A trip to London
Harrison Ford is in London this week. And so is Dolly Parton. Very unusually I was in London too, for 24 hours, but I didn’t see either of them. I went down to London for the 200th anniversary celebration of ICS [the Inter-Continental Church Society] The celebration, followed by lunch and the AGM, were held in St Paul’s, Onslow Square, part of the HTB family of churches.
Finding affordable accommodation in central London is tricky. I stayed in the Hotel Meridiana, in Argyle Square, two minutes from King’s Cross station. It’s probably typical of the large number of small hotels in this area: I stayed in a small room on the second floor with a small en-suite and shower and a [very] small flat-screen tv. Up two flights of carpeted stairs. Which could be tricky if you had much luggage. The hotel doesn’t do breakfast. But the Cappadocia cafe a few minutes walk away in Grays Inn Road is said to be very good. But after a hot, interrupted night I gave the Cappadocia a miss, and had breakfast in South Kensington instead. In a Portuguese cafe.
ICS
ICS, the Intercontinental Church Society, began life in a London coffee house on Ludgate Hill in June 1823. Samuel Codner convened a meeting of like-minded evangelicals to promote Christian work in schools in the colony of Newfoundland. A decade later from the same coffee house a similar group of evangelicals launched the Western Australia Missionary Society, later renamed the Colonial Church Society. Within a few years requests were reaching the Society to support mission work in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Spain, Greece and Switzerland; and then, from further afield, from Canada, China, India, the Azores, the Falklands, and Argentina. A century and a half later, in 1979, what had become the Commonwealth and Continental Church Society [CCCS] was once again renamed and settled into its current name as ICS.
Susie’s and my connection with ICS goes back to the mid-1980s. In my pre-ordination days I was pleased to drop into St Michael’s, Paris, occasionally, on Sunday mornings; and once had an encouraging conversation there with Peter Sertin. A few years later we were in St George’s, Barcelona, on a hot Sunday in August, and received a gracious welcome from Ben and Anne Eaton. During our decade in the Edinburgh Diocese we and the children were pleased to do a series of ICS summer chaplaincies; first at Messanges, then at Raguènes Plage and at La Baule, both in southern Brittany, and once down at Sarlat-la-Canéda, but most often at Benodet. During the 1990s we were very happy to have a hundred or so people coming to worship in the old Catholic church down by the harbour. One Sunday a Frenchman gestured to me to put the bread directly into his mouth. And when I did he bit my finger ! And it was at Benodet that two men approached the chaplaincy van from different directions, both wanting to talk and pray about the notion that they might be called to ordination.
One thing leads to another. After a decade in Christ Church, Duns we were delighted to be invited in 2000 to become the chaplain[s] at the ICS-supported church in Lyon. After the rather conservative monoculture of the Scottish Borders, where change comes slowly if at all, it was a real pleasure to be ministering in the culturally and confessionally diverse, high turnover, high-octane Diocese of Europe. Where we were faithfully supported by ICS, under the leadership successively of John Moore, and Ian Watson, and David Healey. And we were very grateful for the fellowship and the teaching of the annual Family Conferences, which alternated between the UK and mainland Europe.
Happy Birthday, ICS
The anniversary celebration was held in St Peter’s, Onslow Square, a few minutes from South Ken underground station. [Why were the attractive, tree-filled gardens closed with chains ? And a notice saying PRIVATE: FOR THE USE OF RESIDENTS – RUSSIAN OLIGARCHS, ARAB BUSINESSMEN, ARMS DEALERS, AND TORY PARTY MEMBERS ONLY. Actually that’s not quite what it said. But I am reading between the lines.]
We were warmly welcomed by Richard Bromley. the Mission Director. Worship was led by Andrew Flanagan, accompanied by a wonderfully gifted flautist from Vevey. There was moving testimony from Sarah Jane King, about mission in Switzerland; and from Mimy Gardner, about the work in Leipzig. Bishop Robert Innes, of the Diocese in Europe, spoke about the wide geographical reach of the society; about the fact of its lay leadership; and [I think] about the support it gave to local churches around the diocese. Bishop Richard Jackson, Chair of the ICS Council, recalled the numerous name changes of the past, and emphasised the need for us to be alert to what God is doing and to be prepared to embark on new things. Richard Bromley made reference to the New Work Initiatives being undertaken to mark the anniversary. We prayed the ICS Prayer. And Bishop Robert cut the impressive cake which had survived a fraught journey on the motorway.
There were many old friends. Some of whom I managed to recognise. [I’m bad with faces.] Gary Wilton was there, taking me back to church in Woodstock. Where he as a young Wycliffe ordinand affronted the young fogeys in the congregation by processing in [with Gregory Page-Turner] wearing an outsized L plate. Mike and Helen Parker were two rows behind me. Mike and I were fellow curates under Denis Lennon at St Thomas’s, Glasgow Road. Roy and Joke Ball were at St Marc’s, Grenoble when Joanna was there as a student. The first person that I met outside the church was [Bishop] Henry Scriven, who installed me in Lyon in 2000. Folli Olokose, a pillar of the congregation in Lyon, is now serving in the Guildford Diocese, a pillar of the ICS council and of General Synod. David & Angela Marshall and Michael & Lesley Sanders and Martin Reakes-Williams, now in Addis Ababa, were all familiar faces from past ICS conferences. As was John [and Jane] Dinnen, who kindly came to Lyon to lead a church weekend for us. John Wilkinson, a colleague and friend from a post-retirement spell at Holy Trinity, Brussels, was there; as were David & Anne Fieldsend, and Pam Clements, and David White. And a host of others.
I was sorry not to see Madge Olby, an occasionally reader of this blog. Who got a mention from Bishop Robert. And I was sorry not to see John Moore, another occasional reader, who invited us to go to Lyon. Nor Alyson Lamb, a friend and almost a neighbour these days down the road in Berwick. Nor David Healey, whom I see most Sundays anyway at St Peter’s, Lutton Place. He was planning to come, from Moreton in the Marsh, but was a casualty of train delays.
Envoi
When it ended I took the tube up to Holborn. And had a sentimental stroll through Bloomsbury, taking in Museum Street where I worked for eighteen months in the early 1970s. George Allen and Unwin are long gone, and the street is now dominated by pavement cafes. I sat drinking iced coffee, looking at The Museum Tavern, which is now called something else. And then made my way via Red Lion Square to Kings Cross for the train home. Where I had a long conversation with a Chinese student doing a PhD in Cryptography. He thought there might be a democracy deficit these days in China. Wasn’t sure if there was an Opposition. But poured scorn on the idea that the Confucius Institute may be spying on the activities of Chinese students in the UK. And so to Edinburgh where it was raining heavily.
I was sorry to have missed Dolly Parton.
June 2023
Through a glass darkly 