Christianity from the 43 bus: 10. The Leysian Mission

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.

The 43 heads out of the centre of Islington down City Road towards the City of London.  City Road is probably most famous for Moorfield's Eye Hospital, one of the world's major centres for eye surgery.  These days the road is populated with many contemporary high-rise glass buildings, but at its end comes this building.

Looking the part as a rival to Harrods it is an eye-turning place despite being near central London's many grand exteriors.  It was The Leysian Mission.

The Leys School in Cambridge was a Methodist School designed to prepare non-Anglicans to enter degree study at Cambridge University - something only made possible in the 1870s.  Graduates of this elite school set about the improvement of the wretched social needs of London's East End.  Originally deep in the East End, this was the second, grander property, at the very edge of the East End but wielding a wide influence.

The story is even better than the building, but perhaps inevitably it is today apartments.

London's Job Market

This programme [CLICK HERE] includes footage from our Soup Kitchen telling one not untypical client's story of life in a North London Car Park.

Help

30 . . . Jesus said, “A man was going down the road from Jerusalem to Jericho. Some robbers surrounded him, tore off his clothes, and beat him. Then they left him lying there on the ground almost dead.

There was, last week, a man sitting on the pathway outside our church buildings . . .

31 “It happened that a Jewish priest was going down that road.

He was hypothermic and had drunk too much and it was below freezing and all he wanted was to die and his wish looked like coming true.  We called an ambulance.

When he saw the man, he did not stop to help him.

The ambulanceman talked to him for a while.  Because the man didn't 'consent' to come(though in fact he could not have moved if he did) . . .

He walked away.

He walked away and called a police officer.

32 Next, a Levite came near.

The police officer turned up in a big van.

He saw the hurt man, but he went around him. He would not stop to help him either. He just walked away.

She walked around and spoke on her radio.  Because 'the man didn't consent' she drove away too.

 

33 “Then a Samaritan man travelled down that road. He came to the place where the hurt man was lying. He saw the man and felt very sorry for him.

But the volunteer workers in our Church Drop-In centre felt sorry for the man.

34 The Samaritan went to him and poured olive oil and wine on his wounds. Then he covered the man’s wounds with cloth.

Whether he consented or not they ushered him into the hallway of the church and put a blanket over him.

The Samaritan had a donkey. He put the hurt man on his donkey,

They called the man at Wycombe Homeless Connection, a Christian Charity run by our group of churches.  He came and sat with the man.  And talked with the man.

and he took him to an inn. There he cared for him. 35 The next day, the Samaritan took out two silver coins and gave them to the man who worked at the inn. He said, ‘Take care of this hurt man. If you spend more money on him, I will pay it back to you when I come again.’”
And persuaded the man to go with him until he could enter the Night Shelter that evening (run by volunteers from the churches)

36 Then Jesus said, “Which one of these three do you think was really a neighbour to the man who was hurt by the robbers?” 37 The teacher of the law answered, “The one who helped him.” Jesus said, “Then you go and do the same.”

And thankfully for the man in 21st century Wycombe - his followers still do.

Morons of the Oxy kind

As a former foster parent who also believes and - horror of secular horrors - teaches the Bible I am singularly unimpressed by the supposed wisdom of Messrs Munby and Beatson in their judgement against the Johns released today.   The case was not necessarily wisely brought either but it deserved better than it received.  How can highly-paid judges use a non-word like Pentecostalist?  Or make daft statements like this nation has an established church which is Christian when they presumably mean religion not church?  Or state that they are thoroughly secular and then declare Religion – whatever the particular believer's faith – is no doubt something to be encouraged.  Even religious people couldn't agree with that never mind atheists!

In the words of Robert Pigott (BBC), . 'Today the message was that courts would interpret the law in cases like the Johns' according to secular and not religious values.' People 'with traditionalist Christian views like Mr and Mrs Johns' might well not make good foster parents.

We have moved steps nearer a day when, in the United Kingdom, 'Christian Foster Parent' is an oxymoron [a figure of speech that combines contradictory terms] 

Mind you, while I'm on the oxymoron theme, Munby and Beatson also declared,  We sit as secular judges. 

