History

Events

History is full of fascinating people and events, and useful comparisons can be drawn between the past and the present.  One beauty of the past is clearly that it teaches us lessons (if only we would listen!) about how to conduct ourselves in the future.

The drop-down menu has links connecting you with the churches’ past.  This link will take you to the things we’re planning at the moment: our current future; history in the making!

Buildings

In the Bible, the word “Church” always refers to a community of people.  In the New Testament, there are a variety of different images that are used to describe this community.  These include the Family, the Bride of Christ, the Body of Christ and even a Temple.  In his first letter, the Apostle Peter talks about Christians being built together like “living stones” in the same way as a builder might construct an ordinary building from bricks.  The word “Church” never refers to any kind of institution or physical building.

It is critical that Christians understand this, because it affects the way that Christians relate to each other and to the wider world.  We are not primarily concerned with architecture (beautiful or otherwise, ancient or modern), but with God-honouring relationships which transform the world in which we live.

Notwithstanding this, from the earliest times, the church has needed to find convenient places to meet.  In Acts 2 we read that they regularly met in people’s homes, and when a larger space was needed, they gathered in the part of the Temple known as Solomon’s Colonnade.

Eventually, the church constructed their own buildings, purpose built for gathering large numbers of people together for worship and instruction. But the practice of adapting existing buildings continues, and the church still regularly meets in homes.  The drop-down menu has links for you to find out more about the churches’ buildings in our benefice.