PARISH ON THE WATER.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10530, 22 October 1925, Page 7

PARISH ON THE WATER.

VICAR’S SCATTERED FLOCK. AMONG SHIPS AND SAILORS. Vicar of 13,000 souls ashore and countless thousands afloat, the Rev. ” • C. Brown, of St. John’s, Tilbury Docks, is truly skipper and parson too. His floating parish stretches from Greenhithe to the Nore, a good oU miles as the river twists, and every ship that sails the Thames, from 20,000-ton P. and O. liners to lighters and mud hoppers, is a potential member of bis flock as Tilbury chaplain or the St. Andrew’s Waterside Church Mission for Sailors. Mr Brown covers his parish as skipper and wheelman, and sometimes engineer, deck hand and cabin hoy, of the mission motor-boat Sir Edward E. Cooper, a fine 42 h.p. craft named after a former Lord Mayor of London whose wife is a member of the mission committee. _ , Wearing a white naval cap ana reefer jacket, his hand on the wheel, his eye on the horizon, he sails about the lower readies of the Thames, faking the mission right to the sailor instead of leaving the sailor to come to the mission. An engineer and two boys lent from the Gravesend Sea School constitute the crew. “ No matter what the weather is, 1 am afloat every day except Sundays, getting among the ships and sailors, Mr Brown said recently. “ Last year I visited 4065 vessels. The chief object of the motor-boat is to_ enable us to get round the ships with literature and magazines. We try to give them manly Christianity, and give out no tracts. “A great feature of our work is giving out ships’ libraries, consisting of 16 books—l 3 good novels, with nothing ‘ namby-pamby ’ about them, a Bible, a Prayer Book, and a hymnbook. . “ Next week I am going to the limit of my parish, the Nore Lightship, which I visit several times a year. I shall take a big' supply of reading matter and conduct a service, while, as a special treat for the men, I am taking down a professional singer from London.” Through the courtesy of Mr Brown, a representative of the “Daily Chronicle” made a trip on the Sir Edward E. Cooper from Tilbury to Thamesliaven and back recently. On this trip one extra good turn was performed. At Thameshaven the Sailors’ and Firemen’s Union tender, Peter Wright, taking a crew ofF a tanker, was unable, owing to wind and tide, to get away from the side of the larger vessel. Going alongside in a difficult tide, the mission boat throw a rope and towed the tender into clear water, saving 30 men a long, weary wait until the tide i tui’ned in the evening.