HIGHMOOR HALL has been a been a landmark for Christian hospitality ever since 1976 when the Perssons responded to God’s call to use their home near Henley first for an extended family and then as a Christian centre for groups and individuals. In 1992 they went one stage further and built The Spring in their garden. It is ‘a place of refreshment for mind, body and soul’ with a remarkable programme which has brought together spirituality, creativity and the arts. Here they look back with joy as God ‘with impeccable timing’ moves them on.
Ann I made a commitment to Christ at a student guest service at All Souls, Langham Place in London. From that point life changed so much that at first it was rather strange. I had been used to the social whirl of dances and boyfriends. Although I was intoxicated with everything I was learning in Bible study groups, a whole area of my life seemed to have been changed.
I value my evangelical roots tremendously but I feel over the last few years, through going on retreats, through the books I have read, through the people I have met, that I have opened up and widened my spiritual experience. We have also learned that nothing is wasted, that every experience however difficult is a gift.
Paul I was brought up in a Christian home. In the fifties I was living in London with the person who was organising the Billy Graham Crusades. I used to go with him to the crusades in Haringey and all that I had learned in my earlier years in a sense became real.
Ann and I met at All Souls where we were both family service helpers but Ann had come from a very different background from my conservative one. So we felt that we ought to wait before deciding whether it was right to marry. To see if the relationship would last we agreed not to communicate for a year. Almost exactly a year later Ann was up in London and called in and our relationship started again and a year after that we got married. Our first child died at 17 months. In contrast to what I would have expected at that time, I experienced the love of God in a way that seemed almost tangible.
When we moved to Pangbourne we went to a church with a small young peoples group which had dwindled to one faithful person and we said ‘Lord it’s over to you, what do you want us to do with this?’ A mission was held nearby and people just started coming. After a few years there was a core membership of about 30 with numbers at times rising to 70. We used to take many of them to the Community of Celebration at Wargrave and to holiday weeks at Ashburnham Place. At the time we considered living as a community but we decided that living in our own home as an extended family would be right for us.
Ann One of the people who went with us to Ashburnham was someone whose parents lived at Highmoor Hall. He wanted them to move to somewhere smaller and he asked us if we would consider buying their home. I was in Doncaster with the children for a fortnight’s holiday with my parents when Paul went to look at it. He rang me up very excited but I said ‘Absolutely no way, that’s far too big’. But one Autumn day I came out with Paul, and also felt a great sense of ‘Yes’ deep down and at the same time ‘Help!’.
Paul We had someone living with us at that time and she joined us with three others, together with our four children and my cousins who moved into the Lodge. So we began to experience a different type of lifestyle. We all developed new strengths and learned ways of resolving conflicts through sharing
Ann For the first five years we took anyone who came along – people wanting convalescence, groups from Holy Trinity Brompton and Bible study groups – but our vision needed to be clarified. So we went down to Lee Abbey in Devon for a week to ask God what He had in mind for Highmoor Hall. By the end of the week we had a deep sense that He was saying: ‘I want you to be the handmaiden to the leadership of my inter-denominational Church.’ We came back with a vision of serving leaders by making the facilities available for them to meet for prayer and planning. So our ministry of looking after church leaders began.
We came here not knowing very much about gardening but gradually we began to flex our muscles (literally!). We created a pond, a secret garden and a secluded garden and after we had done that, we felt God say: ‘Now use the gardens for me’. So in between the visits of leadership groups we began a programme of quiet days called ‘Time for Reflection’. We also made two rooms at the top of the house called ‘Hideaways’, as personal retreat rooms.
Paul We began to talk about putting up a separate building for developing creativity and the arts, but coming from a business background I could not see how you could get any sort of return on our investment. Then reading about how Mary extravagantly poured out the ointment on Jesus’s feet, the penny dropped. For me the kind of return I was looking for was not the one that God was looking for. We would be making an investment into peoples lives. So we took the plunge and started to build the Spring in 1992.
Ann It has been a remarkable journey. We have had to tread carefully, but we have also dared to take risks because we wanted the programme at the Spring – the new building – to be inclusive rather than exclusive. As a result we have sometimes been misunderstood. We always say our mainspring is the Gospel of Jesus Christ and we are true to Him but people have been able to cross boundaries of spirituality. It has also become an access point for those who would not call themselves Christians to discover some of God’s creativity in a warm and welcoming setting.
As a couple our giftings are very different. I am a bit like the spinnaker on a sailing boat. When it takes the wind the boat races but it is unsafe unless it has a strong keel. Paul is the very important keel in our boat. For years I lived with an academic inferiority complex because I didn’t have a particularly good education. Then through a Myers Briggs workshop, I learned to value the strong intuitive side that is there. It was like turning a key and since then I have felt much more free to be myself .
I love to combine creativity and the world of nature, and to find joy in the God of creation. I have especially enjoyed leading walks into quietness through the different seasons of the year, which combine prayfulness and seeing what is happening in the world in that particular season. The Spring has been a remarkable context for all this to develop in me. The programme is deliberately wide-ranging with headings such as concerts, arts, personal development, spirituality and the world of nature.
Paul As we are maturing in age we have now decided to sell Highmoor Hall. We let it be known to those on our mailing list that we were leaving and a wonderful couple have come along with a similar vision to ours regarding the serving of Christian leadership. Subject to all the formalities they plan to move in next year.
Ann I have never been so impacted by the strong sense of Kairos time, which is God’s time. Many people have said ‘do you have to stop now?’, but in our spirits we felt this is the time. It is also the right time for the couple who plan to come. We are experiencing the wonderful kindness of God that is deeply affirming. He has even taken care of our emotions as we prepare to leave this wonderful place. We feel free and excited about the future in whatever way it unfolds.
Paul was born in London but moved to Oxfordshire at the age of seven and became a Christian at a public schools camp when he was 12. He served his National Service in the Army, training potential officers at Catterick. Then he went into the Bank of England before spending 25 years working in the family business, a retail multiple company, for much of that time as managing director.
Ann is ‘a Yorkshire girl’ from an industrialist’s family. She had three brothers and her family only went to church ‘at Easter and Christmas’. After boarding school she studied drama in the drama department of the Royal Academy of Music. She taught drama for 18 months in Yorkshire before marrying Paul in 1959. They have five children, ‘one in heaven four still on earth’ and are grandparents to six little girls.
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