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Website last updated on 20th Feb 2010. |
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Our Minister
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Telephone Number: 01252 544823
Email: linda.phillips@theinvernet.co.uk
Linda writes (taken from our March 2010 newsletter) ...
Dear Friends,
Most of you will be aware that over the last year or so we have been working on a proposal to develop a new church, jointly with the Baptist Church. This would be in the centre of Sandhurst near the Council Offices, and would replace both the current buildings, ours in Scotland Hill, and the Baptist Church along Yorktown Road. You may also have heard, either in Church a few weeks ago or on the grapevine, that our application to the Town Council to proceed to a feasibility study and public consultation on the proposal has been turned down.
So, having come up against this obstacle at the moment our plans have stalled temporarily, but I feel that in fact this may prove to be a blessing in disguise. The delay will give us the opportunity to do several things. Firstly to spend time in prayer and reflection on the project, and to deepen our understanding of God’s will for our two congregations as we seek to move forward together in service and witness. The delay will also give us a chance to build up relationships with our friends at the Baptist Church and that will be a good thing, regardless of what may eventually come out of our co-operation.
So in consultation with Rev. Samantha (Sam) Mail, the Minister at the Baptist Church, we have come up with a programme of shared activities and services which we hope will enable the members of the two congregations to get to know each other and learn to work together more closely. By the time you read this letter we will already have had the first event, when Sam will have preached at our morning worship on 21st February, and possibly also the second, a “Fish ‘n chips ‘n skittles” evening in our hall, on Saturday March 6th.
For the future, I will be going to preach at the Baptist Church on 28th March, and then our Baptist friends will be joining us for our Maundy Thursday meal and service. Then we are hoping that having preached at each other’s churches, Sam and I will do a direct swap and actually lead the whole service there, with the next very daring step to be an actual shared service for both congregations. For this we will each close our own church for one Sunday morning, and go to join our friends in their building. There will also be further social activities together during the summer and autumn.
Hopefully, having built up our friendship over the coming months we will be in a far better position to approach the Council again in about a year, with the request to move to a feasibility study on the proposal for an ecumenical church and community building in the centre of Sandhurst.
There will be challenging, perhaps difficult, but definitely exciting times ahead of us, and somehow I feel that whether we end up with a new church in the town centre or not, the whole process will help both our churches to grow in faith and in friendship with each other, and be better equipped to serve God in this place. Please pray about and for our work in the year ahead, that we may prove to be true followers of our Lord, and draw others into a living relationship with him.
With Christian greetings,
Linda