As chaplain to the canals, Rev Peter Atwill proves that still waters run deep. David Clensy catches up with him on the Kennet and Avon canal to find out more about life aboard the Gospel Belle. Pictures: Clare Green

T here's something unusual about the narrowboat community – it's predom- inantly male and middle- aged. Behind all the picturesque charm of the colourful narrowboats, there is plenty of sadness – because a disproportionate number of the boaters are divorced men.

Having left the tumultuous family home behind, the freedom of life on the water can often be a tempting lure.

As chaplain to the canals, the Rev Peter Atwill is often the man these lonely boaters turn to for advice and comfort.

"There are a lot of single divorced men living on canal boats," he explains, as he steps down on to the one he's turned into a floating church, the Gospel Belle.

"They often choose it as a peaceful way of life after they've been through those sorts of problems.

"Many of these men get to know me and, after a few weeks, ask for my help and guidance on the emotional issues in their life.

"But sometimes it's just about being here as someone everyone can come and share a cup of tea with at any time. It's always open-house on the Gospel Belle."

Peter's life of ministry has always been unconventional. There can be few things more daunting than standing before a church congregation. But Peter was just 14 years old when he stood in a pulpit to give a sermon for the first time.

With his father, a lay preacher, taken ill, Peter was told to get on his bike and cycle the 14 miles from his rural Dartmoor home to the "local" church and give the sermon on his father's behalf.

But almost half a century on, Peter is still preaching in the most unusual fashion. As chaplain to the canals, he spends his life ministering from aboard his narrowboat.

Together with his wife Lin, the 62-year-old has spent the past nine years travelling the country's waterways.

"I was inspired by Jesus himself," Peter explains, as the boat gently bobs beneath us. He pushes a log into the wood-burning stove, before turning his attention to making a cup of tea in the narrowboat's galley.

"When Jesus was evangelising, he told the story of the sower and the seed while standing on a fishing boat.

"He placed himself on the boat, so his voice would carry powerfully across the water, and the people on the shore would be able to hear him clearly.

"I do the same thing, only I'm preaching from a narrowboat rather than a Galilee fishing boat. But when we set up the Canal Ministries charity 14 years ago, we used the symbol of a Galilee fishing boat with a cross in place of the rigging for our logo."

Peter's dream was to set up a group of water-borne interdenominational ministers, who could each travel around the country on boats, offering the canal communities all the services normally provided by a vicar in a village. "I had the idea long before I owned the narrowboat," he says. "In fact, I was still living in Hampshire, which doesn't even have a canal system.

"The idea bubbled away at the back of my mind for years. I was working as a minister in an independent evangelical church. I'd been there for 17 years when I had a call out of the blue to ask if I'd take a position in a church in Bath.

"I didn't have any inclination to uproot myself and my wife and move to Bath, but I thought, God must have a purpose for me there. He did. It was while I was ministering in Bath that Lin and I started to discover the canals.

"We had both been married before – my first wife Ruth died in her late 30s. So Lin and I each had two children, and we wanted to find a way to bring them together. We decided that canal-boat holidays would be the perfect way to make the family bond together.

"So we bought the boat, and it did the job perfectly. All the kids got to know each other, and they've always got on brilliantly.

"I named it the Gospel Belle after a verse in the Bible, in Romans, where St Paul says 'how beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news'. So belle, French for beautiful, and gospel, meaning good news.

"In fact, we loved canal life so much that after just a few years we decided to live on the boat full-time.

"We bought a house beside the canal at Skipton, but we keep that for holidays – we work the opposite way to everyone else."

So for nine years, Peter has been living his dream, travelling the waterways of England, preaching his beliefs and offering friendship and support to all those he finds along the way.

"It's a wonderful life," says Peter, who worked as chef before turning to the church and being ordained in 1980. "I've never had as many friends as I have now."

Peter was able to find six other boating preachers willing to take to the canals of the country, and with financial backing from a range of churches and individuals, Canal Ministries was born.

"It gives me a great sense of purpose in life," he says. "The canals are wonderful. It's like stepping back in time being here. People are so friendly and so much happier to talk to each other than they are elsewhere.

"I have a gift for getting talking to people, and sparking up conversations with strangers, but here on the canals there's no difficulty at all – whether it's walkers on the towpath or fellow boaters, everyone always seems keen to talk." Peter also maintains his preaching. "I lead a service of worship every Sunday, on the towpath, no matter where we are," he says. "And every time we go through a lock, I give the lock-keeper a copy of the New Testament.

"We have more than 3,000 miles of interconnected waterways in this country," he says. "So we can end up travelling far and wide through the summer."

Peter has even conducted wedding ceremonies on the Gospel Belle: "We had one wedding where we moored the boats nose to nose.

"I stood on the front of the Gospel Belle, and the couple stood on the front of their narrowboat, and I married them across the water."

But the highlight of the year for Peter is always the Gospel Belle's annual Christmas carol service at the historic Dundas Aqueduct, near Limpley Stoke.

"We get hundreds of people turning out each year, gathering together on the wharf to sing hymns with us, accompanied by the Salvation Army Band. It's always a magical event, and it gets more and more popular each year. Last year I managed to give out 300 mince pies," he adds with a chuckle.

"A few years ago, it even started to snow as we all stood there singing Christmas hymns in candlelight on the side of the canal.

"It was everything you could ever ask for," he adds with a smile.

"Everybody who comes along each year says that Christmas never really starts until they've been to the Gospel Belle's carol service."

This year the service will be held at the Dundas Aqueduct, near Limpley Stoke, on Saturday, December 6, at 6pm. For more information about Canal Ministries, visit the website at www.canalministries.org.uk