Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the Aberfan disaster which killed 116 children and 28 adults. I remember, as a teenager, watching the TV pictures of emergency services, miners and local people digging out those trapped…
Yesterday the King was there, describing the ‘most tragic of days imaginable…’, 21st October 1966, when mining debris from the colliery spoil tip collapsed and engulfed the village of Aberfan.
I reflected on Pantglas Junior School… the building was engulfed; about half of the children died… They lost the building; they lost the children…
When I was a school leader I believed that the school was the people, not the building. If I was alone in the empty building it wasn’t ‘school’; it only became school as children and staff lived together and worked together in community.
Last weekend was the tenth anniversary of our Men’s Shed. The shed building is an old net drying shed, owned by local fishermen. It becomes Men’s Shed when men meet together, do stuff together, talk together, share together…
From an early age I was taught ‘the church isn’t a building – it’s the people’… I’ve known church communities that meet in grand medieval buildings… new, purpose-built facilities… school halls… community centres… Our church family owns a wonderful building where a lot of activities happen… but in recent months our church family has met on the beach, in our community café, at the ‘Lowestoft Pavillion’, in our homes…
On a smaller scale… A house involves rooms, plumbing and furniture; a home focuses on people. A beautiful expensive house may not be a home; a small, cold house can be a loved family home.
Returning to Pentglas Junior School, Aberfan… Losing the building was a tragedy; losing 116 children and 5 teachers they lost the school.
This morning I’m… recalling with gratitude many happy personal memories of life in a school community… pausing to remember the tragic loss of another school community…
the King paying tribute to the Aberfan community’s strength, resilience and ‘unconquerable spirit.’
