Sabbatical Stories: How it all began

Much as I loved the first series of BBC’s clerical sitcom, Rev, it largely overlooked one major development in East London in recent years, this being the dramatic growth in the number of African Christians worshipping in our churches. 

A phenomenon that the BNP would claim to be a threat to Christian Britain has actually been quietly revitalising the church here, to the point where a good number of Anglican congregations have changed and grown out of all recognition.

Of course, the term ‘African Christians’ could cover a huge range from Egyptians to Afrikaners but, in general, it has been those arriving from former British colonies in sub-Saharan Africa who have made the greatest impact.  A good number of Nigerians, Ghanaians, Ugandans, Kenyans and others have come to East London having often been staunch Anglicans at home. They and their children and grandchildren have not always found it easy to relate to the Church of England and its ways, but many - including a growing number of clergy – have contributed enormously to a renaissance in East London’s churches.

This contribution has not always been honoured or appreciated, while at  the same time some have been keen to highlight the negative issues  that can accompany rapid demographic change.  I decided, therefore, to spend part of my sabbatical looking at the experiences of African Christians in East London from a number of perspectives.

I wanted to listen to the stories of those who have been in the UK for some time, both Anglicans and others, as well as visiting Ghana and Kenya to learn from the people there, including church leaders.

The stories of my visits to Kenya and Ghana are for later posts, but I want to say first-of-all that my starting-point in this journey was Chigor Chike’s excellent book, African Christianity in Britain.  Chigor is a priest working in Newham and, in this book, wrote the first significant study of the impact of African Christians in the UK.

All this is not to ignore the contribution of other ethnic minorities to the life of this country.  In East London, we have a remarkably wide range of cultures represented in our congregations and among our clergy. Nevertheless, my aim this Summer was to learn from the particular experiences of black Africans, who make up the fastest-growing group in our churches today.  

If you want to follow this subject with me in greater detail, I can do no better to recommend that you read Chigor Chike’s book.  If you would like to email me about your own observations and experiences, please do (to a.westham@chelmsford.anglican.org ) or add your comments at the foot of this blog.

Sabbatical stories…

‘Half Barking’ has been taking a sabbatical, as you might have noticed if you have visited the site recently. I haven’t been sitting at home reading, though; these few months have been quite remarkable in so many ways.

Over the coming weeks I shall try to tell some of the stories from this Summer – stories of Kenya and Ghana, of generous hospitality received and love shared, of reflection on the past and new insights into the present, and of a profound and life-changing personal journey.

So, dear reader, watch this space over the coming days and enjoy the journey with me.

Cause for celebration…

Like all good wildlife, this blog has rather been in hibernation since the snows fell in mid-December and cold, dull winter set in. 

We’re well-and-truly awake now, though, with the great news of the announcement that Stephen Cottrell is to be the next Bishop of Chelmsford – whose diocese includes the five London borough which are the subject of this blog.

Bishop Stephen is currently Bishop of Reading but was ‘born and bred’ in Essex, and lived in Walthamstow during his student days, and so knows the area well.

Speaking in Chelmsford yesterday, he was clear about his priorities:

“What sustains me in ministry is the joy and beauty of the gospel. I want us to be a church that is gospel centred, servant hearted and mission focused. I am hungry for us to be a church that connects with every person and every community.

“I am excited by the prospect of getting to know and working alongside the parishes and communities of East London and Essex that make up this great diocese. I look forward to working with new colleagues and making new friends. Building upon the work of those who have gone before us in the faith, together we can do something beautiful for God in the communities we have been called to serve.

“For me coming to Essex and East London feels like coming home. However this is not the end of the journey. We must set our sights on the glory of God and on his son Jesus Christ and on the needs of the world – this is the path we will travel together.”

After a long hard winter, this is great news. We look forward to welcoming Bishop Stephen and his family to East London later in the year.

Snow joke!

The first snowfall of the winter has arrived, with an inch or two of snow here in London and ‘up to eight inches’ out in the Essex countryside.

As a result, the country is grinding to a halt, it seems. Essex Police are warning drivers ‘not to travel unless your journey is essential’, and the BBC is reporting that traffic on motorways is slowing to a crawl and flights being diverted away from airports in the South-East.

Readers from hardier places where they laugh at a foot of snow before breakfast might be surprised by this. The truth is that it is part of our way of life that we are never really ready for it. We had several days of the stuff falling from the sky in January, last winter, but that was the first serious snowfall in London for many years. For that reason, most of us don’t possess exotic things like snow-chains or studded tyres, and many have never even driven a car on ice. 

