nevertheless, Norman was convinced that thinking eight years, to a church in the London suburb of New Barnet. In must go much further. A new theology of mission had to be both these congregations he came to value the meaning of Chris­ worked out in the radically changed situation of the postwar tian fellowship, which, while internally mutually supportive, was world. This led to the planning of a further conference of the outward-looking to mission throughout the world. His people in IMC, held in Willingen, Germany, July 5-17, 1952. their turn experienced his sensitive conduct of worship and the Those who were involved maintain that its conception and quality of his pastoral care, which were to be placed at the service conduct were very largely Norman's work. Strangely enough, of so many others in the years that followed. however, he does not even mention it in his autobiography. The The summons to ministry to the churches overseas was only explanation may be that he was disappointed with its outcome. to be postponed, for in 1936 Norman was invited to become a Some of those who knew him best go so far as to say that he staff member of the London Missionary Society with secretarial thought it was a failure. That is hardly borne out by the intro­ responsibility for India and the South Pacific. This led to extensive ductory chapter he wrote to his edited report of the conference travel throughout these regions and a widening circle of personal in which he argued that Willingen was a milestone on the road contacts with missionaries and government officials. His account to a theology of mission and not a terminus." of visits to 140 Indian villages, his close ties with Dr. Howard At all events it is clear that Norman believed that the mis­ Somervell, the Everest explorer and renowned surgeon in charge sionary organizations had to come to understand that they were of the South Travancore Medical Mission at Neyyoor, and his agencies of the world church, and for the next decade he per­ meetings with Mahatma Gandhi, Subhas Chandra Bose, Rabin­ sistently worked to bring about the full integration of the IMC dranath Tagore, and Dr. Ambedkar illustrate the depth and range and the WCC. The opportunity to do so was opened up by his of his involvement in the service to which he was committed. appointment in 1954 as secretary of a joint committee to explore Clearly he also fell in love with the islands and people of the ways and means of achieving this end. In the face of a good deal South Pacific; many of the people became his personal friends. of resistance from those, like Max Warren, who felt that the free­ All this prepared him for the wider responsibilities that before dom of missionary societies would be imperiled by integration long he was asked to shoulder.5 with ecclesiastical structures, Norman's conviction that church In 1944 Norman was appointed to succeed Dr. William Paton and mission were indivisible won the day. He saw his endeavors as London secretary of the International Missionary council (!MC), finally consummated at the Third Assembly of the World Council and this was to place him at the center of the developing ecu­ at New Delhi in 1961, when integration was finally adopted and menical movement. The office was based at Edinburgh House Lesslie Newbigin, "representative of the world mission at its where the Conference of British Missionary Societies had its head­ best.?" was appointed an associate general secretary of the WCC. quarters. As a member of its committees Norman had come into On any estimate this was a historic milestone in the evolution intimate contact with its formidable secretariat: J. H. Oldham, of the world church, and with his retirement due at the end of Kenneth Maclennan, and William Paton himself. He was there­ the New Delhi Assembly, Norman's career might well have been fore no stranger to the tasks that now confronted him. thought to have reached its climax. But it is arguable that the last The ending of World War II necessitated IMC's facing the phase of his life not only added to the legacy he left to the ecu­ future of the German missions, which, together with those of the menical movement, but actually may prove to have been of even occupied countries of Europe cut off from their home bases, had greater significance. His contribution to the WCC continued with become the responsibility of the IMe during hostilities. The com­ the invitation to serve for another two to three years as assistant plex problems of dealing with a changed situation landed on general secretary to Dr. W. A. Visser 't Hooft, and he was later Norman's desk, involving establishing relations of confidence with to edit the report of the Fourth Assembly at Uppsala in 1968. missionary leaders in Europe for which his diplomatic skills and Other important publications came from his pen. Following his sensitivity were admirably fitted. Furthermore, there was the definitive history of the London Missionary Society in 1954, the challenge of reassessing the entire missionary strategy in the con­ Oxford University Press published what have become two stand­ fusion of the postwar world. ard works on the ecumenical movement: TheEcumenical Movement: Plans were afoot for bringing into being the World Council What It Is and What It Does in 1961, and Ecumenical Progress: A of Churches (WCC), but the missionary organizations felt that Decade of Change in the Ecumenical Movement, eleven years later. the problems confronting them were so urgent that they had to Retirement gave Norman the opportunity to devote himself take immediate steps to call an international conference under to interchurch relations in a variety of ways. He was moderator the auspices of the IMC. Norman was not convinced. He thought of the International Congregational Council from 1962-66, and that it was better to wait until the WCC had been inaugurated. moderator of the Free Church Federal Council in the following However, he was overruled and in 1947 a conference was con­ year-and he played an influential part in bringing together the vened at Whitby, Ontario, to review the whole strategy of mis­ English Presbyterians and Congregationalists and later the sion. Norman played a significant part in its preparation and Churches of Christ in the United Reformed Church. He lectured conduct. Writing about it many years later he said, "It is never extensively as visiting professor of mission at the Selly Oak Col­ possible to measure the results of such a meeting as Whitby. If leges in Birmingham, at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Dublin, some of its hopes and expectations were never fulfilled this is at the Jesuit Heythrop College, and at the Pontifical Gregorian another reminder both of the agelong mystery of iniquity and the University in Rome. need for a universal Church equipped for a world-wide task and The awakened interest of Roman Catholics in the ecumenical with wisdom and spiritual resources equal to it.,,6 movement following Vatican Council II meant that many were

