Journey Back In Time

Journey back in time

In this busy time, not many (even among family and friends) are interested in another’s a life story, let alone read an autobiography or memoir. However, I love to globe-trot the world because I find tremendous joy when people I meet are willing to share their life experiences with me. They have different perspectives on the joy and pain of living, coming from different cultures, social standings, stations in life, and faith backgrounds. For some reason (perhaps for a purpose), they come and cross paths with me and this lifelong journey. My opening line to them: “Where is home?” The ice is broken… We would be engaged for some time after that opener…

Most I met, who are elderly with global exposure and experience, have lived interesting lives. Still, many have told me that they had wished they could go back to the good old days. I confess that I, too, have a similar wish. Perhaps we are those who have chosen to remember only happy events within our lifetime. But there are others whose lives have been completely marred by abuse, hardship, betrayal, tragedy, and pain, and even by events beyond their lifetime: the time of slavery, civil wars, and genocide. As a descendant of the Fungs (Hongs), I realize that the Qing Empire had probably committed what some would call “cultural genocide” on China’s Christian Hakkas! I have not forgotten but have forgiven the Qing forces for the massacre and persecution of the Fung Clan (which also created a diaspora of the Hakkas) by the end of the Taiping Civil War (ref: Journey to Siberia and Beyond). Regrettably, within our popular culture, some historical incidents are being used to cause divisions, hatred, unrest, and violence. Historical events should be judged in the context of their time. In the present, we are all personally responsible for our own lives. This summary probably oversimplifies. Thomas Merton puts it succinctly: “The person is responsible for living his own life and for ‘finding himself.’ If he persists in shifting his responsibility to somebody else, he fails to find out the meaning of his own existence.”

Like many, I also wish to revisit the past, but we are constrained by the practical difficulties of journeying back in time! Perhaps I can, in spirit. That was exactly what happened to me in September 2017 when I took a trip back to my Alma Mater, The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple in London, England. It is often said that a picture speaks a thousand words, but if one ever goes down to my Alma Mater, one will quickly notice that it is even more magnificent seen in real life– and indeed even haunting – than a picture could ever present it.

The Temple Church under renovation in 2007

For me, this trip also turned out to be a pilgrimage to the awe-inspiring Temple Church. My last visit to this Temple site was more than 10 years ago. During that visit, with our son Nigel in 2007, the Temple Church was going under maintenance and closed. I was unable to show him its evocative interior.

I first set foot on the Temple ground in the Autumn of 1963, traveling as a law student from Shepherd’s Bush where I had my lodging, to Chancery Lane Station (the nearest station to the Temple) on the Central Line. On this visit, I decided to retrace my steps down memory lane. From the Chancery Lane Station, I walked along Chancery Lane, passing the same shop from where I got my Barrister wig and gown more than 50 years ago. Then I crossed over Fleet St and entered the North Gate into the Temple ground.

Chancery Lane Station on the Central Line is the closest tube station to the Temple traveling from the north. From the South, it is the Temple station on the District and Circle line.

Ede & Ravenscroft on Chancery Lane est. in 1689 (from where I got my Barrister wig and gown) has over 300 years’ experience of specialist legal wear tailoring and wig making.

The Temple-North Gate by Fleet street (the street once frequented by journalists) remains popular and a metonym for the British national press.)

The Temple Church

The Temple Church sits in between the Middle and Inner Temple, two of the four Inns of Courts in an area that evokes for me an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia. It is set against the backdrop of the Temple Garden. The Knights Templar constructed it, an Order (of crusading monks) founded in the 12th century to protect pilgrims on their way to and from Jerusalem. After abolishing the Order in 1312, lawyers at the Temple site eventually formed themselves into two societies, the Inner Temple and Middle Temple, which were first mentioned by name in a manuscript yearbook of 1388. The historical record shows that since 1608 The Temple has been the collegiate Church of the legal colleges of Inner and Middle Temple. It stands at the heart of this unforgettably beautiful and historic part of London.

The Church is in two parts: The Round and the Chancel. It was designed (during the Crusades) to recall the circular Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The Round Church was consecrated in 1185 by the patriarch of Jerusalem.

View of the Round Church as we approached from the North Gate

The Round and the Chancel of the Church.

