A short history of the UK Friends of UESI
UK Friends of UESI started with a group of people in the UK who used to meet regularly with each other and pray for the work of the UESI in India. The group mainly consisted of UESI staff in its early years, who lived and worked in India, who hailed from the UK. The first group consisted of Reverend Basil Scott, his wife Shirley and John Martin and his wife and Serena Gledhill and other well-wishers. The primary focus was prayer for the UESI and the work back in India. The UK Friends of UESI Charitable Trust was registered on the 7th of October 1996. As the years went by the numbers in the group fluctuated high and low.
In 2001, Mr Paul Jebaraj, staff worker of the UESI, was in London on the invitation of the London Institute of Contemporary Christianity (LICC) and few others were at this meeting who then inspired the start of a new chapter in the UK Friends of UESI.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
At the meeting ideas were exchanged and it was decided that this meeting should be a yearly affair. Dr Matthew took the initiative to gather email IDs of all the people who attended the meeting as well as those known to the attendees who had been associated with the work of the UESI in India. Paul took the responsibility of informing us of EU/EGF members who came to the UK on professional or study assignments so that they too could get involved in this mission of supporting the work of the UESI in India.
A regular yearly meeting of the UK Friends of UESI has taken place since the first one in late 2001/early 2002. The idea of getting People of Indian Origin in this was for them to take ownership of the work of the UESI. UESI stalwarts like Basil and Shirley and Mr and Mrs John Martin were still around giving support in official matters with the society. One key driving factor was the keen realization that reaching the youth of India with the gospel would provide the richest dividend for the church in the long term, for India.
Looking back at the records of the meetings, 2006 was probably the year that underpinned the start of the regular meetings. At one point it was decided that we would fix the day of the meetings in the calendar to the 1st Saturday of July with St. Mary’s Church on Bramhall Lane in Sheffield as the first venue.
​
​
​
​
​
St John’s Marthoma Church Hall at Hounslow has been another venue and two meetings were held at the Queen Edith Chapel at Cambridge in 2015 and 2016.
Below is a list of speakers at the Annual meetings:
​
​
The Society is registered with the Charities Commission and is now chaired by Dr Suresh Samuel. The Chairmanship was held by Rev Basil Scott for a number of years and Dr Peter John prior to this.
We can look back with gratitude, for all those who have helped us organize these meetings. We are averse to mentioning names for fear that we will miss someone out due to a lapse in memory. However, Basil Scott and Shirley, Sam Sasikumar, Peter John, Joseph Daniel, Suresh Samuel and our wonderful treasurer Kavitha deserve mention.
