Ship of Fools: Christian Children's Clubs

Thread: Christian Children's Clubs Board: Oblivion / Ship of Fools.

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Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

Did you ever belong to a Christian children’s club, with uniform, badges, ranks, mottoes, ideals, passwords etc.?

I belonged to the (now defunct) Methodist Order of Knights, with Pages (ages 7-14), Esquires (ages 14-21) and Knights for adults.

At the weekly meeting (Court), we wore a piece of shield-shaped white cloth with a blue cross (Regalia) around our necks (some of the senior Knights had fancy purple velvet Regalia), did some “stuff’ such as reciting our motto, listening to a Bible-reading, and memorising some verses, then proceeded to the fun part of the evening, playing violent games in the church hall.

There might also have been a secret password, which I can’t remember.

It seems quite quaint and touching to me now, looking back, but I don’t remember taking it at all seriously at the time.

These days the idea of a religious quasi-military order for boys carries fascist overtones, but the MoK owed more to Tennyson than Franco.

It was started in 1914, in the dying stages of the Victorian and Edwardian glamorization of chivalry, by a young minister who found that his Sunday School class preferred stories of King Arthur’s knights to Bible stories.

The motto was based on lines from The Idylls Of The Kings:-
“Live pure, speak true, right wrong, follow Christ the king. Else, wherefore born?”

There was a female counterpart, called Rays (for girls) and Comrades (for women).

Some of my friends belonged to the Church of England Boys’ Society, known as CEBS, which I think had a full, navy-blue uniform and was based loosely on the Scouts.

During my twenties, I helped run the Brethren’s Every Boy’s Rally (EBR) at our church, which featured monogrammed forage caps, and a species of sash on which to sew various badges as they were won.

There was also an Every Girl’s Rally.

EBR nights were chaotic, and attracted much criticism from the church leadership over damage to property.

Looking back decades on, my hair stands on end at the potential risks to which we blithely exposed the kids, both at the church and on weekend camps, without any thought of litigation or insurance.

Posted by Golden Key (# 1468) on :

2 groups:

--Pioneer Girls, briefly. Sort of a light version of Girl Scouts (uniform and badges), with a Christian theme. I don't think we did any outdoor stuff; but I remember doing some crafts.

--Good News Club (from Child Evangelism Fellowship). Met at a house weekly, for part of the year, for stories, Bible lessons, evangelism, etc. Also (when I was older) did evangelism in a fair booth: basically, asking kids if they wanted to come in for a story; telling them an evangelistic story; asking them if they wanted to ask Jesus into their hearts; then letting them go. From a "we must save these kids from hell" POV, it made sense; but I'm ashamed of it now. And I was a little uncomfortable about it then.

Posted by Spike (# 36) on :

Whe I saw the title, I thought it was about blunt implements used to make sure children behave in church.

Posted by Jengie jon (# 273) on :

You mean like Pilots? Yes I did and that one seems to be if anything going stronger than when I was a kid.

It was originally a fund raising venture for John Williams Ships run by the London Missionary Society which is now Council for World Mission.

In the days when I attended it was very like Guides or Scouts without the uniform, some more Church content and not so much backwoodsmanship.

Jengie

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

I have been, off and on, a Pathfinder and Pathfinder leader, since I was nine. Just last year I got my Master Guide, which is the highest level of Pathfinder leadership. (Not to be confused with the Pathfinders which is, in Canada at least, a level of Girl Guides for 11-14 year olds, the Pathfinder Club I belonged to is the international youth organization of the Seventh-day Adventist church, open to boys and girls ages 9-16.

I'm not crazy about the paramilitary drilling-and-marching aspect, but I love wearing a uniform with badges!! (probably the part of my personality that likes to have something measurable to show for accomplishments). Right now we don't have a club due to lack of kids of the right age in our church who are interested, and I kind of miss it when I'm not doing it.

[ 15. March 2015, 12:46: Message edited by: Trudy Scrumptious ]

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

We had something called 'Covenanters' which was the grammar school version of Crusaders, which was for posher kids.

A song about being courageous referencing Joshua and an odd handshake.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

Yes - Crusaders was originally designed to fit a gap in the market, c.1906, for boys in private (i.e. "public") day schools (who would never be sent to Sunday School, as that was for the hoi polloi). It has successfully repositioned itself in recent years.

Neither Crusaders nor Covenanters are/were uniformed.

Posted by leo (# 1458) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
Neither Crusaders nor Covenanters are/were uniformed.

But there was a special tie and a badge.

Posted by Kaplan Corday (# 16119) on :

quote:
Originally posted by leo:

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
Neither Crusaders nor Covenanters are/were uniformed.
But there was a special tie and a badge.

We Methodist Knights had a badge, too, which we wore in the lapel button hole of the suits which even small boys wore to church in those days.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by leo:

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
Neither Crusaders nor Covenanters are/were uniformed.
But there was a special tie and a badge.

True - and the Crusaders' badge included on it a Biblical motto in N.T. Greek!

We also had a song, composed by the well-known railway writer Cecil J Allen, which I always found a bit cringeworthy. It's at the bottom of this web-page (and we used the same tattered edition of "Golden Bells" until "Youth Praise" came in).

Posted by Trudy Scrumptious (# 5647) on :

Interesting historical tidbit: when the government of Newfoundland optimistically offered to recruit 500 soldiers to send overseas as our contribution to help Mother England out in the First World War, we had no militia of our own in the colony at all. The first 500 recruits were drawn very largely from the Anglican Church Lads' Brigade, the Methodist Guards, the Catholic Cadet Corps, and a few Presbyterians from a young men's organization called the Newfoundland Highlanders. So in that case all the paramilitary trappings of these organizations led directly to military service for many. I wonder if this happened in other places too?

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:

quote:
Originally posted by leo:

quote:
Originally posted by Baptist Trainfan:
Neither Crusaders nor Covenanters are/were uniformed.
But there was a special tie and a badge.
True - and the Crusaders' badge included on it a Biblical motto in N.T. Greek!

I was also a Crusader. Which are now Urban Saints. Very different logo and motto though, no more shield with the armour of God and "Looking unto Jesus". It's now more like a coat of arms; Lion and Lamb holding a shield, with the words "Compassion, Endurance, Humility, Integrity, Wisdom, Commitment since 1906" around the outside, the motto "Faith, hope and most of all love". Oh, and a very corny "By appointment to the King of Kings, serving young people for over one hundred years".

They still have Westbrook.

Posted by Baptist Trainfan (# 15128) on :

quote:
Originally posted by Alan Cresswell:
They still have Westbrook.

Which, for the uninitiated, is their holiday and conference centre on the Isle of Wight.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

Oh the memories!

Specifically of the 77-78, 78-79, 79-80, 80-81 and 81-82 New Years' Houseparties. They were pretty formative for me. Any other veterans out there?

Posted by Alan Cresswell (# 31) on :

Somehow I never managed to get to Westbrook. Did do Cae Canol though - which now seems to be operated independently of Crusaders. We also has a Ship weekend away there many years ago.

Posted by Eutychus (# 3081) on :

I did various other summer camps. Looking back my biggest criticism is that at more than one, there was the same sort of elitism, on a smaller scale, as with Iwerne "bash camps".

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