A clear and simple guide to Street Pastors and some of their Churches



 

     

 

 Above, the Ship of Fools

 

An extract from the site

 

http://ship-of-fools.com/mystery/

 

' ... Ship of Fools has been sending Mystery Worshippers to churches worldwide. Travelling incognito, they ask those questions which go to the heart of church life: How long was the sermon? How hard the pew? How cold was the coffee? How warm the welcome?

The only clue they have been there at all is the Mystery Worshipper calling card, dropped discreetly into the collection plate.

 

I take a much more rigorous view. I'm not a worshipper, of course, but I think that worshippers should take a less flippant view. Those questions aren't the basics at all. The questions that are important include this. Does the Church promote belief in Hell - or Eternal Separation from God - if a person, eg a person who lives in the parish, a person who works in local businesses, local schools and the rest - I give many more examples in these pages - has no belief in Jesus Christ as Personal Lord and Saviour, for a variety of reasons. Again, some of the reasons are given in these pages.

 

 

 

 

Email  


      

 

 

Sheffield Street Pastors: Preacher and Street Pastor Tricia Watts. Church Army 'Key Evangelist' and Street Pastor Kinder Kalsi

 

 

Above, Tricia Watts, Coordinator, Sheffield Street Pastors, preaching to the converted at Rock Christian Centre, Sheffield on good-good news and good-bad news, on Jesus as the Saviour of the World (exceptions apply: unsaved sinners, the vast majority of people in the world, past and present, not included.) Message 'Baby born in a stable' stuck to newspaper by evangelist, not added to image by me. See also the profile of Jon Watts, Senior Pastor at Rock Christian Centre and married to Tricia Watts,

 

www.linkagenet.com/themes/fefe.htm

 

 

 

Above, 'Evening Prayer with Smartphone' from the Facebook page of Attercliffe and Darnall Centre of Mission, Sheffield. Kinder Kalsi on the left, Gina Kalsi in the centre, person on the right not identified here. Kinder Kalsi on Sheffield Street Pastors: 'Gods hands and Feet on the streets of sheffield' [Punctuation as in the original.]

 

Tricia Watts. Supplementary material on Rock Christian Centre 

 

From the profile of Tricia Watts not on this page but the page

 

http://www.rockchristiancentre.org/people/tricia-watts/

 'I love taking Barney walking (dog) and love holidaying in hot places!'


The profile of Tricia Watts here will have to be very different from the profile of Tricia Watts published by Rock Christian Centre and the Centre will be criticized too. The Centre gives a clear statement of  belief.

 

http://www.rockchristiancentre.org/what-we-believe/

 

According to Rock Christian Centre, people are 'corrupted by sin, which incurs divine wrath and judgement' and 'justification of sinners' is 'solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ.' This is the doctrine that 'good works' do nothing to avoid 'divine wrath and judgement.' What the statement doesn't do is to spell out the hideous consequences. I do that below, using a wide range of examples. Everyday acts of kindness and goodness, saving life in extreme circumstances are of no avail. A person may be a loving mother or loving father, a humanitarian, a scientist or engineer who has made enormous contributions to human welfare, but without the faith in Christ as personal Lord and Saviour, they are all subject to the divine wrath and judgement and destined to spend eternity in separation from God.

 

Rock Christian Centre, like Kinder and Gina Kalsi's Centre of Mission, has published no Safeguarding Policy and has no Safeguarding Officer. Why not? Both centres belong to the organization 'Arise!' which includes the Diocese of Sheffield.

 

Amongst the blessings bestowed on Tricia Watts and Kinder Kalsi is this: they were chosen to present the award for best pub and runner up pubs at a ceremony organized by 'Sheffield Best Bar None.'

 

From the page

 

https://bbnuk.com/best-of-the-best-bar-none-in-sheffield-recognised-in-ceremony/

 

Sheffield Best Bar None hosted it [as in the original] 11th Annual Awards Ceremony on Thursday 13th February at Sheffield City hall Ballroom.

 

Pub – Presented by Tricia Watts & Kinder Kalsi – Sheffield Street Pastors

Runner Up – Benjamin Huntsman

Runner Up – Sheffield Waterworks

Winner – Bankers Draft

 

Tricia Watts is the Coordinator of Sheffield Street Pastors.

 

The Best Bar None page pays tribute to the work of Sheffield Street Pastors, although the tribute seems half-hearted: 'They are familiar will most of the people on the streets, and will often have a chat or signpost to support services ... ' Street Pastors like to present themselves as being on 'the front line,' even though it's the police who are on the front line in the episodes of chaos and violence which take place in city centres late at night and early in the morning. They're on the front line - they're the first line of defence - when missiles are thrown during violent protests, when gunmen open fire and thugs wielding knives injure and kill.

 

A serious omission: the half-hearted tribute to street pastors doesn't mention something which is not just important to these and other street pastors but far more important than offering water to intoxicated people or administering amateurish first aid, occasionally. The tribute doesn't mention the 'Power of Prayer.' The Street Pastors would regard themselves as much more important than the police, who are simply doing 'man's work.' They are doing God's work! Or that's what they claim. Prayer can work miracles, or that's what they claim. From

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jul0ET4-8bw
which is about the work of Reading Street Pastors.

 
'If there's a fight going on, I'll ask God to intervene.'    31s

At 6:21, a Street Pastor turns to prayer. The words of his prayer:  

 

'They just had a bit of a fight in the doorway between two groups  So father I just ask you into the situation to deal with it  to keep these groups separated and may they all go home safely on their own.'

 

Street Pastors are part of the 'Ascension Trust. Their site has a page on prayer and Prayer Pastors

 

https://www.ascensiontrust.org.uk/about-us/prayer/

 

Prayer Pastors:

 

  • Come to base, support the street pastor teams any way they can and ‘pray them out’

  • Stay in contact with the street pastor team on patrol and keep a log of calls & incidents

  • Respond to specific needs and situations that arise

  • Pray for protection and divine appointments

  • See frequent answers to their prayers

Tonight (29/30th September 2018) at 1 am we had a call from the team of four street pastors in Portrush. The team members had been talking to a young man from Draperstown (33 miles away), who was rather the worse for wear and needed to get home. He did have money to pay for a taxi, and the team asked us to pray for a taxi or a way home for him.


We prayed immediately and within 7 minutes had another phone call to base. A couple had pulled up in their car and asked if the Street Pastors were ok, and was there anything they could do to help? It so happened that they were from Maghera (6 miles from Draperstown)!


When the driver of the car and the guy in need of a lift realised it was a perfect fit, they happily bumped fists. The guy got in and they drove off.

 

What a lovely quick answer to our prayers – within just a few minutes!”

 

Is God's power confined to small events, such as 'a bit of a fight' and ordering a taxi? The Street Pastors would surely say that God's power is much greater than that. God is all-powerful, according to them. Strange that the page should include the minor matter of the taxi and only one other example of an answer to prayer when a very large number of other examples are available to them if the prayer pastors 'see frequent answers to their prayers.'

 

If God is willing to help out by providing a taxi, why was God unwilling to help in cases where the need was so much greater?

 

When Nazi Germany was about to invade Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Poland, Russia and the rest, when Nazi Germany was planning to invade Britain, was prayer the answer? Would it have been the slightest use if a Christian had prayed, 'father I just ask you into the situation to deal with it to keep these groups separated ... ?'

 

It was armed force, not prayer, which eventually defeated Nazi Germany and lifted the nightmare of summary executions, systematic killing in the concentration camps and the extermination camps and the whole apparatus of terror.

 

Tricia Watts and the other Street Pastors keep quiet about this but I've no reason to keep quiet, every reason to challenge their evasiveness.

 

Tricia Watts, and the others, believe that the police who put their lives at risk, the police they see during their night-time activities, are all doomed to spend eternity in separation from God, in hell - apart from the tiny minority who 'accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour. They believe that all the people they help or claim to help in their night-time ministry, by offering water or directing them to the social services or whatever) are all doomed to spend eternity in separation from God, in hell - apart from the tiny minority who 'accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.'

 

They believe that all the people who fought and died to oppose the Nazis share exactly the same fate as the Nazis themselves, eternity in separation from God, in hell,  by offering water or directing them to the social services or whatever) are all doomed to spend eternity in separation from God, in hell - apart from the tiny minority who 'accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour.'

 

Tricia Watts held up a copy of the newspaper 'The News of the World' and gave some trivial, but quite witty examples of good-bad news. She didn't give any examples of the horrific bad news to be found in newspapers, the rape of babies, the killing of babies, rescue attempts which came to nothing, children sold by parents who had next to nothing left, tragic accidents, and so much more. Does she have very limited empathy, very limited recognition of the scale of the suffering of people? These are examples, surely, of bad-bad news, or news which would be bad-bad news if it were not for the human goodness which again and again is a counterpoint to the bad news, the human goodness which tries to prevent the bad or limit the bad but so often comes to nothing. These people too are destined to spend eternity in separation from God, in hell.

 

After giving a few trivial examples of good-bad news, Tricia Watts claimed - proclaimed - that Jesus is different. Jesus is 'good-good news.' What? Is she serious? (She isn't serious in the sense of a serious person making a serious contribution to a serious subject.) She preaches, Rock Christian Centre preaches, that Jesus is 'the saviour of the world.' Nothing of the kind. Since most of the world is made up of people who have been , are and will be peple without an active faith in Jesus as Lord and Saviour, the vast majority of people are 'unsaved sinners.' Jesus has saved, according to these hideous doctrines, only a tiny minority, not 'the world.'

 

The people who did backbreaking work - and still do backbreaking work - for 12 hours a day, 14 hours a day, 16 hours a day and who had a few days holiday in the year and never a holiday in the sun, although they may have worked in the sun, suffering from thirst as well as exhaustion, have also been consigned to hell. If it seems difficult or impossible to imagine a place worse than the stone quarries at Mauthausen concentration camp, where inmates were worked to death, or the nightmarish conditions of the other camps, Christians have come up with a much worse place. The nightmarish conditions of the camps were for a limited time, but hell is for ever, according to the Chrstian 'good news' (or 'good-good' news) of these people.

 

The air crews who flown Tricia Watts to her holidays in the sun and the people who have served her needs at the hotels where she stayed share Hell with Nazis, as 'unsaved sinners,' apart from the tiny minority of saved sinners.

 

Not forgetting the staff and customers of the Bankers Draft pub, which received the award from Tricia Watts and Kinder Kalsi. They would probably be surprised to learn that the pair who presented the award believe, with complete conviction, that the 'unsaved sinners' among the staff and customers are destined to spend eternity in hell.

