On Sunday 8th July we celebrated our Centenary with a Thanksgiving Service conducted by Mr Sydney Shore CBE. Many friends and former members of the Church came from across the country to join us and to enjoy the buffet lunch that followed.
During the service our young people created a timeline describing many aspects of life in 1912, the year of our inauguration. This was a year that seemed to be dominated by the sinking of boats – the Titanic, with great loss of life; and also both boats in the Oxford and Cambridge boat race, causing the race to be rescheduled!
Mr Shore commented that some of the children present may well be alive when Bicentenary is celebrated. He then presented every child with a commemorative Bible, before addressing the congregation in his sermon entitled ‘Our Turn for the Baton’. He drew on the analogy of Olympic relay runners to urge the present members of the Church to continue the great effort started by their forebears in 1912, and to run with vigour and enthusiasm, continually renewing the life of our Church for another one hundred years and beyond.
John Gibbons