Which is what has brought me to add City Church at Lindisfarne House to the CM series.
Some of the congregation hadn't ever wanted a building for the church. They were fearful that acquiring a building would institutionalise them. Some had previously belonged to churches where buildings seemed to be a constant drain on resources, and a distraction from the main task in hand. They had started their journey together meeting in homes, with a vision to do church simply. But, in the end, having a “home” to which the community could be invited meant that they decided to buy 'Agriculture House', 4 Barbourne Terrace, from the NFU, where they had had their offices for some time. At that time, they also took the decision to name themselves “City Church”.
It was the mid 1990’s, and in those days everyone was reading about the Celtic church. City Church were particularly impressed by the stories of Aidan, and the community that developed in Lindisfarne. As many of you will know if you have visited the north‐east coast, Lindisfarne Island is joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus which is covered over at high tide. So a rhythm of life developed on Lindisfarne – when the tide was up, they gave themselves to prayer, worship and reflection, and to building their relationships as a community. Then, when the tide was out, they were able to venture forth on missions, which took them all over the north of England, southern Scotland, and down as far as the Midlands, in a massive explosion of evangelism and church planting. This balance and rhythm of life caught the attention of some of City Church, and they decided that once they had their building, they would call Lindisfarne House.
A year or two later, after the work was complete, a church member stumbled across a book of the history of Worcester, containing numerous old photos of some of the city’s finest buildings. Included amongst them was a picture of 4 Barbourne Terrace as it had been, without the extension the church had added, around the turn of the century. Imagine their surprise when they saw the caption beneath the photo of ‘their’ building, taken in 1910: it read ‐ Lindisfarne House! The NFU had known nothing of this and of course, neither had City Church when they renamed the building, inadvertently giving it back its original name!
To find the cache, use the church's phone number: 01905 ABCCCB and substitute: N 52° 12.B(A-C)C W 002° 13.(B+C)(B+C)C
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For full information on how you can expand the Church Micro series by sadexploration please read the Place your own Church Micro page before you contact him at churchmicro@gmail.co.uk.
See also the Church Micro Statistics and Home pages for further information about the series.
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