Industrial Christian Fellowship

Archive Collection
XML
  • This material is held at
  • Reference
      GB 109 MS 4003-4095
  • Dates of Creation
      1877-1996
  • Language of Material
      English
  • Physical Description
      93 files

Scope and Content

Records.

Administrative / Biographical History

The Industrial Christian Fellowship had its origin in the Navvy Mission Society, founded by Elizabeth Garnett in 1877 to work amongst railway construction workers. Under the leadership of Prebendary P.T.R. Kirk it was reconstituted in 1919 as the Industrial Christian Fellowship, and in the following year it absorbed the Christian Social Union (founded in 1889 by Henry Scott Holland). The Fellowship aimed to promote Christian values in the workplace through evangelism and teaching, perhaps its best-known missioner being G.A. Studdert-Kennedy or 'Woodbine Willie', the ICF Messenger in the 1920s. Supporters included captains of industry, politicians and social reformers, and in 1941 the ICF convened the Malvern Conference on 'The Life of the Church and the Order of Society', chaired by William Temple, then Archbishop of York. The Fellowship changed its name to the Industry Churches Forum in 1995.

Publications of interest:

Dog-collar democracy: the Industrial Christian Fellowship 1919-29, by G. Studdert-Kennedy, 1982.

Kingdom and Commonwealth: the Christian Social Union and its legacy to radical social thought in the Church of England, 1889-1941 by J. Pinnington, 1997.

Arrangement

4003-16. Navvy Mission Society/ICF Executive Committee

4017-19. Navvy Mission Society/ICF Annual General Meeting

4020-31. Navvy Mission Society/ICF Finance Committee

4032-41. Christian Social Union/ICF

4042-45. ICF Council

4046-63. ICF Sub-Committees

4064-65. Council of Christian Ministers on Social Questions

4066. Committee of the Christian Churches on Gambling

4067. Constitution

4068-72. Policy and Management

4073-76. Staff

4077-78. ICF Branches

4079-80. Local Industrial Missions

4081. Overseas Contacts

4082-85. Study Groups, Services and other Activities

4086. General Strike of 1926

4087-88. Memorial Funds

4089. Publicity and Press cuttings

4090-91. Histories

4092-95. Photographs

Access Information

Open

Acquisition Information

The records were presented by Industry Churches Forum in 1996 and 1998.

Related Material

The following items have been transferred to the Department of Printed Books:

Christian Social Union Annual Report.

Maurice Hostel Annual Report.

Navvy Mission Society/ICF Annual Report.

Navvy Mission Society/ICF Quarterly.

Miscellaneous ICF orders of service and other publications.