Having spent time in Canada, Hong Kong and France, Dale Hanson might be forgiven for forgetting his Englishness. But he can never forget that he is a Geordie. He is happy to be known as a Sand Dancer (which means he comes from South Shields) and he supports Newcastle United through their triumphs and doldrums. Told he doesn’t sound like a Geordie, he pleads the effect of mixing with people who have one thing in common: their second language is English.
Dale is chaplain of St Mark’s, Versailles. He ministers to a mixed congregation of commuters and others and notices the difference in serving the Gospel in a country that is instinctively sceptical and less in touch with its Christian heritage than is England. ‘You have to start further back,’ he says, in a country that does not find the Christian faith inherently plausible. Dale’s own introduction to the Christian faith came when he was at Cambridge studying natural sciences. He is happy to start with the question of belief in a Creator.
It was different in Hong Kong. There, people were open to the Christian faith. Dale was accustomed to Sunday services with a total of 2,500 worshippers attending throughout the day. A development project had added an 850-seat auditorium to the facilities that included a Victorian church building.
When Dale moved to Versailles a couple of years ago, he found himself able to take advantage of what he describes as a magnificent building. On a slope it was completed in two phases with meeting rooms and the possibility of ‘gather round’ worship, with guitars and drums providing the music. The building lends itself to adaptation for a café church event.
Most worshippers come some distance, up to 40 minutes by car, to Sunday services. Despite this challenge, there is a committed group of volunteers to do youth work, etc. Being part of the Anglican Communion, St Mark’s Versailles has ‘Common Worship’ and the Book of Common Prayer as a basis for its worship.
Dale and his wife Pat (whom he met during his student days in Canada) have a son and daughter. Peter is an architect and Cora is a teacher. When the time comes, Dale expects to retire to somewhere in the North-East of England. He had a decade as curate, then vicar of the city church of St Nicholas, Durham. That Geordie aspect of his character will not be denied.
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