It is with much sadness that I share the news of the passing of someone who was a pioneer in contextual Baptist mission, the Reverend Reginald Walter Inchpin, who has died aged 97 after a long life of service.
Reg (always ‘Reg’) was born on 15 January 1919, the elder son in a
family of agricultural labourers on Mersea Island in Essex. The family were
staunch members of the East Mersea Baptist chapel (as it then was). For Reg, church
on Sunday meant attendance at morning service at 11am, Sunday School at 3pm and
evening service at 6.30pm, often shepherding his younger siblings to and from
church. We forget nowadays how primitive life was in rural Essex in the 1920s.
There was no electricity at the church until 1934 and Reg liked to reminisce that
among the duties he shared with other young men in the fellowship was being a
‘lamplighter’ of the paraffin lamps and the chapel's coke-fired boiler.
Leaving school at 14, his first job was with the Merchant Navy, where he
learned seamanship and where began his love of the sea and those who live along
its coasts. He continued to serve in the Merchant Navy throughout the 1939-45
war but soon after VE Day, having spent 12 or so years in the service, he felt
a strong call to train for Baptist ministry. He completed his studies at
Spurgeon’s College in 1949. It was while
at Spurgeon’s that he met Bunty and they married soon after his graduation.
He served his first and second pastorates in Ilford (then very much
‘Essex’ rather than east London) and in Portsmouth, where he was a chaplain to
seamen. It was while in Portsmouth that
Reg and Bunty were blessed with 3 children.Though always dedicated in their work, they never really felt ‘at home’ in
Hampshire. After four years, the Inchpins dared to hope that there might be a
way for their future ministry to include their twin loves, both of the sea and
also mission among the people of the Essex marshes. In the 1950s, parts of Essex were still
remote from railways and life continued in the marsh villages much as it had
for generations. Growing up in the area Reg loved the people and the place. A kindly benefactor, knowing of their
prayerful exploration, offered to buy and refit a 40-foot motorised launch as a
mobile base for mission to the inlets and creeks of that stretch of the Essex
coast. An amazing missional door was opening!
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| Evangeline, in the foreground, off the Essex coast around 1960 |
