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Urban Saints is a Christian youth charity based in the United Kingdom. Previously known as Crusaders, it has been operating since the early 1900s. Urban Saints is a member of the Evangelical Alliance. [1]
The original Crusaders group was formed in 1900 in north London by Rev Albert Kestin, [2] with the intention of teaching the Bible to young people who did not attend church. [3] Several similar groups started in the years that following and in 1906, under the leadership of Herbert Bevington, the leaders of eleven groups voted to form the Crusaders’ Union as an umbrella organisation. [4] By 1939 there were 256 groups. [5]
In 2006, the organisation became known as Urban Saints. [6] The name was revealed at a concert at the Royal Albert Hall to celebrate the centenary of the Crusaders’ Union. [7]
In 2000, Matt Summerfield became chief executive.[ citation needed ] Since then, the organisation has developed Energize, online resources, discipleship activities, discussions and videos for youth and children’s groups. [8] [9] As of 2018, Energize had over 1600 subscribers. [10]
Urban Saints also offers summer camps, overseas adventure trips and additional needs training. [11] [12] Urban Saints own Urban Saints Westbrook, a residential centre and campsite on the Isle of Wight. [13] This site has been in operation since 1948. [14]
In 2017, following the arrival of Richard Langmead as chief executive, [15] the organisation's strategy placed focus on planting and supporting new groups in churches, schools and communities across the UK and Ireland. [16]
Throughout the majority of Christian history, most Christian theologians and denominations have considered homosexual behavior as immoral or sinful. Today, within Christianity, there are a variety of views on sexual orientation and homosexuality. Even within a denomination, individuals and groups may hold different views, and not all members of a denomination necessarily support their church's views on homosexuality. The Catholic Church and Orthodox churches officially condemn homosexual activity as sin. Various Mainline Protestant denominations have taken a supportive stance towards blessing homosexual clergy and same-sex marriage while others have not.
Evangelicalism, also called evangelical Christianity or evangelical Protestantism, is a worldwide interdenominational movement within Protestant Christianity that affirms the centrality of being "born again", in which an individual experiences personal conversion; the authority of the Bible as God's revelation to humanity ; and spreading the Christian message. The word evangelical comes from the Greek (euangelion) word for "good news".
Cru is an interdenominational Christian parachurch organization. It was founded in 1951 at the University of California, Los Angeles by Bill Bright and Vonette Zachary Bright. Since then, Cru has expanded its focus to include adult professionals, athletes, and high school students. In 2020, Cru had 19,000 staff members in 190 countries.
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) is an interdenominational organization of evangelical Christian churches, serving more than 600 million evangelicals, founded in 1846 in London, England, United Kingdom to unite evangelicals worldwide. WEA is the largest international organization of evangelical churches. The headquarters are in Deerfield, Illinois, with UN offices in New York City, Geneva, and Bonn. It brings together 9 regional and 143 national evangelical alliances of churches, and over one hundred member organizations. Moreover, the WEA includes a certain percentage of individual evangelical Christian churches. As of March 2021, the Secretary General of the WEA is German theologian Thomas Schirrmacher.
Parachurch organizations are Christian faith-based organizations that work outside and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism. Parachurch organizations seek to come alongside the church and specialize in things that individual churches may not be able to specialize in by themselves. They often cross denominational and national boundaries providing specialized services and training.
Universities and Colleges Christian Fellowship is a UK-based charity that was founded in 1928 as the Inter-Varsity Fellowship of Evangelical Unions. UCCF's dual aims are:
Youth with a Mission is an interdenominational Christian training organisation.
The Evangelical Presbyterian Church in England and Wales (EPCEW) is a reformed and conservative evangelical Presbyterian denomination based in England and Wales with churches in Germany, Switzerland, and Sweden. Founded in 1996, the denomination is small but growing.
Tearfund is an international Christian relief and development agency based in Teddington, UK. It currently works in around 50 countries, with a primary focus on supporting those in poverty and providing disaster relief for disadvantaged communities.
Christian unions (CUs) are evangelical Christian student groups. They exist in many countries and are often affiliated with either the International Fellowship of Evangelical Students or the Campus Crusade for Christ. Many Christian unions are one of the societies affiliated to their universities' students' union. As a broader term, Christian union may refer to any Christian student society, such as SCM and Fusion groups.
United Christian Broadcasters (UCB) is an international Christian broadcasting and media group, founded by Rhema Media. Through affiliates in twenty five countries, it operates radio and television stations and publishes and broadcasts Bob Gass's daily devotionals The Word for You Today and Word For You.
Courage UK is a Christian ministry for the gay and lesbian community, based in Guildford, Surrey, England. It was founded as an Evangelical Christian ex-gay organisation that sought to change gay people to straight, but subsequently rejected the idea that sexual orientation could or should be changed and now exists as a pro-gay evangelical Christian ministry.
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 being distinct from liberal evangelicalism, open evangelicalism, and charismatic evangelicalism. Some conservative evangelical groups oppose women ministers or women preachers in mixed congregations.
The Good Book Company (TGBC) is an evangelical Christian publisher, located in Epsom, Surrey, England. They are structured as a large unquoted, private company, limited by share capital. Their practices include publishing, mission outreach and training. The Publisher was declared runner up in the Christian Publisher of the Year Award by the Trade Body for Christian Publishing and Retailing in the UK.
Donald John Wiseman was a biblical scholar, archaeologist and Assyriologist. He was Professor of Assyriology at the University of London from 1961 to 1982.
William Folorunso Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry situated at Gbagada, Lagos, Nigeria. He is the author of several Christian books and devotionals. William Folorunso Kumuyi celebrated his 80th Birthday on 6 June 2021.
In the United States, evangelicalism is a movement among Protestant Christians who believe in the necessity of being born again, emphasize the importance of evangelism, and affirm traditional Protestant teachings on the authority as well as the historicity of the Bible. Comprising nearly a quarter of the U.S. population, evangelicals are a diverse group drawn from a variety of denominational backgrounds, including Baptist, Mennonite, Methodist, Pentecostal, Plymouth Brethren, Quaker, Reformed and nondenominational churches.
Wycliffe Global Alliance is an alliance of organizations that have objective of translating the Bible into every language. The organisation is named after John Wycliffe, who was responsible for the first complete English translation of the whole Bible into Middle English.