The United Kingdom
(England, Northern Ireland,
Scotland, and Wales)
and the Republic of Ireland
Map of the British Isles showing lampstands | © Amana Trust
(click on or hover over the map to view map labels)
The contents of this page are:
United Kingdom (England, Scotland, and Wales)
The British Isles have a rich history in relation to the Lord’s move through the centuries. They have been the site of high revelation, deep spiritual experience, and absolute consecration. Discoveries of truth and patterns of spiritual lives from England, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland were influential in the development of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee’s ministry.
Scholars, like Wycliffe, Tyndale, Cranmer, Latimer, Ridley, and John Knox (in Scotland), were instrumental in translating the Bible into English and standing for the truths of the Reformation. For most of them, their stance resulted in martyrdom during the religious conflicts in the sixteenth century. During Queen Elizabeth I’s reign, however, England’s break with Catholicism was more definite and resulted in the defeat of the Spanish Armada in 1588. From this point, world influence moved from Catholicism to Protestantism, and England rose in prominence as a great power.
Brother Lee says regarding the rise of Britain,
After the defeat of the Spanish Armada, Spain’s power declined while that of Britain rose. Gradually she became an empire, with colonies all around the earth. It was called the empire without a sunset. For more than two centuries the colonies were farms, providing her with the goods she needed and making her wealthy.
During the days of Britain’s preeminence, the Protestant influence reached to every continent. Most missionaries in the past were British. The money used for the spread of the gospel was largely in pounds sterling, not United States dollars. It was in England that many spiritual giants were raised up. Great teachers among the Brethren wrote hundreds of books for the release of the truth. Light was relead by the speakers at the Keswick Convention. (The World Situation and God’s Move, p. 16)
As the birthplace of the Industrial Revolution, Britain used its technology and military and economic strength to acquire an empire upon which “the sun never set.” Beginning from 1795, the empire was sovereignly used by God for the spread of the gospel to every inhabited continent. Young people, like the Cambridge Seven, Hudson Taylor, Amy Carmichael (from Ireland), and David Livingstone (from Scotland), were moved by the Lord to give their lives for the gospel in foreign lands.
The Cambridge Seven, 1885 | Source
Portrait of Hudson Taylor | Source
Photograph of Amy Carmichael (N. Ireland) | Source
Portrait of David Livingstone | Source
At the same time, a number of believers in this region were used by the Lord for His move. Oliver Cromwell, the Puritans, and the Dissenters stood firm against the influence of Catholicism; the Wesleys and George Whitefield recovered matters relating to the subjective experience of sanctification; J. N. Darby and the Brethren in Dublin, Ireland, opened up truths on the oneness of the Body of Christ and the need for the direct leading of the Holy Spirit; William Law, Evan Roberts, Jessie Penn-Lewis, and speakers at the Keswick Convention pursued deep experiences of the inner life; and William Govett and D. M. Panton proclaimed the matter of the kingdom reward. M. E. Barber was a crucial channel from whom Watchman Nee learned these truths. The Lord continued His recovery work in China, and Watchman Nee and Witness Lee visited Britain in the 1930s and 1950s, where they fellowshipped with T. Austin-Sparks and his group at Honor Oak.
For a little more than a decade, however, the ministry did not come to the British Isles. But in the late 1960s a small number of saints in Ipswich found the ministry of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee in Christian bookshops and came out of the denominations to begin practicing the church life. A few years later, while they were travelling, a couple from Blackpool were given a Stream magazine with an advertisement for a conference in Germany. They decided to go to the conference, and while they were there with the saints, they picked up life practices such as calling on the name of the Lord and pray-reading. When they came back and shared what they had learned with others, the group decided they would take this way. The saints in Blackpool later came into contact with a group in Winchester. The two groups from Winchester and Blackpool gathered together in 1974 in Winchester for the first conference of the Lord’s recovery in England. They enjoyed the subject of the New Jerusalem, and after this time the saints in Winchester decided to move to Blackpool to be in the church life. In 1975 a conference was held in Blackpool, and invitations reached the saints in Ipswich through relatives that had met the saints in Germany. In 1976 the saints in Ipswich took the ground.
In April 1977 the saints in the UK were greatly encouraged and supplied by a visit from Brother Lee. The content of the conference he gave during this time is published in The Producing and Building Up of the Church as the Totality of the Divine Sonship (2005). The move of the Lord in England was strengthened by visits from Brother Lee and co-workers, by blending with other European saints, and also by the spread of the gospel of the kingdom on the university campuses.