The good news is that Sunday’s football match at West Ham will go ahead whatever happens, thanks to the heated pitch which remains playable whatever the air temperature. Whether I will make it to the carols-by-candlelight in Wanstead afterwards remains to be seen.

If you would like to join me at this beautiful, historic church, for this very special service, you will be made very welcome.  It’s at 6.30pm on Sunday, 20 December,  at St Mary’s Church, Overton Drive, Wanstead.

Former Wanstead resident’s Ethiopia challenge

A former resident of Wanstead is transforming the lives of children in Ethiopia through a new venture.

Ralph Dubienski was a pupil at Forest School in the 1970s before moving to Alberta, Canada.

With some of his friends in Canada, Ralph has founded an organisation called HOPEthiopia, which exists to transform the lives of orphaned children in Ethiopia. The charity’s website at www.hopethiopia.com explains something of what it is about.

Ralph makes regular trips to Ethiopia, sometimes taking groups with him. The photo above was taken while he was there this Summer. The child lives at an orphanage which has 102 kids at present living in just two mud buildings with two house parents looking after all of them. These parents are in their mid 70″s.

The second picture shows Ralph sitting with the kids in their classroom in the village associated with land where HOPEthiopia is embarking on a major project.  2000 kids go to this school, with dirt floors, no lights or electricity, and 200 kids per classroom – 1 teacher per class!

Ralph and his charity are working hard to bring hope to these children and many more like them.  If you can help, do get in touch with him through the charity’s website.

Do you have a similar ‘good news’ story that you would like featured here?  Let me know if you do.

East London entertains the nation

From Vera Lynn to Stacey Solomon, via Sandie Shaw, Ronnie Scott and Iron Maiden, East London has made a remarkable contribution to the world of music.
Let’s start in Walthamstow, for example: The cover of Blur’s album. Parklife featured greyhound racing at Walthamstow Stadium, perhaps because Damon Albarn lived in Leytonstone while his dad taught at Walthamstow Art College. Ian Dury was a student there, as was Peter Blake, the artist responsible for the Beatles’ Sgt Pepper album cover.
The Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band’s Vivian Stanshall lived in Grove Road, Walthamstow, as a boy, while both Johnny Dankworth and Michael Nyman attended Monoux School . More recently, East 17 and Blazin’ Squad have flown the flag for the area.
Just down the road, John Lill and Bobby Crush – pianists of very different styles – both lived in the Leyton/Leytonstone area, as did Steve Harris and the rest of Iron Maiden.

A mile or two away, Ronnie Lane, Kenney Jones and Steve Marriott were forming the Small Faces in Manor Park, now part of Newham. It is said that Marriott’s dad, Bill, ran a Jellied Eels stall outside the Ruskin Arms in High Street North. Maybe they learned something from Bert Weedon, who was born in East Ham, or from Lonnie Donegan, who came to East Ham at the age of 2, but probably not from Vera Lynn, who was born in East Ham but later moved to Barking.
Apart from the forces’ sweetheart, Barking produced the great Billy Bragg, whose songs include A13 Trunk Road to the Sea and A New England, later a hit for Kirsty MacColl (linked to the area through her father, Ewan MacColl, one of the founders with his then wife, Joan Littlewood, of the Theatre Workshop which later had its heyday at the Theatre Royal, Stratford East). Other musicians from Barking & Dagenham include Brian Poole and the Tremeloes, Sandie Shaw, and Dudley Moore, who used to play the organ at St Thomas’ Church, Becontree.
Most recently, Dagenham’s Stacey Solomon has been winning fans on X-Factor, of course. If she needs inspiration, Stacey could look to earlier female singers from the area, Kathy Kirby and Millicent Martin, or to the very up-to-date Imogen Heap, from Havering, whose popularity was boosted by the use of her music on the OC.
The list of East London’s musicians seems to go on forever, and should certainly include Ronnie Scott, Jah Wobble, Marc Bolan, David Essex, and the Cockney Rejects, whose recording of I’m forever blowing bubbles is an interesting contrast to the better-known versions.
The question is, who are the stars of the future, perhaps singing in a school or church choir even now? Do YOU know a local up-and-coming talent or an East End kid with the voice of an angel? If so, let me know, and maybe we can feature them here.

