Mason Riley-Kidney

Mason grew up in a single parent “culturally Christian” Caribbean household with three of his siblings. As a young child, his favourite bed-time stories were those that his mother read from the Old Testament.

These stories led to a life-long passion for books and reading, and he spent much of his adolescence nose-deep in whatever fantasy novel he could lay his hands on. Mason came to faith at 15 years old through Urban Mission, a Christian ministry that used Hip-Hop music as an evangelistic tool. From a young age, he felt called to follow in the footsteps of those who had taught him the faith and introduced him to the Lord Jesus Christ.

“After being on a 20-year journey of wrestling with God and working out my salvation with fear and trembling, I found that the passion the Lord had placed on my heart as a teenager had only intensified with time”, says Mason. After studying at King’s School of Theology, Mason learned that those same men who had shared the Gospel with him in his teens now worked at London City Mission and encouraged him to apply for a role at LCM.

Mason's heart for mission comes from 1 Timothy 2:3-4: ‘This is right and acceptable before God our Saviour, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.’ “Therefore, there are no people groups not worth reaching”, says Mason, “no one too far gone, none who shouldn't be given the Gospel”.

“As the Apostle Paul tells us in Romans 1:16–17, ‘For I am not ashamed of the gospel; it is God’s saving power for everyone who believes, for the Jew first and also for the Greek. For in it the righteousness of God is revealed through faith for faith, as it is written, “The one who is righteous will live by faith.”’”

Mason is a Mission Associate in the Tower Hamlets & Hackney Team, with a focus on Council Estates and Seniors. He partners with churches to encourage and equip everyday Christians to boldly share the love and truth of Jesus in their community.

Being a missionary in Tower Hamlets and Hackney looks like working in a culturally rich and diverse environment with people from many different nationalities and economic backgrounds. There are young people battling with their identity, hostels housing people who are displaced with nowhere to go, and many communities seeking hope in Islam, and other religions apart from Christ.

“On council estates in both Tower Hamlets and Hackney, many of the people are marginalised, often feeling lost and alone or under the yoke of false ideologies. These issues affect both younger and older people, but often for different reasons”, says Mason.

Mason’s vision for Tower Hamlets and Hackney is to see the light of Christ shine through cross-cultural, inter-generational ministry. “I want the peoples of Hackney and Tower Hamlets to be bold and unified in the Gospel and to sow the seeds that one bring forth the fruit of revival, to combat the growth and spread of both secular humanism and Islam, both of which have taken root in each of these boroughs”.

Mason runs an online apologetics ministry called "Red Cloud Apologetics" where he addresses various false claims made about the Christian faith, as well as debating Hebrew Israelites, Jehovah's Witnesses, Mormons, Oneness Pentecostals (Modalists) and Unitarians. He is also an avid collector of video games, Manga (Japanese comic books) and a supporter of Arsenal FC. Mason lives in Hither Green and is engaged to be married.