History

In 1867 Josiah Spiers spoke to fourteen children in a drawing room in Islington, London, and began the pioneer work of sharing Christ with children in a way that relates to their real needs. This led to the founding of the Children’s Special Service Mission, or CSSM, which was later to become Scripture Union.

The following year, Spiers went on holiday to Llandudno in North Wales and began to share God’s love with the children he found there. He drew the text ‘God is Love’ in the sand, invited children to decorate it, and then told them a Bible story.

In 1877 Spiers was joined by others, including Tom Bishop, the first Honorary Secretary, and together they began the work of spreading the Good News nationally and internationally. By 1893, 13 million leaflets for children in fifty languages had been distributed around the world.

In 1879 Scripture Union introduced a system of daily Bible reading. A membership card had a list of daily readings, with explanatory notes in children’s magazines. Booklets of notes were published for troops in the trenches during the Great War from 1914-18, and led to the first issue of Daily Notes in 1923.

In 1892 the first Boys’ Camp was started in Littlehampton by Major Leibenrood, a veteran from the Zulu War. The following year, the Caravan Mission to Village Children (CMVC) was started using a bakers’ cart. The CMVC became part of CSSM, but both names were dropped in the 1960s when Scripture Union became the title for all our activities.

Since then, we have gone on sharing the good news of Jesus Christ in ways that are relevant to people today and that give opportunities to respond to God’s love. We still publish daily Bible reading guides for children, teenagers and adults. We are also exploring many new ways of bringing Christ more fully into the lives of people of all ages and backgrounds.