170 International Bulletin of Missionary Research concerned to enter into serious dialogue with leading Protestants. At the end of his life, Norman was cared for by an old friend, Who was better informed or more sensitively equipped for this Dr. Elizabeth Welford, whom he engaged to marry after the death than Norman? Hence the invitations that came to him to lecture of his wife. On January 1, 1985, two days before the wedding, in Dublin and at Heythrop, where he made many friends. But it he died from a heart attack at her house in Oxford. was what he called his "Roman Pilgrimage:" that in perspec­ Norman was no facile ecumenist. He spent his life wrestling tive may be judged the climax of his contribution to ecumenism. with the obstacles to understanding among Christians and the The way had been paved in Dublin and at Heythrop as well as in many personal friendships. But there can be little doubt that his two visits (when he was nearly eighty years of age) to the English College in Rome, in 1975 and 1976, were fruitful beyond "Norman sums up his Roman any immediately apparent result. He established relations of con­ Pilgrimage by saying that fidence with both faculty and students, who appreciated the in­ tegrity of his Protestant convictions as well as his openness to all he is not sure whether it that was best in Roman Catholicism. In particular, a firm friend­ 'has made me a Catholic ship was forged with the rector of the English College, Mgr. Murphy O'Connor, later bishop of Arundel, who visited Norman Protestant or a Protestant in Oxford in the last stages of Norman's life and who paid a Catholic. I hope it has moving tribute to him at his memorial service in London. Norman sums up his Roman Pilgrimage by saying that he is made me a better not sure whether it "has made me a Catholic Protestant or a Christian.' " Protestant Catholic. I hope it has made me a better Christian.Y'" If that was true for him, it was certainly true for those who sat at his feet. The influence of such an encounter is impossible to difficulties inherent in working together with those of differing measure, though it is likely to have had more lasting results than backgrounds and convictions. But he brought to everything he many of the more formal conferences that are an increasing fea­ did not only patience and perseverance, but the readiness to listen ture of Roman Catholic/Protestant relations. At any rate, among to and learn from others, which won their respect and affection. those taking the lead in open commitment to ecumenical pilgrim­ While he was too honest to evade or minimize problems, he never age in Britain are some who shared in the eventful weeks of allowed them to weaken his vision of One Church United for Norman's own pilgrimage to Rome. Mission. That is Norman Goodall's abiding legacy.