Spare a tenner and win a shirt!

I’m not a great one for gambling, but here’s an opportunity to support an excellent cause, with the possibility of winning something very special.

An enterprising West Ham fan is running a draw to win the ‘poppy’ shirt worn by Danny Gabbidon when playing for West Ham United on Remembrance Sunday 2009.

All proceeds will be going to the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK, which is a great cause, not only because Bobby was the greatest footballer ever but also because of the work that the charity supports.

You can pledge anything from a pound upwards, by going to http://www.justgiving.com/westhamlist . I will have the honour of drawing the winning ticket at out home game against Chelsea on 20 December. Will it be yours?

Ascension Eagles soar to new heights

They have been UK National Champions ten years running. They are the best in Europe and among the top one per cent in the world. And they are based in one of the least fashionable parts of London. Who are they? They’re the Ascension Eagles, Britain’s top cheerleading team.

Ascension Eagles began in 1996, started by Shara Brice and her husband, Jonathan, as a grassroots outreach of the Church of England parish church of the Ascension, Canning Town, in the London borough of Newham. The aim was to keep young people off the streets and out of trouble.

In the beginning, the Eagles were known as the squad of rough kids from the East End. When they were ranked bottom at their first National Championships in 1997, it hurt. They didn’t like being at the wrong end of every table – whether for failing schools, poor health, or high rates of crime, unemployment or poverty. They decided that coming bottom at the Nationals was not something that they would accept; instead, they combined efforts with the aspiration of achieving a different result.

Remarkably, the following year, in 1998, they won their first National trophy. With sheer determination and hard work, this group of individuals from unpromising backgrounds had committed themselves to being the best they could be. And then, as if to prove to the world that they could, they went on winning National Championships, year after year.

A decade later, Ascension Eagles have firmly established themselves as the best of British cheerleading, consistently coming top in a sport that currently has 20,000 participants in the UK. In 2008, they represented England at the World Championships, to which only the world’s top one per cent are invited to compete. Remarkably, Ascension Eagles came away as the best Coed team outside the USA.

From an outreach project in London’s East End to being the best in the world outside the USA is quite a journey. They are the only team in the world to have retained a national championship title for over a decade. And yet the statistics that define the Eagles’ demographics have not changed. Today, Ascension Eagles coaches make a real impact on the lives of  over 2,000 children and young people each year through their work in schools and youth clubs. They are an East End success story. Their story is a story of true champions – champions in title and in the way they lives their lives.

East London’s Green Spaces, Forest and Lakes

© Copyright Danny Robinson and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence

It is a secret often kept from the rest of the world that East London is full of green spaces and lakes, and even has its own forest.
There are typical urban parks all over the place (Victoria Park, West Ham Park Lloyds Park etc) but also great swathes of green space with all sorts of activities going on.

Of course, the best known is Epping Forest, most of which is not actually anywhere near the Essex town of Epping. it is run by the Corporation of the City of London and starts less than two miles from the Olympic Park, at Forest Gate, appropriately. It covers 6,000 acres from Wanstead Flats and Manor Park to the south, via the Hollow Ponds on the edge of Walthamstow and Leytonstone, and the wide open spaces of Chingford Plain, all the way up and out to Loughton and Epping.
Here, you can watch football on Wanstead Flats, or walk around Alexandra Lake opposite my house, or go boating on the Hollow Ponds. You can visit Queen Elizabeth I’s hunting lodge, or fly a kite on Chingford Plain, get lost in Gilbert’s Slade, or admire the parkland around what was once one of the finest homes in England, Wanstead House (At its zenith it rivalled Chatsworth and Blenheim Palace, but was demolished in 1824!).

Not to be forgotten is that the forest is served by some excellent churches. St Mark’s, Forest Gate, and St Gabriel’s, Aldersbrook, sit either side of Wanstead Flats, while to the north of Wanstead Park there is the majestic St Mary’s, Wanstead, as fine a building as many a City of London church. North-east of Whipps Cross is the aptly-named St Peter’s-in-the-Forest, close to Forest School, with its excellent grounds surrounded by woodland.

Should you be tempted to explore these sights, whether on foot or by bike, or even on horseback, you might be glad to know of somewhere to eat and drink. Lamb’s Cafe, at the Whipps Cross end of Lea Bridge Road, was a favourite haunt of mine when I was at Forest School, and does a great all-day breakfast.  More recently, St Andrew’s Church, by the woods in Forest Glade, Leytonstone, has opened Cafe Refresh, which is a wonderful place with great food, a warm welcome and a real community feel.

