Sunday, August 08, 2010

Around My Patch, Lambeth Mission & St Mary's (LMSM)





(LMSM)


Our website says this about the fellowship that meets at LMS

I love that  "and others" :)

For the almost the past year this has been home and work. The welcome that I received when I came was amazing. Today Visitors for the first time as they left said how they had felt so welcome it's great when you here that kind of feed back. It's the little things that count more than the big. The lady who does the tea and coffee today came to where I was sat to say she had put a Black Coffee on the side for me. It makes you feel wanted and special when those little things are remembered ( all our teas and coffee are ready made and brought into the back of the main hall ready and waiting for the end of the service, it's a real blessing to have her with us to)

The church  has a long and rich history 

There has been a Methodist presence in Lambeth since the time of John Wesley when he preached at Kennington Common. A short distance from the site of LMSM. The common now the site of kenington park has had a interesting history too


Kennington Park was first opened in 1854 and lies between Kennington Park Road and St Agnes Place. It had previously been called 'Kennington Common', and until 1800 was the site of public executions as well as being the South London 'speakers corner'. Methodist founders George Whitefield and John Wesley are some of the illustrious orators to speak at the Common and are reputed to have attracted a crowd of 30,000.


The site of public executions.. the place where Whitefield and  Wesley preached putting the old self to death and walking in the new life the Christ has for us... fitting perhaps 




The church was known in later times as the IDEAL when Thomas Tiplady, who was also a Hymn writer and wrote "Above the hills of time the cross is gleaming."  used the new medium of Film to put across the gospel message. 
The Ideal

The church was hit in 1945 by a V2 a plaque inside the church   remembers this  and rebuilt in 1950.

The architect for the rebuilding was Alec Gavin, and Tiplady then  commissioned Bainbridge Copnall to provide a monumental sculpture for the front.


officially Called the Word... It's more commonly called the Lambeth Street preacher

What as interesting for me was that when I started at the church I had the idea of starting a group fro the teenagers using movies as the starting point for a bible study or discussion group I had no idea of the background and history of the church. I'm sure rev Tiplady would approve of 3-18 teenagers turning up to the church flat on a friday night. 

1 comment:

  1. Kennington Common ... loved the way you linked this to dying to self ... Wesley would be grinning at that!!!

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