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Sticking Around by Bernard Spong Pub Cluster Publicaions, pp372 ISBN 1-875053-59-X £7.50
Bernard Spong is a man known to many in the UK. Brought up in Manchester, in a Roman Catholic family, Bernard found himself a Congregationalist by choice, rather than by upbringing. When he left Lancashire College in 1956, having been trained for ministry, he came to Nelson, and for a while he was my minister. In 1963, Bernard and Margot left their church in Workington to become “missionaries” in South Africa with the LMS.
After nearly 45 years in South Africa, Bernard has written his autobiography ‘Sticking Around’. It is a lively account of a very full life, and its main theme is change in the last forty plus years, the change in South Africa, its politics and its churchmanship; the change in the church’s role in South African society; and as much as anything, the change in Bernard and his idea of what being ‘a missionary’ entails. If you’ve kept up with events in South Africa, all the leading characters are involved: Nelson and Winnie Mandella, Desmond Tutu, Allan Hendrickse, Steve Biko, Beyers Naude, Allan Boesak, Helen Joseph and Oliver Thambo. And for those who know their church personalities: Joe Wing, John Huxtable, John Thorne, Ben Ngidi and Tennyson Komano, all play their part, alongside a thousand others. Even musical characters like Donald Swann and Sydney Carter have major roles in his story.
But alongside all these well remembered figures and leaders, there are stories of black teenagers and white churches, protest marches and stone throwing, police shootings and hiding in the boot of a car, burnt buildings and guns held at his head, police raids and the bombing of Khotso House, and the closing and re-opening of Tiger Kloof. With humour and insight, Bernard takes us behind the scenes at church meetings, Sunday services, and Soweto youth clubs. Together, author and readers follow public battles at national assemblies, as well as sitting and listening in to private conversations in South African homes.
‘Sticking Around’ is a book of thrills to be moved by and to laugh and cry with. It reflects a time in the world’s history, which we have all passed through, most of us as passive onlookers. But it was a time in which Bernard Spong participated. This book makes me proud to remember those days when Bernard was my minister, and to rejoice that fifty years later, he is still my friend.
David Wiseman |
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