All Souls Clubhouse

My ministry at All Souls, Langham Place, London began with John Stott giving me two notebooks with instructions for me to record every visit I made to parishioners and to report to him on them from time to time. In that way he could keep track on what I was doing! It was to hold me accountable for the use of my time which lesson I carried with me the rest of my life. Ephesians 5:16 reminds me to “Redeem the Time” or “Make most of your time.” To this day I have felt accountable for how I live my life and how I will some day have to report to the Lord for what I have done (2 Corinthians 5:10).

He also assigned me various responsibilities. On Mondays I would be chaplain to the Good Companions Club which met in the afternoon at the All Souls Clubhouse in Cleveland Street. It was a community center in a house where Samuel Morse, the inventor of the Morse Code lived 1812-1815. We had a Sunday service there for the less well-off and vulnerably-housed local residents who could be forgotten behind the neighborhood’s wealthy population. The Warden of the Clubhouse, Johnny Pridmore, led youth work and met social, educational, emotional, physical and spiritual needs for those mostly living in council and rental accommodation. It now focuses on three ministries: Tamar, an outreach project to support sex workers; All Souls Local Action Network, a project that supports homeless people across the West End; and Senior Care, a project which provides for local older people and a lunch club. It also supports All Souls School in Foley Street, which is a Primary School with 200 pupils from ages 3 to 11. Today around 200 people attend the free English class at All Souls which serves the many refugees now resident in Fitzrovia.

The Good Companions Club was composed of elderly residents who came to an afternoon tea served by some of our volunteers, an activity and a devotional which I gave. I got to know each one of them over the years. I was also given responsibility for supervising the volunteer Old People’s Welfare Visitors (OPWV) who visited once a week shut-in, disabled or poor residents in the neighborhood. They would take gifts of groceries and other items, prayed with them and leave a biblical pamphlet. I also visited and experienced the limited accommodations some of them lived in. I remember well visiting one lady whose only running water was from a faucet in the hallway and had gaslight. Those tenements were eventually demolished and replaced by council flats.

I also had responsibility to visit a small nursing home owned by All Souls at 25 Fitzroy Street where four residents were cared for by a nurse, Mary Price. It was a sad little place but lovingly cared for by Mary who did her best for the few who found a refuge of last resort. It was a contrast to the modern Post Office Tower which loomed over it.

For a 26-year-old man as young as I was it was my first encounter with those less well-off and the deserving poor. It gave me an insight into my privileged status and the needs of others. I also saw how compassionate the volunteers I worked with were as they visited and encouraged the needy. “I tell you the truth. Whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers of mine, you did for me” (Matthew 25:40).