Spring Line Methodist Church
Special Service
January 20th: Our Annual Covenant Service – an opportunity for us all to think about God’s promises to us, and our promises to him, and to renew those promises we have made to live as God’s people – we invite you to join us.
Nativity Service with St Michael’s Sunday School
We were delighted that St. Michael’s Sunday School again held their Nativity Service in the Blewbury Centre. The church was packed, the children’s nativity play was charming and the offering raised £213 for the Save the Children Charity.
Closure
As you read this, the Spring Line Methodist church will have celebrated its last ever Carol Service. Preparations for the closure of both Upton and Blewbury churches are in hand (to be marked at services over Easter 2013). It’s a time tinged with sadness; but also blessed in the realisation that Christian witness has always been about dying and rising again. Churches (especially village churches) are closing across the country now; it’s easy to feel that this is a mark of failure – loss yes, but failure, no.
So much has been put in place over the lifetime of these churches; society has been transformed by their presence. They came into existence when we had no NHS, no welfare state; in a time when education was selective, for the few. They were planted with a job to do – and that job has been done. They challenged society to embed Christian principles and they have done that. In a very profound way, the closing of churches is a mark that says ‘job well done’.
We chose to close at Easter because that is the time when we acknowledge the need to ‘die to rise again’. How that takes place is in the hands of the creative force that sits behind all this. It is yet to be revealed; but it will happen. (I write this as a person who lives in a Methodist chapel, closed and converted into a place that continues to breathe its heritage in a most unexpected way)
Join us as we give thanks for the Christmas Present, the miracles that are Upton and Blewbury and let’s all realise that – without the energy that has been held in these places – life would be that much poorer.
Richard Bittleston, Minister for the Spring Line Church