Notes ------­

1. Goodall, Second Fiddle (London: SPCK, 1979). 6. Ibid., p. 93. 2. Goodall, One Man's Testimony (London: Independent Press, 1949). 7. In Missions under the Cross (London: Edinburgh House Press, 1953). 3. Goodall, Second Fiddle, p. 9. 8. Goodall, Second Fiddle, p. 107. 4. Ibid., p. 14. 9. Ibid.; pp. 133-47. 5. Ibid., pp. 42-67. 10. Ibid., p. 147.

Selected Works by Norman Goodall

With All Thy Mind. London: SCM Press, 1933. The Local Church: Its Resources and Responsibilities. London: Hodder & One Man's Testimony. London: Independent Press, 1949. Reprinted with Stoughton, 1966. a memoir by Kenneth Slack (SCM Press, 1985). Ecumenical Progress: A Decade ofChange in theEcumenical Movement. London: Missions under the Cross. London: Edinburgh House Press, 1953. Oxford Univ. Press, 1972. Historyof the London Missionary Society: 1895-1945. London: Oxford Univ. Second Fiddle. London: SPCK, 1979. Press, 1954. Norman Goodall also wrote numerous articles and pamphlets on mission The Sacraments: What We Believe. London: Independent Press, 1961. and theology, a comprehensive collection of which are included in the The Ecumenical Movement: What It Is and What It Does. London: Oxford archives of the London Missionary Society, held at Dr. Williams' Library, Univ. Press, 1961. Gordon Square, London. Christian Ambassador: A Lifeof Livingstone Warnshuis. New York: Channel Press, 1963.

October 1988 171 Study with the ones whdve been there...

... like David]. Hesselgrave, Professor of Mission in the School of World Mission and Evangelism, Trinity Evangelical Divin ity School.

• Missionary to Japan for 12 years • Past president o f th e Associatio n o f Evangelica l Professors o f Mission and the Japan Evange lica l Missionary Asso ciation ... and these • Auth or or editor o f eigh t bo oks on missions, including Cross­ Cultural Cou nseling (Baker) and th e forthcoming Today s Choices other fine f or Tomorrow ~~ Mission (Zo ndervan) faculty: • Pioneer o f missiological thinking and cros s-cultural strategies for 21 yea rs at Trinity Evangelical Divinity Scho ol-which has o ne o f th e Robert E. Coleman, Ph .D . wo rld 's largest se m inary missions p rograms J. Herbert Kane, Pro fesso r Emeritus Trinity Evangelical Divinity School o ffers th e follow ing degree John W. Nyquis t, M.A., M.Div. programs in missions: Edward Rommen , D.Miss., Th.D . M.A.R. M.A. M.Div. Th.M. D.Miss.· William D. Taylor, Ph .D. Also the o ne-year Certificate Adjunct Professor Plus independent study courses and o ther con tinuing education Rut h A. Tucker, Ph .D . op portu nities . Ted W. Ward , Ed.D . Timothy M. Warner, Ed.D . • All doctoral work ma y be done in one-week seminars. Prerequisites: M.Div. (or equivalent ) and 3 years mini stry ex perience. For more information, return this coup on today ; or ca ll TRINITY EVANGELICAL our Admissions Office TOLL-FREE at 1-800-345-TEDS. m SiI DIVINITY SCHOOL 2065 HALF DAY ROAD, BOX 112, DEERFIELD, IL 60015 o Mr. 0 Mrs. O Ms. 0 Dr. _ o Please send me information on the : o D. Miss. 0 D. Min. 0 Ph .D. 0 Ed.D. Address _ programs o master 's programs City, State, Zip _ o l-year certificate o ex tension/co ntinuing educa tion programs Ho me ph on e Daytime phon e _ o Please send me a free trial subsc ription to Trinity World Forum. Ant icipated ent ry date _