Doing things differently

Calvert Navvy Mission Sunday School on an outing
in Buckinghamshire. c. 1897 Page 

Christians have never been solely locked into their churches, Some have always been inspired to go out to where people are.

Sometimes this means going to where people physically are. The Navvy Mission, for example, sent missionaries out to the gangs of men building canals across Britain. Admittedly they only really got  going at the end of the canal building boom but they quickly adapted to serving those building the railways.

The mobile chapel of the
South African Railway Mission

And in South Africa, in the early 20th century, distances were great and missionaries few. So the South Africa Railway Mission fitted out a railway wagon as a chapel and took it to whichever towns and villages the railway reached.

A modern mobile Chapel

Transport for Christ is a modern expression of the impulse behind the Navvy and  Railway Missions. On the basis that Christian Truckers can't get to church regularly, they take church to them with mobile chapels and chaplains. Guardian Article.

This missionary instinct to go to where people also applies to those seeking to engage people where they are emotionally, culturally, intellectually. It was what got Shleiermacher into such trouble with On Religion: Speeches to its Cultured Despisers (1799).

The Haven-London launched 

in celebration of the creative industries

The Diocese of London has set up Capital Vision 2020: a strategy for the Diocese in the coming decade. One part of which is to engage with the creative industries in the city. It has launched the Haven-London intended to "offer a physical space within London for contemplation, connection and inspiration, where those of faith and those working within the creative industries can engage together."

Christian adherence may be falling  in the UK, not least in the Church of England, but it retains both vitality and an irrepressible optimism. The Church of England may not be in good health but reports of its death have been greatly exaggerated.