Amazing ALS Josiah Spiers details founding Scripture Union 1888

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Amazing ALS Josiah Spiers details founding Scripture Union 1888 :
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Josiah Spiers (1842-1909).Founder of the Children’s Special Service Mission in 1867 which becamethe Scripture Union which flourishes to this day. On 2 June 1867 Josiah Spiers spoke to fifteenchildren in the drawing room of Thomas ‘Pious’ Hughes’ home at 309 Essex Road,Islington, London, pioneering a new approach to sharing Christ withchildren. Josiah taught the children hymns and choruses and told themstories of Jesus in a way that they could understand. It was alsosolively, so informal and so very different from the boring sermons they had satthrough in their churches that all the children returned the following weekwith some of their friends. By 17 November, the Hughes’ had a capacitycrowd of fifty children in their front room. They needed a larger auditorium,so on 8 December theChildren’s Special Service Mission (CSSM) opened in aschool-house in Islington with sixty-five children attending.

Autograph Letter Signed, 4 pages 8vo on Children’s SpecialService Mission letterhead, Sept. 4, 1888 to evangelist and hymnwriter EdwardP. Hammond telling how the Mission was founded. “was held at the house of Mr. ThomasHughes. Fifteen (15) children came,& I trembled & broke down in singing, but still we had a good time& they begged hard of one more. Toldthem to come again that day – week 30 came they asked for another 40 came foranother & 50 came & the little parlour was jammed so I took a hallclose by for 3 months & soon hundreds attended & then one night a fewgentlemen met together to consider the formation oif a society & afterprayer & conference we founded the ‘Children’s Spoecial Service Mission’and elected Rev. N. Pennefather, M.A. Vicar St. Judes, Mildner Park, aspresident which post he filled until his death…How about 12 years ago we addedthe ‘Foreign Branch’ & have noiw issued 8 millions of our gospel pictureleaflets in 45 languages…” Very good, a traceof mounting at the very top of the first page.It is unclear if this is part of a larger letter or whether Spierssimply started in a kind of stream of consciousness. Since he filled in the date on the firstpage, it would seem this was the entire letter, though there could have beenmore to begin. It is complete in itselfat any rate. Hammond himself wasinstrumental in getting Spiers to expand the mission.

Scripture Union (SU) is an international,inter-denominational, evangelical Christian movement. It was founded in 1867,and works in partnership with individuals and churches across the world. Themovement\'s stated aim is to use the Bible to inspire children, young people andadults to know God.

SU\'s work is carried out through local people in ways whichare seen as appropriate to each country, culture and situation in which amovement is based. This can include running camps, and missions (e.g. holidaybeach mission), working in schools and with student groups or producingresources for Bible reading, family counselling, AIDS education, urban childrenand youth ministry and ministry to the handicapped. Scripture Union is an autonomous organisationin each country, linked together by Scripture Union International. It isprimarily a volunteer organisation with a small number of full-time stafftraining, encouraging and coordinating ministry workers around the world.Scripture Union is also a member of the Forum of Bible Agencies International. Recently, Scripture Union USA has beenbuilding their efforts in social media outreach. YouTube and Facebookevangelist Mark Brown has been noted as having an important role with theorganization.

In 1867 Josiah Spiers spoke to 15 children in a drawing roomin Islington, London, and began the work of sharing the Christian message withchildren in a way that related to their real needs. This led to the founding ofthe Children\'s Special Service Mission (CSSM) which was later to become\"Scripture Union\". Thefollowing year, Spiers travelled to Llandudno, North Wales on holiday and beganto tell the children there about his faith. He drew the text \"God isLove\" in the sand, invited children to decorate it, and then told them aBible story. At about the same time asSpiers held his meeting in Islington, brothers Samuel and James Tyler and TomBond Bishop started a similar meeting in Blackfriars Road, south of the riverThames. Similarly Henry Hankinson and Henry Hutchinson had started meetings inMildmay Park. All of them had come under the influence of Rev Edward PaysonHammond, a controversial American preacher who had visited London in the earlysummer of 1867 and held meetings for both children and Sunday School teachers.Hammond\'s idea was simple: informal, special services for children. Despite thecontroversy which it sparked amongst Sunday School teachers, Spiers and theothers were convinced.

Spiers quickly established the CSSM as a mission to overseehis work in Islington. By August 1868 Bishop had joined the committee and bythe end of the year, Hankinson was also a member, bringing in the Mildmay Parkmeetings as well. Whilst Spiers was the engaging children\'s speaker, Bishop hadthe organising ability and became the honorary secretary. The workingpartnership of Bond and Spiers was to last for more than 40 years and be thefoundation of a movement which has spread to more than 130 countries. In 1879 CSSM started the Children\'s ScriptureUnion, a system of daily Bible reading. A membership card had a list of dailyreadings, and this was soon complemented by explanatory notes in children’smagazines. Booklets of notes were published for troops in the trenches duringthe First World War and led to the first issue of Daily Notes in 1923.

In 1892 the first Boys’ Camp was started in Littlehampton byMajor Leibenrood, a veteran from the Zulu War. The following year, the CaravanMission to Village Children (CMVC) was started using a bakers’ cart. The CMVC becamepart of CSSM, but in 1960 Scripture Union became the official name of theorganisation.

After the second world war, SU developed a new kind ofministry in state schools, the Inter School Christian Fellowship (ISCF), pavingthe way for the schools ministry which is so significant today.

Pioneering and developing ministry has always been a featureof Scripture Union’s ministry, and it continues today, not least in ourwebsites and related digital ministries such as WordLive, LightLive andSchoolsLive. The context may change butthe need of children and young people remains the same.