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.