Valedictory

I grew up in a street in South Wales on a housing estate built in the fifties. If you walked around the corner from where we lived along another part of the same street you came upon what was to me always quite an impressive sight - a Baptist chapel that had been raised over a hundred years before (in 1836) and was surrounded with a graveyard.

As a young child I never went there on my own but as I grew older and was allowed to roam a bit more, I would go with friends to look at it. I have a vivid memory of a summer's day, a Saturday in 1969 when I was 10 and being there with a friend or two. There were obviously some big meetings going on in the chapel that day and we wondered what it was all about.

Apparently, it was a valedictory service, what ever that meant. I cannot remember who our informant was exactly (although I have an idea). I rememebr him with a leaflet in his hand and pointing me to the word valedictory and asking if I knew what it meant. I don't know if he exolained it well but it means serving as a farewell, which was appropriate as a man was about to leave for Peru to work with churches there.