 

 

Kinder Kalsi, Centre of Mission

 

 Amongst the issues discussed in this section: The Centre of Mission's failure to publish a Safeguarding Policy or to appoint a Safeguarding Officer, risks and practical difficulties associated with some of their 'Mission Methods,'  the Mission's prayer and prayer-walking, the Rock Centre's failure to publish a Safeguarding Policy or to appoint a Safeguarding Officer, the Rock Centre and 'the power of prayer,' Tricia Watts and holidays in the sun, Tricia Watts and hellfire for unbelievers, Kinder Kalsi and Tricia Watts present an award for 'the best pub.'


Above, an image (modified so as to observe copyright) from a series of prayer videos published by the Centre. Most have recorded 0 views. Two of them, including this one, are much more popular - no less than 3 views each!  During most of the prayer session, not just the introduction, part of it shown here, but the prayers, Kinder Kalsi is shown with eyes down, obviously looking at the screen of his Smartphone, his fingers shown again and again tapping on the keypad. He may be praying or giving the appearance of praying, but his mind is obviously on other things. Recommended, a viewing of the video:

 

https://www.facebook.com/AttercliffeCofM/
videos/1029186674298705/

 

The Attercliffe and Darnall Centre  of Mission was established jointly by Diocese of Sheffield and Church Army, with the support of Sheffield Methodist Circuit and the United Reform Church. The Church Army appointed Kinder Kalsi  Lead Evangelist and Gina Kalsi Pioneer Evangelist.

 

The oversight of the Diocese of Sheffield and the Church Army - and the other Churches - has been grossly deficient. Most Sheffield Churches and Church organizations have a safeguarding policy.

 

The existence of a safeguarding policy is no guarantee that abuse won't occur, of course. Julie Morris, Staff Governor, Religious Education teacher and Safeguarding Lead at St George's Central Church of England School in Wigan was sentenced to imprisonment, along with her partner, for a large number of child abuse offences, including nine counts of rape. They filmed themselves abusing and raping a girl under the age of 13.

 

Publication of a Safeguarding Policy is a statement that the Church takes safeguarding seriously. To ensure that everything possible is done to prevent abuse in the Church takes far more effort than simple publication of a Safeguarding Policy (or praying, so often a substitute for effective action.) Lack of a Safeguarding Policy amounts to an admission that safeguarding is a low priority for the Church or a Church organization, or isn't in the least important.

 

 

The Diocese of Sheffield is a member of the very large group of Churches called 'Arise!' A significant number of these Churches don't have a Safeguarding Officer or publish a Safeguarding Policy. The Attercliffe and Darnall Centre of Mission doesn't seem to have a Safeguarding Officer or Safeguarding Policy.  Putting search terms which include these words into Google gives no results. Why not? Why haven't the Sheffield Diocese and the Church Army, who established the Centre for Mission, made absolutely clear the need for a Safeguarding Policy and the publication of a Safeguarding Policy? Why haven't they madi it absolutel clear that the Centre of Mission has to have a Safeguarding Officer? The Centre for Mission has helpers. Four of them are mentioned by Kinder Kalsi in his early morning attempt to bring the Gospel to a few people in Sheffield. Were the helpers vetted? What safeguarding controls are in place at the Centre for Mission? None at all?

 

The material above on safeguarding was added very recently. Before publishing it here, as a matter of courtesy I sent a short email to Gina Kalsi to inform her about these safeguarding issues and to give her the chance to comment before I published this new material, if she wanted to comment. The email never reached her - it was blocked. I've known for a long time that Tim Ling of the Church Army had blocked all emails from me to all members of the Church Army. I explain the circumstances at the end of this section. Tim Ling's decision was a blunder and does him no credit at all, I'm sure.  What I didn't know is that he'd imposed blocking to a much wider range of recipients, including Gina Kalsi. The issue is important, I have no other convenient way of contacting Gina Kalsi - I'm not a member of Twitter or Facebook, so I don't make use of whatever methods of contact Twitter and Facebook make available to members.

 

This is a very instructive case. There's more striking information and comment on these Church Army 'Key Evangelists,' particularly in Stage 2.

The 3 stages in this Mission - and so many other missions - as I see it.


Stage 1. Excitement, elation, claims that God is not just lending a helping hand in the birth of the mission but actively guiding his disciples. Action - prayer, more prayer and even more prayer, even though these people would recognize that God already knows what they want to achieve for God, his kingdom and the community. Emphasis upon transformation - transforming lives, transforming communities. If challenged - but they are practically never challenged, although they are here - the evangelists/transformers would be very unlikely to give an honest answer to this direct question:

 

Do you or don't you believe that the people you intend to reach in the community you intend to transform will spend eternity in fellowship with God if they accept your message - if they ever hear about it - and will spend eternity in separation from God - in the place traditionally called 'hell' - if they don't hear about it or do hear about it but don't accept it - perhaps for the reason that their lives involve backbreaking hours at work or work which takes up most of their time and energy or their lives involve other intense - sometimes horrendous - difficulties and they never get round to considering the issues - and if they ever do consider the issues, find intellectual or ethical or practical difficulties in your message.

 

Kinder Kalsi is of Sikh origin. Does he believe that Sikhs not converted to belief in Christ as Lord and Saviour are destined for hell, or eternal separation from Christ? Attercliffe and Darnall have many, many believers in Islam and many mosques. Do Gina and Kinder Kalsi see any difficulties here for the 'transformation' of Attercliffe and Darnall. Is the mass conversion of Attercliffe and Darnall to belief in Christ in the least likely?

 

The birth of this Mission wasn't a difficult one. It had a great deal of support, the support of the Church Army, the support of the Diocese, and of other Churches. The Methodist Church is mentioned in the publicity material published by the Diocese but the United Reform Church was also involved.

 

From the site

 

https://www.sheffield.anglican.org/news/
evangelists-appointed-to-attercliffe-darnall-sheffield-centre-of-mission

 

Evangelists appointed to Attercliffe & Darnall (Sheffield) Centre of Mission

2nd December 2019

 'Church Army has announced the appointment of two pioneering evangelists for the new centre of mission in Attercliffe & Darnall (Sheffield) to build new Christian communities among groups currently untouched by church. The centre is being established jointly by Diocese of Sheffield and Church Army, with the support of Sheffield Methodist Circuit

'Kinder Kalsi CA [CA: 'Church Army'] has been appointed Lead Evangelist and the Reverend Gina Kalsi has been appointed Pioneer Evangelist. Both Kinder and Gina are currently engaged in Christian mission in Sheffield and bring considerable skills, knowledge and vision relevant to their new patch. It is expected that they will take up their posts around the beginning of March.
 
'The centre will work in collaboration with the Church of Christ/St Albans and other local churches, and will build on the foundations of previous mission in the area, seeking to enable new people to encounter God’s love, and to transform their community through faith expressed in word and action.   
 
'Fuller information will be publicised when the launch of the centre is announced publicly.'

 

Stage 2. After the mission has begun, attempts to publicize the issues. The focus is entirely upon the so called  'good news,' not the bad news, the fate which awaits 'the others.' The Trasformation Claims continue. Prayer continues, and often on a massive scale - even though the evangelists believe that God, supposedly omnipotent, already knows  what the evangelists want to achieve, is already completely aware of their own needs, the needs of the community - the needs of the community as they see things, from their own perspective - there's absolutely no guarantee that their views is free from distortion, based upon incomplete, very faulty evidence.

 

The information here comes from these main sources:

 

The page 'YOU'RE INVITED TO CUPPA WITH A KEY WORKER'

 

https://churcharmy.org/cuppa/

 

'Cuppa with a key worker is your chance to hear from staff on the frontline of Church Army's work where you are and across the UK and Ireland.'

 

The page includes this:

 

April 2021 featuring David Craig and Emma Taylor from Envoy Community as well as Gina and Kinder Kalsi from Church Army's Attercliffe & Darnall's Centre of Mission.

 

The interview with Gina and Kinder Kalsi is at

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7TdtgpRJnc4

 

125 views so far, long after the interview was published. I'll come back to the interview later. Before that, I'll comment on his Lindedin profile and his Twitter and Facebook pages, where Kinder Kalsi has a lot say about himself, his activities, the pleasures he finds in life, but not so much specific information about his evangelism.

 

Extracts from his Linkedin profile:

 

Lead evangelist for attercliffe and Darnal Centre of Mission at Church Army UK & Ireland [Spelling: 'Darnal' here should be 'Darnall.']

 

About
I have a heart for community cohesion through Christian Values. I want people to go through life through the cycle of Grace....1. know they are loved by God. 2. Their identity 3. what sustains them and then 4. and then achievement.

 

[So, he has 'a heart for community cohesion through Christian Values. According to the site

https://www.citypopulation.de/en/uk/
yorkshireandthehumber/wards/
sheffield/E05010864__darnall/

Darnall had in 2020 7,528 Christian people and 8,451 Moslem people. I haven't found figures for Attercliffe but this is another area with many Moslem believers. Kinder Kalsi said, accurately or not, that there are 9 mosques in Attercliffe and Darnall. How can he possibly expect to establish 'community cohesion through Christian Values, unless Christian evangelists like himself and Gina Kalsi convert the Moslems, or most of them, to Christianity. This is never going to happen. He's living in a dream world. How many people in total have he and Gina Kalsi converted to Christianity since the Mission was established, to the best of his knowledge? Thousands, hundreds, a few, next to none or none? I've found plenty of claims about little things, very little things, but nothing about major successes - successes for them, that is.]

Back to his Linkedin page:

I love networking .....
Community Evangelist and Training Enabler St Bart's and St Stephen's Church
Aug 2009 - Jul 2013   4 years

Sheffield, United Kingdom

I work where people are ..... in 2 local schools, pubs, local groups and run a youth Club.

I also enable the training of future church army officers.

He gives a comprehensive and detailed Curriculum Vitae, including this information:

Lollypop man
Ealing council
Sep 1983 - Jul 1985  1 year 11 months

Store Manager
B&Q
Jan 1986 - Sep 1999   13 years 9 months

all over west london from greenford, hayes, Chiswick, staples corner, Slough
from Saturday Checkout operator (greenford) to Store Manager (slough)

 

Highly recommended, a viewing of a Facebook video showing Kinder Kalsi in action:

https://m.facebook.com/ibringyougoodnews/posts/
2535299096581426?locale=sw_KE

The film shows him in Sheffield City Centre, just before 7 o' clock, as people are arriving for work. He explains that he's not usually up this early - an exception is 'getting on an aeroplane, for holiday.' He explains that he and his helpers have 767 angels 'to deliver.' The angels are fluffy toys which it seems have been knitted. Most of the shops are closed. The angels are placed anywhere where they could be found. He's shown planting one of them on top of a bollard, where it can easily fall off. He hopes that someone will find it and he says that people 'might' find some of the angels 'when they come into work this morning.

