Surrenden
- Details
- Written March 2021
Those days were virtually over by the time I arrived at Surrenden for the first time in the mid-80s. The occasion was the inaugural meeting of SAHSAC, the Salvation Army Health Services Advisory Council. This was set up following visits to a few Indian hospitals by Canadian hospital administrator, Major Harold Thornhill, followed by a Hospital Administration Conference in Delhi. Sharing ideas together, supporting each other, offering suggestions or formal recommendations to leaders all blended in a few days in a relaxed setting, once a year away from the demands of the everyday. Pivotal to the success of the venture was the vision and commitment of long-serving missionary, Dr Hazel Scott, appointed executive secretary to SAHSAC. Surrenden was fulfilling a wider purpose of renewal and fresh directions.
The relative success of this pattern of health service support appealed to international leader, Eva Burrows. From that came the India Strategy Commission a few years later. I thought my task as leader of that commission and involvement in India would end with the presentation of the commission's key recommendations to a conference of Indian leaders. No surprise where that meeting took place - Surrenden! But just before the meeting we'd been asked to consider taking up leadership of The Salvation Army in central India. ‘What about the children?’ had been our principle concern. After the meeting I, together with other leaders, visited the village of the Toda tribal people in nearby Ooty. I was able to sneak a quick look at Hebron, the international school where André went to school a month after we took up appointment. The decision was taken with difficulty but what we felt was the best, and at the time had the support (though given and received with aching hearts) of our ageing mothers and both children.
We would return to Surrenden many times in the years ahead, sometimes for conferences, sometimes for holidays, sometimes just to take time to be still. It was there Catherine joined us from the University of Southampton for a few days together towards the end of our first year in India, complete with a huge bandage on her thumb, injured while closing the metal gate of our Madras home during the monsoon. Inevitably Margaret would be busy with a tapestry. My magnifying glass and stamp collection, binoculars and book of Indian birds would come out during holidays; there would be visits to the market or the gymkhana, I'd have deep theological conversations with Ajit, director of the India Sunday School Union across the road, or discussion on military strategy with officers from around the world attending the Defence Services Staff College in nearby Wellington. It became for Margaret especially, somewhere to stay when visiting André or teaching music at his school. On one weekend I travelled by overnight bus to join André for a weekend. We walked round the tea plantations together as he grappled with choices about his future career. Margaret had her own store of legendary journeys there, with delayed or cancelled trains, overnight sleeping on the floor of an overcrowded second class carriage, wrapped in a sari, her handbag as a pillow. Fortunately she had the gift of being able to sleep just about anywhere.
And when, after completing four and a half years in India, we received word of a transfer to South Africa mid-1994 it was to Surrenden we turned. Once again I needed time to ponder how to face the challenges before us. I recall a moment of dawning, sitting in the galvanised zinc bath tub, filled with the smoky hot water delivered to the door of our room. That was hardly equivalent to 40 days in the wilderness pondering issues of power, dramatic achievements or allegiance. This was not Archimedes in his bath; it was me in mine with sudden clarification of a way forward. I would carry those thoughts with me in the years immediately ahead.
We were back in the subcontinent five years later, to some extent continuing the task of following up on those key Strategy Commission recommendations, but now as secretary for South Asia. It was gratifying to see how Surrenden had become the centre for human resource development, supporting basic training of Salvation Army officers and encouraging and supporting personal development. We made many visits back to Surrenden, mainly to preside at conferences, usually together. There were some significant moments as leaders of the six Indian territories met with the national secretariat. I recall a teatime conversation with Joseph Vijay, executive secretary for Social Services urging me to consider ways in which The Salvation Army might celebrate the new millennium. 'Something that helps us refocus on our commitment to poverty eradication,' was his suggestion. The concept of an international conference on that very theme was born there.
If my first visits to Surrenden had been alone, it was Margaret's turn in later years. I was not there with her when she supported her sister, Myra, in leading one of the music seminars which many regarded as highly significant in helping develop music ministries in India. Nor was I there when she facilitated a workshop for emerging women leaders in India together with Women's Ministries World President, Freda Larsson.
We were seldom involved in other events taking place there. We didn't need to be there so we weren't. One of the key recommendations of the commission was being achieved - plan for the phased withdrawal of international staff in India. Besides, problems over visas were increasing and we could never be sure whether we would be able to visit or not. No wonder we arrived at Surrenden days late for our final conference there in 2003. It seemed like the end of an era for us. It was.
March 2021