It was a ministry for a season. Effective for its time and place, the ICS campsite ministry served a strategic purpose for its era. But now is no more, its narrow window of opportunity today closed. Life moves on.
I am writing this blog in London so we could attend a special service at St Paul’s church in Onslow Square to celebrate the 200th anniversary of the Church of England Society for the Education of the Poor in the Colonies. Actually it is not called that any more, neither it is still called the Colonial Church and School Society. Nor the Colonial and Continental Church Society. Nor INTERCON.
In fact, ICS – the Intercontinental Church Society – has had more name changes and rebranding exercises than BT Sport, which is an indication of how its ministry of sharing the Gospel has had to adapt to a fast-changing world.
Essentially – and this is my own observation – its core ministry is to English expats – wherever they may be over the globe, along with other English-speaking expats, Americans and Aussies especially. So last September, for example, while on holiday in the Netherlands we attended Sunday worship at Holy Trinity, Utrecht, an ICS church founded 1913.
Once inside we could have been at our home church in West Lancashire, a very similar service to St Mark’s but somehow transplanted to continental Europe. The only indication that we were in the Netherlands was the large number of bikes parked against the church’s railings.
The service was packed -and not just by English-speaking people resident in the Randstad conurbation but quite a few Dutch people as well, drawn to Anglican worship and practice. In fact, over the years I have come in contact with a fair number of Christians who came to faith through attending an ICS church through the sheer loneliness of living abroad for whatever reason.
My own involvement with ICS began in the early 1980’s through meeting the remarkable Charles Bonsall, then employed by ICS to explore new ways of sharing the Gospel. A lovely man, Charles was his own person, an eccentric. ICS boldly and characteristically decided to harness his eccentricity, his ability to think creatively and to imagine new ministries.
Charles had noticed how Jim Cuthbert, virtually single-handed, had transformed the holiday-going behaviour of the British middle class families by renting out fully-equipped tents on French campsites through his company, Canvas Holidays, which also organised their ferry crossing and insurance. This was so successful that other companies soon muscled in, Eurocamps and Keycamps in particular.
The result was that holiday regions in France from the 1980’s were overwhelmed by British families, those from Scotland arriving and leaving a couple of weeks earlier. I recall seeing beach car parks in Brittany packed with British cars.
Here Charles saw an opportunity. Why not place an English chaplain with their family on the main campsite in each region to provide ministry, and in particular a Sunday service, for their compatriots? People on holiday are more relaxed, open to conversations on spiritual issues - and should they attend a church service, who would ever find out?
So virtually single-handed – although Valerie his wife provided valuable support, Charles set out to launch a totally new ministry. It meant negotiating not just with campsite owners but with local RC priests so we could borrow their church building for six or eight Sunday mornings during the summer. Charles became adept in acquiring and equpping tents, later caravans. He was forever chasing down bargains. And most importantly, recruiting clergy suitable for this particular kind of ministry in two or three week stretches.
I met Charles at a clergy conference in 1984 and having already been on a Canvas holiday, I immediately saw the potential of his project. I signed up and over the next 14 years we did some nine chaplaincies all over France. We found it not just hugely enjoyable but highly effective, particularly for tired Christians who had been over-used by insensitive vicars. They knew they could simply walk into our service knowing that they would not be got at. They could meet up with Jesus once again without the hassle of church!
We operated as a family. Jacqui made some good friends while our daughters would bring their new-made pals, lots of them, to whatever we organised. It proved a huge boost to their Christian faith. As it happens one of our daughters is currently developing such a ministry with such a “pop-up” church just down the road from here.
For those few years the ICS campsite ministry proved highly productive. Charles set up about 12 different sites in France with another two in Italy. He encouraged me to become involved in the training of holiday chaplains. As it happens, I went on to serve on the General Council of ICS for three stints.
However, as a ministry it was time-limited. Gradually, as families became more affluent and air travel so much more affordable, numbers holidaying on France campsites steadily declined. Moreover, as mobile homes began to replace tents, it was no longer possible just to wander about and chat with campers as they enjoyed their barbecues.
So around the turn of the century ICS decided to pull out of campsite ministry. Charles by then had retired and no one could have possibly imitated his ministry anyway. Sadly he died four years ago, eccentric to the end. His Christmas cards were plastered with low-value postage stamps which somehow he had acquired at fire-sale prices.
The Bible is filled with eccentric people, even those at the far end of the spectrum. You can’t get any more weird than the prophet Ezekiel while John the Baptist, in his dress, diet and demeanour is right up there in the eccentricity stakes. This meant that John, inspired by the Holy Spirit, could see things differently. So rather than baptise proselytes, those Gentiles wanting to become Jews, he decided – against normal practice - to baptise anyone and everyone who decided to repent, and even controversially his cousin Jesus. (Jesus, for the record, insisted).
As disciples of Jesus, we need to prize eccentricity – it’s how the Holy Spirit likes to work, guiding us to see new perspectives and to be wary of the normal, to sit light to convention. To be foolish, even.
Take Brenda, for example. As a member of our congregation she was forever showering me with her ideas for mission. Many, most even, were totally impracticable, others totally daft. But I always listened to her because once in a while she would come up with a gem, a way of sharing Jesus which no one in their right mind would come up with. In this she was indispensable.
She had always wanted to be a missionary in China but her family responsibilities precluded her. So rather than going to China, she arranged for China to come to her, just as it was opening up to the outside world. At her suggestion we developed a link with the Chinese Consulate in Manchester so that for the next few years we were regularly visited by Chinese officials. I recall one conversation, being asked by the person responsible for aircraft procurement about the Christian faith.
So we need to value our fellow disciples who are eccentric, especially if like me you are predictable and conformist. This is especially so as the CofE adopts a more managerial culture with its Renewal and Reform programme – which I broadly support. However, there has to be an awareness of the importance of the maverick, those who just do not fit in with the way we normally do things, the odd, the eccentric.
Like Charles, like Brenda, for whom we praise God!