LONDON, UK (ANS) -- It started out as a bit of innocent fun for my wife Pauline, but it ended up in a reprimand for me from my boss at the headquarters of my then denomination.

Pauline and Adrian Hawkes today

It was in the early 1970’s when my family moved from Birmingham, in the English Midlands, to North London in the British capital, to lead two congregations for this particular denomination.

Samantha, one of the young ladies at one of the churches, told my wife one day, “I’ve got two tickets for ‘Godspell.’ Would you like to come with me to see it?”

For your interest, Godspell is an archaic spelling of the word gospel, and was a hit 1970 musical by Stephen Schwartz and John-Michael Tebelak and was playing at that time in a well-known London theatre.

Pauline is never one to say no to a freebie so, while I stayed at home to babysit, they headed off to the bright lights of the West End for an enjoyable evening.
 

Part of the cast of 'Godspell'

Just before the interval, the audience was invited to join the cast on stage for a communion service. Pauline and Samantha were sitting in seats far away from the stage -- up in the balcony in fact -- and so they asked a steward how they could get to the stage and he told them that they would have to “leave the theatre and re-enter by the stage door.”

So, both of them, keen to join in the on stage celebrations, left the theatre in search of the stage door. I need to explain here that, in the West End, the theatres huddle together, cheek by jowl, and so as they tried to enter the stage door they found themselves confronted by two burly bouncers who would not let them in.

Pauline is not a person who gives in easily and she got into a heated and noisy debate with the men, but to no avail. It was only then that the ladies discovered they were trying to enter the wrong theatre; they had been attempting to join Diana Rigg on stage in “Pygmalion.”

The following evening, we went out for dinner with our old friends Dan and Norma Wooding. (Dan had been the best-man at our wedding.) During the evening, Pauline told Dan what had happened to her and Samantha at the theatre, and Dan, being the eternal journalist, asked permission to create some copy about their escapade.

Pauline shrugged and said, “Why not; go for it!” Neither of us thought anymore about it, but soon afterwards problems began to arise.

The following week, the British daily papers began carrying Dan’s story and many of our friends called us when they saw it in the paper of their choice. The largest spread was in the Daily Express and it even appeared in the notorious Private Eye magazine, the country’s top satirical publication.

What made things worse that the opinion of the denomination for which I was working for at that time, viewed going to the theatre as something to be frowned upon as a “worldly experience” and they believed that it should be “avoided at all cost,” especially by the wives of their ministers.

I should add here that this was not a view that I personally subscribed to.

Two weeks later, I received a phone call from the denomination’s headquarters and was told that the big boss wanted to meet with me. I was given no explanation as to why, only the summons. So, in some trepidation, I headed off to the HQ and there received a dressing down for not keeping my wife under control, and was informed that my potential as a future “world leader” was being jeopardized by such “lax behavior.”

However, to reduce the impact of telling off, I was given a generous payment to cover my expenses and I headed home.

At that time, women’s roles were blurred and unformed, but one thing was clear, and that was their place was meant to be at home, and my job, as a minister, was certainly not to be doing the baby sitting. Unfortunately, the attitude still lingers in some areas even today.

Pauline was exceedingly miffed at not being able to put her side of the story. To soften the situation, I took the family out for dinner with the expenses.
 

Cover of Stephen Pile's book

It seemed that things had died down -- until six months later -- when I received a call from my good friend, Dr. Phil Moor, who told me that, prior to a recent train journey, he had purchased “The Book of Heroic Failures” by Stephen Pile, who founded the short-lived “Not Terribly Good Club of Great Britain.” (To join Pile’s club, you had to be “Not Terribly Good” at something, and preferably awful.)

The author, who classed himself as a failed writer, had decided to compile a list of failures and turn it into a book, which went on to become a best seller, and made him a lot of money, but because he was now a success, had was forced to disband his club.

Phil told me that Pauline’s failed attempt to get onto the stage of “Godspell” was one of the stories that was featured in the book, which became an overnight sensation – we Brits love failures -- and led to a sequel, “The Return of Heroic Failures.”

Pauline said at the time, “The only blessing was that the book missed out my name, not that it made much difference as all these people already knew the story from the press reports. They had great fun with me about it.

“And to add salt to the wound -- I never got a penny for the story. I realized that I had well and truly become an ‘heroic failure.’”

Thanks Dan, someone made some money from Pauline’s story. All I got was a reprimand!

Note: This story was edited by A. Brookes.

Adrian Hawkes is no longer with this denomination and still lives in North London, England, and was once the leader of the Rainbow churches, and is still very involved internationally with them in Kenya, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, France, Norway, the USA and Canada, usually with church leadership teams overseas and also in the UK. He has been married for 40 years to Pauline, and they have three children and ten grandchildren. Adrian is the author of five published books, and he spends much of his time now lecturing to students at various UK colleges and venues on “Culture,” which is a 30-hour course. He can be contacted by e-mail at: adrianhawkes@phoenixcommunity.co.uk You can read more of Adrian’s material at: http://www.adrianhawkes.blogspot.com