Selly Park
Worldwide connectionsTEAR Fund, African street children, Bolivia, Christian media work, UK church growth, Romania
Worldwide connections
Sunday services
at Christ Church are informal in style. Regular service times are 10.30 am and (most weeks) 6.30 pm
Sermons from morning services are available for download
Christian living
Small groups and other events to help us live and grow as Christians
Resources to help read the Bible in a year and a report on our Weekend Away in September 2011
Young people
Our two youth groups covering the age range 11-18 are led by youth worker Ellen Eagling
Our building
is used for a wide range of church, community and private events each week
Find out more about its facilities,
take a
photo tour or visit the
Building Project
archive
Bolivia link update
Willing to work, willing to travel: From the Christ Church car park to Bolivia and now Amsterdam
Following Beccy and Dan's visit to Bolivia in 2011, Christ Church has joined a group of local churches who wish to develop this link further. Initially this will be by regularly exchanging prayer needs with the Anglican Church in Bolivia, and we are looking for opportunities for exchange visits as well.
Meanwhile, Dan is spending 5 months of his gap year serving at a Christian youth hostel in Amsterdam - one which used to be managed by another member of Christ Church. "I'm praying that God will be at the centre of all the friendships I make," he says.
Service at sea
In September 2011 one of our younger members, Natalie, completed 2 years' service with OM Ships International. The Logos Hope is probably best known for its bookshop, and the ship's volunteers engage in many other types of service in the ports they visit, often working in partnership with local churches who know where the needs are greatest.
Natalie joined the ship in the Caribbean where the number of visitors on board was overwhelming. As well as helping in the bookshop, she acted in a children's play which was performed to under-privileged children across the region.
Natalie at work in the world's largest floating bookshop
Heavy lifting in Liberia, West Africa: Volunteers undertake many different kinds of work in the ports they visit
37 ports in 21 countries: Natalie told a packed hall at Christ Church about her service on the Logos Hope and how it had changed her
Fighting HIV/AIDS in Thailand
One of our student members, Rachel, spent a month in the summer of 2011 working with an HIV and AIDS charity in Thailand. Siam Care, one of Tearfund's partners, supports vulnerable young children and their families.
Rachel spoke in Christ Church about her experiences. You can listen to the interview using this link:
Rachel helped to teach English at a camp run by an AIDS charity in Thailand: “It was great to see some of the children who have HIV just having a really good time”
Building links with Bolivia
Beccy and Dan (back row, left and right) join with a youth group who run activities for children in Santa Cruz, Bolivia
Beccy and Dan spent 6 weeks in Bolivia to help establish a link with the church there. They joined with local Christians in helping to meet some of the needs of the poorest country in South America.
Find out more about their trip and what it might lead to here.
African street children
Cathie with young friends at the Amani Children's Home in Tanzania, which Christ Church helps to support
My story: Cathie
“When I first visited Amani in 2002, it was housed in a 3 bedroomed bungalow. I was helping some students decorate a bedroom which was shared by 42 boys. The boys did a lot of the painting themselves, having great fun using their bare hands. It was hard to believe that they had been rescued from the streets or from lives of abuse.”
Cathie has visited several times since then, and has got to know and trust the people running the project as it has developed. “I remember walking round the sloping field discussing the plans for the new building, going to the opening ceremony, joining in a day trip up the flanks of Kilimanjaro with the kids and swimming in an icy waterfall with them. I know the stories of some of the children and see a project that really does what it says - transforms lives.”
“At Christ Church we support the project through prayer and donations. It's also a great way of educating our children - showing them what it is like to live in a very different way to the one they are used to.”
Cathie now helps run Friends of Amani UK, one of a network of charities around the world which supports Amani.
Romania
One of our oldest links is with a Christian family in Romania, which began soon after the 1989 Revolution when the desperate state of the country became known in the West. Two of our members drove a truckload of relief supplies across Europe and carried out much needed dental work in orphanages and hospitals. The friendship with István, a pastor in the Hungarian Reformed Church, and his family has been maintained over the years. It was a great privilege for us to be able to contribute towards the cost of a minibus for their village.