Whatever you do, though, don’t tell anyone else!  Epping Forest is our secret.  Let the rest of the world watch EastEnders and think it’s all like that.

A trip to the theatre

The Theatre Royal, in Stratford, East London, is the West Ham United of the theatre world. That’s not because of any comparison with the Theatre of Dreams, as another club’s stadium is known, but for reasons that I shall come to in a moment.

As someone who loves the drama of worship, I have always been interested in the theatre. In that business, London’s West End is where people pay big prices to watch the big names and the big, glitzy productions, in audiences packed with tourists and suburban coach parties. West London is also the home of Chelsea FC, where people pay big prices to watch Roman Abramovich’s team, expensively assembled and much-loved by a new generation of fans, if by no-one else. Older, wiser locals remember when Fulham were the local glamour club, back in the 50s.

East London might not have the glamour of Chelsea, but it has a more-than –respectable footballing tradition of its own. Before Hackney Marshes became the past of the Olympic site, it used to host hundreds of matches every weekend. Going up the scale, teams like Dagenham & Redbridge and Leyton FC are the descendants of countless clubs that have graced the game at various levels, while West Ham United and Leyton Orient are more widely-known.

Both the Hammers and the ‘O’s enjoyed something of a golden era in the 1960s, when Orient were promoted to the top flight, and West Ham were winning friends and trophies alike with their flowing football. But, to be honest, both clubs could do with a bit of that success now. Not every performance in recent years has been full of the flair and the excitement that the 1960s fans enjoyed. Sometimes, being a football fan is about disappointment.

The East End has its theatre traditions, too, and a few good theatres, too. There’s the Arcola, and the Hackney Empire, Stepney’s Half Moon theatre, and the historic Wilton’s Music Hall. Further out, Ilford has its Kenneth Moore and Hornchurch its Queen’s theatre.

For me, though, the pick of the bunch has long been the Theatre Royal, Stratford East. The West Ham United of the theatre world. It was here that, from the mid-50s to the mid-70s, Joan Littlewood, with her Theatre Workshop, was at the cutting edge of British drama. With shows like A taste of honey and Oh! what a lovely war, Littlewood tutored a generation of remarkable actors, including Yootha Joyce, Brian Murphy, Murray Melvin, Barbara Windsor and Harry H Corbett, among others.

I must have seen at least half the plays staged at Stratford since I first started going there the mid-70s. Five Guys names Moe started here, and recent highlights have included The harder they come, The Big Life, Marilyn and Ella, and Come Dancing, with Ray Davies and an excellent cast.  I love the place, and love the people who have challenged and entertained me there over the years.

And so it was that last Friday I went along to see the latest production, Cosh Omar’s The Great Extension. Apparently, The Stage used the words ‘…entertaining multi-cultural hotchpotch’. Well, I agree with the word ‘hotchpotch’, at least, but -and maybe I have a low boredom threshold – I certainly wasn’t entertained. I found it simply offensive and boring. I left the theatre feeling as flat as a football fan who has just seen his favourite team lose without trying.

I should have noticed the signs, of course; that the theatre appeared half-empty on what should have been a busy night; that the management were giving tickets away on Facebook. Maybe others had read reviews that I missed?   But at the time I was hugely disappointed about the theatre for which I have such affection.

In time, I shall probably return to the Theatre Royal, of course, just like the fans who follow their favourite football club, whatever the results. Everyone has their off days, I realise, and no theatre can guarantee non-stop hits. The point is that no-one died. It was just a bad night at the theatre. Nothing worse than that. I live in hope.

For me, being a follower of Jesus Christ is about hope. Hope that, even when things are bad, they can always get better. Hope that, even when people disappoint us, or when we disappoint others, there is always tomorrow, always something to be hopeful about. That where there is failure there is always the possibility of redemption.

When you understand that, you realise that neither football nor theatre is a matter of life and death in the great scheme of things, whatever Bill Shankly said. There are more important things in life.

In truth, not every one of my sermons is a cracker. So, if you have ever heard me speak and been disappointed, remember this. Nothing is as important as the love of God for you. God so loved the world that he sent his one-and-only son… You will find the rest of the story in John’s Gospel. It’s worth reading. You won’t be disappointed. I guarantee it.