The evocative interior of the Church as viewed from the chancel

The Chancel, as viewed from the Round.

For many centuries, it has been the custom for Members of the Inner Temple to sit on the south side of the Church. For me, the Temple Church still exudes the strange energy of a place left encompassed by tales surrounding the awe-inspiring institution (now perhaps struggling to stand the test of time).

Here I am, a member of the Inner Temple, sitting on the Southside of the Church where I first sat more than 50 years ago.

The Temple Church came to the public’s attention several years ago, where a scene was filmed inside the Temple Church based on Dan Brown’s novel The Da Vinci Code. It is here that the main characters Langston and Sophie, along with Leah Teabing, tried to solve the riddle: “In London lies a knight a Pope interred. His labour’s fruit a Holy wrath incurred. You seek the orb that out be on his tomb. It speaks of Rosy flesh and seeded womb.”

The hero of the Magna Carta was William Marshal, 1st Earl of Pembroke. Self-restraint and compromise was the keynote of his policy. He was a signatory as one of the witnessing barons to the Great Charter and was invested into the Knight Templar order on his deathbed. He died on 14th May 1219 and was interred in The Temple Church, where his tomb can still be seen today. 

The Honourable Society of The Inner Temple

The Inner Temple was a distinct society from at least 1388, although as with all the Inns of Court, its founding’s precise date is not known. The Temple has been closely linked to Magna Carta and its legacy ever since 1214. “The Temple was King John’s London headquarters (1214-15). From here, he issued two vital preliminary charters, and here in January 1215, the barons confronted him for the first time with the demand that he subject himself to the rule of a charter.”- Robin Griffith-Jones, D’Litt, The Reverend and Valiant Master of the Temple.

The Temple has also been linked with the United States of America ever since. The lawyers from The Temple drew up the constitutions for the early American colonies. Five members of The Temple signed the Declaration of Independence, seven the American Constitution. The Magna Carta (or Great Charter) informs Canada’s legal system and the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedom. The agreement between King John of England and his barons provided the English common law’s foundation, which spread throughout the English-speaking world. I was delighted during our visit to witness the Magna Carta’s celebration and its legacy here at the Temple. During our visit, we saw a special Magna Carta Exhibition in the Round Church. A few days after that, I also saw an original copy of the Magna Carta at Salisbury Cathedral.

The Inner Temple and Magna Carta

The Temple and the Declaration of Independence 1776 and the American Bill of Rights

The Temple and the Temple Garden as viewed from the Victoria Embankment in 1964

In the essay “The Old Benchers of The Inner Temple” (published as Essay of Elia in 1823), Charles Lamb eloquently put it: “Those bricky towers, The which on Themme’s brode aged back do ride. Where now the studious lawyers have their bowers; There whilom wont the Templer Knights to bide, Till they decayed thro’ pride.” …

Reading for the Bar at The Temple Garden in 1964

Different times, different perspectives

The Temple Garden

The entrance to the Temple Garden in 2017

Shakespeare used the Temple Garden as a setting for the meeting between Richard Plantagenet and John Beaufort, which sparked the Wars of the Roses, a series of civil wars for control of the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (whose symbol was a white rose). Some of these events of the wars were dramatized by Shakespeare.

Fountain and part of the Temple Garden in 2017

The garden’s present-day layout has evolved over the last fifty years since I was there as a law student, but over the centuries as the water in the Thames was controlled and the land claimed for building construction. Under Joseph Bazalgette, the construction of the Victoria Embankment started in 1865 and was completed in 1870.  After the construction, direct access from the Temple Garden to the river was lost. The Garden was completely re-shaped into a three-acre garden (that remains the skeleton design of today) populated with a rare and unusual collection of plants, flowers, shrubs, and trees.

Connection with The Temple.

