Wood Green Mennonite Church (London, England)

The London Mennonite Fellowship began in 1952 as a ministry to students in the newly-opened London Mennonite Centre (England). Mennonites scattered by the effects of World War II also participated. The growth of the fellowship as an English congregation began in 1975 when Stephen Longley, later a Mennonite missionary to Nepal, joined. In the following year the tiny fellowship adopted its covenant which, after a crisis, was revised and reaffirmed in 1982. In 1983 the church, which had begun to grow, moved its worship out of the London Mennonite Centre, and in 1988 the church began to take root in another part of North London, Wood Green. Its growing maturity was indicated by its calling in 1986 of English elders to lead the church and in 1987 by its hiring of its first paid worker. In 1987 the fellowship, together with the Evangelical Mennonite Association (the legal trust for London Mennonite Centre), formed the United Kingdom Conference of Mennonites. Membership in 1987 was 33.

The Wood Green congregation closed on 20 March 2016 after its membership had fallen to 12. A closing gathering was planned for 16 April 2016. Sean Gardiner, the last remaining elder, expressed hope that a "virtual community...with a pattern of shared devotional life and occasional meetings" would be able to continue.

Bibliography

Gardiner, Sean. "Update." Wood Green Mennonite Church. Web. 15 February 2016. https://wgmc.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/update/

Green, Chris. "Mennonites to worship online as last British church is forced to close." Independent. Web. 22 March 2016. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/mennonites-to-worship-online-as-last-british-church-is-forced-to-close-a6940131.html

Sherwood, Harriet. "UK Mennonites end Sunday services after numbers dwindle." The Guardian. Web 16 March 2016. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/mar/16/uk-mennonites-end-sunday-services-after-numbers-dwindle?CMP=share_btn_link.

Author(s)	Alan Kreider
	Samuel J. Steiner
Date Published	March 2016

Cite This Article

MLA style

Kreider, Alan and Samuel J. Steiner. "Wood Green Mennonite Church (London, England)." Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. March 2016. Web. 25 Nov 2024. https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wood_Green_Mennonite_Church_(London,_England)&oldid=165940.

APA style

Kreider, Alan and Samuel J. Steiner. (March 2016). Wood Green Mennonite Church (London, England). Global Anabaptist Mennonite Encyclopedia Online. Retrieved 25 November 2024, from https://gameo.org/index.php?title=Wood_Green_Mennonite_Church_(London,_England)&oldid=165940.

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Adapted by permission of Herald Press, Harrisonburg, Virginia, from Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. 5, p. 529. All rights reserved.

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