For the uninitiated, Methsoc is the usual abbreviation for student Methodist Societies attached to universities. On Sunday 27th October 2002, the current students invited back many past members of the Durham Methsoc.
This page records just a few photos and a few memories regarding the people who hail from the mid to late 1970s.
Ralph & Carol Waller; Ellie Smith (nee Bell); Martin & Judith Smithson (nee Bowker); Paul & Sue Cockburn (nee Caffyn); Mark & Jenny Godfrey (nee Cockerill); Colin & Caroline Stead (nee Howells); John Robinson; David Vonberg
First of all there was the morning service at Elvet Methodist Church. This included several photographs of past Methsoc members projected on the wall. At one point our two pews suddenly grew very animated and said things like "Oo, oo, look, it's Martin Gunton, oo, and there's Jane - oo, oo, oo, that's me in the hat!"
After the service we went into the back room ("the stage has gone!") for a nice hot lunch cooked by the present students.
In the afternoon a group of us wandered the old haunts, trying to identify which windows we used to reside behind in Grey and St Mary's, jogging up the steps to St Aidan's and boldly going through the hallowed portals of St Chad's to admire the dining room.
Some of us gathered at 9 The Peth for Manse Tea, at which the food was bountiful and appetising, and the surroundings seemingly unchanged from the 1970s. Then back to Elvet for the evening service on the theme of One World Week.
After the service we packed into the upstairs room to hear Prof. Jimmy Dunn talk about oral tradition and the way the gospels must first have come into being.
An excellent day in good company and our thanks to Emma and Hilary for masterminding the occasion. We can't wait for the 66th anniversary reunion!
When Paul got home, he compiled little snapshots of some of the people in order to put on this web page and make them cringe with embarrassment. Sadly, Paul was at the wrong end of the camera and has no pictoral record of his own presence at the event.
And finally, those immortal words of Sir Walter Scott...
