This Week

We went to a party last night, in another county.

We were still in said county this morning, so we were going to go to an evening service.

We arrived and the Church Building had a notice saying there was not a servce there this week, disappointing given the website checked and hour before said nothing of the sort.

Next week we are on holiday, however we may have a special guest report!

The Church of the Ascension, Bitterne Park

The Church of the Ascension, Bitterne Park. 

The Church of the Ascension,
Thorold Road, Bitterne Park,
Southampton.

 
Sun 16th 9:30 a.m. Parish Communion - Easter Sunday

 
From the Church website:
9.30 Parish Communion

On the first Sunday of each month, an all age service replaces the 9.30 Parish Communion, all other Sundays there is a Sunday Club and a Creche for younger members of our congregation
On the fourth Sunday the Parish Communion includes the Ministry of Healing with Laying on of Hands.


The Review

The intrepid duo were late again, though this time it was due to a friend tagging along with us and being hard to rouse in time for a 9:30am service. We entered through the main doors, walking past a beautiful mosaic in the entrance hall. Once inside the main church, we were bemused to see the entire congregation processing through the church toward the back of the building. A server (who we were later introduced to as Sam) and another member of the congregation beckoned us in with welcoming smiles. It turns out the church were going to bless their new bells before the service started, which the vicar, Rev. Sarah Chapman, duly did.  We all then walked through the main part of the church 
and took seats in the sanctuary which was marked by a painted carved stone screen.

A short note here on the decor of the church. Another victorian barn, with white walls and beautiful modern stained glass windows. The one in the bell tower shows the 'Grace Dieu' a ship sailed by a crew of Christians, and over the main altar,
 a variation on a rose window. This had images in the colour of the rainbow radiating out from
 a central image of a majestic Christ. It was lovely to gaze upon this during such a joyous service. 
The other windows illustrate hymns by Isaac Watts, a Southampton native. The arches in the 
aisles and the decoration over the main and lady chapel altars were painted much like the screen in 
lovely deep shades of blue red and green with gold detailing.  Even the organ had painted pipes!

We followed the standard liturgy for Easter Day of the CofE, with the 'F' Eucharistic prayer. There were plenty of Easter Alleuias and lots of congregation participation. There were no pew bibles, and the hymns were from Sing Glory and Junior Praise books. Two of the hymns were accompanied by the organ, and the rest by piano and drums, lead by a singer on a microphone, and sometimes joined by some sort of brass or wind instrument, either a sax or a trumpet. The reason I can't tell you is that the worship group was situated on the dais the other side of the screen behind where we were sat. I merely glimpsed an instrument case as we left for coffee! The hymns for Easter Sunday were 408 Jesus Christ is Risen Today, Alleluia, 112 Glory, Glory in the Highest, 420 All Heavens Declare, the Glory of the Risen Lord, 398 Alleluia Alleluia, hearts to heaven and voices raise, and He has Risen, When the Life flowed from his body.

The sermon was given by the curate, Rev. Paul Bradbury. He seemed a bit nervous to begin with, but soon relaxed into speaking making a few jokes. We were really impressed with his style of preaching which was very personal and well referenced with real world and theological anecdotes from the Archbishop of Canterbury and other modern theologians. He also had a very pleasant voice to listen to. The sermon was 15 - 20mins long I think, but I was so interested in it I didn't write down the actual time. The main gist was a that the bodily ressurection of Christ has siginificance for us in that we can use it right now today. It's "Steak on the plate while we wait, rather than just pie in the sky when we die" We should work to honour Jesus with the knowledge that what we do here on earth is not in vain. The curate is apparently doing one thing a week to try and fight injustices in the world.