There seems to be nothing fixed to the angels to explain why they've been put in the street but according to a report in The Star newspaper, each angel has a message stating 'you are loved by God this Christmas, take this home as a reminder.'

This message, calculated to inspire a sudden rush of warm feeling in the person reading it, comes with the burden of dogma. A reader who knows nothing about the dogma may be impressed, but exploration of the faith reveals a hideous message rather than a message of hope. People who never accept the message or remain indifferent to it are doomed, according to the dogma.

The vast majority of people who notice an angel or find an angel are likely to be mystified, puzzled, but only for a few moments, if that. They'll have other things to think of. If they lead isolated lives and are very lonely, the angel will do nothing to take away the feeling of loneliness at Christmas.

It would be difficult to imagine a more pointless exercise than this distribution of angel dolls, if the objective is to convert people - and that's the real objective. All it will achieve is a contribution to litter in the city centre. The people who knitted these dolls were wasting their time, or could have spent their time on much more important things.

 From the Twitter page of the Attercliffe and Darnall Centre of Mission:

Calling all creatives which is all of us really.

From its Facebook page (16 January 2022):

Played games and chatted life
Thank you God for a dishwasher for the bulk of it.

The Church Army Prayer Diary had a request to pray for Kinder Kalsi, Lead Evangelist. Have the prayers for Kinder Kalsi requested in the Prayer Diary had any effect? The Facebook page of St Arban's Church Sheffield ;

https://facebook.com/StAlbanssheffield/

includes an image of a poster publicizing an event:

12 Hours of Prayer for Attercliffe and Darnall
Sunday 23 January
St Albans Church.

Attercliffe and Darnall Centre of Mission took part in the event.

Back to the Church Army Cuppa Video. The video is introduced by 'CA Comms (Neil), who hands over to Neville Willerton, the Church Army Director of Operations. Some of the views and activities of Attercliffe and Darnall Centre of Mission mentioned in the video.

Angels - larger than the ones used in the futile Sheffield city centre event - were placed 'in strategic positions' in the neighbourhood. Many of them have been attached to trees in the local woods, together with paper butterflies. The messages attached have next to nothing to say, inevitable when the space on the angel or butterfly is so small. Why should people who want to walk in woodland have to see these inane attempts to convert people? Does someone who wants to appreciate the trees and the wildlife have to see these things? When the angels and the butterflies begin to look untidy, when the rain turns them soft and soggy, when they turn to litter, did the Centre of Mission remove the litter?

They have obviously spent a very long time praying for their mission activities. What they have completely neglected are the risks associated with some of their activities. Were the notes that came with the angels and other items attached with pins that could cause harm to a young child who picks one of them up or is given one of them?

Dog faeces can pose a significant health risk to humans, particularly young children as their immune systems are not fully developed.  An angel or butterfly that falls in the soil in the woodland can pick up dog faeces. All faeces contain bacteria that can cause stomach upsets, but the greatest risk is from toxocariasis, which is  is particularly hazardous to small children as it can result in blindness. 

Gina Kalsi: 'We did lots and lots of prayer walking.' To attempt to solve problems in a community often needs a great deal of work, sometimes a massive amount of very demanding work. It often requires money, often a great deal of money. It requires stamina, a whole range of personal qualities and often special skills. Success can't be guaranteed. People who spend a great deal of time on insoluble problems, people who use methods which have no prospect at all of achieving the objective are wasting their time.

 

Attempts to solve problems of crime, vandalism by prayer walking are futile. Attempts to bring peace to the world or greater security to an estate by prayer walking are futile. Attempts to convert non-believers and believers in other religions to Christian belief are futile. Attempts to increase the numbers of people giving up their time to the Centre of Mission by prayer walking are futile. Prayer walking encourages a facile approach.

The evidence provided by Kinder and Gina Kalsi for God's answer to their prayers is minuscule. Gina Kalsi mentions a family who 'were praying to other Christians to move near them and so we've connected in with them as well. So God has really been at work connecting us into them.'

Some of the material above was published on the site but I removed it before long. I'd spoken with Kinder Kalsi by phone and found him an amiable person. I never comply with orders to remove material from the site. I take a great deal of care to ensure that the material is fair-minded but if someone can show that the material is unfair to some extent, or if the person can show that their personal circumstances are very, very difficult, then I'll consider removing material.

I've sometimes decided not to publish material on a person in the first place if I know that the person is facing difficulties or for other reasons. I've sometimes decided not to publish because the person is young. I think young people should be allowed to make their mistakes (which may be far less serious than the mistakes of much older people, of course) without the penalty of adverse comment, but not in every case.

Eventually, I decided to restore the material on Kinder Kalsi, and to extend it.  I took into account the fact that he's a Church Army Evangelist, and the actions of the Church Army, in particular the actions of Tim Ling and Lu Skerratt-Love of the Church Army's Research Unit, give me no reason at all to spare the Church Army adverse publicity. Banning, blocking and attempted censorship for no good reason are serious matters.

If I ever find that Kinder (and Gina Kalsi) don't believe any longer in Jesus Christ as Lord and Saviour then I'll probably remove all the material on them, although it's possible I'd retain it as archived material. The advantages of a continued income from the Church of England may act as an inducement to continue evangelizing, or attempting to evangelize, but I'd hope that if they ever had serious doubts about their faith and lost their faith, they wouldn't let the (loss of) money stand in their way.

As it is, they obviously believe in the power of prayer so they can pray for my conversion if they like, whilst continuing to pray for the transformation of Attercliffe and Darnall. if only they could realize that the mass conversion of Attercliffe and Darnall by their efforts, by prayer walking or other forms of prayer, by God's work on their behalf in response to prayer - is impossible.

Stage 3. A condition I'll call 'Evangelist's Ennui,' a kind of resignation, apathy, disillusionment but not experienced with any intensity, I would think. The heady days when the Mission project began are in the past, prayer is now deluded-mechanical rather than deluded-intense, conviction that the project will achieve very much has largely gone - but the Evangelist is as convinced as ever that God called the Evangelist to the project, the project was blessed by God, that prayer is answered, that the final outcome will (prabably) be glorious. The Evangelist disregards any evidence to the contrary. The Gospel accounts give sources of comfort and consolation to many Christians not known to non-Christians - belief in the work of the devil and demons, who can disrupt the plans, even if the final outcome will (prabably) be glorious.

Supplementary background information on the machinations of Tim Ling and Lu Skarratt-Love. Other pages of the site give more detail.

I have two allotments on the Morley Street site, which is very near to St Polycarp's Church. My Website has material on my allotments. (There are many images on the Home Page of the site.) I found that it was proposed to start a garden church on the Morley Street site. I sent a detailed email to various recipients giving argument and evidence why I found the proposal to be flawed. Amongst other things, I mentioned issues to do with security and safety. I pointed out that there had been a murder on a nearby allotment, although this was a long time ago. A young person was stabbed with a garden fork. There have been incidents of criminal damage and  aggression to allotment holders, a disturbing, if intermittent record of trouble. One of the emails was sent to Lu Skerratt-Love, since she'd publicized the proposed garden church and was prominent in the Forest Church Movement in Sheffield, synonymous with the garden church movement.

 


I sent it to the email address of the Church Army, since this was the only email address I could find. The email never reached her, since Tim Ling of the Church Army had blocked my emails not to her but to all other members of his department, and, I found, other people as well. The tone of my emails was courteous, written in a matter of fact style. They have also guided the people involved with the garden church (Lu Skerratt-Love seems not to have taken a direct role.) It was announced that the inaugural meeting of the garden church due to take place in September would need to be delayed, whilst attention was paid to matters to do with security/safety. It can only have been my email which led to the decision. I'd pointed out matters which they had overlooked. They had also overlooked the immense pile of garbage - plastic waste, metal and other things - in the site of the proposed church. I'm informed that this had been dumped there by a member of the community group which had given permission to the garden church to hold services there, in defiance of allotment law, as I pointed out. I've done everything possible to bring people's  attention to the flytipping but it was overlooked by the garden church members. My Website gives a great deal of other information about the issues.

 


In October, South Yorkshire Police contacted me to inform me that they had received a complaint from Lu Skerratt-Love, who wanted me to remove all reference to her from my Website. This was an outrageous request, an interference in free expression. On 23 November, I received a message from the police giving a further complaint from Lu Skerratt-Love, who stated that she didn't wish to receive emails from me and that the emails must cease. But Lu Skerratt-Love must have known that I hadn't been sending any emails. Emails from me were blocked and are still blocked. This was surely a clear-cut waste of police time. This matter will have caused distress to the young policewoman who had to deal with this completely unnecessary complaint. Lu Skerratt-Love has obviously no understanding of the pressures on the police, the many, many demands on police time. This issue isn't at an end. I intend to do much more.

 

 

Poster outside the 'offices and prayer space' of St Alban's Christian Community, including Kinder Kalsi's and Gina Kalsi's Centre of Mission. I can' email either Kinder Kalsi or Gina Kalsi to inform them about the material here.

Above, another poster. This is actively misleading and evasive. 'We give thanks for the people in our area who are helping others out, being good neighbours, and looking after us all.' 'We give thanks to God that the Lockdown and Vaccination programmes are bringing down the rate of Covid-19 infection in our area.'

But all the churches and church organizations mentioned at the bottom of the poster have conservative evangelical views - they adhere to the doctrine that good works - such as helping others out, being good neighbours, looking after us all, helping to prevent Covid and treating people with Covid, all the doctors, nurses, scientists and so many others - these good works are of no use at all in saving people from everlasting torment in hell. According to this doctrine, only faith in Jesus Christ as personal Lord and Saviour can achieve this.

This primitive, hideous, inhuman doctrine is adhered to by the churches and church organizations listed on the poster:

Attercliffe Centre of Mission, St Alban's Church, Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic, Church of Christ in Darnall, Darnall Road Baptist Church, Galeed House, Living Waters Fellowship, Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic.

I'll contact all of these (in the case of the Centre of Mission, I can't use the most convenient method, email, because the Church Army has blocked all emails from me), asking them to contact me if they don't believe in this barbaric doctrine, or if they have any comments to make. They could try defending their beliefs, but that isn't likely in the least, of course.

