WELCOME TO CACTUS LAND (via Robert Schwartz):

Missionary takes on tough test in darkest Telford: Shropshire town is among most secular in Britain (David Ward and Tom Edwards, July 11, 2005, The Guardian)

Telford, the Shropshire town named after the great engineer of the industrial revolution, is one of the most secular places in Britain, according to the Church of England: fewer than one in a hundred residents attends an Anglican church and adult churchgoing has declined by 20% in 10 years.

Now the Church Mission Society (CMS), in collaboration with the Lichfield diocese, has decided to send in a missionary who will start work among the 150,000 residents next month and stay for seven years.

The job has gone to Mark Berry, who is married with a young son and has been working with older teenagers in Buckinghamshire. He used to be a theatre lighting designer, so should be used to bringing illumination to dark places.

Perhaps not this dark....

Posted by Orrin Judd at July 11, 2005 5:42 PM