Sword & Trowel 2018: Issue 1


NEW BUS FUND TO CONTINUE DECADES OF SUNDAY SCHOOL BUSSING


T


HE Tabernacle started to bus children in the early 1970s,


using members’ cars and a minibus, but the rapid growth of the revived Sunday School needed greater ca- pacity. In 1973 a Bristol bus was bought which had been in service in Devon. It was a rare short version bus, designed for country lanes and ideal for the restricting access roads of council estates in central London. After seventeen years’ service it was retired, to be later restored by Western National and deployed for heritage routes in the South West. During the time the bus carried


Sunday School scholars, a fl eet of minibuses grew up alongside it. Today 20 15/17-seat minibuses


Photo by Chris Sampson


augmented by private cars bring hun- dreds of youngsters through an area laced with major arterial roads. Some 700 teenagers and younger children are present on several sites each Sunday, looked after by over 200 volunteer teachers and support staff. The total Sunday School roll is very much higher. These buses of course are also used for weeknight youth and children’s meetings. A very great problem has arisen


Some of the children collected in the 1970s and 80s.


page 34 New Bus Fund


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