Global Connections, the UK Network for World Mission, is in charge of Galeed House, which runs all kinds of activities, but activities with an ulterior motive: conversion, saving people from hellfire.

https://www.globalconnections.org.uk/about-us/basis-of-the-network

Basis of the network

As a network, we require our network members (and affiliates) to agree to the following basis of faith and cooperation.

1. Basis of Faith  (Extract). The Basis of Faith is essentially identical with the one given by Rock Christian Centre. An extract is provided above.

 

  • The divine inspiration and infallibility of the Old and New Testaments as originally given and their consequent entire trustworthiness and supreme authority in all matters of faith and conduct.

  • The universal sinfulness and guilt of fallen human beings, making them subject to God's wrath and condemnation.

  • The substitutionary sacrifice of Jesus Christ the incarnate Son of God as the sole and all-sufficient ground of redemption from the guilt and power of sin and from its eternal consequences.

  • The justification of the sinner solely by the grace of God through faith in Christ who was crucified and bodily raised from the dead.

 

 

 

 

      

 

 

 

 

Newcastle Street Pastors: the hideous hidden agenda

 

'Newcastle' here is Newcastle-on-Tyne, not Newcastle-under-Lyme.

 

Newcastle Street Pastors. You received an award from Northumbria Police in 2021, although the claim you make (on your Website) that it was an award for 'excellence' is surely mistaken. The decision of Northumbria Police to give you an award, any kind of award, was surely mistaken. For Northumbria Police to give Newcastle Street Pastors any kind of endorsement would be mistaken. Police forces in the United Kingdom may be glad of the help of Street Pastors but the help shouldn't be exaggerated. On this page, I give reasons for thinking that any help is marginal and that the help comes with ulterior motives, a hidden agenda, a hideous hidden agenda.

 

Street Pastors in various towns and cities have received awards from 'Best Bar None.'  For example, Exeter Street Pastors received a “Support Organisation of the Year” award from Best Bar None and a cheque for £500. After this profile of Newcastle Street Pastors, there's a short profile of Exeter Street Pastors, with the focus of attention their Coordinator, Diane Hurst. (Clicking on the highlighted text takes you to the section.) Anyone who thinks that the group's overwhelming priority is the safety and welfare of drinkers will have to think again. It's clear that the overwhelming priority for them is a very different one.

 

It would be a mistake for police forces to endorse Street Pastors and Best Bar None to endorse Street Pastors and to give any money to Street Pastors because so many of the  beliefs and doctrines of Street Pastors are not just alien to the values of a liberal democracy but to the evidence. Any members of the public thinking of donating to Street Pastors will, I hope, reconsider after reading some of the evidence here. There are so many other charities, other causes, which deserve your money far more. The Street Pastor movement isn't all it seems.

 

My other pages on Christian Churches and Christian organizations examine other issues with extensive documentation. I would urge anyone thinking of donating to a Church or a Church organization to think very carefully, to examine the evidence. The Churches aren't all they seem.

 

Many - not all - Churches keep well hidden the hideous implications of their beliefs and doctrines. Here,  in many other places in the site, I draw attention to them. There's information here about the beliefs of Paul Waugh, Coordinator of Newcastle Street Pastors, the doctrines he believes in. Some, perhaps many Street Pastors may not share all his beliefs concerning human sexuality, not to the same extent but, with a few exceptions,  they will share his other beliefs. Similarly with the Churches and other Christian organizations. In the past, it was different. The overwhelming majority supported his beliefs on human sexuality as well as his general beliefs.

 

He believes, the vast majority of Street Pastors will believe, the majority of Churches and Church organizations believe, in  past centuries almost all Churches and Church organizations believed:

 

... in consequence of the fall of Adam man was corrupted became a sinner alienated from God without strength and at enmity against God

The eternal security of all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour

The judgement seat of Christ

The  judgement of the unbeliever

The eternal punishment of those who reject the Lord Jesus as the only Saviour

The personality of the Devil

 

Some of his beliefs  concerning human sexuality, documented in more detail below. In past centuries, the overwhelming majority of Churches and Church organizations held these beliefs. A very large number of present-day Churches and Church organizations retain these beliefs.

 

The denial of the belief that 'adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God's holy purposes in creation and redemption.'

The denial of the belief that 'sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God's original creation.'

 

Newcastle Street Pastors, do  you or don't you believe that if a young person dies of a drugs overdose in Newcastle City Centre whilst you're on patrol, despite your best efforts or the efforts of other people - police,  paramedical medical, nursing staff, members of the public who lend a hand - then the young person is destined to spend eternity in separation from God, if  the young person doesn't have the all-important faith in Christ?  Do you believe that all the revellers from pubs and nightclubs in Newcastle city centre whilst you patrol, all the police officers, paramedical and medical and nursing staff who may be there, and, of course, all the members of the public are also destined to spend eternity in separation from God if they lack the necessary faith? Give a simple answer to some simple questions but by all means mention complications if you want to.

 

But I already know the answers to these questions!

 

The Coordinator of Newcastle Street Pastors is Paul Waugh. I'm not a member of Facebook so I haven't been able to look at the content of his Facebook page but I do have this introduction,

 

'Hi Gents, Paul Waugh is Chaplain at Newcastle Airport and Coordinator for Street Pastors Newcastle. Paul worships at Regent Chapel.' Paul isn't a Chaplain at Newcastle Airport any longer.

 

Comments: 'Hi Gents ... ' Not a good beginning. To make an obvious point, what about the ladies, the women? Does he or doesn't he believe that all the staff of the airport, all the pilots and co-pilots, all the members of people who use the airport are destined to spend hell for eternity - the ones who don't share his belief in Jesus Christ as the Saviour of the World (the vast majority of people)?

 

He does believe that! Extract from the Website of Regent Chapel, where Paul Waugh worships

 

https://www.regentchapel.co.uk/our-beliefs

 

We believe and teach that…

 

All people

  • Have sinned and deserve God’s judgement.

  • Can be saved only by faith in God and acceptance of the sacrifice of Christ at Calvary.

 

Christians

  • Are those who have trusted God and acknowledged Christ as their Saviour and Lord.

  • Have become the home of God’s Holy Spirit whose presence is displayed in holiness and good works.

  • Are secure in their salvation through the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

 

 

There's also a 'Statement of Beliefs,'

 

https://www.regentchapel.co.uk/statement-of-beliefs


which include these 'DOCTRINES' Extracts:

 

The Divine Inspiration and Authority of the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments

That in consequence of the fall of Adam man was corrupted became a sinner alienated from God without strength and at enmity against God

That the justification of the sinner before God is alone by Faith in Christ and his atoning sacrifice

That every justified believer is born of God

The eternal security of all who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ as the only Saviour

The judgement seat of Christ

The Great White Throne [?] and the judgement of the unbeliever

The eternal punishment of those who reject the Lord Jesus as the only Saviour

The personality of the Devil

The preaching of the Gospel to every person

We are signatories of the Nashville Statement on human sexuality - please see for more information

 
https://cbmw.org/nashville-statement/ 

 

Extracts from the 'Nashville Statement:'

 

Article 1.
We deny that God has designed marriage to be a homosexual, polygamous or polyamorouse relationship. We also deny that marriage is a mere human contract rather than a covenant made before God.

Article 2.
We affirm that God's revealed will is for all people's chastity outside of marriage and fidelity within marriage.
We deny that any affections, desires or commitments ever justify sexual intercourse outside marriage, nor do they justify any form of sexual immorality.

 

Article 4.

We affirm that divinely affirmed differences between male and female reflect God's original creation design and are meant for human good and human flourishing.

We deny that adopting a homosexual or transgender self-conception is consistent with God's holy purposes in creation and redemption.

 

Article 8.
We deny that sexual attraction for the same sex is part of the natural goodness of God's original creation.

 

Article 9.
We affirm that sin distorts sexual desires by directing them away from the marriage covenant and towards sexual immorality - a distortion that includes both heterosexual and homosexual immorality

 

Article 10.
We affirm that it is sinful to approve of homosexual immorality or transsexual immorality and that such approval constitutes an essential departure from Christian faithfulness and witness.

 

Article 12.

We affirm that the grace of God in Christ gives both merciful pardon and transforming power, and that this pardon and power enable a follower of Jesus to put to death sinful desires and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.

 

To confine attention to Article 12, this is audacious in its disregard for the evidence, the cumulative evidence, the massive evidence that many, many Christians who have accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour and have received a 'merciful pardon and transforming power' haven't been 'enabled' to put to death sinful desires and to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord.'

 

In the second column of my page on Safeguarding and Abuse, I give some of the evidence, but this is a tiny fraction of the evidence relating to Bible-believing, Christ-centred abusers. A few examples from the page:

 

A primary school deputy head teacher and her partner have been jailed for dozens of child sexual abuse offences, including nine counts of rape.

Julie Morris, 44, the safeguarding lead at a school in Wigan, and David Morris filmed themselves abusing and raping a girl under the age of 13.

 

John Smyth, a barrister, fought battles in the courts for 'Christian values.'

'After five years of sadistic beatings in a garden shed by one of the UK’s most prominent barristers, and with a “special beating” to mark his 21st birthday imminent, Andy Morse tried to take his own life.

 

'The student had endured thousands of lashes on his naked buttocks administered in the name of Jesus by John Smyth QC. He could no longer endure the pain, terror and humiliation.

Fortunately, his housemates broke down the bathroom door and called an ambulance. But Morse was not Smyth’s only victim. There are more than 100 known survivors, and perhaps many others: public schoolboys who took part in a network of military-style Christian holiday camps.

Extracts from the page of the Newcastle Street Pastors Website, viewed on 12 February 2022

 

https://streetpastors.org/locations/newcastle/
2020/11/09/our-newsletter-is-now-available/

 

 

 

RECENT POSTS

[But the 'latest newsletter' turns out to be even older than the autumn 2021 newsletter, from November 9, 2020.]

 

OUR LATEST NEWSLETTER IS NOW AVAILABLE

 

The Website of Newcastle Street Pastors may look good, or quite good, but as a matter of urgency, they should update it. Haven't they been so active recently? Or so active that they haven't had the time to update it?  Or too busy with Bible reading and praying to make the effort? Or simply  disinclined to make an effort?

 

Now  information about the disturbing work of a  group in Newcastle-on-Tyne which isn't Newcastle Street Pastors but which shares their beliefs, such as their belief in the power of prayer. I only hope that Newcastle Street Pastors don't agree with the practice of 'Healing on the Streets' even if they agree with the beliefs.

 

One of  many, many groups which promote the dangerous delusions of healing by prayer is One Voice York: It's all about Jesus. The Joint Chairs are Al Rycroft and Caleb Ellwood.