After completing Senior Cambridge GCE with Grade A (Division 1), I taught for two years as a temporary teacher in Lok Yuk School (a Basel Mission school) in British North Borneo. While I was teaching in this school, my priest at the Mission tried to persuade me to enter the seminary. But each of us is called for His purpose. By that time, I had already enrolled myself in the University of London External Program for Law. I simultaneously had also applied for admission to read law at one of the world’s prestigious law institutions -The Inns of Court in London, England. The news finally came that I had been accepted for admission by The Honourable Society of the Inner Temple. I immediately prepared to begin reading law in Michaelmas Term 1963. I remember vividly going into The Temple Church for the first time. My priest (about going to seminary) still lingered in my mind as I found myself sitting on a pew in this unfamiliar place that seemed yet so familiar to me. This eventually was where I (as a young stranger in a foreign country) would find solace, peace, confidence, and strength to carry on the monumental task of becoming a Barrister-at-law. The Temple Church was my refuge throughout the years of my education in England: -“Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted” Psalm 25:16 (KJV).

Dating back to 1506, The Inner Temple Library is a legal reference library. It supports the information and research requirements of barristers, students, and judicial members of all the four Inns of courts.

I spent a considerable amount of time at the Inner Temple Library, which had collections of books and law reports covering the British Isles’ legal systems, the Channel Islands, the Isle of Man, the Republic of Ireland, and Commonwealth countries. I also found in the Library non-law collections covering subjects such as history, biography, heraldry (mainly vexillology), and topography. There were also many other old books and manuscripts. A student by the name of Malek Ahmad was a regular at the Library. We came to know each other and became good friends. In later years we continued to meet up, from time to time, whenever I was in Kuala Lumpur.  At the Temple, some staff and some other students were also good company. We all learned to relax and enjoy our breaks at the Temple Garden, a haven of tranquility and beauty …

With friends–different seasons, different times…

My friend Malek Ahmad with his black overcoat

Malek running for our photo-op.

My friend Malek Ahmad eventually became President of the Court of Appeal in Malaysia. He died young in 2008. “He was the chief justice that the country should have, but never had.” In the glowing tribute at the memorial service for (Tan Sri) Abdul Malek Ahmad, retired Court of Appeal judge K.C. Vohrah said: “The late Abdul Malek was an uncommon Malaysian, whose most important characteristic was his natural and tremendous sense of fair play and his unquestioned integrity.”

The good, the bad, and the choice…

Upon my arrival in England in the early days as a student, I was accommodated for one week under the British Council’s aegis. During that time, I met Mr. Longfield, a student adviser of the British Council who had an Oxford Circus office. He explained that beyond this period of one week, the onus was upon me to have my own lodging. I was desperately looking for “digs” (within my monthly budget of 40 Sterling Pounds). I noticed a small advertisement in the Evening Standard regarding a room for rent by the student. In answer to this ad, I went to knock on the door. An elderly blond English woman opened the door, looked at me, and said: “We don’t take in Chinese,” whereupon she closed the door.  It was a classical case of “BAD discrimination.” That was in the Autumn of 1963. A knife pierced through the heart of a young man who had just left his home in Borneo for the first time in his simple life. He couldn’t understand. “Turn thee unto me, and have mercy upon me; for I am desolate and afflicted”- Psalm 25:16 (KJV).

In the interim, the British Council recommended me an attic room at Old Oak Road, Shepherd’s Bush, where I would stay for an academic year before moving to Clonmel Road at Parsons Green to share a flat with a wonderful couple from Singapore. I revisited Old Oak Road with May and our son Nigel in 2007 and realized that someone with means had recently purchased the place, and the building was under renovation at the time of our visit:

My attic room at Old Oak Road Shepherd’s Bush

On the other end of the “spectrum” in the English society was a family who would invite me yearly to spend two weeks over Christmas with them in their lovely home at Highgate, North London.  Everything had happened for a reason. It happened that on my way to England, I was sailing in the old P & O Ship “Chitral” with 4 young VSO (Volunteering Service Overseas) from England.

Dining onboard “Chitral” from Singapore to London

One of them was Peter Doulton (sitting next to me in the photo), who has remained a friend of mine for more than 50 years. After he served as a rural Keningau, Peter was returning to his home in England, British North Borneo. He had left home for more than a year, and his parent came to receive him at the dock in the Port of Tilbury, London. Upon our arrival at the dock, Peter introduced me to them, and they immediately invited me to have lunch with them at their home the following Sunday. From then on, they would invite me to stay as their guest for two weeks over Christmas during my entire time as a law student in England. This couple had made me felt belong. Peter’s father, Mr. Doulton, was the headmaster of Highgate School. He eventually retired to Salcombe, a resort town in the district of Devon, England.  When his father died, Peter wrote to me that the parish church was overflowed at his memorial service…

Mr. Doulton, with Peter’s younger brother Roger, is preparing the table for Christmas at their home.

