10th September - Welcome Service for Margaret - our new minister

I arrived at church early tonight to find the circuit staff enjoying tea. I was told that only 20 of them had turned up so there was a lot of food left over. No doubt it will go later as part of the refreshments. I walked into church to find a flame machine on the platform - looks very impressive. I set up the microphones whilst the dancers practised. Then people started arriving. One church had hired a minibus.It was nice to see quite a few people from the South side of Manchester there.
Unfortunately there was a hitch - our clip-on microphones weren't working. By the time the service started the church was nearly full so there must have been over 150 people there. I'm sure the turnout meant that Margaret felt that she had the support of the whole circuit. The first hymn was "O for a thousand tongues" - it had 10 verses! The theme of the service was "Fear not for I am with you". The dancing was well received -several people said afterwards how much they appreciated it.The joint choirs sung well and the communion was well organised. David Copley's booming voice made up for the lack of microphones during communion. I was pleased to see they chose one of John Bell's hymns - "The Summons" - for the final hymn. Afterwards over refreshments,several people remarked at how well it had gone. I felt quite pleased that I had asked to host the service at our church.