Reconnecting With Our Roots

On Thursday 28th January, members of this movement past and present gathered in Harpenden to celebrate the wonderful legacy of Urban Saints and Crusaders and to discern what God is saying to us all today. Richard Townend, Urban Saints' North East Regional Director, shares his experience of this unique gathering.

For a mere sapling like me, this ministry which I’m part of is a mighty oak. It’s branches spread throughout the country, and it’s blossoms and buds are emerge throughout the seasons. But beneath that towering tree is a vast network of roots which hold the tree steady and provide a foundation for growth.

Reconnecting with our Roots gave Urban Saints the chance to look at our rich heritage as Crusaders. And as Matt Summerfield reminded us at the start of the day, just like his son Andrew is known to different people by different names, so it is with Urban Saints, or Crusaders, or Intergalactic Explorers – it’s all the same, and it’s the ministry that matters.

Our first guest speaker was Heather Keep, a name fondly remembered for her knowledge and pastoral support for groups over many years. Heather reminded us that it’s not just in recent times when the organisation has undergone change, as she talked of when the girls were allowed into Crusaders for the first time. Highly controversial in its day, this was another example of how the movement has evolved in response to prayerfully following God’s will whilst remaining relevant to the culture we are reaching out to.

John Redfern spoke next about his history of volunteering with Crusaders through groups and holidays. It is thanks to him, and hundreds others like him, that the organisation is still going, 104 years on.

The next speaker was the first appointed General Director for Crusaders. Ernie Addicott was with the organisation from 1983-1992, and everyone in attendance was glad to see him and his trademark handlebar moustache. Ernie recalled that very significant story right at the beginning of Crusaders history when Albert Kestin quizzed a number of boys as to why they weren’t in church on a Sunday afternoon. In the past, Crusaders has been seen as primarily reaching out to those at public schools. However, Ernie suggested that Kestin’s intervention was nothing to do with social class, but with a spiritual need that these boys needed to know Jesus.

Following Ernie on the podium was his successor as General Director, Alan Kerbey. Alan talked to us about his heart of seeking God amongst the programmes and processes of our ministry. One memorable story he told was when he was involved in the Champion of the World tour at Wembley Stadium. He was joined here by an elderly gentleman who had lived through the Hebridean revival. Alan told of the very symbolic moment when a baton was passed from this man to a number of young Crusaders in front of sixty thousand people.

The past moved into the present with our final speakers, Matt Summerfield and Phil Hulks, and with their words the timeline was complete. The past moving into the present; the baton being passed on for the next leg of the journey.

As we prayed together towards the end of the day, we were asked to stand in a circle in the chapel in which we met at Harpenden. Where we stood in the circle depended on when we had joined Crusaders. The circle started way back in the 1930s and finished in the noughties. It surprised me just how many of the current staff team were Crusader infants like me, though it was reassuring to see John Fudge taking his rightful place amongst the old timers! But as we prayed, it was as if the baton was being passed right through the history of the movement from one generation to another.

The day finished with a time of truly powerful worship led by Andy Hughes, our Welsh National Director. There was a tangible sense of God’s holy spirit quietly at work as Saints and Crusaders raised the roof in a chorus of Great is thy Faithfulness.

It was a special day, but it wasn’t a day for reminiscing. The prevailing attitude was not of looking back, but looking forward. As someone said earlier in the day “The past is history, the future is mystery, but today is an exciting gift…that’s why we call it the present.”

This little sapling couldn’t have put it better himself.

Urban Saints is the operating name of The Crusaders' Union, a registered charity in England and Wales (223798) and Scotland (SCO39313)