 

http://onevoiceyork.org.uk/healing-on-the-streets/


The page has the heading 'Healing on the Streets' and promotes the work of a group in Newcastle-on-Tyne, 'Together in Christ Tyneside.'  Robert Ward of St Luke's Church, Newcastle came to York to explain what happens. Robert Ward is a Trustee of Newcastle Street Pastors. A list giving the name of the Patron and the names of Trustees is appended at the end of this section. Robert Ward said this:

 

'From the point of view of the city authorities this ministry is in partnership with Street Pastors, which the same group of church leaders oversee.'

 

More information, clarification is needed. Is this so? Does 'the same group of church leaders oversee Newcastle Street Pastors and 'Together in Christ Tyneside?' Can Newcastle Street Pastors provide the information, the clarification? I'll contact them to find out.

 

Some of the hazardous and potentially very harmful practices of  these credulous people:

 

Firstly the team get together and pray at 1.30pm and seek words of knowledge for the day. Usually they find that they have advance warning of the types of sickness they will face on the street.

Between 2pm and 4pm each week, a huge windproof banner is set up saying “Healing” and eight chairs are set out in a line. The prayer team wait for people to come along and sit down. Teams of three pray with each person. If the person requiring prayer is female, at least two of the three in the team will also be female.

The prayer teams will introduce themselves ask about the need and ask permission to lay a hand on an arm or shoulder. They then take care to tell them that Jesus really loves them and then pray straightforward ‘pick up your bed and walk’' prayers for a few minutes. They never pray with eyes closed, never shout and always crouch down to the same level as the person on the chair.

Young people often come in groups, with skateboarding injuries or concerns about their parents and grand-parents.


Attempts to treat young people with skateboarding injuries instead of telling them to seek proper medical treatment are inexcusable. Allowing them or encouraging them  to speak about their parents or grandparents is inexcusable. These Christians have no knowledge of the family circumstances, which may be very complex and very difficult and are in no position to give advice. The parents and grandparents aren't there to give their version of events. The young person's account may or may not be trustworthy. The 'pastors' have no way of knowing. The young people should be encouraged to seek professional advice if the case seems in the least complex or difficult.

 

Newcastle Street Pastors and  the deluded people who claim to treat skateboarding injuries have the same hideous beliefs in hell for people who don't accept Jesus Christ as their personal Lord and Saviour.

 

Information and claims from the  Website of St Luke's on Robert Ward.

 

https://stlukesnewcastle.co.uk/about-st-lukes/

 

Working Together

We work together with other churches in Newcastle on city wide projects.  Robert leads a Pastors’ group, Together in Christ (TIC),  TIC is a wonderful association of senior church leaders who meet weekly to pray and out of which have come many strategic ventures, like Healing on the Streets (HOTS) (emphasis supplied) and The Turning.

Patron and Trustees of Newcastle Street Pastors

 

Patron: Lord John Shipley OBE
Trustees: Revd Robert Ward, Rev Canon John Sinclair, Rev Leanne Bell, Rev Mark Sharman, Mr. Mike Johnson

 

Leeds Street Pastors

 

Buildings which are neglected show tell-tale signs of neglect. Websites which are neglected keep up appearances. Their pages can look like the pages of a glossy magazine, but lack of content shows. This Website is bare. The neglect goes back a long time, back to 2016. The last news posted was on May 4, 2016 - not that there's any news dating back to that time, so far as I can see. The posts described as 'recent posts' date back to May 4, 2016, but I can't see any. The most recent dates in the section  'Upcoming patrol dates are as follows' are 7 and 28 May, 2016.

 

The Coordinator of Leeds Street Pastors is Maureen Jones. What does she have to coordinate? Not very much, it seems. Maureen Jones' Church affiliation is provided: the 'Church of God of Prophecy.' This is yet another fundamentalist Church basing its beliefs on an infallible' Bible and  preaching Hellfire for unbelievers - including vulnerable people who are unbelievers. The Church of God of Prophesy doesn't have a Website. A Website is the usual place where a Church makes known its Safeguarding Policy and contact information about a Safeguarding Officer. I've no idea if this Church has a policy or an officer.

 

Edinburgh Street Pastors

Coordinator: Andy Amour

 

I've emailed Andy Amour and members of 'the team' at Charlotte Chapel. If he or they can show that I'm mistaken in any of the assertions which make up this short profile, I hope they'll contact me and I'll make any changes necessary.

Andy Amour was a police officer. He worships at Charlotte Chapel, Edinburgh. Andy Amour's  favourite hymn is 'There is a fountain filled with blood.' Two verses from the hymn:

 

There is a fountain filled with blood
  Drawn from Immanuel’s veins;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
  Lose all their guilty stains:
  Lose all their guilty stains,
  Lose all their guilty stains;
And sinners, plunged beneath that flood,
  Lose all their guilty stains

 

Dear dying Lamb, Thy precious blood
  Shall never lose its power,
Till all the ransomed ones of God
  Be saved, to sin no more:
  Be saved, to sin no more,
  Be saved, to sin no more;
Till all the ransomed ones of God,
  Be saved to sin no more.

 

Andy Amour believes in orthodox (evangelical) doctrine: heaven for those who accept Christ as Lord and Saviour, hell for those who fail to accept Christ, for one reason or another. So do the other members of 'The Team' at Charlotte Chapel: Paul Rees (Lead Pastor), Liam Garvie (Associate Pastor), Andy Paterson (who was 'raised and saved in London), Rachel Sloan, Catherine Burrows, Ashley Gardner, James Russell, Finlay Beauchamp, Callum Cruickshank. Andy Amour is listed as an elder of the Chapel.

 

Andy Amour believers that rescuers killed during the Blitz and the people they tried to rescue are also in Hell, unless they have accepted Christ as Lord and Saviour.

 

Andy Amour believes that serving police officers killed in duty are in Hell, unless they have accepted Christ as their Lord and Saviour.

 

Andy Amour believes that his neighbours in Edinburgh, the people who work in the shops he uses, the people who drive the trains or buses he may use,  every single  plumber, loving mother, loving father in Edinburgh, every single person in Edinburgh - not just in Edinburgh but the whole of Scotland, the whole world - is destined for Hell, unless they accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour, a tiny minority of people.

 

Andy Amour believes that ordinary people share the same fate as child rapists and war criminals if they fail to accept Christ as Lord and Saviour - but Andy Amour believes that child rapists and war criminals who have been washed in the 'redeeming blood' 'lose all their guilty stains' and are pardoned.

 

Andy Amour believes that the Bible is the Word of God. Andy Amour believes that God issued this command: 'Put to death any woman who practises witchcraft.' (Exodus 22:18.) Andy Amour believes that this too is the word of God (Psalm 137: 8, 9):

 

8. Babylon, you will be destroyed. Happy are those who pay you back for what you have done to us -

9. who take your babies and smash them against a rock.

 

Glasgow Street Pastors

 

https://gsp.scot/

 

 

https://www.leprosymission.org.uk/get-involved/pray/

 

 

Wellesley Bailey, founder of The Leprosy Mission, said that The Mission was ‘born and cradled in prayer’. More than 140 years later, prayer still has a vital place in everything we do. Every morning, members of the Leprosy Mission family around the world stop what they are doing to pray for their work and for the needs of people and communities affected by leprosy.

If you want to join with us in praying, there are a range of resources you can use to help you.

You can also sign up here to receive prayer updates by email. If you prefer to receive any of our prayer resources by post please contact our Supporter Relations team by emailing post@tlmew.org.uk or telephoning 01733 370505.

The Leprosy Mission Prayer

Almighty Father, the giver of life and health, look mercifully on those who suffer from leprosy. Stretch out your hand to touch and heal them as Jesus did during his earthly life. Grant wisdom and insight to those who are seeking the prevention and cure of the disease; give skill and sympathy to those who minister to the patients; reunite the separated with their families and friends; and inspire your people with the task set before The Leprosy Mission, that it may never lack either the staff or the means to carry on its healing work, in accordance with your will, and to the glory of your holy name. We ask this for the sake of Jesus Christ your Son, our Lord. Amen.

 

https://www.leprosymission.org.uk/about/

 

We are a global Christian organisation leading the fight against leprosy.

Following Jesus Christ, we seek to bring about transformation; breaking the chains of leprosy and empowering people to attain healing, dignity and life in all its fullness.

No one should suffer because of a preventable and treatable disease.

We work with people of all faiths and none to defeat leprosy and transform the lives of people affected.

 

Stuart Crawford East Mains Baptist Church  East Kilbride

 

https://www.eastmainsbc.com/Groups/
318879/Prayer.aspx

 

Linda Todd Treasurer  Auldhouse Community Church

 

Don Palmer  Pastor and Team Leader

 

http://www.auldhousecommunitychurch.com/
living/#prayer-ministry

 

http://www.auldhousecommunitychurch.com/
messages/deliver-us-from-evil-for-yours-is-the-power/

 

FINDING HOPE (12 HOURS OF PRAYER)

“Those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength”Isaiah 40:31
Here are some images from our 12 hour prayer event on Saturday 8th of June 2019. The event was held in the hope that this space would help people to receive the hope that God has for us for everyday of our lives on earth, as well as for eternity to come.

 

 

 

The role of the Prayer Team is to organise prayer events in the church. Here are just a few examples:
  • Prayer Ministry – We pray with an expectation of encountering God through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Prayer Ministry Team ministers to others by the ‘laying on of hands’ and praying for them for healing, to be filled with the Holy Spirit, for guidance, encouragement, blessing etc. This is conducted after the morning service and the prayer ministry team also works alongside the pastoral care team to pray for others when required.
     
  • Steps to Freedom -The “Steps to Freedom” prayer counselling ministry is the prayer component of the overall Freedom in Christ approach. It is a prayer/repentance or “truth encounter” rather than a “power encounter”. The person going through the Steps is taking responsibility for their life and growth by asking the Lord to show them of any area in their life where an issue needs to be resolved. They then choose to repent of everything the Lord shows them thus removing any grounds the enemy may have had in their life. It’s based on James 4:7, “submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Very simple and gentle – but amazingly effective!
     
  • Ongoing training, whether in prayer ministry or steps to freedom is also a vital part of the work we do.
     
  • Prayer Warriors are people who are known for regularly interceding on behalf of others before God. To intercede means to come between, so prayer warriors are, in effect, coming between God and the circumstances in another person's life. We use Prayer Warriors at EMBC to cover people in prayer especially our young people as they go through their exams and to draw alongside those going through a difficult time.
     
  • Prayer Events such as 24/7 Prayer, Easter Prayer Stations, Prayer Walks, Prayer & Praise Evenings are held every few months in the church to encourage people to come along and spend time with God on their own or in a group, to pray for their own needs, or the needs of the church.
     
