A SUNDAY-SCHOOL teacher in Merseyside has officially been declared the world’s longest-serving at the identical institution. Pam Knowles had been teaching at St Anne’s, Aigburth, for 73 years and 104 days when her record was verified by Guinness World Records in January.
Mrs Knowles now holds a certificate that might be displayed in St Anne’s, where she has been teaching three- to seven-year olds since 1951. She was baptised, confirmed, and married within the church, where she and her late husband also received a blessing after 60 years of marriage. She is now teaching the third generation of many families, and is described by the diocese of Liverpool as “a remarkable role model and an actual hero. . . She still to today never misses a Sunday School class and continues to encourage people week after week.”
The Vicar of St Anne’s, the Revd Ian Greenwood, led a presentation and celebration on the ultimate Sunday of the varsity term. Mrs Knowles stays unfazed by the achievement and the eye. She said on Tuesday: “I just love the kids. I really like telling stories.
“We start from the very starting with Adam and Eve — they at all times love the Garden story, and Noah’s ark and Daniel within the lions’ den — and proceed on through the Old and New Testaments. We do a little bit of singing and handwork — they love colouring — and have some play time, after which we return into church for the top of the service.”
When she began, Sunday school was once within the parish hall through the afternoon. Children’s behaviour had modified, she reflected, “but they’re not naughty naughty. They prefer to move about so much greater than children used to.” She did lament the reduction in Sunday-school numbers, which she had not appreciated was universal. There was once a daily attendance of a minimum of 40 on this age group within the parish.
Mrs Knowles conceded that the record that she now held was something historical, but dismissed any suggestion that she had accrued a variety of wisdom to pass on to the generations. “It’s baby wisdom, really,” she said. “It’s not like GCSEs and A levels.” There was a time period after she married when she lived outside the parish, in Halewood, and the couple had no automotive. “My father, who lived in Allerton, got here every Sunday to gather me, take me to church, after which got here back and picked me up,” she recalled.
Mrs Knowles was Sunday-school superintendent for 40 of the 74 years and has been a longstanding member of the PCC. “I’ve still got a lot of energy, and I’m just as passionate about it now as once I began,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed on a regular basis I’ve been there.”
