*** DEBUG START ***
*** DEBUG END ***

The Victoria Wood way: a trail for others, too

29 April 2016

I WAS getting ready for morning prayer on Thursday of last week, when I heard that Victoria Wood had died. Instinctively, I lit a candle for her at the shrine of St Frideswide in Christ Church Cathedral. It was a simple act of gratitude for one whose comic writing and performing had brought, to me at least, light as well as levity.

I went home for breakfast and watched on YouTube her hilarious “Ballad of Freda and Barry” — the song of the randy wife urging on her increasingly reluctant husband (“Bend me over backwards on me hostess trolley . . .”). Wood was a great pioneer of female comics, and multi-talented in an age when so many performers have only one endlessly hyped and repeated act.

Bizarrely, perhaps, she made me think of women pioneers in the Church. Twenty-two years after the first ordinations to the priesthood, I see a parallel with the way those first women priests had so often, like her, to blend exquisite subtlety with a robust sense of the ridiculous, if only to survive in a Church that alternately ignored and patronised them.

They also had to perfect the art of being non-threatening. Wood was brilliant at this. When she was in her early days as a television performer, she cultivated a pudding-basin haircut, knits, unflattering trousers, and trainers, projecting herself more as a big cousin from the north than as the star that she actually was.

She had a highly sensitive ear for language, nuance, and rhythm — all gifts that priests need if they are “to hear as those who are taught”. She was sharp, but not cruel; she made ordinary stuff poetic, especially ordinary female stuff; and it all seemed easy.

Even in the spotlight, she managed to give the impression that she had just turned up for a chat. The women who have advanced in the Church have not looked for stardom, but have often been superlative and creative listeners, using the soft skills of observation and dry humour gently to subvert the way the Church works. Modesty has proved a virtue for them, as it did for her.

There was a sad side to Wood. She had therapy for long-term eating problems, being always convinced that she was too fat. I have met similar problems with women clergy, where the conundrum of the role meets an inner insecurity, and is expressed through fears about the body.

Wood found some spiritual succour by attending Quaker meetings. I would suggest that we are all doomed, unless we find time and space to listen for the healing silence of God. Meanwhile, Victoria, rest in peace. And thank you for paving the way for others.

 

The Revd Angela Tilby is Diocesan Canon of Christ Church, Oxford, and Continuing Ministerial Development Adviser for the diocese of Oxford.

Browse Church and Charity jobs on the Church Times jobsite

Letters to the editor

Letters for publication should be sent to letters@churchtimes.co.uk.

Letters should be exclusive to the Church Times, and include a full postal address. Your name and address will appear below your letter unless requested otherwise.

Forthcoming Events

Inspiration: The Influences That Have Shaped My Life

September - November 2024

St Martin in the Fields Autumn Lecture Series 2024

tickets available

 

Can a ‘Good Death‘ be Assisted?

28 November 2024

A webinar in collaboration with Modern Church

tickets available

 

Through Darkness To Light: Advent Journeys

30 November 2024

tickets available

 

Festival of Faith and Literature

28 February - 2 March 2025

tickets available

 

Visit our Events page for upcoming and past events 

The Church Times Archive

Read reports from issues stretching back to 1863, search for your parish or see if any of the clergy you know get a mention.

FREE for Church Times subscribers.

Explore the archive

Welcome to the Church Times

 

To explore the Church Times website fully, please sign in or subscribe.

Non-subscribers can read four articles for free each month. (You will need to register.)