In the 1970s and 1980s saints were gathered in Blackpool and Manchester in the north, Ipswich in the east, Winchester in the south, and Paignton in the southwest. Many of the saints who came into the church life at the time were young, and a small group of students and believers were also gained in Cambridge in the late 1970s. The saints in the UK were richly supplied through the printed messages and videos of Brother Lee’s speaking.
The turmoil in the mid-1980s, which had begun in Germany, seriously affected the UK, and the saints lost the ground of the churches in the north, in Blackpool and Manchester. A number of ministry books had been donated previously by LSM and Taipei to the saints in the UK. Around this time the saints in Blackpool sent a letter to the others in the UK to say that they would be disposing of the ministry books. A small number of saints who had remained faithful to the ministry arranged to collect the books. They drove several hours to Blackpool and filled two vans. The books were stored for years at a sister’s home. The faithful saints also continued to duplicate and distribute the video tapes of Brother Lee from Anaheim.
The difficulties in the north of England caused many of these saints to move to London, beginning in 1986. The move to London was a great encouragement to the small remnant of saints as they began to meet from house to house. The first Lord’s table meeting in London was held around 1985-1986. In London the saints also continued the LSM duplication work, which led to the beginning of the video trainings. In addition, a young group of believers living in Norwich was introduced to the ministry by a brother who had received Life-studies from LSM. A family moved to Norwich to start the church life with these new ones.
At the same time, some of the saints became burdened for the young people in the church life. They began to invite the children to come for a weekend to one of the saint’s home where there would be activities, crafts, training in character, and lessons from the Word. There were around twelve children at that time who would come for the weekend; the majority of these ones are still in the church life, six of whom are serving full time. The care for the children carried on each year from when they were five years old until they were twelve years old, at which time, when they received the Lord, they would go for a weekend conference and be baptized. The children and young people’s work has steadily increased over the years, and there are now three annual young people’s conferences in the UK. In addition to the young people’s conference in Poland each summer, which has been a great supply to the young people, the winter school of truth is now held in the UK, the Netherlands, and Spain. There is also a bi-annual university-age conference in the UK, which was held on the continent for the first time in 2017.
In 1990 the saints realized the need for a larger facility in London as a meeting place and means for making the ministry available to the saints in Europe. A property in Putney, London, was made available for this purpose and used for the meetings of the church in London and the continuation of the LSM duplication work and bookroom. The rescued ministry books were brought to London during this time, and some were sold in the bookroom. Eventually years later some of the books were brought to India and Africa to strengthen the churches there.
This recovery in Putney in the early 1990s was strategic for the Lord’s move in those years. Brother Lee also sent couples to the UK in the years following to strengthen the work in Europe. When Eastern Europe and Russia opened, Putney was used for translation and publication, fellowship and blending, and also for trainings, which were vital for those who had just found the ministry in Eastern Europe.
The London extension of the full-time training began in Putney in the autumn of 1997 with seven trainees. It was established in line with Brother Lee’s speaking in The World Situation and the Direction of the Lord’s Move “that Great Britain is very crucial for the Lord’s move throughout Europe” (p. 48).
The Lord began answering the saints’ prayers for increase in January 2000, when the Life-study of the Bible radio program began to be broadcast daily on the only Christian radio station in London. Then, in 2001 the Recovery Version of the New Testament was made available to the radio listeners. The radio listeners were invited to attend seminars, and at the first seminar in London, several hundred new ones attended. They were so hungry for the ministry that the book tables and stands the saints had set up at the seminar were left empty. Many of these radio listeners came into the church life through opening their homes and receiving regular visitations by the saints. Rhema also began distributing the ministry in 2003. The FTTL trainees have since been instrumental in joining with the saints to shepherd the radio listeners, Bible recipients, and Rhema recipients, through weekly, monthly, and bi-annual seminars, weekend trainings, phone calls, visits, and home meetings. This has brought in a large increase in the church in London, and in eleven years the church in London increased from one district to eleven districts, which now meet in six halls.
