WPFC: 20 Years On
Our Vicar, Revd Graham Hunter, writes about the Westbourne Park Family Centre on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of its founding.
I’ve never forgiven Geoff Biggs…
I should have forgiven him - after all, I’m a Vicar in the Church of England. I think it’s my professional duty to forgive him!!
But still - I’ve never forgiven him!*
Never forgiven him for somehow encouraging / cajoling / enticing / persuading / guilt-tripping me in to running the London Marathon in 2004 to raise funds for the newly founded Westbourne Park Family Centre (WPFC).
Geoff had run several marathons before - and indeed many more since. He made it sound so easy and such fun. And it was all for a good cause - raising money for WPFC. I did indeed complete the marathon, and managed to raise over £2,000 for the Family Centre. However, it was at the expense of a fractured metatarsal at around mile 14 - and so half the marathon was run in constant pain!
I write this now as part of my tribute to Geoff Biggs and the extraordinary work of the WPFC over the past 20 years. I attended a celebration last week to mark the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Family Centre. I was privileged to serve as a Trustee of the charity for the first 7 years of its existence - and in that role I’m certain I benefited far more from all I learned from Geoff and his team than I contributed as a trustee.
WPFC: A Brief Summary
The Family Centre was not exactly an innovation, but more of an evolution. Paddington Youth Point / Project (I was never exactly sure which) was already operating - and providing weekly groups for kids and young people from around 6-16 years old. Holiday clubs were already established - and the fact that the PYP already owned a bouncy-castle meant that there was always a quick win for providing activity to wear out the for hyped up kids.
Acorns was a toddler group run as part of Westbourne Park Baptist Church - the home of first PYP and then WPFC. The care and support given to kids, youth, young children and their parents led naturally to the founding of the Family Centre as a more joined up approach to supporting the local community.
I was never a member of the Baptist Church - I belonged to St Stephen’s Westbourne Park - just along the road. In 2002 I was appointed as Youth & Worship pastor there - and quickly discovered that the best youth work we could offer would always be in partnership with our Baptist neighbours through first PYP and then later WPFC.
I remember going along to help Geoff and Busky at both Club Express and D.C. (Diesel City - a nod to the trains that regularly ran past the building) on a Friday night, and also volunteering with the half term holiday clubs. I didn’t really do much - and I would never claim to have been a regular volunteer. But I was in awe of Geoff in particular, as well as many of the amazingly dedicated people who served in the team around him.
The Pastor of the Baptist church, Steve Latham, became a friend - and again, someone I quickly realised I could learn from. More on him below. Geoff and Steve - and with hindsight, Elizabeth - were models of urban mission over the course of 3-4 years during which I worked in the neighbourhood.
Since the mid-90s the two churches - Anglican and Baptist - had worked together in a formal partnership for youth work. Busky (Andrew Busk) was a member of St Stephen’s but was actually employed by PYP as a youth worker. (He left his role just as WPFC was being founded.)
Although there was a partnership, and good relations, the Baptist church were really the lead partner - they contributed far more than we did to the joint enterprise - space, money, volunteers, expertise. My little contribution beyond serving as a Trustee over my time there was to setup and lead a detached football project for local youth. When I left to train for ordination, this project was taken on by the Family Centre - and ran for over 15 years until Covid.
The Family Centre was innovative. Beyond the regular drop in groups that provided support and solidarity for local families, the Centre was attentive to needs. Elizabeth had a professional background in healthcare - and gave all kinds of informal and formal healthcare interventions reaching communities who didn’t have the confidence to access official services. Several years before food banks arrived, they developed a Food Co-operative - where a modest membership and nominal shopping fee gave access to an amazing array of fresh fruit, vegetables and household staples. (This approach is having a resurgence right now - giving a little more agency to those who use the service.)
All the above gives a brief tribute to the Family Centre in its wider sense, but for me, the tribute really focuses on two men: Steve and Geoff.
Two Urban Missioners
Briefly on Steve: he struck me early on as a peculiar combination of thoughtful and reflective, energetic and driven, principled and pragmatic. He once told me that on a Sunday he intended that his congregation leave the church building fired up in faith and full of joy. He was unapologetic about aiming to whip up a frenzy of faith with lively, noisy worship music and enthusiastic expressions of Christian devotion. When I queried why he didn’t adopt a more serious or sober approach, he reminded me that most of his congregation had innumerable struggles through the week, and Sunday was one day where he hoped they would be renewed in joy and confidence for the week ahead.
