A life in letters: Scripture Union - school group

In my early years as a pupil at Wishaw High School I occasionally attended the boys’ Scripture Union group. There were groups affiliated to Scripture Union in many secondary schools. Led by teachers or senior pupils with support from S.U. area workers, these groups aimed to provide support and fellowship for pupils who were Christian believers, encouraging them to develop their faith through prayer and Bible reading, to allow it to shape all aspects of their school life, and to articulate their beliefs convincingly to their friends. Later, when I was school librarian at Airdrie Academy in the early 1980s, I found there a very active Christian Union which was an S.U. Group in all but name.

Back in the 1960s, certainly at Wishaw High, there were separate groups for girls and boys. I got the impression that the girls’ group, led by Miss Hogg from the biology department was much livelier and better-attended than its male counterpart, though whether the liveliness was a consequence of the greater numbers or vice versa, I couldn’t say.  I guess there were about six or ten of us, and my recollection is of meeting in big, shivery classrooms after the end of the school day, with the sky darkening outside. I think the only reason I attended was that it was expected of me. I have little recollection of the content of the meetings, except for the day when the leaflets with the S.U. Camp programme for 1965 were discussed and distributed – some of us signed up to attend an indoor camp at Meigle in Perthshire that Easter.

The group was led by a maths teacher, and in session 1964/65 by Donald Black, of whose 1st year geography class I was part. I remember him setting on the long science bench at the front of the classroom, swinging his legs as he spoke.

Forty years later, my wife and I were sharing a meal with a couple in our church. The husband – whose theological openness and thoughtfulness I much admired – had until his recent retirement been an Assistant Head Teacher at Millburn Academy in Inverness. We got talking about our Lanarkshire roots, and he mentioned that he had taught geography at Wishaw High during the early 1960s.  ‘I remember a geography teacher who was involved with the S.U. in my first year,’ I began. ‘His name was…..Donald Black!’  As I uttered the words I realised that this Donald Black who, in his early 60s, sat opposite me that day was the very same Donald Black whom I had known all those years before. For some reason, I experienced this realisation as one of the biggest surprises of my life, and my expression showed it!