The prayers were lead by the Thompson family, with the parents also being involved in the worship group. Both the parents and the children read really well and emphatically.  The worship group also played during the communion, including one of our favourite worship songs, 'Once Again'. We were especially pleased to see the welcome of the Junior Church after the communion where the vicar welcomed them up the front to tell us all what they had been upto whilst we had the service. They did this enthuiastically and it seemed like this was a regular thing as even on of the tinies was ok with speaking in the microphone to give the vicar an easter egg! There was a well appointed children's area in the main church. During the last song, all the congregation were given tambourines and percussion instruments if they wanted one and encouraged to make a joyful noise which we did followed by some spontaneous applause and whooping! We also sang 'Thine Be the Glory' to appease one of the servers according to the Vicar, otherwise she'd have a mutiny on her hands next week!

After the service we retired to Church House to have tea and coffee in the hall there whilst the children took part in an easter egg hunt. The tea and coffee was fairly traded and very good, and the biscuits very high quality, though not very festival appropriate being Christmas tree shaped! The aforementioned Sam came and talked to us about the church and life in Southampton and filled us in on some of the plans the church has for the future, including screening off the sanctuary and  taking the pews out of the main body of the church to make a community hall, levelling off the stairways in the entrance to make to make it more accessible, and having a cafe onsite. 
We could have talked for hours but eventually had to leave to go to Easter lunches!

Traditional/Modern: A real mix of both traditional and modern styles of worship incorporating traditional liturgy, modern prayers, hymns on the organ, worship songs and tambourines. Worked surprisingly well.
Formal/Informal: Middling. Servers and priests in albs etc, but more informal preaching and leading styles.
Solemn/Lively: Fairly lively which was great for Easter Sunday.

Great: The mix of worship styles, the on target and interesting preaching,
the welcome given the to junior church when they joined the main service.

Not so great: 9:30am... when?

Access: Wheelchair access via the side door, but main entrance has stairs into church.

This review was written by the Older one.

St James Road Methodist Church

Once more an evening service, no real excuse this week. Normal service should resume for Easter. Also slow to appear, 'cause I'm rubbish.

St James Road Methodist Church

ST. James Road,
SOUTHAMPTON,
SO15 5HE

Evening Worship

No church website and the District and Circuit websites appear to be broken.

The bumpf given out by the by the Church describes "Lenten Series including the Sacrament of Holy Communion led by Rev Stuart Bell and Mr David Craggs"


The Review
We arrived in good time, which must be a first. We wandered in the back door into "the link", a hallway/lounge type building joining the church and the centre. There were a number of people stood about talking casually and two stood by the door to the main church giving out service sheets who shook our hands and greeted us friendly manner, as did another steward stood in "the link". We wandered into the main church and too a seat near the back on a wooden pew with a soft cushion stretching its length. Once sat we looked through the books in the pew accompanied by the organist playing a quiet number. The books were the "Methodist Worship Book" (also in large print), "Methodist Hymns & Psalms", "Songs of Fellowship" & NIV Bibles.

The Building was yet another victorian barn, big and airy, and better looking than most. It was large enough to fit several hundred, though for this evening service there were only 40 or so. Enquires later revealed a morning congregation of 150 or so. The service started with a few words of welcome then sang the first hymn 'Ride On, Ride On In Majesty' and the service continued straight out of the Methodist Worship Book, with the hymns 'I Am a New Creation' 'Come Sinners to the Gospel Feast' 'Now Let Us From This Table Rise'

The Liturgy was read in a fashion that made it have real meaning, which is not always the case, and was nice to hear. The Sermon was preached from the second Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians chapter 5 verse 10 to chapter 6 verse 2, by David Craggs, was twelve minutes long. I'd love to explain it, but I must confess I very quickly stopped paying attention, not that I have the best attention span but I can normally manage 12 minutes. According to the older one it was based on five 'C's: Consciousness, Paul was conscious he would be judged, Compulsion, Paul was compelled by Christ's love, Conviction, Paul and ourselves should be convinced Jesus died for all, Creation, those in Christ are new creations, Commitment, God is committed to us therefore he reconciled the world to himself through Jesus, Crisis, we should live with an urgency to spread the gospel.

A really nice and welcoming touch was that during the peace David Craggs asked our names, and then during communion he offered us the wine with our names. The Communion Bread was a very good loaf of bread, possibly homemade, which made a pleasant change. However due to this being a Methodist Church the wine was not wine but rather similar to Ribena.

