Stories Revisited, by The Reverend David Moore
A chance conversation with an MK Dons supporter re the ‘religious’ parallels in football and the onset of the European Championships quickened me to recall the occasion when I was interviewed on the (then) Radio 4 Friday PM programme on the eve of the Cup Final. The trouble is that I cannot be sure, 32 years later, what is fact and what is creative memory.
Fact or fiction here it is.
In 1980 West Ham won the FA Cup for the second time in six years, (some facts are easy to remember) beating Arsenal. At the time I was minister at Bow Road Methodist Church which is situated on the main road into the City from East London.
At the time my son Tim was 15 and hoping to study graphic art. We went to the Semi-Final, which was played at Aston Villa, and on the way home made plans to use the large church notice board at Bow to celebrate this success. Within two days this very large notice board was painted in claret and blue quarters and carried the words:
O HAPPY DAY WHEN WEST HAM BRING THE CUP THIS WAY AGAIN
and the artwork included the FA Cup and crossed hammers of West Ham.
We only managed one ticket which my Tim used. The eve of the final arrived and the excitement was increasing in the Moore household. On that Friday morning a phone call came from the BBC with a request for an interview saying they wanted a light-hearted but sharp comment for the PM programme that afternoon. The reporter knew nothing at all about sport, his area of expertise being European economic issues.
He described the location of the interview and described the Church notice board. Then turning to me he asked how the Arsenal supporters in the congregation felt about the notice board. Without any serious thought I replied “there are no Arsenal supporters as we have already excommunicated them”. I recall the look of complete surprise on his face! He then asked if we prayed for West Ham and my reply was that I had no need to do so as they were already in the Final! He followed that with “you give me the impression that West Ham is your religion.” “Oh it is”, I said, “West Ham is my local religion and Christianity is my life style”. At this his jaw dropped and his eyes opened wide!
It seemed to me that any activity provoking such loyalty is dipping into the hidden reaches of human emotion, loyalty, identity, significance and hope - the very stuff of religion.
The conversation concluded with a request that I send a message to a loyal West Ham supporter - a Vicar, who not only lived in Highbury (home of Arsenal) but whose wife and daughters supported the Gunners. My reply was for him to remember the story of Daniel in the lions’ den and to keep his chin up!
Post Script
The following week the Chairman of the NE London Methodist District (the person to whom I was accountable) was inundated with letters of complaint, demanding I be sacked! Clearly I had hit a nerve, further confirmation that in the sentiments of Bill Shankly, the legendary manager of Liverpool, soccer is far more important than life or death.
It may also be noted that football (as with most sports) springs out of a complex set of factors - ability of raw intelligence, spatial awareness, creativity, imagination, intelligence and a willingness to put oneself ‘on the line’. There is a lot of stuff you may associate with Jesus!
The day after the match (Sunday) the West Ham Team passed the Church in an open-topped bus. We had ended the service early and the congregation gathered on the roof balcony applauding the Team and Bubbles music came from the bell tower!
On the back of all this I was invited to the Victory Banquet - but the less said about that the better!
To my mind the many of the superficial and hidden elements of our public and private passions are part and parcel of the stuff we offer up in worship week by week - but the preachers never seem to pick I’m For Ever Blowing Bubbles!
