Scripture Union

Last updated
Scripture Union
Founded1867
FounderJosiah Spiers
TypeCharitable
FocusChristianity, young people [1]
Location
OriginsUK
Area served
  • Global
  • (Over 130 movements in 120 countries)
ProductBible reading materials, camps, missions
Website Scripture Union International Website

Scripture Union (SU) is an international, interdenominational, [2] evangelical Christian organization. It was founded in 1867, and works in partnership with individuals and churches across the world. The organization's stated aim is to use the Bible to inspire children, young people and adults to know God.

Contents

Scripture Union is an autonomous organisation in each country, linked together by Scripture Union International. It is primarily a volunteer organisation with a small number of full-time staff training, encouraging and coordinating ministry workers around the world. Scripture Union is also a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International.

Origin

In 1867 Josiah Spiers spoke to 15 children in a drawing room in Islington, London, and began the work of sharing the Christian message with children in a way that related to their real needs. [3] This led to the founding of the Children's Special Service Mission (CSSM) which was later to become "Scripture Union".

At about the same time as Spiers held his meeting in Islington, brothers Samuel and James Tyler and Tom Bond Bishop started a similar meeting in Blackfriars Road, south of the river Thames. Similarly, Henry Hankinson and Henry Hutchinson had started meetings in Mildmay Park; all were influenced by Rev Edward Payson Hammond, a controversial American preacher who had visited London in the early summer of 1867 and held meetings for both children and Sunday School teachers.

The following year, Spiers travelled to Llandudno on holiday and began to tell the children there about his faith. He drew the text "God is Love" in the sand, invited children to decorate it, and then told them a Bible story. [4]

Spiers quickly established the CSSM as a mission to oversee his work in Islington. By August 1868 Bishop had joined the committee and by the end of the year, Hankinson was also a member, bringing in the Mildmay Park meetings as well. Whilst Spiers was the engaging children's speaker, Bishop had the organising ability and became the honorary secretary. [5] The working partnership of Bond and Spiers was to last for more than 40 years and be the foundation of the modern Scripture Union.

In 1879, CSSM started the Children's Scripture Union, a system of daily Bible reading. [6] A membership card had a list of daily readings, and this was soon complemented by explanatory notes in children's magazines. Booklets of notes were published for troops in the trenches during the First World War and led to the first issue of Daily Notes in 1923. [4] :110

In 1892, the first Boys' Camp was started in Littlehampton by Major Liebenrood, a veteran from the Anglo-Zulu War. The following year, the Caravan Mission to Village Children (CMVC) was started using a bakers' cart. The CMVC became part of CSSM, but in 1960 Scripture Union became the official name of the organisation.

In the 1950s, CSSM/Scripture Union held an annual book writing competition, resulting in the publication of many children's novels, including several by Patricia St. John, such as Treasures of the Snow , [7] still in print today. These were hardback books with illustrations and dust jackets by artist L. F. Lupton.

Scripture Union's work is carried out through local people in ways which are seen as appropriate to each country, culture and situation in which a movement is based. [8] This can include running camps, and missions (e.g. holiday beach mission), working in schools and with student groups or producing resources for Bible reading, family counselling, AIDS education, urban children and youth ministry and ministry to the 'handicapped'.

In Britain, the Scripture Union has been criticised by an independent review for its links with the Iwerne camps, where students from leading public schools are said to have been groomed for sexual abuse during the 1970s and 1980s. Though the camps were not run by the Scripture Union, instead organised by the Iwerne Trust, the SU employed three of the staff at Iwerne and supported its operations. The camp leader, John Smyth QC, who was an SU trustee, befriended youths and abused them. [9]

In 2017, Scripture Union was active in over 120 countries. [10]

See also

Related Research Articles

Baptists form a major branch of evangelical Protestantism distinguished by baptizing only professing Christian believers and doing so by complete immersion. Baptist churches generally subscribe to the doctrines of soul competency, sola fide, sola scriptura and congregationalist church government. Baptists generally recognize two ordinances: baptism and communion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. W. Bullinger</span> British Anglican clergyman, biblical scholar and theologian (1837-1913)

Ethelbert William Bullinger was an Anglican clergyman, biblical scholar, and ultradispensationalist theologian.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican Diocese of Sydney</span> Diocese in the Anglican Church of Australia

The Diocese of Sydney is a diocese in Sydney, within the Province of New South Wales of the Anglican Church of Australia. The majority of the diocese is evangelical and low church in tradition.

Moore Theological College, otherwise known simply as Moore College, is the theological training seminary of the Diocese of Sydney in the Anglican Church of Australia. The president of the Moore Theological College Council is ex officio the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hudson Taylor</span> British Protestant missionary in China

James Hudson Taylor was a British Baptist Christian missionary to China and founder of the China Inland Mission. Taylor spent 54 years in China. The society that he began was responsible for bringing over 800 missionaries to the country who started 125 schools and directly resulted in 20,000 Christian conversions, as well as the establishment of more than 300 stations of work with more than 499 local helpers in all 18 provinces.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Newington Green</span> Human settlement in England

Newington Green is an open space in North London between Islington and Hackney. It gives its name to the surrounding area, roughly bounded by Ball's Pond Road to the south, Petherton Road to the west, Green Lanes and Matthias Road to the north, and Boleyn Road to the east. The Green is in N16 and the area is covered by the N16, N1 and N5 postcodes. Newington Green Meeting House is situated near the park.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Clayesmore School</span> Public school in Blandford Forum, Dorset, England

Clayesmore School is an independent school for boys and girls, aged 8 – 18 years, in the village of Iwerne Minster, Dorset, England. It is both a day and boarding school and is a member of The Headmasters' and Headmistresses' Conference (HMC).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Children's Special Service Mission</span>

