Organisation
Shillington Congregational Church is a village church for everyone
There is only one authority - the church meeting where all members have their say
The church belongs to the Congregational Federation which has it's HQ in Nottingham.
Members of Shillington Congregational Church have written personal accounts of what their faith has meant to them. Each account is differently written and each story is different.
The intention behind this work is to hope that others will enjoy reading these accounts and perhaps gain some insight into what faith can mean to anyone whoever they are. None of us feel that we are any different from other people but that their faith has made an important contribution to living out our lives. Our sense of mission and witness is to live out what we believe day by day in whatever we are doing.
Though we meet regularly for worship on Sundays we are not attempting to say that you cannot believe in God without attending Sunday worship-of course you can.
We have found meeting together regularly both helpful and supportive and those who lead our worship are both ordained clergy and lay people of different religious traditions.
There is no criteria for sharing with us at worship apart from your own interest and commitment. There is no hierarchy of leadership or management since decisions are taken at a meeting with all members present.
Indeed we hope that everyone who comes along to share with us will see that really this is a village church for all people.
Our building is plain and simple but bright and warm. It has a focus on hearing preachers speak about the Bible and Jesus. There is an open invitation to share in holy communion each month and every Sunday you are invited to contribute to the prayer list.
Refreshments are served after each service where we can spend whatever time you wish to talk and meet others.
We hope the friendship will be built up as you meet with us
Angus McCormick
I could say that I attend our church because my parents did, well that is partly true because if they had attended another church, then that is where I would be going.
In the late 1940s and 1950s it was more common for you to attend a Sunday school on a Sunday than not. At the Congregational Church, we had two Sunday Schools and two services every Sunday.
I would think that up until 1960 for me this was just a way of life.
Then in February 1960, my Grandmother died, although she was over 80 I thought she would live forever. I still attended Sunday School and Church but things were not the same for me.
I was in an unfortunate position that I was learning the piano and organ, but my teacher was not the organist of my church and I was not allowed to play or even practice. I took my organ lessons on All Saints Church organ in Campton.
In the summer of 1960, two ministers from the Pentecostal Church in Luton held a mission in the village hall. There was time for children and young people and in the evening s a time for adults. It was during this mission that I realised that the Church was to hold more for me than just going to Sunday services. On December 2nd 1963 I was asked to play for the morning service once a fortnight. Then on January 7th 1964 I joined the Church in full membership. I than began to feel part of a body of people, nearly all much older than me who through myself watching them and taking notice, I learnt a lot.
After an illness, the organist of our church had to resign and on November 9th 1965 I took over. Then It was choir practice each week with a choir of about 20 people. The Lord was giving me a job to minister to the congregation in music and in doing this I was blessed. Many times the older deacons disagreed with some items of music I played, but in time they enjoyed the music even if it was different from what they had been used to.
I have played in many different churches and wherever it is the Lord always guides me. I cannot play without the Lord looking after me. Worshipping in a church such as ours the Lord always guides us in the Right Way. To many, they just do not know what this is but if I could just say it is a place where help is given and received and love is always shared.
'My First Picture Dictionary' was the title of the first Sunday school prize I received when I was five years of age. It was colourful and useful for many years and I wish I still had it.
Sunday school, church attendance and Sunday afternoon scriptures class as well as Saturday morning missionary sessions all formed an early foundation in faith for me as well as my parents' practice of their faith in the home. It was at this early age that the call to preach came to me. It was a child's experience of wanting to be a preacher and fell that some great inner voice was speaking through me. Church life was seen as very important in my family. Ministers of religion called frequently and were accepted as members of the wider family like other relatives really. The Minister was looked up to and seen as a friend.
Efforts were always made to support anything at church and to visit and support other congregations especially on special occasions but also at other times. This was done even though travel by busses was not easy. My mother and father both worked in various capacities within the church and attended many other meetings because of this.
So much of the company I kept was linked with church people and so much fun at times like hallowe'en and Christmas.
During my early pre-teens and beyond I found that my own religious tradition was not seen as mainstream and so a sense of respect for others whatever their views and a sense of open discussion were soon learnt. I had to be ready to give some account of what I believed in even as a youth.
Having been given a New Testament as a present when starting school from an aunt also stayed with me and made me feel that this book represented an important step in life.
Having moved house about five times before I started secondary school meant that I had met a lot of different people both in those schools and in the different congregations we joined. This helped me feel an untiring interest in people and keen to find out about people's interests and ideas throughout life.
The reputation of my old school, the Royal Belfast Academical Institution, which had begun as a college to train ministers of religion and where there had been theological controversy between liberals and conservatives formed part of the ethos of the school and its high academic achievements allowed pupils to accept that being a minister of the church was a noble and worthy calling. So quite a few of us did go on to train as ministers of religion after university.
A number of teachers at the school instilled a sense of both tolerance and spiritual inquiry into us.
My own faith seemed to grow quietly in these teenage years and prayer especially became important to help see me through difficult times.
Like when I had to leave family and friends to spend five years away from home to train, it was faith that helped to build a bridge among new friends - my first was a Sikh who was studying chemical engineering. Then there was a Hungarian theological student who lived in Romania and who enlisted my help to get his wife secretly out of the country in the Communist era.
Faith drove me to hold regular discussions and prayer meetings with other students who claimed no religious affiliation but who lived in the same Hall of Residence.
