Flowers in Farm Street

FR. GEORGE GTARCHI has been packing them into his Pop Mission at Farm Street Church this week. Flower people, mods and rockers, beatniks, call them what you may, and a few ordinary people like me have been making the pilgrimage to the once upper-crust-Catholics-only church.
Fr. Giarchi is a 36year-old Scottish Redemptorist who turned trendy after a Christian education course at Corpus Christi Catechetical College. He's already had big hits with his unusual approach. In Manchester 1,500 young people turned up every night for two weeks and in Edinburgh 12,000 went along to hear him.
His Farm Street mission begins each evening at 7 p.m. with a folk session. At 8 p.m. there's some poetry followed by Fr. Giarchi's talk. He uses all sorts of unorthodox props to put his points across and sometimes walks around among his audience.
While the mission is on
Fr. Giarchi has organised
a squad of girls to parade outside busy Underground stations. They wear huge flowers and carry placards which say: "Have God, will travel."
One of the highlights of the two-week "preach-in" is a 10-mile charity walk led by Jimmy Savile, the disc jockey. Fr. Giarchi had a bit of trouble over him with a girl from an international news agency. The wires got crossed and she thought Jimmy Savile had become a Jesuit.
In an age of television he thinks that the Church's methods of communication have to be radically updated. There's nothing new in what Fr. Giarchi says; it's the way he says, it that's so engaging.
Fr. Giarchi doesn't think Farm Street is the ideal place for a pop mission. The floodlit stage and electronic paraphernalia looks out of place against a background of rich carvings, ornate marble and polished oak pews.
And it's hard going trying to get young people to laugh, clap and relax in the hushed, churchy atmosphere. "I've never had to work so hard," he says.
Fr. Giarchi's ambition is to give a mission to the tough East End of London kids. "But I can only go where I'm asked, and so far they haven't asked me there."