September 2025
Prayer, Praise and Discussion
Our church buildings are first and foremost places for Christian worship – praying, preaching, singing and mutual encouragement in the Faith by the Christians gathered there. But they get used for other things such as weddings, funerals, concerts, exhibitions, school events etc. I’m a great believer in them being used in a variety of ways so long as what goes on is not contrary to or antagonistic to the afore-mentioned purposes. I think they are greatly underused as places for discussion about Christian belief and they should be used as venues where not only Christians but people from other faiths and none can come and share in discussion about the claims of Christianity. These days I suppose people who are seeking answers to what Christianity is all about are likely to go online and I’ve no doubt there are some excellent – as well as some very bad! – sites and platforms you could end up getting into. I think the great advantage of meeting in person is that it affords the opportunity to get to know the people whose beliefs you have come to find out about.
From this month onwards our Sunday evening REFRESH service in Mereworth church will be given over to prayer, praise and discussion. It will be held only on the 4th Sunday of the month and each month there will be a topic that we hope will be of interest. We’re going to start this month (28th of September) with ‘Right and Wrong, as a Clue to the Meaning of the Universe – C.S. Lewis’ challenge to take seriously the existence of God.’ Any of you that have read Lewis’ book ‘Mere Christianity’ will recall that this is the title of the first part of his book and the talk for the evening will be a presentation of Lewis’ arguments. We’ll start with some refreshments, a worship song and a prayer before having the talk. Then there will be the opportunity for discussion, and we’ll end with some prayers, a worship song and more refreshments for those that want to stay. We start at 17:00 and finish at 18:00. Our church website will give the topics for each month so keep an eye on what’s coming up. If something is of interest to you I hope you will join us and if you know someone who would be interested do bring them along.
Revd Gary Townsend
Rector of Mereworth, Wateringbury and West Peckham.
01622 813178
mwwpchurches.org
