Tending to his flock

The Rev Neil Chappell

Martin meets... resilient, cheerful Neil Chappell - born to be a minister.

THEOLOGY has mostly passed me by — despite two years as a cute choirboy - well, a choirboy anyway - in Southport. So I decided to spend some time with Neil Chappell, minister at Greenacres Congregational Church. In the weeks before Christmas, what better time to get all churchy?

And my eyes were opened, not by a trendy minister who has introduced multimedia presentations into his sermons or a man who inhabits the blogosphere, but by Oldham’s never-ending ability to surprise.

Did you know that our little town, nestling in the Pennine foothills, is a veritable hotbed of Congregationalism?

There are only 300 Congregational congregations across the whole of the UK — and eight of these are right here.

This is a good thing, especially if you are a Congregationalist and, it appears, many of you most certainly are.

But let’s not go overboard: like all church congregations you are a dwindling band, but 60 people at a regular service is pretty good in these not-so-God-fearing times.

That’s what Neil (47), who hails from Leicester, attracts to his Galland Street church most Sundays although sometimes, he admits, the figures do fall to around 40.

Still pretty good, I mused as I watched Neil sip his salted caramel latte, a strange brew indeed but this is not an ordinary man of the cloth.

He doesn’t wear a dog collar and threatened to wear his replica Leicester City shirt for our chat. He was probably only put off by my threatening to trump this move by wearing my Stalybridge Celtic top.

For a Leicester City fan, and probably an aficionado of Walkers crisps, I have to say Neil was fascinating company. Our time together sped by and we hardly touched on the subject of Christmas.

Given that this is the last column of this calendar year, the last one before we all spend far too much money and drink and eat to excess during the festive break, and why we were chatting in the first place, that was irritating.

We did touch on the subject of his Christingle family services when church members are encouraged to bring along friends who may have slipped from under the gaze of the all-seeing church.

“We try to encourage people back into the church, but it’s not a hard sell,” he told me in that gentle manner which, I assume, is a pre-requirement of all men of the ministry, be they priests or vicars or pastors or preachers.

For he is a gentle man and I can see why, after even only a short time in his company, he is good at what he does.

And good he clearly is for he has been in post for 19 years since coming north, initially to Manchester to study, eventually settling in Oldham where he met his future wife Debbie, a member of the Greenacres congregation, and mother of their three children, Charlotte, a teacher, Kristian, who works in the hospitality industry, and 16-year-old Jacob who accompanies his dad to Leicester City games — “Though mostly it’s away fixtures these days,” sighs Neil.

Here is a man very much at home in his Oldham surroundings, far from the madding Leicester crowds of his youth and likely to be here for a few more years yet. For, unlike the Church of England, ministers in the Congregational faith tend to stick around for, well, forever.

One of Neil’s predecessors, Joseph Galland, after whom the street on which the church stands was named, was in post for 43 years and Gordon Taylor, whom Neil succeeded, was around for 14.

If the truth be told, Neil was born to be a minister. His parents were devout members of Clarendon Park Congregational in Leicester and Neil found himself drawn into the youth work of the church, which he really enjoyed.

At this point he was working in a proper job (my description, not his) as a post office engineer in the early exciting days of fibre optics. But cabling wasn’t his calling and after a chat with his minister at Clarendon Park Neil was persuaded to follow his instincts.

Three years at the Martin Luther College in Manchester, paid for by the Congregational Federation, saw Neil follow the classic four Cs — church, college, community and course.

He would spend two days in the lecture rooms and two days on placement at churches around Manchester. It was at the Church of the Ascension, in Hulme, and the United People’s Baptist Church, Moss Side, that he first came into contact with Father Phil Sumner, a Catholic priest now based at St Patrick’s in Oldham, and with whom he has an excellent relationship, as he does with all the faiths in Oldham.

On completing his studies he began to look around for a ministry and the choices were aplenty. Even with only 300 churches there are more congregations than ministers so Neil’s choices were, to say the least, extensive.

And so it came to pass that he landed in Oldham, at Greenacres. He officially took up his office on August 1 and four days later took a funeral service — “I had never done one before!” he stated with a chuckle that spoke volumes for his innocence.

Not long into his posting the church discovered that work costing £500,000 was required to fix the rot-infested floor — and so began the work of a local minister.

He remains a redoubtable, resilient, cheerful and optimistic fellow, cheered by challenges and by the support of the congregation.

He spoke with genuine enthusiasm and passion when I question the basis of Congregationalism and — as one who has serious doubts about the divisions caused by religion — I was captivated by his conscientious explanation of his faith.

Here beginneth the lesson...

Oldham, as I mentioned earlier, is a hotbed of Congregationalism, with its roots in 1662 and the Act of Union. Church of England ministers were instructed to preach only from the Common Book of Prayer, and not the Bible, and Robert Constantine, the then vicar of Oldham Parish Church, was one of hundreds who refused to take the oath and so the Congregational Church was formed.

Constantine was among 1,000 clergy thrown out of the Church of England and he started preaching at a barn in Greenacres. The irony is, and this is typical in my experience of religion, Mr Constantine was later buried at Oldham Parish Church.

In 1725 a church was built, replaced in 1789 and in 1854 the current edifice was erected, along with a Sunday School.

The Congregational Union was established in 1806 and today the eight local churches can be found in Ashton Road, Springhead, Chadderton, Uppermill, Dobcross, Delph, Hope in Abbeyhills and Greenacres.

And so, as we approach Christmas, Neil is busy with is flock, and helping out at the other congregational gatherings across the borough, for there are only two full-time ministers for the eight churches.

He remains relentlessly optimistic that the church — and I use that term in all its forms, in its broadest brush — has a future.

He has introduced new ways of connecting with his fellow Congregationalists, including his multimedia PowerPoint shows capturing Greenacres’ members on Remembrance Sundays — 21 churchgoers died in the two world wars — and, ah yes, the festival that is Christmas.

And then there’s his blog — A Weird Thing — which is well worth a visit and definitely isn’t, weird that is. I discovered that October was Pastor Appreciation Month, how about that? So I already feel educated.

I also feel better for having met Neil, whom I was told was a genuinely good bloke and, I suspect he is an even better minister.

Greenacres — and Oldham — should be grateful to have him.



This is the final Martyn Meets of 2012 — the series will return in January. Have a good festive break and a wonderful New Year.