BIO:Robert Raikes

1736-1811
Sunday School, the greatest lay movement since Pentecost, was 
founded by a layman. Robert Raikes was the crusading editor 
of Gloucester Journal. After becoming frustrated with ineffi-
cient jail reforms, Raikes was convinced vice could be better 
prevented than cured. While visiting in the slum section of 
the city, he was distressed with the corruption of children. 
Raikes shared the problem with Rev. Thomas Stock in the vil-
lage of Ashbury, Berkshire. They conceived of a school to be 
taught on the best available time--Sunday. They decided to 
use the available manpower--laymen. The curriculum would be 
the Word of God, and they aimed at reaching the children of 
the street, not just the children of church members.
        The movement began in July, 1780, when Mrs. Meredith 
conducted a school in her home on Souty Alley. Only boys at-
tended, and she heard the lessons of the older boys who 
coached the younger. Raikes wrote four of the textbooks, but 
the Bible was the core of the Sunday School. Later, girls 
were allowed to attend. Raikes shouldered most of the finan-
cial burden in those early years.
        Within two years, several schools opened in and 
around Gloucester. On November 3, 1783, Raikes published an 
account of Sunday School in the columns of his paper. Excite-
ment spread. Next, publicity was given the Sunday School in 
Gentlemen's Magazine, and a year later Raikes wrote a letter 
to the Armenian Magazine.
        Raikes died in 1811. By 1831, Sunday School in Great 
Britain was ministering weekly to 1,250,000 children, approx-
imately 25 percent of the population.