After the service a very friendly lady came to speak to us and offered to provide us with literature about the Church and its activities and introduced us to the minister. Whilst we were talking to the minister another steward came over and offered to fetch drinks for us. Good tea and coffee with lovely homemade biscuits. We had a very interesting discussion with the minister about life in Southampton, and he spoke to us encouraging us to come to the morning service, with is reported to be more lively, and attended by about 150 people.

Judging by literature and other things the church seems to be doing well, running lunches, a girl's brigade, badminton and bowls clubs, a women's group, a walking group and a bible study group.


Traditional/Modern: Fairly traditional in a Methodist sort of way, but not particularly.
Formal/Informal: Not very formal, with the minister in just a clerical shirt and jacket but fully instructional liturgy.
Solemn/Lively: Just on the solemn side of middling.

Great: Very Friendly people, nice liturgy.

Not so great: The service left us with no felling of transendence. Ribena.

Access: Ramps at the entrances, leading to full accessibility.

This review was written by the Younger.

Above Bar Church

Due to a family commitment in the morning, today the Church Searchers are off to an evening service.


Above Bar Church
69 Above Bar Street
Southampton
SO14 7FE.

Evening Service

From the Church website:

Evening Service

Starts at 6:30pm and normally lasts around 90 minutes. As in the morning there is a mixture of styles of worship and bible based teaching.

There are no creche or children's activities at this service.

Refreshments are served after the service.

The Review
Somehow we've done it again. The service we attended this evening is not representative of a normal evening service at ABC, as they had a special guest speaker, Gary Habermas giving a special apologetic style talk on resurrection. Fortunately one of the Intrepid Duo has been to a few other evening services here and advise on how much of tonight was usual practice.

We parked up in Southampton Guildhall car park about 6:15pm. Above Bar Church is quite unusual as its a purpose built modern church on the upper floors of a building on the main shopping street in Southampton. We entered using the Above Bar Street entrance, had our hands shaken by a steward, climbed a couple of flights stairs and came to the lounge and information desk. Following the lead of others entering we went into the main auditorium and were allocated a seat by another steward. The main auditorium is octagonal with a warm wood ceiling, a dais with a large central projector screen, and a balcony along the left and back sides. The organist appeared to be hanging in mid air on the left, the music group was on the left of the dais below the organist, and a simple wooden altar sat opposite the music group on the right. An open bible and two candle holders were displayed on the altar.

There were wooden pews with padding radiating out from the dais, and the seating immediately in front of it were movable wooden chairs. The place was for want of a better word, absolutely packed. Our estimate was 250 to 300 people. There was a wide age range present, from teenagers to pensioners, though no obvious young children. The 9:15 am service is advertised as being for families, and we were told that at that service and the 11am service are very busy, though the balcony is not opened. Apparently there used to be one morning service but this was split due to the high numbers. There were quite a few latecomers as well! The large congregation tonight could probably be attributed to the guest speaker. NIV bibles and Mission praise hymn books were place in the pew backs, though the songbooks were not used, the hymn lyrics being projected onto the screens.

There was no formal liturgy as such. The basic format of the service was 3 worship songs, notices, prayers, bible reading, 3 more worship songs, Gary Habermas' speech, closing prayer, and closing song. There was a chap called Ben leading the service and the minister John Risbridger lead the worship, gave the notices and closed the service with prayer. He also lead the question and answer session after the service. The first set of prayers were for areas of conflict around the world such as Gaza, Somalia and Kenya, and the second set were for the congregation, that they would learn from what had been said tonight. The bible readings were not always identified, though one was definitely from 1 Corinthians, which fitted with what was said in the talk.

