Our annual Soper service is intended to honour the legacy of Donal Soper, a beloved political and religious figurehead who served as the Superintendent Minister of West London Mission and Labour peer in the House of Lords. This year, the Soper service took place on Sunday January 28th, and included a sermon given by Rev Dr. Leslie Griffiths. If you missed it, you can listen to Leslie’s sermon on Spotify here. Below, you can also read more about the legacy of Lord Soper and find an introduction to our guest speaker Leslie Griffiths.
Lord Soper
Lord Soper (1903-1998) is remembered primarily for his life-long commitment to social activism, charity, and peace-building. Throughout his career, he worked to alleviate poverty, homelessness, and alcoholism, and campaigned for socially and politically engaged religious practice (in the true Methodist spirit). An exceptional public speaker, Soper was also well-known for frequenting Speakers’ Corner, a public speaking platform in Hyde Park, where he would address the crowds and raise awareness of various social justice issues.
After Lord Soper retired, he became a supernumerary minister based at Hinde Street, the new home of the West London Mission (previously affiliated to Kingsway Hall, where Soper preached for more than 40 years).
The sermon we hear every year at the Soper sermon touches on the issues and themes to which Lord Soper dedicated his career, with the intention of bringing them to bear on current issues. As the sermon is traditionally given by a guest speaker, we invited Leslie Griffiths to help us reflect on the ways we can continue Lord Soper’s legacy today.
Leslie Griffiths
Leslie Griffiths was appointed the superintendent of the West London Mission in 1986. At this time, Donald Soper was retired but still active in the church, and the two became good friends.
In 1996, Leslie went on to be the superintendent minister of Wesley’s Chapel, remaining in that role for 21 years. During that time, he was made a Canon of Saint Paul’s Cathedral and invited to enter the House of Lords. Leslie remarks that he has ‘always thought that John Wesley’s pulpit, a Canon’s stall at the Cathedral, and the red benches in parliament represented “a royal flush”.’
Since retirement, Leslie has entered more fully into the political realm. He is currently a member of the British parliament’s delegation to the Council of Europe with a seat on its Migration Committee. He is married to Margaret, and lives in Croydon with her, their three children, and two grandchildren.
According to Leslie, his whole life has been centred on ‘living in divided and distinguished worlds’, and he sees the West London Mission as having given him ample opportunities to do work that relates to this issue. Leslie tells us he views the set Gospel passage for the Soper service as the latest of these opportunities.
At this year’s Soper service, Leslie reminisced about the five years of friendship he shared with his colleague Donald Soper in the 90s, and spoke on the the value of Christian teachings and traditions in the modern world.
We would like to thank everyone for their attendance, and give a special thank-you to the family of Lord Soper who traveled to be with us this Sunday.
