News from the Methodist Church nationally

News from the Lancaster Methodist Church

The Circuit Meeting has agreed to fund 25% of the cost of the Cornerstone refurbishment, up to a maximum of £100,000. This is a major boost right at the start of the project and we are extremely grateful for this generosity.

During Lent 2010 we followed a series of services on the theme "Walking in someone else's shoes". At the same time the community at The Cornerstone created a mosaic on the same theme, depicting Christ's journey to the Cross. The mosaic will be at Scotforth Road for a few weeks before becoming a permanent installation at The Cornerstone. A photo of the mosaic is on the home page of The Cornerstone website.

The Church Council has approved preliminary work on a major refurbishment of The Cornerstone to make it fit for purpose - and this means ensuring full accessibility, much more flexibility and a modern building for current needs of both the church and the disability groups that meet there. This is an exciting project that will provide a platform for enhanced witness.

We were delighted to welcome the President of the Methodist Conference, Revd David Gamble, to preach at the service to celebrate the 100th anniversary of our Scotforth Road premises (the former Greaves church). He also took some time out to meet people at the Cornerstone - and judging from his blog his was quite impressed!

At the beginning of September 2009 we welcomed our new minister, the Revd Juliet Wriglesworth - an exciting time for us - and for her!

On Saturday 18th July 2009 a group of church members spent the day undertaking personal and church green audits, facilitated by the Faiths4Change team.

During June we followed the theme "Whose world is it anyway?" in response to the Methodist Church's Youth Conference challenge to take the issue of climate change seriously. See the main item on the home page for more details of what happened.

Sunday 26th April 2009 was the date for our Annual Church Meeting. This year we involved the whole congregation in looking at our future direction and structures. More to follow!

On Saturday 28th March we hosted a performance of Handel's Messiah at 7.30 pm, performed by the Messiah Choir with four soloists from our own church.

On Sunday 18th January 2009 we hosted an event to explore the proposed new Methodist hymn collection. Earlier this year the Methodist Conference approved the preparatory work for the collection, which will provide a successor to Hymns & Psalms. At present it is unclear whether it will be published as a printed hymn book or in another format. Our morning worship on 18th January was led by Revd Dr Andrew Pratt, the well-known hymn writer and a member of the Church's Music Resources Group, who also led a discussion during the afternoon.

The Christmas Tree Festival was held at The Cornerstone on 12th and 13th December 2008. Many thanks to all who supported this event - and congratulations to the prize winners!

On Saturday 29th November 2008 we held a card signing event for prisoners around the world, part of Amnesty International's Greetings Card Campaign. Many thanks to all who came along and signed cards.

We were delighted that Donne Amabile gave their inaugural concert at Scotforth Road on 2nd November - an event enjoyed by all.

Our 2008 Harvest Appeal was for Sam's Project - continuing to help people in Sri Lanka whose lives were devastated by the 2004 Tsunami.

We are building links with the Methodist church in Uruguay - among other initiatives we have been raising money to help them buy essential food, medical and other supplies for people in their neighbourhood. We have also welcomed visitors from Uruguay while young people from the District have visited the church there.

Each year we support Christian Aid Week through house-to-house collections and other activities.