The music group as far as we could see over the heads of the congregation included, bass and electric guitar, organ, piano, flute, violin, drums and keyboard. There were also three female singers and the minister, who provided other percussion on shakers at appropriate moments. The worship was very lively, uplifting and energetic. There was a mix of older and newer worship songs played by the whole music group, and the old favourite Thine Be The Glory played by the organist alone. If you're interested in that kind of thing, the songs were; Our God is an Awesome God , Let Everything That , How Great is our God, Jesus Hope of the Nations, There is a New Song in my Mouth, and In Christ Alone.Our only criticisms of the music was that it was rather loud and we felt that the bass was turned up a bit too much. The Older one likes to be able to hear themselves among the crowd into to make sure they sing in tune! We also noticed that 3 microphones were hanging from the ceiling over the congregation amplifying the singing and making the whole worship experience even louder. Whilst useful in encouraging the shy to sing, (louder congregation noise provides shy with cover they need in order to feel comfortable singing), it could also be taken as a bit of congregation manipulation, artificially enhancing the experience to increase the transcendental atmosphere. That said, it was still pretty awesome worshipping with so many people, and the change of pace that came with the traditional rendering of Thine Be the Glory worked surprisingly well. We've never heard it sung so loudly! It sounded amazing!

Now, onto the talk by Gary Habermas. Distinguished Research Professor and Chair, Department of Philosophy and Theology at Liberty University, Lynchberg, VA, USA, he somewhat eloquently put forward an apologetic argument using the writings of Paul for resurrection. Though the clarity of his actual words were hampered a little by the PA system and his accent, through basing his argument on the writings of Paul that critical scholars view to be written by him, rather than on the less trusted Gospel reports he was highly convincing on most levels. He used historiography and history to illustrate how Paul's eyewitness testimony of a Risen Jesus, approx five years after the crucifixion is very rare in ancient history, where it is far more common to work with biographies written of people hundreds of years after their lives. He also pointed out how Paul spoke with others who had met Jesus, specifically Peter, John and James, about whether he was right about Jesus. These four men were eventually martyred for their beliefs, and Habermas pointed out that this must mean that they believed in Jesus' divinity to a great extent. The basic premise overall was that because Paul was such an early witness to the risen Jesus, the resurrection was quite likely and that people who didn't believe in it could not come up with a viable reason what else could have happened to cause such reports. This talk lasted 40 mins, which is the longest we've heard yet. We were both a little fidgety by the end.

There was a question and answer session afterwards where one very brave non-christian student took on Habermas on the historical basis of his argument, saying that history could be misinterpreted over time and that he could not believe in the resurrection due to it not being able to be recreated by science. Habermas countered by stating how science relied on history for evidence, which didn't seem to answer the chaps question. Another member of the congregation, this time a christian, played devil's advocate and pointed out that science can be done in a vacuum of knowledge, without relying on the ideas/evidence found by others in history, though this would take a lot of time and resources. Habermas didn't really seem to have an answer to this, going back to how people accept the happening of the 1066 Norman invasion and the content of Churchill's speeches based on eyewitnesses. Habermas had the Intrepid Duo until he used the Turin Shroud as scientific evidence for resurrection, admittedly as something that doesn't seem explainable by science (i.e. how do you print an xray on fabric given it's age) though there seemed to be an implication of it being somewhat divine. If he had stuck with his argument about Near Death experiences, something slightly more scientifically documented, he would have seemed much more credible.

We stayed for the hot drinks after the service, but due to the large numbers no one came to speak to us. Also the tea was rather weak, though the coffee was good. In order to get some more information we presented ourselves to the information desk (as newcomers were directed in the service) and were given lots of leaflets about the church. There are a huge range of activities going on from small groups, children, youth and student ministries, Korean services, prayer and audio ministries, prayer meetings, and a Fair Trade cafe open to the public on Saturday morning. Clearly a thriving church.

The Short Version
Traditional/Modern: Rather modern.
Formal/Informal: Fairly informal. Informal dress and no set liturgy, but the layout of the building and the style of leadership was slightly more formal and 'churchy'.
Solemn/Lively: Very Lively! Jokes in the talk and people clapping and charismatic arm waving during the worship. No praying in tongues though.

Great: The chance to worship with lots of other people in a lively and happy fashion. The speaker was very interesting, even if we did not agree with everything he said and, obviously he is not a usual feature.

