Hornsey, London - November 2024

As is probably the same for a lot of churches, as we reach July our regular groups and meetings wind down for the summer months as many people go away to warmer climes. We still had a fair amount happening, in the form of celebrations. At the end of July, we held a concert in our church hall, with a variety of soloists, guitarists, a choir and our very own steel band. Everyone was treated to a delicious spread of food (as always) before the concert got started. The afternoon was a huge success and enjoyed by all, raising nearly £1,000 for church funds. A big thank you to Sr Patricia for her many months of planning and organising of the occasion and a big thank you to all who helped and gave up their time, whether that was to perform, help cook and serve the food or help with the setting up and packing away.

It was a quiet start to August for Hornsey until Sunday 18th when Br Michael conducted a quadruple Baptism of siblings Josephine, Kenneth, Jayden and Mya Slight-Henry. It was a wonderful service and welcome of the four children into our church family.

A couple of weeks later we hosted another joint service with Campsbourne Baptist Church, one of the local churches with whom we have shared services in the past. We will be having a joint service at their building early next year.

Quite possibly the biggest celebration of the summer was Sr Birdie Stennett’s 95th birthday celebration and lunch on Sunday 8th September. Many of Sr Birdie’s family and friends were there to help celebrate and during the service a special blessing and prayers were said by Br Michael. The celebrations continued after the service with a lovely lunch for everyone in the church hall, organised by Birdie’s children Anne, David, Michael and Yvonne. As the photo shows, Birdie had a wonderful time celebrating. Once again, very special birthday wishes from the Hornsey congregation.

Our September celebrations continued with Sr Susan Quildan-Foreman’s Ordination service held on Saturday 21st September. The afternoon was well attended with church members from near and far and many of our ministers there to support Sr Susan and join in with the fellowship on her special day. You can read more about the afternoon in the special article written about the service.

As we all know, around this time of year, we all hold our annual Harvest Festival services and this year Hornsey was treated to the Newman duo taking the service together. That is of course, Br Michael and his dad, Br David Newman who is no stranger to everyone at Hornsey, and he gave the children’s addresses. It was a service of thanks for the big number of food items which will be donated to our local food bank.

Sr Claire Newman