Children's Special Service Mission was the original name, from 1867, of the organisation now called Scripture Union. Begun by Thomas 'Pious' Hughes and Josiah Spiers in Islington, London, this evangelical Christian movement was less formal than the Sunday Schools of the day and attracted children who in turn brought their friends. Several notable people have participated in this mission of the likes of Stanley Andrew Morrison.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Bible translations into Chinese</span>

Since the arrival of Christianity in China, the Bible has been translated into many varieties of the Chinese language, both in fragments and in its totality. The first translations may have been undertaken as early as the 7th century AD, but the first printed translations appeared only in the nineteenth century. Progress on a modern translation was encumbered by denominational rivalries, theological clashes, linguistic disputes, and practical challenges at least until the publication of the Protestant Chinese Union Version in 1919, which became the basis of standard versions in use today.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">E. J. H. Nash</span> English cleric

Eric John Hewitson "Bash" Nash was a conservative evangelical Church of England cleric. His work of Christian evangelism and camp ministry in the top thirty public schools of the United Kingdom from 1932 onwards was highly influential in the post-war British evangelical resurgence. Over 7,000 boys attended the Iwerne camps under his leadership.

Conservative evangelicalism is a term used in the United Kingdom to describe a theological movement found within evangelical Protestantism and is sometimes simply synonymous with evangelical within the United Kingdom. The term is used more often in the first sense, but conservative evangelicals themselves tend to use it in the second. Conservative evangelicals are sometimes called fundamentalists, but typically reject that label and are keen to maintain their distinct identity, which is more Reformed. Reformed fundamentalism shares many of the characteristics of conservative evangelicalism. In this sense, conservative evangelicalism can be thought of as distinct from liberal evangelicalism, open evangelicalism, and charismatic evangelicalism. Some conservative evangelical groups oppose women ministers or women preachers in mixed congregations.

Christopher J. H. Wright is a missiologist, an Anglican clergyman and an Old Testament scholar. He is currently the International Ministries Director of Langham Partnership International. He was the principal of All Nations Christian College. He is an honorary member of All Souls Church, Langham Place in London, UK.

Christianity in the 20th century was characterized by an accelerating secularization of Western society, which had begun in the 19th century, and by the spread of Christianity to non-Western regions of the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">North American Lutheran Church</span>

The North American Lutheran Church (NALC) is a Lutheran denomination with over 420 congregations in the United States, Canada, and Mexico, counting more than 142,000 baptized members. The NALC believes all doctrines should and must be judged by the teaching of the Christian Scriptures, in keeping with the historic Lutheran Confessions. It was established on August 27, 2010. The group describes itself as embodying the "theological center of Lutheranism in North America," noting that it stands between the more liberal Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and the more conservative Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod (LCMS) and other Lutheran church bodies in North America, "firmly within the global Lutheran mainstream".

The Groupes Bibliques Universitaires (GBU) are student groups that meet at universities or nearby for in-depth Bible study. They were founded in the beginning of the 20th century and currently operate in an officially recognized way in more than 154 countries, with a presence in 168 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">William Pennefather</span>

William Pennefather (1816-1873) was an Irish Anglican cleric who spent most of his adult life in England. He was famous for his hymns and sermons, and also for missionary work with his wife Catherine Pennefather. Catherine founded several projects in his name in the twenty years after his death.

John Jackson Smyth, QC was a British barrister and recorder, who was also involved in Christian ministry. In early 2017, reports emerged that he had performed sadistic beatings on schoolboys and young men who regarded him as a spiritual father. Anglican Bishop Andrew Watson disclosed that, as a young man, he was a victim. Smyth died while under investigation, so criminal charges were never brought against him, but an independent review concluded that he abused at least 13 people, and the abuse was also emotional and spiritual, as well as physical.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students</span>

The Nigeria Fellowship of Evangelical Students (NIFES) is an interdenominational Christian campus movement in Nigeria whose aims are to promote and encourage evangelism, discipleship and mission among students. The NIFES is the largest Christian Campus movement in Africa with secretariats in almost all Nigerian tertiary institutions. The movement which started on 31 August 1968 is the Nigerian division of the worldwide umbrella organisation the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students (IFES), which is the largest Christian campus movement in the world currently covering 160 evangelical Christian students movements in over 160 countries.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Titus Trust</span>

The Titus Trust is a registered charity in the UK, and is the successor organisation to the Iwerne Trust.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Iwerne camps</span>

The Iwerne camps, officially the Varsity and Public Schools (VPS) camps, and commonly known as Bash camps, were a group of British evangelical Christian holiday camps aimed at children from British public schools.

References

  1. Scripture Union International : Aims
  2. Scripture Union International : Working Principles
  3. George Thomas Kurian, Mark A. Lamport, Encyclopedia of Christian Education, Volume 3, Rowman & Littlefield, USA, 2015, p. 135
  4. 1 2 Pollock, John Charles (1959), The Good Seed: The story of the Children's Special Service mission and the Scripture Union, London: Hodder and Stoughton
  5. Sitters, Mrs P (1923) T.B.B. of the C.S.S.M. London: The Children's Special Service Mission.
  6. John H. Y. Briggs, A Dictionary of European Baptist Life and Thought, Wipf and Stock Publishers, USA, 2009, p. 455
  7. St John, Patricia (1950). Treasures of the Snow. CSSM.
  8. Scripture Union, What we do, scriptureunion.global, UK, retrieved February 4, 2023
  9. Wilkinson, Paul (26 March 2021). "Scripture Union criticised for silence about John Smyth" . Retrieved 14 April 2021.
  10. AIP, La ligue pour la lecture de la bible célèbre ses 150 ans samedi, news.abidjan.net, Ivory Coast, August 10, 2017