I have not forgotten, but I had long ago forgiven that woman who had turned me away. I have always wondered what would have been if she had chosen to allow us to see the “third person” in each other. I have realized that the greatest tragedy in humanity is not the infliction of wrongs but the unwillingness and inability of a man to forgive. Only through forgiveness, one can find peace and freedom of the heart. “Forgiveness does not change the past, but it does enlarge the future”-Paul Boese. “It is in pardoning that we are pardoned”-St. Francis of Assisi.

Life has changed a lot in England over the years, and I have witnessed the changes during my periodical visits to the Old Country. Change is being exerted upon us by secular culture and the politic of “political correctness.” We now live in a fake and very superfluous culture of “NON-discrimination” in the world of political correctness. In a certain respect, “non-discrimination” is good. Still, at the same time, we have lost our God-given ability to discriminate (GOOD discrimination) what is right from wrong, truth from falsehood, good from evil. Man has always been tricked and pulled by the other force, but we are given the ability (“gift”) and the free will to choose. God has given us a brain to discern and a heart to love. Our baptismal vow to love our neighbours and respect their dignity but not the evils manifested in humans. Jesus loves everyone, but when he saw what was happening in the temple, he did what he did…“And when he had made a scourge of small cords, he drove them all out of the temple, and the sheep, and the oxen; and poured out the changers’ money, and overthrew the tables” John 2:13–16 (KJV).

Our laws and values are based on biblical principles and Christian values. We have forgotten the blessings of the Judeo-Christian heritage. As our western societies continue to become increasingly secular, moral values inevitably erode to the detriment of everyone who lives in these countries. “Righteousness exalts a nation, but sin is a reproach to any people” – Proverbs: 14-34. Any society that condones destructive, sinful behavior (as defined by Scripture ) is a society that will weaken and decline. Any change must be for the common good. We ought to have “a disposition to preserve” with an “ability to improve”-Edmund Burke. “Prove all things; hold fast that which is good.”-1 Thessalonians 5:21 (KJV).

Just a thought:

“If the foundations are destroyed, what can the righteous do? Psalm 11:3 (KJV). To me, Conservatives and Liberals are probably similar, and we can walk together. Liberals look for change, but Conservatives ensure that Liberals move progressively in the right direction. We do not throw the baby out with the bathwater… We do have a choice…

We are told about evolution (or change as I observe myself in the photos “different times different perspectives”), but TRUTH does not evolve (change). It is constant. The Son of God, the incarnate Word, the Word is Truth. “For I am the Lord, I change not; therefore, ye sons of Jacob are not consumed.”-Malachi 3:6 (KJV). Since God does not change, our spirit’s LIFE is not at the mercy of changing events. In the natural world, there are constants as well. There are fundamental physical constants (in physics) like the speed of light and free space’s permeability. There are mathematical constants, like pi and e, which cannot change. I read somewhere in a science journal that even the structure of atoms will always be the same, isotopes notwithstanding. Newton’s law of universal gravitation and Einstein’s theory of general relativity, and so on…

I needed to change to find joy (not mere temporary happiness), to be saved from infinite misery. I needed to be transformed as a new creation. “Therefore if any man is in Christ, he is a new creature: old things are passed away; behold, all things are become new” – 2 Corinthians 5:17 (KJV). On this journey back in time, I became aware that a true Christian is not simply an “improved” version of a person; a true Christian is an entirely new creature. Christ is in him, and he is “in Christ.”

In the middle of my trip, in September 2017, a nameless and unjustified terror attack was carried out in my old family-oriented neighbourhood of Parsons Green in South London. A horrible massacre was perpetrated in Las Vegas. Fallen men debated and continue to debate why and repeatedly say “enough is enough” to this infinite misery. Still, few are willing to learn and share the gospel (euangelion)… the Teachings of the Prince of Peace… We do have a choice…

Come…walk with me…