Not so great: We didn't feel very welcomed as just another couple of faces in the crowd. The older one also felt that at 40 mins, Gary Haberman's talk was a bit long!

Access: The Above Bar entrance has stairs, there is a side entrance on Ogle Road, the main entrance has a lift to all floors.

This review was written by the Older one, with edits by the Younger one.

Bitterne Park United Reform Church

Apols for the severe delay, I've had a terribly busy week and felt pretty rubbish. Sorry.

Bitterne Park United Reform Church
Cobden Avenue,
Bitterne Park,
SO18 1FZ

10:30 Morning service, Mothering Sunday.

No website from which to give a self description, nor is anything said of it on the URC national site, save the address and contact details.

The Review
Before I start I should point out that as this is/was Mothering Sunday the service was slightly out of the ordinary. As most churches get extra people, they tend to try to do something a little unusual, to attempt to get them to come more often.

We arrived at the church at 10:29 by by watch, but clearly late by their time as the service had begun. We were greeted in the lobby by a church elder, who handed over a copy of Mission Praise and a service sheet, while explaining that the service had just begun and we could go in when the first hymn began shortly. This was a first for both myself and the older one, but made surprising sense as we were not the only late arrivals. We all walked in as the first hymn (Bind us together Lord) began, and didn't disturb anyone.

There were at least sixty people, a lot of whom were older. There were a few families, but no young adults that we could see. The Building was another Victorian barn in style (though I've no idea how old the building actually is), with huge wooden beams and again nicely decorated. The church is cross shaped with altar, organ, pulpit, etc. in the top of the cross, the left hand side containing the music group and the right a small side chapel. The service sheet contained the order of service for the morning and evening services. (Apparently the evening service, 18:30, is more informal, and fortnightly.) There were also prayer requests, thanks to the musicians and flower arrangers, and a brief explanation of this weeks services and next. Mission praise is a popular hymn book, containing a huge variety of hymns of all ages and styles.

The Music for the service was lead by the youth music group, a selection of children and teenagers, of varied ability, but over all quite good for a youth music group. After the hymn was a short time of prayer, then a reading for Isaiah, followed by a short “explanation” of Mothering Sunday. After this every lady in the congregation was given a small bunch of daffodils, which seemed a major impovment on the usual very short lonely daffodil and a bit of old heather combo we were anticipating. The service continued with a pattern of hymn then short talk, including a reading from Ephesians 6:1-4). The talks were interesting and amusing and the minister seemed to know his congrgation very well, personalising the ancedotes to suit. The music was quite good; 'Make me a Channel of Your peace', 'Come let us sing', 'Come on and celebrate', 'Lord, the light of Your love (Shine Jesus, Shine.)'. The grace was said at the end, then the service ended.

We were spoken to by two of the church "elders" one of whom was rather talkative and we spoke for some time, explaining about the church, the evening services and how it was a little unusual this week, being Mothering Sunday.This probably explains why it felt a little bland as it was trying to appeal to a wide range of people. We spoke to the minister on the way out, who was rather busy, presumably the extra congregation for the day, but he was friendly and interested and invited us back. The older one found it interesting how people didn't seem to linger after the service, but rather rushed out the door. This could be attributed to people going home to Mother's Day lunches, but other churches we've been to on Mothering Sundays still had coffee after the service.

Traditional/Modern: The setting was a "proper" traditional church, and the songs were definitely hymns, but not that traditional.
Formal/Informal: No real liturgy, except the odd snippet of prayer with responses and the atmosphere was fairly relaxed.
Solemn/Lively: So-so, the talky bits were fairly cheerful and lively, the songs less so.

Great: Minister seemed to know everyone, and was friendly. The mini-sermons were very very entertaining

Not so great: Hard to say, as was not a usual service. However, the service was very middle of everything. Somehow, not that exciting, though its hard to put a finger on what was lacking.

Access: Steps to the front door, but we believe there was a side entrance.

This review was written by the Younger with edits by the older one.