he Big Top on The Green, at Sidcup Place was packed to capacity on Sunday 26th July 2009 when the CTiS Churches celebrated 50 years of working together with an evening of Praise and Celebration.

Refreshments were provided on arrival which included iced cakes with "50" on the top and many churches had erected display stands with pictures and information about the history and current ministries in their churches.

Paul Weston and Ronnie Barham hosted the evening which included a band and choir with testimonies from a member from an Anglican, Roman Catholic and Baptist church.

A four minute video of previous CTiS events raised some laughs when people recognised themselves and others from years ago.

A David and Goliath play was presented by CRIBS and this fitted in well with the address given by the guest speaker Revd. Steve Chalke.

The evening closed with prayer for the Sidcup Church Leaders and those representing their churches at the CTiS meetings.

---

t will be several weeks now since the celebration of the fiftieth anniversary of Sidcup churches working in unity, and no doubt everyone will remember something particular about that occasion.

I was heartened by the large number of people there, from their different backgrounds and traditions, and it was good to see folk greeting their friends from different churches, sometimes not even knowing before that they were Christian worshippers.

Steve Chalke gave an encouraging message, maybe particularly to churches who don’t always see themselves as ‘successful’. The excellent portrayal of the David and Goliath encounter, by CRIBS, reminded us that giants can be slain if the little person is well-trained and ‘focussed’ - as we like to say these days. Steve pointed out that David only slew Goliath once, on one day. We shouldn’t expect ‘mountain-peak moments’ every week in our churches. Most people’s lives, even the influential and famous, have far more mundane and routine days than wild and exciting.

God requires us to be faithful before being successful. Steve urged us not to become de-energised by frustration in our church life. He saw ‘vision’ and ‘frustration’ as two sides of the same coin. We may have to undergo long periods of frustration before realising our vision, but the frustration is always part of the process.

Using the wonderful words of Philippians 2, Steve reminded us how Jesus laid aside his status as God’s Son to become like one of us, and it brought him to the cross. You might say that there had to be frustration before the vision of his true glory was revealed. Some people like to acknowledge a strong powerful Jesus, but his glory wasn’t revealed in that way.

As we go forward from this point as churches together, let us model our mission and ministry on the person of Jesus. Let’s reflect the character of Jesus to our society by who we are, what we do and say. Let’s listen attentively to the promptings of his Spirit to show us how we may go forward faithfully.

May those around us see God’s love in us and also be drawn to worship him.

Stephen Sealy
St. John’s, Sidcup

---

n the middle of the period when this edition of Harmony is current we will be celebrating 50 years of the churches in Sidcup working together in a formal way. First it was the ‘Council of Churches’ and more recently it’s been ‘Churches Together’. I hope that we will each do what we can to make the gathering on the evening of Sunday 26th July a fitting celebration of those 50 years.

It’s certainly a time for looking back and remembering. Perhaps you have been personally involved in that slow shift in the relationship between the churches from co-existence (and sadly times of conflict) through to co-operation and collaboration. There may well be particular memories you will be able to tell to others of the events and services which marked the steps along the way of that shift.

But it is also most certainly a time for looking forward and considering what each of us can do to show that the movement has not stopped, and that we will find yet more ways of showing that the churches in Sidcup have but one Lord, namely Jesus Christ of Nazareth – crucified, yet risen, ascended and glorified.

The two weeks immediately following the celebration service will be filled for many with Lark in the Park – what a wonderfully practical way of showing that the churches in Sidcup (and further afield) can work together to give the town such a great sign of God’s grace to us.

May the Lord Jesus be exalted amongst us!

David Hildred
Vicar of St Andrew’s Church

---

think the CTiS 50th anniversary service went really well on Sunday night. I heard two volunteers talking about it enthusiastically at Lark in the Park last night. The choice of music was really appropriate, Richard, and I for one loved singing'Thou dost keep him in perfect peace' in rich harmony - in fact I'm still humming it! Thank you, Pete, for helping it go right on the night with the technology courtesy of New Gen.

The CRIBS sketch was as brilliant as we have come to expect, and fitted in perfectly with Steve Chalke's excellent message. I enjoyed seeing clips from the past - especially from the year 2000, with the Pentecost event / Praises in the Park. I believe Della provided SBC clips and Mike Barnes the millennium material. It was also very interesting seeing the boards which most of the churches had compiled about their Christian family Life.

The service itself seemed to flow - thank you to the sub-group including Paul Hurren, Kathy Alford and John Arundel for putting it together and Ronnie and Paul for introducing the different people taking part. It was really good to have all our Leaders and Reps up the front and pray for them. It is so important that we support those who lead and represent us, and do everything we can to work together.

The little '50' buns were an excellent and fun way of having cake without having to cut it. It also showed diversity having different designs but still with the same message - just like CTiS!

Hilary Brown
Sidcup Baptist Church

---

RETURN TO MAIN MENU