Local Ecumenical Partnership
St. James' with St. Luke's Church is a Local Ecumenical Partnership
between Anglican, Methodist and Roman Catholic Congregations,
or LEP for short. The Anglican (Church of England) and Methodist
are in the Parish of Great Parndon (http://www.gtparndon.org.uk/)
which has two churches: St. Mary's in Peldon Road and St. James'
with St. Luke's in Perry Road. The priests are Revd. Jennifer
Ragan (Church of England) and Revd Jim Gill (Methodist), and on
22nd Feb 2005 Rev. Albert Watson will be licensed as Priest-in-Charge.
The Roman Catholic congregration is in St. Luke's and Holy Cross
parish with Fr. Paul McNamara as the parish priest.
The Sunday service for the Anglicans and Methodists in St. James'
Church is at 11 am with Kids' club (except in August) for children
over 3 years. Quarterly we have unity service for all denominations
such as on Sunday 23rd January 2005 at 4 pm with the Anglican
Bishop of Barking. The church was built in 1960 and has a lantern-like
top with a huge black metal ring at the centre of the church with
solid metal bars sticking out of the ring reaching to the wooden
pillars at the side of the building. Some people see this ring
as Christ's crown of thorns, others see it as the Church reaching
out to all people everywhere.
Various activities within the church are as follows:
- St. James' with St. Luke's Pe-school in the church hall accepts
children from 2.5 years upwards offering a friendly environment
where children can have fun while they learn, 8 sessions a week
e.g. in the morning (9:30-12) and afternoon (1-3:30) on Monday
to Friday except Wednesday morning and Friday afternoon.
- On Wednesday morning we have Mums and Toddler group where mums
(and dad & gran too) bring their toddlers to play together
while the adults sit and chat.
- Senior citizen meetings take place on Friday afternoon at 1:30
to 3:30 where people can come for a cup of tea and a chat and
sometimes a quiz.
- Drama or shows are performed in the Church twice a year by the
ecumenical group called Channels.
- On Wednesday night we have centring prayer at 7:30, whilst the
ecumenical prayer group meet on Friday night also at 7:30; both
groups in the Church.
- The church hall is often booked for parties, e.g. children's
birthday, baptism, etc. but not for wedding receptions.
- Occasionally we have a Flower Festival, or a jumble sale and
other events.
Credits: We are grateful to Margery and Eddie Collier for providing
this valuable information and for their patience in review process.
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