A SUNDAY-SCHOOL teacher in Merseyside has officially been declared the world’s longest-serving at the same 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 will be displayed in St Anne’s, where she has been teaching three- to seven-year olds since 1951. She was baptised, confirmed, and married in 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 a real hero. . . She still to this day never misses a Sunday School class and continues to inspire people week after week.”
The Vicar of St Anne’s, the Revd Ian Greenwood, led a presentation and celebration on the final Sunday of the school term. Mrs Knowles remains unfazed by the achievement and the attention. She said on Tuesday: “I just love the children. I love telling stories.
“We start from the very beginning with Adam and Eve — they always love the Garden story, and Noah’s ark and Daniel in the lions’ den — and continue on through the Old and New Testaments. We do a bit of singing and handwork — they love colouring — and have some play time, and then we go back into church for the end of the service.”
When she started, Sunday school used to be in the parish hall during the afternoon. Children’s behaviour had changed, she reflected, “but they’re not naughty naughty. They like to move about a lot more than children used to.” She did lament the reduction in Sunday-school numbers, which she had not appreciated was universal. There used to be a regular attendance of at least 40 in this age group in the parish.
Mrs Knowles conceded that the record that she now held was something historical, but dismissed any suggestion that she had accumulated a lot 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 period of time after she married when she lived outside the parish, in Halewood, and the couple had no car. “My father, who lived in Allerton, came every Sunday to collect me, take me to church, and then came 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 lots of energy, and I’m just as enthusiastic about it now as when I started,” she said. “I’ve enjoyed all the time I’ve been there.”