  • A Prayer Chain has been set up which covers emergency prayer requests. If you have an emergency/ urgent prayer request, then please get in touch with Christine Campbell, Irene Arton or email the team at prayer@eastmainsbc.com. They will pass it on to a small team of people who’ll dedicate time in prayer on your behalf. Confidentiality will be respected at all times as we pray for you.

“Prayer does not fit us for the greater work; prayer is the greater work.”
Oswald Chambers

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_leprosy

 

In 1873 G.H. Armauer Hansen in Norway discovered the causative agent of leprosy, Mycobacterium leprae. This was the first bacterium to be identified as causing disease in humans

 

remembered for his identification of the bacterium Mycobacterium leprae in 1873 as the causative agent of leprosy

 

atheist

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerhard_Armauer_Hansen

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exeter Street Pastors
Coordinator: Diane Hurst

 

Above, St Nectan's Church, Hartland, Devon

 

This wide-ranging section is about the Diocese of Exeter as well as Exeter Street Pastors, about the general public in Exeter as well as the people who are interested in mission and evangelism - converting the people of Exeter to a belief in Christ. Useful background information:

 

The latest British Social Attitudes Survey (2021)shows a 'huge generational surge in the non-religious. The proportion of the population belonging to no religion has continued to grow and is likely to rise over the coming decades: some 68% of 18-24 year olds say they belong to no religion, with just 18% saying they are Christians – including 0.7% saying they are Anglicans.

 

From the Diocese of Exeter Website

 

https://exeter.anglican.org/prayer-pastors-are-the-bedrock-of-the-street-pastor-movement/

 

PRAYER PASTORS ARE THE “BEDROCK OF THE STREET PASTOR MOVEMENT”

 

Above the heading, an image of a man praying:

 

CAPTION: A Prayer Pastor reacts to what is happening on the streets and takes it to God in prayer

 

Below the caption, material (posted 29 January 2020) on

 

' ... the crucial part played by Prayer Pastors in supporting the teams out on the streets.'

 

Diane Hurst, Exeter Street Pastors Coordinator, said “Prayer is the bedrock of the street pastor movement, and we wouldn’t deploy without prayer pastors. They are the powerhouse behind the scenes, bringing everything that happens on the street to God and expecting and getting His answer, in some cases immediately.”

In Exeter there are a minimum of two Prayer Pastors who stay in the base at Unlimited Church and support the teams on the street, praying into situations like violent fights or lost phones.  Street Pastors and Prayer Pastors can testify first hand to the effectiveness of such prayers.  Diane says many of the Prayer Pastors comment on how valuable the role is to them. She said “One lady told me, ‘I am more blessed than I imagined by serving this ministry; my relationship with God deepens as I fellowship with others and witness God working in the lives of people on the streets of Exeter’.”

The crucial role played by the Prayer Pastors means that, if there are not enough Prayer Pastors available, there will be fewer teams on the streets. Diane said “We don’t deploy unless there are two prayer pastors at base, and therefore sometimes that means that the street pastors need to stay in and pray.  This can result in just one team going out rather than two teams.”

 

Imagine if there were such groups as 'Battlefield Pastors,' operating not on the streets of towns and cities but on battlefields. The Battlefield Pastors are supported by 'Prayer Pastors,' who are not on the battlefield but behind the front line, away from the fighting, at base. Their role is to 'pray into the fighting.' The battlefield pastors 'bring everything that happens on the battlefield to God and expecting and getting his answer, in some cases immediately. When British forces were heavily outnumbered and their situation seemed desperate, they might be able to call on artillery support or aircraft for help. The action of the Battlefield Pastors would be very different - praying to God and expecting God's answer, in some cases immediately.

 

The Battlefield Pastors wouldn't deploy unless there were two Prayer Pastors at base. Sometimes this would mean that the Battlefield Pastors would need to stay at base and pray instead of going to where the fighting is taking place.

 

Would the Prayer Pastors be 'getting' God's answer? Would this be anything other than a futile, completely mistaken view, one that takes absolutely no notice of realities? The regular troops doing the fighting, taking the casualties, risking injury and death, have to deploy.

 

The Street Pastors and Prayer Pastors might benefit from some remedial teaching in military history, about the gruelling realities of the evacuation from Dunkirk, about D-day,  the Battle of Britain,  the Somme, Verdun, Stalingrad, the extreme sacrifices needed to fight in these conflicts, the extreme sacrifices which had to be made to liberate the concentration and extermination camps.

 

They would benefit from knowledge of the harsh realities of the Exeter blitz, the rebuilding of lives as well as buildings after the attack on the city from the air, which devastated the city centre - there were other attacks. This is a very good account of 'the city's darkest day of the Second World War,' the attack of May 4, 1942.

 

https://www.devonlive.com/news/history/exeter-blitz-dramatic-pictures-show-358818

 

Below, the Exeter Phoenix memorial,  representing the reconstruction of the city after WWII, to me at least, an artistically successful and evocative design, one which deserves to be widely recognized - the contrast between broad, powerful wings and thin, almost frail legs, the Phoenix above the stylized flames. Its simplicity may seem severe to some, but if so, the severity is appropriate. The reconstruction of Exeter, like the immediate response to the attack by the people of Exeter -  the fighting of fires, the rescue of the injured amidst the chaos, and the rest - called for stamina, gruelling work, a whole range of human qualities in response to severe challenges.

 

 

To become a Prayer Pastor makes very modest demands on a person's empathy, sympathy, compassion, knowledge of the world, awareness of the harsh realities of the world, appreciation for the beauties of the world. According to the Exeter Diocese page,

 

'You don’t have to be particularly gifted at praying to be a Prayer Pastor- you just need to be a committed Christian, over 18, take an active part in a local church, and be available to cover one prayer shift a month.'

 

What exactly do the prayers pray for? The material on prayer in the section above and other places on this page and other pages of the site gives much more information about this topic. The Street Pastors and Prayer Pastors praying for a taxi is one example. On another page, I discuss praying for good weather. It's likely that if the weather has been very windy and very wet and very cold in the days before the scheduled night-time visit to the streets, the prayers will pray for good weather during their visitation. In that case, God would have to make all kinds of adjustments involving adjustments of wind direction and velocity and air pressure and so much else. Changes to meteorological conditions which would benefit the Street Pastors might well have disadvantages: lower wind velocities would be a disadvantage for generation of electricity by wind power, less rain might well disadvantage gardeners and farmers who want more rainfall. But obviously, the idea of praying that God will change the weather is so stupid that only stupid people - or people with a stupid side - will pray for such a thing.

 

Prayer Pastors will have been praying hard for God to intervene in the Coronavirus epidemic. They haven't simply supplemented the only effective measures, such as vaccination and preventative measures, they've had completely misplaced, deluded confidence in prayer as an effective measure.

 

In past centuries, people prayed to God for cures for epidemic disease, and other diseases. They had no effective cures based on scientific medicine. Did God answer their prayers.

 

From the Wikipedia entry for 'Black Death:'

 

The Black Death ... was a bubonic plague pandemic occurring in Afro-Eurasia from 1346 to 1353. It is the most fatal pandemic recorded in human history, causing the death of 75–200 million people in Eurasia and North Africa, peaking in Europe from 1347 to 1351. Bubonic plague is caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis spread by fleas, but it can also take a secondary form where it is spread person-to-person contact via aerosols causing septicaemic or pneumonic plagues.

 

 

...

 

 

Renewed religious fervour and fanaticism bloomed in the wake of the Black Death. Some Europeans targeted "various groups such as Jews, friars, foreigners, beggars, pilgrims", lepers, and Romani, blaming them for the crisis. Lepers, and others with skin diseases such as acne or psoriasis, were killed throughout Europe.

 

 

Because 14th-century healers and governments were at a loss to explain or stop the disease, Europeans turned to astrological forces, earthquakes, and the poisoning of wells by Jews as possible reasons for outbreaks. Many believed the epidemic was a punishment by God for their sins, and could be relieved by winning God's forgiveness.

 

There were many attacks against Jewish communities. In the Strasbourg massacre of February 1349, about 2,000 Jews were murdered. In August 1349, the Jewish communities in Mainz and Cologne were annihilated. By 1351, 60 major and 150 smaller Jewish communities had been destroyed.

 

 

Above, Jews being burned at the stake in 1349. Miniature from a 14th-century manuscript, Antiquitates Flandriae

 

Street Pastors and Prayer Pastors are in urgent need of remedial training not just in military history but the history of medicine, the history of water supply and sewage treatment (most deaths from disease throughout history have been caused by disease spread by contaminated water). There are many other fields where their ignorance should be an embarrassment to them but obviously isn't.

 

Supplementary material on the Exeter Diocese - for the time being, only one individual attached to the Exeter Diocese, James Grier.

 

I'll begin with a brief quotation from the section above, on Newcastle Street Pastors. I could have chosen a very different starting point, of course.

 

'Peter Ball, a Bishop, was sentenced to 32 months' imprisonment for misconduct in public office and indecent assault after admitting the abuse of 18 young men over a period of 15 years from 1977 to 1992. One of his victims, Neil Todd, took his own life.'

 

The horrific acts of Peter Ball are relevant to genteel formulations of Christian faith, the pious hopes of so many Anglicans, for example. Take this example, which delineates the world of 'Rev Preb' James Grier of the Exeter Diocese,

 

https://exeter.anglican.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/7-General-Synod-Electoral-Address-James-Grier.pdf

 

It contains this routine claim:

 

We live in a world that is more desperate than ever for the Good News of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed afresh in this and every generation.

 

This claim has the disadvantage of being untrue. It's untrue to claim that football supporters before, during or after a match are 'more desperate than ever for the Good News of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed afresh in this and every generation,' that climbers before, during or after a climb, musicians before, during or after a concert, comedians before, during or after a show - the list could obviously be extended indefinitely - are 'more desperate than ever for the Good News of Jesus Christ to be proclaimed.'

 

What does the Rev Preb James Grier believe? His article begins with this:

 

'I am a Devonian, born and bred and passionately committed to the Church of England in Devon.'

 

A challenge to James Grier. Do you or don't you believe this of other Devonians, the people born or living in the County of Devon (a magnificent one, one I've visited often and appreciate very much), do you believe that only the Devonians who accept Christ as their Lord and Saviour are destined to spend eternity in union with Christ - all the others are destined to spend eternity in different circumstances, the place - not a place, of course, but a condition -  which has traditionally been called - still is called, by many - Hell. If he doesn't happen to believe that, there are vast numbers of 'fellow-Christians,' fellow members of the Church of England, who have believed that and still believe that. Many, many Christians would believe that Peter Ball was forgiven for his sins, since he had accepted Christ as his Lord and Saviour, but his victims - the ones who had no belief in Christ as Lord and Saviour, perhaps because the beatings led them to abandon their faith, are consigned to Hell.

