Have you ever moved house? Have you ever had to ‘down-size’? You can imagine that, just like anyone at home or in business, any local church will collect many things over the years - in our particular case, over 136 years!  After we held the ‘final services’ in our old church building (October 8th 2006) we ordered a rubbish skip - in fact we filled a few !! It was an opportunity for us as a fellowship to take a really long and hard look at what we considered ‘essential’ to our life and work as a Christian people.  As well as that we moved the ‘normal’ activities of the church into the church hall and scout hall. It was different, but it worked; and, in fact I, believe that we all the better for our experiences over the last twelve months.

We watched the 1870 building crumble under the attack of the demolition men. Then we watched the new building take shape. And we waited and wondered; will we like it? Will we ‘settle’ easily into these new surroundings?

Elsewhere on our website you will see the photographic record of the progress of the building project.  The weekend of the official opening of the new building can only be described as ‘wonderful’ and ‘inspiring’. Our fellowship worked extremely hard to make the event a success, including the essential tea, sandwiches and cakes.

I think that the comment that impressed me the most was the one which one person said to me after the opening services:  “George, I feel as though the building just wraps itself around you.”  Then I remembered that the building and the people are nothing without what, or rather who, is at the heart of all we do, all we stand for, all we seek to be…..our aim is to continue to be a Christian presence, witness and service in our local community.

So, at our heart is Jesus Christ, and surely what ‘wraps itself around us’ is not the building, but the power of the Spirit renewing us, God’s people, to help us develop our VISION as we try to live out the Gospel, which is Good News for the 21st century.  I repeat what I believe we hold dear:  that we are a people called to follow Jesus, we are community - we are part of a wider community in which we work, live and play. We are not ‘shut off’ from our community and we reaffirm that we are wanting to work with all people of goodwill, people of any faith or none to the good of all people in our community.

We want to ‘share’ our faith story; we want to ‘share’ your story. As Christians we don’t claim to get it right, but in Jesus, and by his grace, we hope to make some sort of difference in our community.  And to that end, we invite ‘you’ to journey with us; or rather, let us journey together!

Come and see us some time!  Take a look at the new premises! Share our warm welcome! And remember, there is often tea or coffee in the pot - and there is always room for you.

Thanks for making your ‘hit’ on our website.

May God bless you.