In 2009 the radio broadcast became available nationwide, and the saints began praying for several cities in the UK that had large numbers of contacts and major universities. From 2010 onward, saints migrated to these cities in England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland and began to care for the new ones. Lord’s table meetings have now been established in Glasgow and Edinburgh in Scotland, Cardiff in Wales, and Chelmsford, Coventry, Leeds, Manchester, Sheffield, and Southampton in England. This move was sovereignly arranged by the Lord as preparation for the 2012 London Olympics Bible distribution, which began with the Torch Relay. The Lord poured out His blessing as tens of thousands of people received a free Recovery Version of the New Testament, especially in London and throughout the UK, many of whom requested contact. Since then the saints have been happily overwhelmed with caring for these ones.
For this labor, the full-time training and training facilities have been a great benefit. The training center and the offices for the work moved to Bower House in 2005. This facility is now also a place where many conferences and trainings for the saints throughout Europe are held. This situation affords many opportunities for the trainees to serve practically and to blend with the saints in the churches.
Bower House | © Amana Trust
Since November 2010, there have been one-week trainings at Bower House for saints throughout Europe to come to be trained in the four great pillars of the Lord’s recovery: truth, life, the church, and the gospel. Despite the limited capacity, just over one thousand individuals from twenty-one European countries and another sixteen countries outside Europe have participated, many of them more than once. Groups of believers, both those who have been in the church life for many years and those who have only recently touched the ministry, have been able to spend time being trained under the perfecting of the ministry.
The trainings and conferences are attended each year by more and more people from both the UK and continental Europe, and for some time now the space at Bower House has no longer been adequate. Not only are more space and a more purpose-built environment needed for the existing trainings, but the saints would like to expand the capacity to have additional short- and long-term trainings and retreats for the seeking believers in Europe.
In 2016 full permission was granted from the local council to proceed with plans to build and expand the facilities at Bower House. Later in the year the local council also voted in favor of a proposal for Woodland Camp, a 17-acre site which is a nine-minute drive from Bower House. They approved the building of forty-seven cabins, including a manager’s house and a two-story meeting hall with kitchen, dining area, bedrooms, and ancillary facilities. With these facilities constructed, Woodland Camp would have permanent meeting and sleeping capacity for over three hundred people. Additionally, there is an adjoining property to Bower House—Bower Farm—that has recently been purchased by Amana Trust and will be ideal for integrating into the Bower House expansion plans in the future.
Scale model of Bower House showing relationship to Bower Farm and the proposed new training centre | © Amana Trust
Woodland Camp 1:500 scale model (Phase 1, 2 and 3) | © Amana Trust
The first planning application consisted of three construction phases which includes 46 cabins and a two story meeting facility with dining and kitchen facilities. This proposed development could accommodate over 300 guests.
Since the Full-time Training in London (FTTL) began, 261 saints have graduated and over 60% of these graduates have served full time afterward. The FTTL has been a great encouragement and blessing to the Lord’s move in Europe, which would have been greatly restricted without these trained ones.
The establishment of the Full-time Training extension, Boston (FTTA-XB) in 2011 was to train saints to serve and labor in Europe. A number of these graduates have come to serve in Europe, with some continuing to serve in the UK and others going on to serve in continental Europe. Since 2012, there have been almost thirty saints who have come from the training in Boston to serve in the UK, with some later moving to other countries in Europe and a few returning to the US. The full-time serving ones in the UK, including graduates from FTTL, FTTA, and FTTA-XB, have been involved with reaching out to the tens of thousands of contacts made through Amana Trust since the early 2000s. More recently in May and June of 2017 there was a great burden to ensure that each Bible recipient with a phone number had been freshly contacted to see if they were still open to further contact. Around 43,000 people were telephoned resulting in over 4000 people requesting further email and newsletter contact, and over 400 people requesting home meetings in London and the UK.
In June 2016 the UK decided to leave the European Union. The implications of this step are unknown, but we worship the Lord as the Ruler of the kings of the earth (Rev. 1:5), are touched to give ourselves in prayer for the Lord’s move and the world situation, and finally, are burdened to continue perfecting the saints in order to activate their organic function for the building up of the Body of Christ (Eph. 4:12).
The Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland
It is commonly thought that the country of Ireland includes two distinct regions: the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. However, it was in the early twentieth century that these regions were separated, when the Republic gained independence and Northern Ireland remained as part of the UK. Along with the rest of the UK, Northern Ireland will no longer be part of the EU as a result of Brexit. However, the Republic of Ireland will remain a part of the EU since the Republic is not part of the UK but is an independent, sovereign nation of its own.
