A FAINT STREAK OF HUMILITY:
An autobiography
By Michael Saward
Paternoster Press. 468 pages. £9.99
ISBN 0 85364 965 0
Reading Michael Saward's autobiography was an enjoyable, if not a comfortable, experience.
It was enjoyable because Michael is a friend, and writes extremely well. He tells the story of his early childhood in London, in the Blitz in the Second World War. He writes of his schooldays and his conversion to Christ as a teenager. He tells vividly of his experience in National Service, and his work in an office in London. Then he writes of his call to ordained ministry, his training at Tyndale Hall, Bristol, and his subsequent marriage to Jackie, followed by ordination and ministry as an evangelical in the Church of England, leading to his present position as a canon at St. Paul's Cathedral.
One important aspect of his story is that he has lived through a period when the influence of evangelicals in the Church of England has increased significantly. Michael has been at the heart of a number of evangelical initiatives, notably as Chairman of the Words Committee of 'Hymns for Today's Church', and as a key member of Keele Committees which set a new direction for evangelicals in the Anglican church. In time, he also became a member of the General Synod, a Church Commissioner, an author, broadcaster and hymnwriter.
Michael held two other significant posts outside his parochial ministry before he became a canon at St. Paul's Cathedral. He had an ecumenical post in Liverpool, and then became Radio and Television Officer at Church House, London, working closely with Archbishop Ramsay. His views on the media and on some of the leading churchmen he met in that capacity are sometimes sharp and trenchant. But he also writes movingly of some deeply personal experiences including the traumatic effects of the terrible attack on himself, his daughter and her friend at their vicarage in Ealing.
This then is the story of a man, who, with his wife Jackie, has sought, and continues to seek, to be used by God as fully as possible. He has not been afraid to take risks. He has often been controversial. Even his evangelical friends have often disagreed with him. But he has continued to speak out against 'sacred cows' whether he finds them in the evangelical world, in the wider church or in the media. He is willing to be 'a fool for Christ's sake'.
Perhaps this is where this book becomes uncomfortable. Michael is a larger than life character who is prepared to speak his mind whatever people might think. When he does that in areas of evangelical life and practice which he regards as hypocritical, he has a right to do that. He is prepared to be self-critical and honest about his own failings and limitations. Where he points out some of the failings of the church or the media as institutions, he writes from inside experience and may well speak truly. I felt more uncomfortable, however, and uneasy, when occasionally he allowed strong and critical feelings about individuals to be set down in print. I also found myself agreeing at times with the comment of the author Susan Howatch, quoted on the outside cover of this book, who wrote: 'I've always appreciated Michael's sincere desire to do what he thinks is right, even when what he writes is perhaps too personal, too intimate and too revealing for his own good.'
Maybe it is difficult for any autobiography to reveal more than 'a faint streak of humility'. Michael is well aware of that, and quotes with approval the words of Bishop Leslie Newbiggin when he said: 'Humility is strictly underwear.' Michael typically comments: 'You certainly won't find me wearing my pants on top of my trousers (or even my cassock). Whether they are on underneath, I leave you to decide!' Whatever conclusion the reader draws about that, I would be surprised if the reading of this book did not give you an interesting, moving, amusing, uncomfortable and, at times, infuriating experience.
Gordon Bridger
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