Church Army
| Motto | Faith, Words, Action |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1882 |
| Type | Non-profit, Christian |
| Location |
|
| Fields | Evangelism, Outreach |
|
Key people
|
Wilson Carlile, Philip Johanson OBE, Mark Russell |
| Website | churcharmy |
The Church Army is an evangelistic organisation founded in the Church of England and now operating in many parts of the Anglican Communion.
The Church Army was founded in England in 1882 by the Revd Wilson Carlile (afterwards prebendary of St Paul's Cathedral), who banded together in an orderly army of soldiers, officers and a few working men and women, whom he and others trained to act as Church of England evangelists among the outcasts and criminals of the Westminster slums. As a curate in the parish of St Mary Abbott, Kensington, Carlile had experimented with unorthodox forms of Christian meetings and witness, going to where coachmen, valets and others would take their evening stroll and holding open air services, persuading onlookers to say the Scripture readings, and training working people to preach. Previous experience had convinced Carlile that the moral condition of the lowest classes of the people called for new and aggressive action on the part of the Christian Church and that this work was most effectively done by lay people of the same class as those whom it was desired to reach. This was at a time when similar groups were appearing - the Revd Evan Hopkins was organising a ‘Church Gospel Army’ and other clergy had established a "Church Salvation Army" at Oxford and a "Church Mission Army" at Bristol. Carlile suggested a combined "Church Army".
As the work grew, a training institution for evangelists was started in Oxford with F. S. Webster as Principal, but soon moved (1886) to London, where, in Bryanston Street near Marble Arch, the headquarters of the army was established. Marie Carlile, Wilson Carlile's sister, was a frail woman who left a life of elegance for the tough, austere life of training women in 1888, followed by the first "Recue Shelter" for women in 1891, and continued in the mission for fifty years.
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Wikipedia