Continuing a journey through London on the 43 bus route - with a Christian eye. The whole series is viewable on the '43 bus route' tag below.
St Mary's Church, Islington has a bus stop so it is hard to ignore from the 43 bus. Were it not for that, though, it might be thought to be just another of a plethora of churches along the route. It lacks the grandeur of Union Chapel, not far up the street.
But this church has more history via its people than any short blog could ever tell.
Think Charles Wesley, for example. The hymnwriter of such predominance that even in the fragmented Western church worship patterns of the 21st century all of us still sing his hymns in some form. Charles, together with George Whitfield, were invited preachers by the minister of this church and preached regularly. Complaints were made to the Bishop of London, and it was here that both of them were forbidden to preach in Churches. Instead they adopted the open air preaching already embraced by John Wesley and the rest is (Methodist) history.
A hundred and fifty years earlier, this was the Church where Robert Browne was the preacher, the generally recognized founder of Congregationalism and therefore in some ways the inspiration for the Pilgrim Fathers setting out for the New World. They were dubbed Brownists. So that's two denominations that owe their identity somewhat to this parish church.
But Anglicanism too has history here. The first black African priest was ordained here in the 1700s, that's right, the 1700s.. The man who later became the first Bishop of Nigeria was trained here. The founder of the Lord's Day Observance Society was vicar here before becoming Bishop of Calcutta. The England cricketer - later Bishop of Liverpool - David Sheppard was a curate here while still playing cricket for England!
And the list goes on. This is not a church building to turn the head on a 43 bus, but its story surely would.
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