On a mission for heaven, 24/7
With church-going in decline Christian groups are targeting Ibiza in search of younger recruits, writes Kitty Donaldson
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Your support makes all the difference.The island of Ibiza is usually associated with sun, sangria, sex and illegal substances. Young people get off the plane expecting to be bombarded with flyers promoting the best nightclubs and the cheapest jet skis.
How would these cool dudes feel if they were greeted instead with leaflets promoting prayer meetings and hymn singing? They might, to put it mildly, wonder if they had come to the right place.
But that is just what is happening. Ibiza is one of a number of new destinations for week-long trips organised by Christian students whose modern take on evangelism is leading them into sur- prising surroundings.
According to the president of the University of Loughborough's Christian Union, Dan Apparicio, Christian Unions have established links with churches on the island, where teams of disc jockeys are hired to play on the beaches or in clubs promoting the 24-hour, seven-day-a-week prayer meet.
The DJs are accompanied by a team of students whose job is to run the continuous prayer meeting as a place for clubbers to seek solace, or, for those who are not Christian, to sample a new experience of religion in an environment which they find appealing: a beach or a nightclub, rather than an intimidating church.
The idea originates from a British group called 24-7 Prayer based in Chichester on the south coast of England. It aims to have a group praying somewhere in the world at all times, 24 hours a day.
Claire Strotton, 21, is one of the new breed of Christian evangelists who has just returned from a 24-7 trip to Ibiza. "Twenty-five of us went for 11 days to carry out a week of continuous prayer in the town," she explains.
Their destination was San Antonio, a place popular with young British clubbers. One group spent time on the beach chatting, handing out prayer cards and asking sunbathers whether they wanted a prayer said for them. Another group talked to holiday-makers in bars, telling them about their mission, while a third prayed all night to keep up the continuous flow.
"We went to the nightclub Eden one night and mixed with the other clubbers," says Ms Strotton, who is a student at Chichester University College. "We prayed in the club as we danced. That night we prayed for truth."
The group's method of continuous, 24-hour prayer is detailed on its website 24-7prayer.com. That site has become popular at universities and colleges, which, traditionally, act as a hothouse for spiritual development.
According to the UK Christian Handbook, church attendance is down in this country from 9,079,403 in 1970 to 5,861,796 in 2000, a decline of 35 per cent. University Christian Unions' role in attracting new members to Christianity is therefore crucial.
The puzzle for modern evangelicals is to find a way to appeal to an audience unpractised in and uninspired by traditional worship. The success of the Alpha course (pasta followed by prayer and discussion groups), which was featured recently on TV and has been described by the Archbishop of Canterbury George Carey as "superb", has transformed the image of evangelism. Food and cool chat are seen as legitimate tools.
24-7 Prayer claims not to have had a single negative reaction during its mission in Ibiza. Back home, however, modern forms of evangelicalism have come under attack. One Anglican cleric has called the Alpha course "Noddy theology", where the emphasis is on "me and my God".
Nikolai Segura, a student at Imperial College London, claims to have had a bad experience of evangelicalism. Currently writing The Atheist's Guide to the Alpha Course, he was shocked by the negative doctrine and scientific ignorance of the Christian evangelicals at his university.
"I decided to set up a Secular Society after talking to a postgraduate who held the firm belief that dinosaurs died out because they couldn't fit in Noah's Ark," he says.
Keith Porteous Wood, the Executive Director of the National Secular Society, is more sanguine. "These evangelists are going to the 'Costa del Sin' to tell people that casual sex and drinking are wrong," he says. "They should have a sangria and lighten up."
Kitty Donaldson is a student at Durham University. Additional reporting by Hannah Bailey
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