 

This is William Philpotts, a former Bishop of Exeter

 



In 2006, the Church of England voted to apologise to the descendants of victims of the slave trade.


An amendment "recognising the damage done" to those enslaved was backed overwhelmingly by the General Synod.

 

During the debate, Rev Simon Blessant said, in connection with the Church of England and the slave trade, 'We were at the heart of it.' He gave information about the involvement in the slave trade of the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts, which owned the Codrington Plantations.

 

These were two sugarcane growing estates on the island of Barbados. In 1710, they came into the possession of the Church of England 'Society for the Propagation of the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts.' The plantations were run by managers, nominally supervised by a Board of trustees of the Society headed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and a committee of Church of England bishops.

 

The plantations depended upon a regular supply of new slaves from West Africa. For almost a decade after the 'Society for the Propagation of the Christian Religion in Foreign Parts' inherited the plantations, slaves were branded on the chest with the word 'Society.'

 

During the debate, the fact was mentioned that when the emancipation of slaves took place in 1833, compensation was paid not to the slaves but to their owners. The information was given that the Bishop of Exeter and three colleagues were paid nearly £13,000  compensation for 665 slaves. This compensation was well over  £ 1,000,000  in current values. The Bishop of Exeter, William Philpotts, had opposed the Abolition of Slavery Act.

It can safely be assumed that the Bishop of Exeter had a belief in the Son of God but that some - perhaps many - of the slaves had no belief in the Son.

 

Of course, throughout all the slave-owning period in this country - and throughout all the heretic-burning and witch-burning period in this country - at such places as St Paul's Cathedral and King's College Cambridge, as well as quiet and lovely village churches such as the church shown at the top of this section, St Nectan's, with its luminous waggon roof, in the area of Devon I know best, Hartland, sermons were preached, prayers were said, for the most varied reasons, including condemnation of heretics and witches, holy communion was taken, evensong sung.

 

 The wreck of the Johanna beneath cliffs at Hartland, Devon


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Gospel according to St John, 3:18, 'He that believeth not is condemned already, because he hath not believed in the name of the only begotten Son of God.' (King James Bible.)

 

One of the modern translations for the whole verse- like others, it updates the language but not the theology:

 

'Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe is condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the only Son of God.' (English Standard Version.)

 

The Gospel according to St John, 3:36 in the King James Bible:

 

'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.

 

It seems clear that slaves without belief in the Son of God are condemned and subject to the wrath of God, whilst slave owners with belief in the Son, such as the Bishop of Exeter, aren't condemned but have everlasting life.

 

 he Church of England's acceptance of slavery, with exceptions, wasn't in the least in conflict with Biblical ethics. After all, Jesus Christ preached the gospel in a slave-owning society, one in which slaves were flogged, worked to death and crucified, and never at any time, according to the Biblical record, declared that slavery was an evil and had to be ended. Jesus Christ was supposedly without sin but the Church has never claimed that the knowledge of Jesus Christ was without limitations. He had no knowledge of the measures necessary for adequate public health, for example - the provision of safe drinking water - or the measures necessary to end the Malthusian nightmare of pregnancies far in excess of the replacement rate and very high levels of infant mortality, or the agricultural measures needed to avoid the cycle of famine. Jesus Christ shared the limited knowledge of the people of his time and also shared many of their views,  including an indifference to the horrors of slavery. If Jesus wasn't indifferent to the horrors of slavery, why is there no record at all in the Biblical account that he opposed slavery?

 

St Paul showed such energy in promoting the doctrines of redemption and complete indifference to slave ownership. His epistle to the Galations, 3:28, in the 'Good News' translation.

'So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.'


 St Paul was interested only in the fact - or the fact in his theology - that slaves who accepted Christ as their saviour and free people (including slave-owners) who accepted Christ as their saviour were in this respect, this all-important respect, according to him, the same - their sins were forgiven. The sins of the two groups would be very different, of course, but not in every way. The sins of the slaves might include, in this despicable theology, swearing, the sins of the slave owners might also include swearing. There's no record of St Paul, or Jesus Christ, claiming that flogging a slave or breaking up a family of slaves - selling the parents to one new owner and the children to a different new owner - was a grave sin.

 

 

Of course, throughout all the slave-owning period in this country - and throughout all the heretic-burning and witch-burning period in this country - at such places as St Paul's Cathedral and King's College Cambridge, as well as quiet and lovely village churches, sermons were preached, prayers were said, for the most varied reasons, including condemnation of heretics and witches, holy communion was taken, evensong sung.

 

'He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life: and he that believeth not the Son shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him.

 

It seems clear that slaves without belief in the Son of God are condemned and subject to the wrath of God, whilst slave owners with belief in the Son, such as the Bishop of Exeter, aren't condemned but have everlasting life.

 

The Church of England's acceptance of slavery, with exceptions, wasn't in the least in conflict with Biblical ethics. After all, Jesus Christ preached the gospel in a slave-owning society, one in which slaves were flogged, worked to death and crucified, and never at any time, according to the Biblical record, declared that slavery was an evil and had to be ended. Jesus Christ was supposedly without sin but the Church has never claimed that the knowledge of Jesus Christ was without limitations. He had no knowledge of the measures necessary for adequate public health, for example - the provision of safe drinking water - or the measures necessary to end the Malthusian nightmare of pregnancies far in excess of the replacement rate and very high levels of infant mortality, or the agricultural measures needed to avoid the cycle of famine. Jesus Christ shared the limited knowledge of the people of his time and also shared many of their views,  including an indifference to the horrors of slavery. If Jesus wasn't indifferent to the horrors of slavery, why is there no record at all in the Biblical account that he opposed slavery?

 

St Paul showed such energy in promoting the doctrines of redemption and complete indifference to slave ownership. His epistle to the Galations, 3:28, in the 'Good News' translation.

'So there is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus.'

 

 St Paul was interested only in the fact - or the fact in his theology - that slaves who accepted Christ as their saviour and free people (including slave-owners) who accepted Christ as their saviour were in this respect, this all-important respect, according to him, the same - their sins were forgiven. The sins of the two groups would be very different, of course, but not in every way. The sins of the slaves might include, in this despicable theology, swearing, the sins of the slave owners might also include swearing. There's no record of St Paul, or Jesus Christ, claiming that flogging a slave or breaking up a family of slaves - selling the parents to one new owner and the children to a different new owner - was a grave sin.

 

The Exeter Street Pastors, like the Street Pastors of all the other towns and cities where they pray, distribute flip-flops, charge phone batteries for night time revellers, provide water for slightly dehydrated revellers, obey this theology of condemnation for the many - condemnation for most - and redemption for the few - the very few. The Diocese of Exeter will very likely include some people who have reservations about this theology or reject it completely, without making public their reservations or rejection, but the majority endorse the theology.


Shrewsbury and Telford Street Pastors and the Police and Crime Commissioner, West Mercia Police

John Campion is the Police and Crime Commissioner, West Mercia Police.

https://www.westmercia-pcc.gov.uk/key-information/

It was John Campion who donated a vehicle, a very substantial one, to Shrewsbury Street Pastors. The van is also available to Telford Street Pastors.

 

From the Website of Shrewsbury Street Pastors

 

https://streetpastors.org/locations/shrewsbury/

 

'Since March 2018 we have had the use of a 3.5 Tonne vehicle that has been donated by The Office of Police and Crime Commissioner West Mercia Police. This vehicle is the Shrewsbury Street Pastors Triage Support vehicle, nicknamed ‘The Donkey’. It has been used to support the work of our foot patrols out on the streets of Shrewsbury. Our future aim is to use the vehicle for outreach, preventative work and promotional activities, to raise the awareness of our charity’s objectives.'

 

And this:

 

'A bottle of water for those who are dehydrated, a pair of flip-flops for those struggling to walk in high heels, a space blanket for those without a coat, a phone call to track down missing friends or arrange a taxi home, or simply a listening ear – all are part of a night’s work for a Street Pastor.'

 

Providing these items, providing these services is surely a very modest - a marginal - contribution to addressing the difficulties of people on a night out. Attempting to persuade people to take more responsibility for their own welfare, for example, by bringing a coat, or attempting to persuade pubs and night clubs to have available flip-flops - they have the water, of course. Dehydration after the pubs and night clubs have closed is very unlikely to amount to a medical emergency and there should be no need for space blankets. In any case, lightweight space blankets which take up hardly any space are widely available in camping shops and stores.

 

Anyone who sees that big, big vehicle donated by John Campion to the Street Pastors should summon up an image of the contents - lightweight things like flip-flops and space blankets and a small first aid kit (the street pastors won't be attempting major operations.) Only the water has much weight and takes up space, and how much water do they need to rehydrate the revellers during a few hours of the night? A few litres, surely. John Campion should have donated a rucksack to carry them. Better still, the street pastors should have bought their own rucksack.

 

It's quite common for people to try ascending Lake District peaks without adequate equipment or clothing - wearing flip-flops, for example. Sometimes, mountain rescue teams have to be called out to rescue them. What if there were 'mountain pastors,' ready to lend people in flip flops proper walking or mountain boots? What if there were 'trained' mountain pastors claiming to help  the proper mountain rescue teams, but obviously with far less training and experience than the members of mountain rescue teams?

 

It's often necessary to protect people from the consequences of their own actions or lack of action but it's better if people can be persuaded to take far more responsibility. As it is, street pastors seem content to allow the situation to continue. If it does continue, they can continue to pose as fearless venturers into the dark, 'offering help to those in need.' The 'need' in this case isn't amongst the most pressing needs of humanity.

 

As for the need for a taxi, the revellers have a phone, all of them or most of them, and they can phone for a taxi unaided. The Street Pastors view of taxi services can be very different from the view of people outside this particular cult. From the column to the left:

 

Street Pastors are part of the 'Ascension Trust. Their site has a page on prayer and Prayer Pastors

 

https://www.ascensiontrust.org.uk/about-us/prayer/

 

Prayer Pastors:

 

  • Come to base, support the street pastor teams any way they can and ‘pray them out’

  • Stay in contact with the street pastor team on patrol and keep a log of calls & incidents

  • Respond to specific needs and situations that arise

  • Pray for protection and divine appointments

  • See frequent answers to their prayers

Tonight (29/30th September 2018) at 1 am we had a call from the team of four street pastors in Portrush. The team members had been talking to a young man from Draperstown (33 miles away), who was rather the worse for wear and needed to get home. He did have money to pay for a taxi, and the team asked us to pray for a taxi or a way home for him.