But if the much-maligned Bible is true there's also coming a day when 'secular judges' will itself be an oxymoron: For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, so that each one may receive what is due for what he has done in the body, whether good or evil.

I've a feeling that Day might go somewhat better for Mr & Mrs Johns.  And I hope, for their sake, that Messrs Munby and Beatson find out what church really means before then too.

A Night Before Christmas

Wycombe was not a great place to be last night, especially if you were a motorist.  It started snowing soon after 2:00pm and was still snowing heavily four hours later.

And so it was that we were asked to open our Church as an Emergency Rest Centre for people stranded by the snowy roads and icy hills. Roads normally busy with traffic had only pedestrians struggling between cars and vans abandoned at the roadside.  Read about it here.

Through to 2:00 am people arrived.  Some walked in as though they were arriving for a meeting, some arrived as though they had trekked from the Arctic, one or two looked as though they had been mistakenly delivered by emergency ambulance to us instead of the hospital.

Thirty five people slept for the night at 'Hotel Union'!  About 20 others came through the doors and were fortified and warmed for the next stage of their epic journey home.  Never has the town or Church witnessed the need to be a Town Centre Snow Shelter before!

God, on the other hand, seemed less surprised and to be working to a nicely visible plan (his plans are often invisible of course).

My colleague Pastor Tim has just recently taken on a role as Police Chaplain, and this gave us goodwill and communication from the outset.

Our Church Administrator has been a Hotel Manager and so Calvin might be described as the perfect Staff Member in the circumstances!  He's also a great cook, so the motley collection of material available for Breakfast was transformed into good stuff on the plate.

Our Youth Worker Matt, shortly to depart for New Zealand, was still present, and able to give us confidence with the teens who arrived.  Two of them stayed overnight with us, away from their families.

One of our members, having been inspired to do Street Pastor work, responded immediately and came in to help at this opportunity.

When I was sliding down the hill to help, I heard the familiar voice of one of my Elders in the sea of darkly clad walkers struggling up the hill in the opposite direction.  When we met, he immediately joined me and ended up staying and working with us through the night (moral of story, beware of passing Pastors!)

As our premises host the Wycombe Winter Night Shelter  we had  a good supply of air beds and a magnificent supply of blankets and sheets.

We thank God for His planning, which appears to have greatly exceeded that of others.  He even planned it in his instructions to the first Christian Churches - Share with God's people who are in need. Practise hospitality.  And he'd said it previously to his ancient covenant people too - The stranger who dwells among you shall be to you as one born among you, and you shall love him as yourself; for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am Yahweh, your God. (Leviticus 19:33,34).

Harvest-time Prayer

Bahnhofsmission

Beneath the soaring arches of Frankfurt's central station thousands of people rush past one another and past a few who are going nowhere. It could be London, New York or countless other major cities and their railway hubs at commuting time. But Frankfurt, like several other German stations, also has Bahnhofsmission.

With stations becoming more and more technological, machines replacing people, the mission station is again increasingly utilised.

It has in many ways strengthened and saved lives. They know it as the "Church at the station" prsenting the gospel for all people.

The rooms include a resting space suitablefor a variety of purposes: the business traveller needing an electrical outlet for his laptop, the elderly blind lady waiting over a cup of tea for thenext train to which volunteers will guide her, the homeless man seeking shelter and refuge who may read the newspaper and receive a small snack, or the young woman forced into prostitution who will safely spend the night on one of the Mission’s 20 mattresses, protected from her pimp. To the left of the Mission’s entrance is “the room of silence” where you can leave behind the hectic noise of the main station. An extra room is available for in-depth counselling and advice.

Last year, the Bahnhofsmission took care of almost 100,000 people, among them 6,000 children and teens. Over 20,000 received advice and small scale assistance. 15,000 elderly and handicapped men and women were given travel-related help. In about 4,000 cases, intensive counselling was provided. Such supplementary activities as short prayer services and musical meditations enrich the lives of those who come to the Mission, as do occasional art exhibits.