Green reserved his early evenings before the clubs and Temperance concerts for visiting the families of the members of his Bible classes, delivering quarterly reports, recruiting new members and seeking out the lapsed.
He regarded the pastoral role of the priest to be superior to the prophetic one. His long incumbency had great benefits in “knowing my sheep.”69 For him the best work was done developing the characters of those whom he had prepared for confirmation to mature. Patience was required in all things. He pointed out he had taught in the Ragged schools and visited the Temperance meetings, giving a talk every week, for four years before obtaining any confirmation candidates, but he believed the time to have been well spent. By visiting homes he created a spirit of understanding. He was convinced it was necessary for the ordained man of God to be certain of his vocation to be a pastor and to find happiness in the role. He also needed to live a disciplined life.
As he considered the work of a priest to be a vital part of the life of both the church and nation, Green laid great stress on the training of curates in the priestly discipline he exercised himself, and especially in the ordering of his time, as the clergyman was his own master. Green was aware the clergyman had a greater variety of things to do than other professionals and so needed to provide himself with a timetable which included a fixed time of rising in the morning. Green did not regard it as a sin to break the timetable, but he did consider slackness to be a sin. His own method was to look ahead to the next day at his evening prayers in order to establish his priorities but to allow for emergencies. He advocated patience and an unhurried attitude to life in order to give time to people, and to garner the fruits of experience by reflections. For Green daily private prayer was at the heart of his priestly ministry. Neither the celebration of the Eucharist, which he valued greatly, nor other acts of public worship, were substitutes for private prayer. He said throughout his writings the Church suffers from prayerlessness. Apart from the advocacy of prayer, on a practical level he thought intercessory prayer for others prevented anxiety about oneself.
He practiced the devotional use of scripture, with a daily meditation in his quiet time.
Green devoted four mornings a week to study, reading serious theology in order to be able to teach and preach Christian doctrine to his parishioners. He regarded doctrine as a skeleton, which is invisible, but gives form to the body. He complained throughout that the clergy did not know the Catholic doctrines and so did not preach and teach them. Consequently the members were ignorant of what they should believe and left the church. He believed that clergymen should develop their own intellectual interests. His advice, which he followed, was to plan a book.
He was an enthusiastic reader of general literature including poetry and novels, which he commended to others, as they provided illustrations of the experiences of real life to be used in sermons. He recommended biographies, essays, poetry, travel and accounts of missionary endeavours.
Green was a keen supporter of overseas missions. He was convinced the Church which was alive to mission in this country would show a lively interest in supporting missions overseas. He considered that the Church of England could claim to be Catholic because it had spread to the British colonies.
His time was divided between parochial work in taking services, visiting parishioners and attending the numerous clubs and societies associated with the Parish Church.
He was disciplined in keeping records of all kinds – of the sick and the poor, and confirmation candidates. His eye for detail is seen in The Town Parson when he advised neo-cyclo style cards should be used for filing information – an advanced method for his day! In Man of God he included a necromancy list to remember the faithful departed on the anniversary of death and an address book for those not directly associated with the Church.70
Green emphasized the need for the clergyman to be business like especially in handling money, noting all expenses paid for official duties for income tax purposes. He was scrupulous and prudent in his responsibilities as bursar of the Manchester Cathedral finances. He summed up his own approach “be orderly, be business like, be punctual, be courteous, and strive for the highest standards of efficiency.”71 Courtesy in all things was necessary for “courtesy has been defined as love in small matters.”72
Green regarded his duty as one under authority was to provide the fullest round of services to meet the needs of the people. The doctrine of the 1662 Book of Common Prayer was of the utmost importance and its worship to be workable although he was to support the revised 1928 Prayer Book. He aimed by worship to put God and his glory first, as he believed that was the purpose of the Church. The response of the people to worship was limited only by the opportunities offered to them. Green was a super-optimist with faith in human nature and was always anticipating an opportunity for the revival of religion. However, he was most concerned that the Great Commandment of the love of God and neighbour was being reversed in order of priority with the duty to neighbour coming first in social action, and the duty to God being neglected. He tried in this case to make the correction as he believed the health of nation and parish depended on having worship at its heart. In this way Christian doctrine could be expressed in worship as “There is no impression without expression”73 to use a favourite phrase of Green.
He aimed unashamedly to build a large congregation because for him numbers of converted, instructed and missionary minded people did count. They were all workers for the Gospel and by their shepherding and teaching helped to retain the young in the church.
Green conducted services reverently and slowly. He insisted on the services being held at regular times and punctually. He avoided mannerisms and affectations. The conduct of the service of Holy Communion had orderly and disciplined movements and he advocated his own practice of knowing the service off by heart. He was demanding of his congregation when the occasion required. He celebrated Holy Communion at 5am whilst a Mission was taking place in the parish. He timed the service of Holy Communion for mothers at 9.30am on a Monday morning saying that it prevented Monday morning drinking. Illustrating his disciplined approach to small things he wrote out and read his church notices with items in the same order each week.
Green took care with the occasional offices of marriages, funerals and the churching of women. His far-sighted preference for marriages was that all parties should be married in civil register offices with a following blessing in church if requested. Services of Holy Baptism and those of the occasional offices gave him the chance to meet his parishioners on a more intimate basis but he regarded them as evangelistic opportunities when people were open to religious influences.
Green was always open to meeting people. He was noted for the fact that he travelled by tram, even to funerals to the appropriate cemeteries, and so was well known on public transport. He was also sensitive to the needs and privileges of his parishioners to exercise their rights of baptism, marriages and holding funerals in the church although they were not regular worshippers there.
Although Green was hard working, and disciplined in taking services and in study he had firm views on recreation. He had the habit of keeping from 1.45 to 2.30pm for “a pipe and a good book.”74 He read the daily paper to keep up with the news and for information for prayer. He advocated a circle of friends and a regular day off except in the two World Wars in respect for his lads away fighting for their country. He said any decent recreation for a layman could be enjoyed by a clergyman. If one of his curates was engaged in sport in the parish that did not count as time off, but if it was pursued out of the parish he should not have been there! Green said that he was not a gifted sportsman and he decried muscular Christianity but as already noted he rowed and boxed at Cambridge. There is a reference in Beeson’s The Canons75 to him taking part in a boxing competition in a fair ground and winning a prize for lasting five minutes with the prize fighter. He said that it was not worth it!
He was insistent on his curates having a day off each week and proper holiday time in the summer and breaks for spiritual refreshment either before Lent or after Easter. His practice was to go away into Retreat each year, mainly in silence, and to have quiet days in his own church.
Preaching was important to him. For Green the method, style, and language of a sermon or address should be suitable