We prayed immediately and within 7 minutes had another phone call to base. A couple had pulled up in their car and asked if the Street Pastors were ok, and was there anything they could do to help? It so happened that they were from Maghera (6 miles from Draperstown)!


When the driver of the car and the guy in need of a lift realised it was a perfect fit, they happily bumped fists. The guy got in and they drove off.

 

What a lovely quick answer to our prayers – within just a few minutes!”

 

This is Andrew Pantling, Coordinator of Canterbury Street Pastors

 

https://streetpastors.org/locations/canterbury/team/

 

 

'Have been a prayer pastor for 9 years with Canterbury Street Pastors. I took over the role in September 2020 and have enjoyed every moment. It has been an interesting year.  As I have been around the teams for many years, I have got to know each member and know they are a great team! Through the years I have seen prayer work and prayer work instantly out on the streets as a result of our prayers as prayer pastors.

PRAYER WORKS!'

 

Does prayer work, or is this an empty claim?
Does prayer prevent or cure coronavirus? Should Christians put their trust in prayer or in preventative measures and vaccines?
Did prayer prevent or cure the plague and all the other diseases which afflicted humanity before scientific medicine provided effective treatments?
Many Christians still pray for favourable weather. Can prayer do this?

Can prayer prevent wars, including wars between Christians, such as the European Wars of Religion, fought in the 16th, 17th and early 18th centuries? One of these wars, the 'Thirty Years War,' devastated Germany and killed a third of its population. The Christians of the opposing sides will certainly have prayed for victory over the opposing side.

Why should 'god' need prayer to prevent harm or correct harm? Doesn't 'god' already know about the harm?
Can you provide evidence that prayer can work 'instantly' out on the streets as a result of prayer?

 

The police use rational methods to prevent and combat crime. For example, in their use of necessary force, the police use minimum force to arrest the suspect. That's the ideal, often achieved or  generally achieved. If Street Pastors believe they can restrain someone committing an act of  violence by prayer, then they're deluded. They belong to a cult rather than an organization which can be respected. 

 

Supplementary material on the former Treasurer of Canterbury Street Pastors and his actions.

From the Website of the Ascension Trust

 

https://www.ascensiontrust.org.uk/
2018/02/21/internal-financial-controls-for-ascension-trust-

 

'Some of you may have heard that an irregularity was discovered in our finances during 2017. I can advise that a significant amount of money was stolen from Canterbury Street Pastors bank account by a person in a position of trust, who had access to the on-line bank account, but with no authority to act in this way. The Trustees had been increasingly suspicious for some time and in 2017 identified that fraud had taken place. They initiated a full audit and then advised the Police who recorded the crime, but preferred to allow a civil prosecution to recover the funds to proceed.

 

'The Trustees successfully prosecuted the individual and the Courts found judgement against this person in January 2018, requiring full repayment to Canterbury Street Pastors with costs. The Trustees are now enforcing this action ... '

 

The person who carried out the fraud was the Treasurer of Canterbury Street Pastors, William Howe, a lecturer at Canterbury Christ Church. He went on to steal equipment from the college and was imprisoned.

 

 
One of the Street Pastors' objectives - in fact the Street Pastors' most important objective - is to save sinners. Apart from that, the Street Pastors' reliance on prayer should make it very undesirable for a public body to give a donation.  The Office of Police and Crime Commissioner West Mercia Police made a mistake in subsidizing an organisation with this objective. None of the activities mentioned, such as providing water to people out late at night, can possibly be regarded as so vital as to justify this donation. There are so many causes with a far, far greater claim on the generosity of donors.

 

It's wrong that public money should have been spent for this purpose. There are vastly more important  claims on public money. I'm not in the least suggesting that his political judgement is flawed, only that on the evidence I have so far, it was flawed on this occasion.

 

John Campion swore an oath of impartiality on his appointment. It  includes this: 'I do solemnly and sincerely promise that I will serve all the people of [your Police Force Area] in the office of police and crime commissioner without fear or favour.'  This is simply a brief comment, no more - I think he favoured a Christian organization without good cause. I don't claim that he broke your oath of impartiality, but as I see it, there are strong arguments and extensive evidence to show that he was mistaken.


So much criticism of  police forces in this country seems to me to be unfair, failing to recognize that in organizations which are large and complex, facing a very wide range of problems, in the case of the police, very demanding problems as varied as knife crime and gun crime, sexual abuse and property crime, the difficulties of vulnerable people, and so many others, facing demands from so many members of the public which are impossible to satisfy, it's inevitable that some people - many people - will be left unsatisfied -  the familiar, intractable difficulty of finite resources and infinite - or very great - demands.

 

The police forces have many, many employees, of course, and, human nature being what it is, it's very

likely that from time to time a small percentage will make serious mistakes, which are rightly publicized by the media. Sometimes, criticism which  should be specific  becomes generalized, amounting to a general indictment of the police. It becomes grossly unfair. Honest criticism is one thing but all too often,  the strengths of the police forces are overlooked. In a role which is particularly important, protection of the public from violent crime, the police forces rarely fail, and in all their other roles, the successes surely outweigh the failures. But I'd want to put it much more strongly than that.


Police officers risk injury and sometimes death. Street Pastors are overwhelmingly unlikely to be injured let alone killed on the streets at night, but they are ready to portray themselves as 'on the front line,' doing a vital job, and more than that, doing hazardous work.

 

 

Above, street pastors away from the front line, not risking the dangers of the night - outside the Cowes Co-op, after duties at a festival.

 

The site

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/
police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2021/annex-statistics-on-the-number-of-police-officers-assaulted-in-the-year-ending-march-2021-england-and-wales

 

gives the information that in the year ending March 2021, there were about 37, 000 assaults on police officers in England and Wales. There were 11, 235 cases of 'assaults with injury on a constable.'

 

An extract which conveys something of the intense difficulties faced by police officers, but not faced by Street Pastors, or not nearly as often. Although Street Pastors may be in close proximity to incidents of aggression, almost always, the aggression isn't aimed at them.

 

From the Website of the National Police Chiefs' Council

 

https://www.npcc.police.uk/2017%20FOI/CO/078%2017%20CCC%20April%202017%2006%202%20Spit%20Guards.pdf

 

 

'The spit guard is a lightweight mesh garment that is placed over a person’s head to help minimise the risks of communicable diseases (blood borne viruses (BBV)) and injuries associated with a suspect spitting and biting. A Spit Guard will not prevent every injury through spitting or biting, it will not prevent the first instance of spitting. However there are circumstances where a suspect is deliberately spitting saliva and possibly blood, where officers need to be in close proximity to them in order to achieve a lawful objective e.g. searching, preventing self-harm etc where the use of Spit Guard can effectively minimise the risks to officers. Spit Guards cannot prevent the blunt trauma injury from biting, however they can reduce the transfer of bodily fluids in these cases.'

 

 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jul0ET4-8bw
which is about the work of Reading Street Pastors.

 
'If there's a fight going on, I'll ask God to intervene.'
    31s

At 6:21, a Street Pastor turns to prayer. The words of his prayer:  

'They just had a bit of a fight in the doorway between two groups  So father I just ask you into the situation to deal with it  to keep these groups separated and may they all go home safely on their own.'

 

Despite all their prayers and all their clams, the record of the Churches is often horrific and more often dismal.

 

If there's a fight going on, Street Pastors pray. The police officers stop the fighting, if necessary calling on other officers to help, risking injury and sometimes worse. When the fighting has been brought to an end, the Street Pastors can then thank God for stopping the fighting.

 

When police have to waste their time on very minor issues or non-existent issues then of course this is time which they can't give to more important issues.

 

Some supplementary material, an extract from an email I sent.

Lu Skerratt-Love is an employee of the Church Army and a trustee of St Mark's Church, Sheffield. The Website of the Church has publicized her attendance and the attendance of other members of the congregation at Extinction Rebellion protests in London. She writes that she and other protesters prayed during the protests. The Extinction Rebellion protests made huge demands on police time. Again, there were obvious consequences - people the police could have helped weren't helped, people the police could have arrested and should have arrested perhaps weren't arrested. Lu Skerratt-Love obviously has insufficient belief in the power of prayer, unlike the Church Pastors who think that God will provide a taxi or a some other vehicle if they pray for it. She didn't pray for my conversion or pray that I would remove material from this Website, she asked the police to intervene, and on two occasions. I think this may well be a clear-cut case of 'wasting police time,' which is an offence.

 

On 23 November 2021, I received a communication from South Yorkshire Police to inform me that SYP had received a complaint from Lu Skerratt-Love 'who attends St Mark's Church Broomhill regarding some emails that you sent her and the Church in early October ... '

The background is extensive but I hope the information I provide will help to clarify matters. Lu Skerratt-Love has been and still may be a prominent advocate of the 'forest church' movement in Sheffield. 'Forest Churches' have become synonymous with 'Garden Churches.' In September, Lu Skerratt-Love publicized on the Website of St Mark's Church a new initiative - work on a garden church/forest church at the Walkley Bank Allotment Site in Sheffield. I have two allotments at the same site. There are many reasons why I found the proposal to begin a church at the allotment site problematic, in fact misguided, and I set out the reasons in an email sent to St Mark's Church (since the Church had, after all, publicized the new venture) and to Lu Skerratt-Love. The email was sent on 8 September, 2021. The concerns I mentioned in the email involved practical difficulties, difficulties to do with security and difficulties to do with the law ... The email in which I outlined my concerns never reached Lu Skerratt-Love. I sent the email to her Church Army email address. Lu Skerratt-Love is employed by the Church Army. I sent a copy of the email to Tim Ling of the Church Army. It seems that either St Mark's Church or the Church Army brought the email to the attention of Lu Skerratt-Love. Tim Ling promptly blocked emails from me, not just emails addressed to Lu Skerratt-Love but emails to all members of his department, a research department. 


I find it incredible that Lu Skerratt-Love contacted South Yorkshire Police with a complaint concerning emails from me on or shortly before 23 November  when she must have known that ever since 8 September or shortly after no emails from me could possibly have reached her, since my emails were blocked. Given that my email concerning the garden church was matter of fact, simply pointing out certain difficulties, the decision to block emails was outrageous, a completely unwarranted attempt to stifle reasonable communication. I've every reason to believe that reasonable communication by email with the Church Army, including Lu Skerratt-Love, is still impossible. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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