Carborundum’s readers might like to know even more about the Kensington Temple. As an Anglican, my knowledge of it is second-hand, but I can say this.
Kensington Temple is an Elim Pentecostal church. Elim was founded in 1915 by a Welshman living in Ireland and is, therefore, of British Isles origin. It is true that down the years it has benefited from American interest but so, come to think of it, has Times Newspapers Limited. Any readers of The TES tempted to think that an American connection accounts for “whacky” or eccentric beliefs surely do not need further confirmatory evidence, from the Kensington Temple or anywhere else.
It is not strictly true to say, as Carborundum does (December 15), that Newcombe House is “the home” of the Kensington Temple; the group that meets there probably does so because there is no room in KT’s main building, which is said to house the largest Christian congregation in the United Kingdom. It is certainly one of the most multi-racial. Its central beliefs are those of orthodox Protestant Christianity. The end-of-the-world millennarianism described by Carborundum always alarms people with vested interests in the survival of empires, such as News International.
RICHARD WILKINS General secretary, Association of Christian Teachers 94A London Road, St Albans Herts