Steve was dedicated to youth work - not necessarily delivering it - but certainly supporting it through PYP / WPFC. He did take part in a 24 hour sponsored fast for WorldVision that I organised, and joined us for the sleepover at St Stephen’s. He entered in to things fully - allowing me to bleach his hair with peroxide in the middle of the night. I included his teenage children in some of the youth programmes I was organising.
Steve also met regularly with me and (now eminent theologian) Luke Bretherton at ‘The Store’ - a lovely coffee shop along the road from church. We would drink strong coffee and reflect on his ’95 Theses for Urban Regeneration’ or Luke’s ‘Mundane Holiness’ - short papers they wrote for us to read and discuss. He loved to reflect theologically on urban mission. We shared in common a connection to the Theology department at King’s College London - where Steve completed a PhD in prophetic ministry if I remember correctly.
After Steve and I had both moved on from Westbourne Park - he to teach at Spurgeon’s College, me to ordained ministry in Islington and Hackney - we kept in touch. When he moved to become minister of King’s Cross Baptist Church - a mile or so along the road from me - we had a season of meeting together more frequently. I always valued his thoughtfulness and friendship. He died on 31st March 2022. May he rest in peace and rise in glory.
On to Geoff: always moving, never moving. When I think of Geoff I think of his relentless energy and enthusiasm, his tireless dedication to the service of others. I don’t know how many marathons he has run - but he seems to approach them like going for a jog in the park. They stand as a symbol for his extraordinary capacity to keep going, to keep moving, to never give up, to go the extra mile.
‘They that wait on the Lord will renew their strength, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.’ (Isaiah 40:31)
Yet at the same time, when I think of Geoff I also think of a man who never moves, never goes anywhere, is content to be planted and rooted in one place his whole life. My recollection may be mistaken, but I think that Geoff grew up in the same church, and that his father had been one of the pastors at the church. (But I may be misremembering or making that up!) Anyhow, I remember conversation with Geoff in which it was clear that he felt God had called him simply to stay and to persist in serving one neighbourhood.
When Jesus was asked to about the greatest of the commandments, he replied that not one, but two commandments are both the greatest: love God and love your neighbour. Not one first and then the other - but both at the same time. Geoff is a man who has always exemplified this in his steadfast commitment to worship and service. He is a faithful member of the church - and loved to pray at any meeting. And yet alongside this he has an incredible commitment to practical service of others. He loves his neighbourhood, and every neighbour within it.
None of this is ever done with any desire for recognition or reward. Geoff is just about the most humble and self-deprecating man I know. And this never in a weird attention-seeking way - for there is a form of self-deprecation that actually invites attention to oneself. Rather, with Geoff, he’s just always quick to celebrate the contributions of others. As far as I know, he’s never pursued opportunities to be a speaker on the conference circuit, and doesn’t publish books or articles. He just quietly and effectively gets on with the work of mission.
Geoff is a man who embodies that phrase employed by Eugene Peterson as a book title: Long Obedience in the Same Direction.
While I was at the 20th birthday celebration last week, I was reminded of two bible verses which resonated with the vision of the Family Centre - ‘Acorns into Oaks’.
‘They will be called oaks of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.’ (Isaiah 61:3b)
‘Blessed is the one… whose delight is in the law of the Lord, and who meditates on his law day and night. That person is like a tree planted by streams of water, which yields its fruit in season and whose leaf does not wither—whatever they do prospers.’ (Psalm 1:1-3)
The vision of the Westbourne Park Family Centre is ‘Acorns into Oaks’ - that tiny children may experience care for them and their families as they grow into adolescence and into adulthood. It’s lovely vision of commitment to individual people and communities over many years - tending to their needs, watching them grow.
It’s a vision which is expressed in Geoff Biggs’ long commitment to serving God in Westbourne Park by serving the people of Westbourne Park. He truly has been an ‘oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendour.’
For all the marathon running, for all the time spent on the move, Geoff has his feet firmly planted and rooted in the community that God has called him to love and to serve. And for that I’m truly thankful.
Thank you Geoff, along with Steve, Elizabeth and so many more at the Westbourne Park Family Centre, for all that you have taught me about Long Obedience in the Same Direction and how to love God and love my neighbour.
May God bless you now and evermore.
*PS. I’ve obviously forgiven him - it’s just a joke!