Category: News

Leaping and Bounding (at last) recommences

After a long period of inactivity, work is now proceeding on the new church building.

All our plans to celebrate our 150th Anniversary in the new building evaporated, much to our great disappointment.  Hence the great silence here on our web-site.

However, the plasterboarding and plastering are done and painting and fitting is now underway.  We are very much hoping that it will be full-steam ahead to a completion of 1st April 2016.

Below are a few photos taken last week.

Hall - front view   Hall – front view, with a fire door out onto the carpark.

Hall - rear view

Back of the hall.  The entrance into the hall is on the right.  The next door (unlit) is into the storeroom and the third door is to the kitchen (lit).  The final door is another fire door which aligns to the pavillion’s fire door

 

Entrance Hall

Entrance Hall

the visible doors are to the Disabled Toilet and the Male/Female toilets.  Immediately to the right (not visible) is the door to the office, and hidden behind the yellow packaging is the door to the kitchen.

 

We have some roof tiles!

Work continues on the new building as the roof tiles are now being put up.

 

20150207_151928

Can you spot the cross in the brickwork on the gable end? – there will also be a cross over the entrance just to emphasise that, despite some doubters,  this will be – first and foremost – a church!

Sadly, we have not been meeting for worship for a number of weeks due to my health issues, but I’m ever-hopeful this will not last much longer – so watch this space!!

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No it’s …..

2. 4 Oct 2014    …….. A DIGGER!

On the weekend when we celebrate  that “all good gifts around us are sent from heaven above”, he also sends a digger!  So we will have an even greater reason to thank the Lord at our Harvest Supper this evening and at our Harvest Festival service tomorrow morning.

Come and join us – we’re the ones wearing huge grins!!!!

Sad news

A long standing member and supporter of the Macedonia, Ruth Breakell, died on 12th July.  She died peacefully in her sleep after a happy family get together.  Ruth, and in fact all her family, worked tirelessly for the church and all its activities over many many years and their influence was immense.  Ruth moved to Shrewsbury to be near her family when her health started to fail.

Many folk in the area remember Ruth, and our thoughts and prayer are with the family at this sad time.

Ignited!

We had a tremendous day on Saturday with our guest speaker Rev Sally Willett from Thomas Risley URC in Warrington.  Sally is also an Evangelism and Renewal Advocate for GEAR (Group for Evangelism and Renewal in the URC).

We were joined by a number of friends from other churches in Failsworth and were blessed by some terrific worship led by Mike Wate (also from Thomas Risley URC) and lively and enthusiastic teaching on the gifts of the Holy Spirit.

New Year

Well here we are at the beginning of another New Year in our old building and still no contract signed!  But as we met on Sunday, we focussed on the gifts that the Magi brought to the baby Jesus and we explored what gifts we, as a fellowship, should be offering to our community.

The Lighthouse has been running for about 18 months now and was as a result of a vision held by John and Iris for many years to provide a place where people can drop in for a chat/cuppa.  It was slow to get going – some weeks no-one turned up at all.  But now we have a group of folks who come regularly and a lot of folk who come now and again. In September, they held a Macmillan Coffee Morning/Bring and Buy and they raised a staggering £255 for the Macmillan Nurses. In December, they held a short Carol Service before heading over to the Willow Tavern to share a Christmas Lunch together.  And they are now planning regular (monthly-ish) trips across the road for lunch.

The purpose of the Lighthouse is not to get people to come to church on Sunday mornings (though we wouldn’t turn them away!) but to provide the opportunity to get to know one another, provide friendship – especially for those who live alone, and to ask questions, or even pray for one another.

So the Lighthouse is one of our gifts to our local community – no strings, just friendship and a cuppa.