Hither Green Baptist Church

This Sunday we celebrate our church anniversary in our 10:30am morning service, which will be followed by a fellowship lunch. Friends from the local community are welcome to come and join us either for the service or afterwards.

This year we are also joining Crofton Park Baptist in the evening for their anniversary service. They are celebrating 100 years; Hither Green Baptist can claim a bit longer (105 years) since the church building was dedicated but we owe a debt of gratitude to Crofton Park who, in the late 1980s, recognised that "Theodore Road Baptist" church was on the brink of closing and sent a team headed by our previous pastor (Rev Richard Blyth) to revitalise our church.

Join us at the church by 6pm if you would like a lift across to Crofton Park for this celebration.

The weather was poor today - not a patch on yesterday - so instead of taking our service to the park we carried on with our plans in our building (including the picnic lunch following). Perhaps next time the sun will shine on our plans but nothing stops us from offering up our praise to God.

If the weather tomorrow is anywhere near as pleasant as the weather today, we will be back in Mountsfield Park tomorrow morning. As we did a couple of weeks ago, we will meet at the church building at 10:30am, will be in the park by 11:15am and will be having a picnic lunch and games from midday - you are welcome to join us.

We had an excellent time at Mountsfield Park yesterday and here is the evidence:

We plan to repeat the exercise on Sunday 31 August, when we will follow the same timetable:

• 10:30am Meet at the church building for a short indoor service
• 11:15am Arrive in the park for an outdoor service
• 12 noon Picnic and games

If it is wet then we will still have an informal service followed by games and a picnic but all in the shelter of our church building! Friends and neighbours are welcome to join us at any point in the proceedings - you can sign up or ask questions on the new Facebook event page.

If the weather is decent tomorrow morning, we will take our service over to the nearby Mountsfield Park:

• 10:30am Meet at the church building for a short indoor service
• 11:15am Arrive in the park for an outdoor service
• 12 noon Picnic and games

If it is wet then we will still have an informal service followed by games and a picnic but all in the shelter of our church building! Friends and neighbours are welcome to join us at any point in the proceedings - you can sign up or ask questions on the Facebook event page.

On Sunday morning, wide areas of South East London suffered a power cut, following a major fire at an electricity sub-station in Sydenham. Hither Green Baptist Church was just inside the area affected. It meant some rearrangement was needed because our service normally relies on a lot of electricity, running lights, kettles for hot water and the PA system and amps.

We had to adjust plans and sing with acoustic instruments, using songs that didn't rely on projected lyrics. After allowing time for people to arrive, we decamped to Mountsfield Park and finished our service round the bandstand, enjoying the glorious weather.

We are grateful that our community has good resources, like the park, and to God, to whom is the power and the glory, for ever and ever, amen!

Tomorrow night some members of our youth group are hosting a family disco at the church from 7:00pm - 9:30pm. Admission is £1.00 for adults and 50p for children and we welcome others from the local community who would like to come and join us.

This year sees an unusually early Easter - we are already a couple of weeks into Lent. We will publish full details nearer the time but here is an outline:

• Sunday 16 March: Palm Sunday - we will have a family celebration service in the morning and our regular LIGHT Café in the evening
• Thursday 20 March: Maundy Thursday. We are planning a writing workshop followed by communion in the evening
• Friday 21 March: Good Friday. We will start this day with a reflective service. After that we will enjoy hot cross buns and be joined by Brownhill Road Baptist Church for a joint service.
• Sunday 23 March: Easter Day! We will have a morning service of celebration and will also have a evening service on this day.

For details of our regular events, see the What's On page.

The induction service on Saturday went very well. We are now gearing up for our Christmas services. To some extent we have already begun, with another advent candle being lit each week, but we do also have some other special events lined up:

• Carol Service: 16 December from 5pm - 6pm, followed by mince pies and refreshments.
• Christmas Family Service: 23 December, 10:30am. This will be led by our Ignition groups for children and young people.
• Christmas Morning: 25 December, 10:30am - 11:30am. A short service for those who want to add prayer, worship and thanksgiving into their Christmas Day celebrations
• Watchnight Service: 31 December, 9pm - midnight. A chance to see the New Year in with prayer, looking back and forward.

We also plan to help a couple of local community groups by sending along some people to help with carol singing, so keep an ear out for us!

Next Saturday afternoon we are holding the official induction service for our new pastor, Honesty Kachidza. Regulars at the church will be joined by old friends and people from other local congregations as we spend some time celebrating his arrival and committing together to the path that lies ahead.

We would also be delighted to have other visitors from the local community. The church doesn't exist to serve itself but to draw near to and honour God and to offer support and help in the local community.

The service begins at 2:30pm and will be followed by light refreshments at about 3:30pm. If you would like to meet our new pastor, then next Saturday might be a good day to do it (or, of course, any Sunday morning or contact us if he could help by coming to you).