‘We were not immigrants, but reverse missionaries’
This week we are taking a journey into the houses of Zimbabweans who have just migrated to the UK. I asked a church friend about his experiences as an immigrant Christian in the UK.
Having considered the origins of African churches in Britain and the migratory trends in their formation, it is important to ask to what extent and in what ways they are transforming the landscape of Christianity in Britain.
The migration of some Zimbabweans to England has restored many churches which were closing.
Many Christians from Africa try to comfort themselves by saying they have been sent by God to “reChristianise” the white Christians.
The earnestness of Black Christianity’s missionary outreach both to Black people and to others is an area of British Christian life is not often well acknowledged, but one that has been a great success story.
There are lots of chapels and churches in the United Kingdom which were once used by thousands to worship their God and many have now been converted into other uses.
St Bartholomew Hospital Chapel, Rochester is the only remaining part of the original nearby St Bartholomew’s Hospital.
It was built in Medieval times between 1115 and 1124 and part of it has remained unaltered, including three round headed windows and a rounded domed sanctuary at the east end.
It has been suggested it may be the earliest remaining example in the country.
Part of the chapel was altered in the 13th century, including the nave, but by 1560, it was described as ‘being old and ruinous and likely to come to utter decay’ and even back then it was hoped it could be repaired and turned into an ‘an honest and seemly dwelling’.
In 1978, an archaeological excavation was carried out near the entrance. As well as one of the original walls, a variety of pottery dating from Roman to modern times was found. After that the chapel became redundant and fell into a state of disrepair.
No church members were coming and the church was sold.
Later it was put on the market and was for sale for almost a decade before it was sold, the grounds were cleared and tidied with extensive renovation work done inside.
The new occupants were the Celestial Church of Christ, but in 2017 the building changed from a place of worship and became home to Granite Gym, where mixed martial arts, wrestling, boxing, Jiu-jitsu now happen in the building.
Without church members the buildings have become ghost buildings.
In Brighton, another church has been turned into a brothel. What used to be a pulpit is now a dancing floor.
In Folkestone, the South of England at the border with France, a New Salem Baptist Chapel is now The Samuel Peto pub.
The new Salem Chapel in Rendezvous Street was built by local architect Joseph Gardener between 1873 and 1874 and was funded largely by a loan from Samuel Morton Peto (later Sir Samuel) and has two storeys with a balcony all round and a basement.
Baptist worship came to an end in 1987 at the church and the building was then sold and a change of use was granted in 1988 to make way for an antiques market and craft workshops.
A further change of use was granted in 1993 to turn it into a theatre and then again in 1997 to change it into a pub.
It was then turned into The Samuel Peto, a Wetherspoons pub, and was opened in April 1998, but most of the internal features retained during the conversion, including organ, pulpit and gallery remain to this day.
An austere Methodist chapel built in 1876, which then became a school for the poor children of Victorian Canterbury, is two stories and built in buff brick.
St John’s Board School took over the chapel to use as an infants school and changed the stone heading to that effect.
The Grade II listed property, which has renovated from a shell with new foundations, floors and ceilings - but has been carefully and sensitively converted, retaining features like its nine arched Georgian windows and has now been transformed into a luxury home.
Architects converted the former St John’s Board House into a stunning five-bedroom property with every mod con and bespoke feature including a solid walnut staircase and Brazilian quartz kitchen worktops.
The former church is at the entrance to the former Royal Dockyard, which closed down in March 1960.
The church has been badly damaged by fire twice, the first time in 1881, and the second in 2001. It has a strong naval architecture and was where naval, military and civilians came together.
When the dockyard closed in 1960 the entire site, which included an impressive range of industrial and residential buildings, passed to a port operator.
In 2001, when it was derelict, it was then bought by a developer who got consent for a scheme to convert the building into 19 flats, but it suffered a devastating fire during renovation work.
Swale council ended up serving a compulsory purchase order on it and then gifted it to the Spitalfields Trust which has since gifted it to the Sheerness Dockyard Preservation Trust.
The new charity, the Sheerness Dockyard Preservation Trust; was formed to take on the building and see through the project of repairing it and converting it to a mixed use space featuring a permanent gallery to display the famous 1,600 sq ft model of the dockyard constructed when it was first laid out.
The Church of the New Jerusalem is now a unique family home
The 19th century church was formed and built by the Swedenborgian group, it was built in the High Street in 1881 but has not been used as a religious building since the late 1980s.
Now with all these churches turning into pubs and anything England was to become a pagan centre with spiritual buildings.
In order to save the remaining iconic places of worship Pastor Mugari said: “God sent the Africans here to revive the churches. While many have come as economic migrants some are spiritual migrants.
“So in all intent and purposes he said we are not migrants but evangelists and missionaries.
What is happening in Diaspora is a reverse missionary. We are here to preach.”
vazet2000@yahoo.co.uk