Cromer SU Beach Mission
- Published Date
- Written by Site Admin
Few people will know the names of Edwin Arrowsmith, Tom Bishop, Josiah Spiers, Annie Marsden or Mr JS Tyler, but they have all played a crucial part in helping establish Cromer Scripture Union Beach Mission.
Annie Marsden was a young Sunday School teacher who started writing lists of Bible verses for her class to read. In 1878, she persuaded Tom Bishop, head of CSSM to set up the “Children’s Scripture Union”. The Children's Scripture Union was launched in April 1879 with 6,000 members. By July, there were 30,000.
Josiah Spiers ran the first Beach Mission in 1867 at Llandudno. He wrote ‘God is Love’ in the sand and invited children to decorate it with stones and flowers and listen to a Bible story. Edwin Arrowsmith took this idea and built on it. He recruited students from Oxford and Cambridge, and his team at Scarborough in 1884 had three men who had rowed in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race.
Mr J. S. Tyler followed his lead and led the first Beach Mission in Cromer in 1883. Edwin Arrowsmith led the Cromer Mission himself in 1896.
The story goes on and, last summer, about 200 children and young people and a team of 50 volunteers came together in Cromer to share the Good News.
You can support Mission by praying and in practical ways such as joining the Support Group, sponsoring a team member or making a donation. Support Group meets on the 1st Saturday of January, March, May, July, September and November to pray and to help with the local arrangements.
There are lots of ways to be involved. For details you can contact us, or visit the Mission website or the Cromer Beach Mission page on the Scripture Union website. The work of Beach Mission is our particular mission focus in February and July.
