REV. LIONEL B. FLETCHER

Otago Daily Times, Issue 21300, 2 April 1931, Page 9

REV. LIONEL B. FLETCHER

HIS LONDON MISSION (From Our Own Correspondent.) LONDON, February 19. After several months of hard work in connection with the London Youth Evangelist Campaign, the Rev. ' Lionel B. Fletcher was overtaken; last week by the influenza epidemic. He has now recovered except for a weakness of the throaty which he is having treated by a specialist. Opening his campaign at Ealing, he continued the mission at Ilford, Wandsworth, Lewisham, and Holloway. _ He has just finished in the last-mentioned district, and he is shortly to begin at Walthamstow, after which the mission is to be carried to Putney. It will be remembered that Mr Fletcher came to England’ at the invitation of the Unity and Free Church forces. Since then, however, the Church of England has come into the campaign, and recently Mr Fletcher has had the experience of preaching nearly every Sunday morning in an Anglican Church. In the Holloway district 30 churches combined for the mission, and 11 of those were of the Church of England. The missions all through have been an unqualified suc- “ I find a tremendous difference in the religious life of England since I left seven years ago,” Mr Fletcher told me. “ There is a wonderful new breath _of religious life coming to England, which is especially affecting the young people. I put it down partly to the fact that there is a new generation springing up which has not been shocked by the war. We have had invitations from nearly all the big cities to .start evangelical campaigns similar to that we are having in London. “The chief trouble is that we cannot get halls big enough for our audience. At Ealing I spoke in the Town Hall, which was invariably full, and I was connected by amplifiers to the Prince’s Hall, in the same building, and the Blue Triangle Hall, on the other side of the street. “ There were people who said we could not attract the youth. In Holloway the other day where I had an audience of 1600, 1 asked all those under 30 years of age to hold up their hymn sheets, and then those over 30. There were only about 200 people present who were over 30,< years of age. That is the answer to the critics. . , t: On Sundays we have taken picture houses holding several thousand people, and have had crowded houses. At Holloway, for the week-night services, we had a church holding 1300, and we were connected by loud speaker to a hall holding 500 people. Even then, we had to turn large numbers of people away. • i The clergy have been amazed at the response to our appeal.” Mr Fletcher explained that the mam committee in London carried out a certain amount of the advertising; but each district has its own committee which organises the local advertising. The youths of the district have taken up the publicity work in a marvellous manner. For the mission at Walthanstow, for instance, a thousand have volunteered to take part in the procession on the Saturday afternoon. Many of these are students, and many of them will be carrving sandwich hoards. Mr Fletcher had a first enthusiastic welcome when he preached at the City Temple. Recently, he attended the annual conference of the Free Church Federation at Fulham Congregational Church, and preached the official sermon to five hundred ministers. He is also to preach the official sermon at the May meeting of the Colonial Missionary Society. Another important engagement is in conjunction with Dr Daniel Poling, at the Albert Hall. The occasion is the jubilee celebrations of the Christian Endeavour Society'. Both Dr Poling (who is the world president of the society) and Mr Fletcher (the New Zealand president) will speak at the same meeting. On April 10, Mr Fletcher will speak again at the Albert Hall, at the wind-up of the Youth Evangelist Campaign. Mr and Mrs Fletcher intend to sail for Canada by the Duchess of York on May 29. After a few weeks in Canada they join the Monowai at Vancouver on June 24, reaching Auckland on July 13,