Category: Information

Safe Harbour starts 7th March

Safe Harbour

Starting on 7th March, we will be opening on Wednesday mornings for a new venture called Safe Harbour.  Carrying on the theme of the Lighthouse which meets on Friday mornings, Safe Harbour offers a friendly, safe space with opportunities for people to come and either join in the activities, crafts, or games or simply watch others do so.  If you have something on your mind, a concern, or a worry, there will be members of the team around who are available to listen, or to pray if that would be helpful.

Come and see – you’ll be made very welcome!

Loads of photos

We have recently loaded 2 albums on our Facebook site:

1.   Photos of the Old Macey building taken by David Benson, the son of one of our Lighthouse friends, in January 2014.  At the time we were hoping that the building project would finally start moving and David offered to provide a memoir of the old place before its demise.

Thank you David, they actually make the place look a little less dreary than reality, but a tremendous memoir.

2.   A photo diary of the building project.  We got there in the end, but what a long road it was!

To browse these photo albums click here – even if you don’t have a Facebook account!

Enjoy!

A new Innings

Dedication – 15 July 2017
Dedication – 15 July 2017
Dedication – 15 July 2017
Cricket Ground
Cricket Pavilion for refreshments – 15 July 2017
Celebration Cake – 15 July 2017

On Saturday 15th July, the new Macedonia URC building was dedicated to the service of God.  The date had to be settled at short notice (due to the stop-start nature of the building project) which meant a number of key folk were unable to be with us and others were on holiday.

But nevertheless, we had a good turnout, including former Macedonians from various places – Cumbria, Shropshire and even Germany – to share in the celebration and it was a lovely opportunity to rekindle old friendships as we formally begin a new innings. There was also strong representation from Failsworth Churches Unite! and from the URC Central Area churches.

Huge thanks to two key batsmen – Revd John Piper (who, amongst other things, represented Synod)  who led the prayers of dedication and to Revd David Ireland (of Union Street and Francis House Children’s Hospice) who brought a thought-provoking message.  Needless to say, we suffered one or two no-balls when the IT (bowled by an expert – not!) took its bat home but play continued regardless.

A lovely celebration cake was made by, Naomi,  the daughter of Wallace and Tracey – even the church was edible (made of rice crispies) and Naomi admitted “the church took the longest time” – oh how true was that!

The Cricket Club First XI were playing away that day (otherwise we wouldn’t have got on the car park!) but kindly allowed us to use the pavilion for refreshments and helped serving tea and coffee. Although rain didn’t stop play, it sadly did mean the picnic benches were too damp to sit on outside.

So after all these years, we must now sit down and plan our fixture list and set to work to build up a strong and committed team of batters, bowlers, fielders and supporters.

Hallelujah! We’re there

After all that waiting, we’re finally in the new church building.  We held our first service there last Sunday to check it out, and while there are a few minor problems to be sorted, in general we’re delighted.

Holy Week and Easter is a busy time for the church generally so we are finding ourselves rushing round madly getting things ready so an official opening will have to wait a bit till the dust has settled.

We’ll do our best to keep you posted – so watch this space!

Disappointed yet again

We got excited and hoped we’d be able to meet with our Failsworth church friends on Advent Sunday in our new building.  But Building Control had a few concerns to be addressed.

We then thought we might be in the new building for our Christmas Services.  No – still not signed off.

So here we are, in the middle of winter, still using the old building, still worshipping with hats and gloves and scarves on, heading for the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity (Sunday 22nd) service – once more in the old building.

Are we disappointed – oh yes we are!

Are we despondent – oh no we’re not! because we know the finishing line is not far away (it’s been ‘not far away’ for such a long time) and we will cross it!  So keep watching!

Dare we say it???

The new building is dangerously close to being completed – there’s a possibility we may get the keys next Friday!

As the finishing touches are being applied, the builder agreed to allow a few of our fellowship to have a brief guided tour – and they were pleasantly surprised at what they saw.

Here’s Gladys and Wallace, two of our long-standing faithful friends admiring the new hall – the floor covering isn’t down yet but much of the builder’s bits and bobs have been taken away.

57-4-nov-2016

..and the garden has been tidied and grassed so the outside now looks even better:

62-4-nov-2016

There are still a number of things to be finished before the building can be declared completed but we are hoping and praying we will be able to start making the place warm and friendly.

Heritage Days

Heritage Days 2016Our move to the new building is coming closer, and for some time we have been collecting photos and stories from our past. So Oldham’s Heritage Days seemed a useful forum for sharing what we have so far.

To that end, the church will be open from 1pm to 5pm on Fridays 9th and 16th September. Inside will be presentations, photos, pictures of the church, its activities and its people.

Do pop in and see us, refreshments will be available.

 

 

Looking Good!

We’re not finished yet but we have a lovely big car park and fence which means the new building is visible from the road.  So folk can now see what’s going on and how it is taking shape.

The kitchen and toilets are being fitted out and the next step is the electrical fittings etc. We don’t yet have a completion date to work to but hopefully the remaining work will not take too long.  We are getting excited about our new home and really looking forward to moving in.

Please pray that there will be no more delays.