Historically, Ireland was introduced to the Christian faith as a result of the spread of the missionary work of Saint Patrick in the early fifth century. The southern region of Ireland (now the Republic) was eventually brought under the strong influence of Roman Catholicism, but the northern region was not as influenced and eventually, through the influx of Scotch Presbyterians and others, became more oriented to Protestantism. From that time, most of the people of Northern Ireland have adhered to the Protestant denominations, including the Presbyterian, the Church of Ireland, the Methodist, and several others. The strong break between the two regions was on religious grounds and had much to do with the “Troubles” of the 1970s and 1980s, during which there was considerable terrorism in Belfast (the capital of Northern Ireland).
Beginning in the early part of the nineteenth century, a great revival began in Ireland. This resulted in the abolishing of the mediatorial class of the dead reformed church and was the beginning of a significant recovery of “the church in Philadelphia,” which prefigured the church of “brotherly love,” the recovery of the proper church life.
Watchman Nee comments on this revival through the recovery of God’s truth as follows:
In 1827 a group of people were raised up in Dublin, Ireland. Among them were men like Edward Cronin and Anthony Norris Groves. They saw that many things in the church were dead, lifeless, and formal. They began to ask the Lord to show them the church according to the biblical revelation. Through prayer and fellowship, they felt that they should rise up and meet according to the principle of 1 Corinthians 14. As a result, they began to break bread at a brother’s home. A short while later, a former Anglican minister, John Nelson Darby, began to join their meeting and to expound the Bible among them. Gradually, more and more expositors were raised up among them, such as William Kelly, C. H. Mackintosh, B. W. Newton, and J. G. Bellett. Through reading their books, I received light to see the error of denominational organizations and to realize that there is only one Body of Christ. The church should not be formed by human opinions but should be under the direct leading of the Holy Spirit. When we consider the present-day church organizations, we see many human traditions and opinions and little direct leading of the Holy Spirit. This is not according to God’s desire. In God’s will, the church should not be under man’s control; it should be directed only by the Holy Spirit. All those who belong to the Lord should learn to be led by the Holy Spirit and should not follow man’s direction. These are all truths discovered by the Brethren. (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 11, pp. 850-851)
Portrait of John Nelson Darby
© National Portrait Gallery, London | Source
It is recorded that a brother received a “letter from Brother Nee saying that he has gone to Ireland to conduct meetings” (Collected Works of Watchman Nee, vol. 32, p. 458). He had received his college education from Trinity College, Foochow (Fuzhou), in China, which was a sister college established by Trinity College, Dublin. Eventually, the ministry of the age reached Ireland.
Trinity College Foochow (Fuzhou) | Source
The Lord’s testimony through the local churches began to take root in Ireland in the 1980s, when a group of young college students in the church life migrated from Malaysia to study in Dublin. Thereafter, an Irish brother was strongly gained by the Lord from the medical school in University College Dublin (UCD) and is now serving full time. He also brought his best friend, another Irish brother, into the church life at that time. An Irish sister was also gained and attended the Full-time Training in London a few years later. The church in Dublin took the ground and established its first Lord’s table on February 6, 2005.
At present, there are approximately forty to fifty saints in the church, including several full-time training graduates who migrated from the US to Dublin to study at UCD and Trinity College, Dublin. There is no lampstand established yet in Belfast, Northern Ireland, but there are approximately fifteen to twenty saints, with young children, meeting weekly to enjoy the church life. Also, a sister from Belfast has been coming every Lord’s day to break bread with the saints in Dublin for the last 14 years. Furthermore, in the last year, a serving couple migrated to Dublin to strengthen the Lord’s recovery. May the Lord continue to bless and strengthen His testimony in Ireland by planting many church-trees to be His shining golden lampstands for the building up of the Body of Christ.
In the coming days we are looking to the Lord for the strengthening and perfecting of the saints for the building up of the church. We recently started a truth pursuit fellowship in which we study some of the crucial truths and have a time to share on these points in the Lord’s Day meeting. This also provides a means to strengthen the shepherding among us. In addition, there are a number of students currently attending a few of the key universities, and we are especially burdened to seize this opportunity to gain remaining fruit at these universities, especially among the Irish. We have several middle-aged Irish new ones among us and are looking to the Lord for their full entry into the church life. We have already seen that they provide wonderful “gates” for other Irish to touch the church. We believe the Lord intends to gain this nation for His kingdom. So we ask for prayers for our Irish new ones, the Irish students, the Irish people, and for the spreading of the church life to other cities in Ireland.