The faith and enthusiasm of university lecturers gave me faith and an interest in other religions.
It was the practical, humble faith of members of my first congregation that cemented much of my faith commitment.
Despite the worst troubles and pain in Northern Ireland we all prayed together and stayed together. We reached out to each other and today we see better times.
Love and generosity in all its forms shone through in those days and since and remains a firm rock within my memories so that I can always see where the good life leads.
Having moved to Coventry it was a time of testing and a new beginning for my wife and family when our children were still very young. Faith gave us a call to Coventry but it was through the new world of education when I was appointed to my first teaching post.
However, we joined the local URC church where the minister soon built up a fresh commitment for us and we found as a family a reinvigorated faith. His influence was always going to remain with me.
When two years later I was appointed to be head of department in Manchester God called me to another church which I had never visited before and who were wanting a minister. So began 13 years of happy and successful ministry combined with teaching. These friends still keep in touch after almost twenty years.
Faith has established us as a family to make friends across the world and I have had short-term church exchanges in Florida and Massachusetts as well as in Colorado with friends.
Even in Japan we were able to make contact with friends because of our faith connections.
Faith has enabled both our family and and my wife and I to do things that we would not have done otherwise; in service to others; in continuing to contribute in ways beyond church life to the wider community.
My wife and I were able to establish the first all faiths prayer room in N. Ireland to encourage cooperation and respect among all sections of the community.
In returning for the second time to England it was faith and warmth of the members of Shillington Congregational church that has enabled us to find a new place of worship and a new group of friends.
This has given us a welcome and fellowship in an unknown county to us that has been uplifting and rewarding. It has opened up ways of continuing to serve God and practice our faith in this place.
No miracles then? Well maybe more than we realise
To be able to believe in the goodness of people and sharing in some small way in attempting to add to the greater good is no small miracle.
What does the Congregational church mean to you?
It is a place where we were married, prior to that I had not been a regular church goer for a number of years.
After our children were born I started to attend various Sunday School events and special services i.e. Easter, Harvest Festival, Christmas and other social functions.
As years passed I just grew into a church life.
I have found it a support in difficult times, a place where I feel safe and comfortable.
I am a Congregationalist mainly because I was born of a mother whose family devoted their lives to the Congregational church.
My father died when I was very young so my mother and her family had the most influence on my formative years.
I didn't undergo a dramatic life changing conversion that many people would testify to, but over the years I felt the need increasingly to be able to worship freely and express my faith in a fellowship of like minded people.
Having said that, I became involved in the leadership of the church in a strange or on reflection - special way.
Having left the church for a few years, I had started to attend evening worship once again in about 1963.
I wasn't sure what I wanted but something was missing. It was at this time the church secretary and most of the deacons resigned after a dispute with the minister. A special church meeting was called.
I wasn't a church member at that time and although I was concerned, I was not expected to attend this meeting, although it had played on my mind.
Just before the meeting was due to start, quite unexpectedly a church member knocked on my door and said he felt he had been called to come and invite me to the special meeting.
Reluctantly I went along and came out of the meeting having been appointed Church secretary, a position I held for 25 years.
I was very young, totally inexperienced but I was quickly reassured by an elderly deacon-who reminded me that I had not chosen God but he had chosen me.
I can now testify how true those words have been as I have developed my faith in the Congregational fellowship.
It hasn't been an easy path.
Jesus didn't promise it would be easy but I believe my life has been the better for it.
My early memories of church life were as an irregular Sunday school attender and whenever I stayed with my Nan. I would go to church with her.
She was a very active member of the local Methodist church and to me seemed to belong to all the groups that were connected to the church
When I attended Sunday School we started the service in church, all the children sat together in two or three pews.
Then after the minister had talked to us we left for Sunday School.
At the end of the service we would be collected and sometimes we would stay for refreshments.
If it was a communion service at the end of the normal service we would be asked to leave [those not taking communion]. I would then wait outside for my Nan thinking that Communion must be a very 'strange and secret act'.
This is the way I remember church in my childhood, early memories. This is not necessarily how it was [asking people and especially the children to leave].
I remember one Sunday the minister talked mainly about football before we left fo Sunday School, a subject that did not interest me at all but I still remember him talking to us about it. That Sunday School session we made 'Running Disciples'. I think that's why I remember the minister's talk, because the boys decided the disciples weren't walking or running but playing football.
As my Nan was a church goer and really involved in church life I went with her to many church events, most of the summer was spent attending a garden party or church sale somewhere.
Her faith showed through all aspects of her life. At this point in my life my faith was there but not in a major way. I knew the 'stories' and had a good grounding but no strong faith.
Much later in my late teens then my faith made a difference in my life
My mother had been ill for some time with a heart problem, then when I was 15 years old she was given the 'all clear'.
This encouraged my faith that yes all things were in God's hands and if he wanted things to happen they would.
Unfortunately a few years later Mum developed cancer and died within a few months.
Then my faith went away, lost to me.
Obviously I refound my faith but not till after many years had passed. [about 6 years]
Now my faith is what sustains me not just in times of struggle but at good times as well.
Many things have happened in my life, at times it has felt like a roller -coaster ride.
I experienced times of waiting for the next 'slap in the face' then decided my faith would lift me and take me forward, so I should make the most of the quiet periods of no disasters.
Now when something comes along to give me a 'slap' I'm ready with the 'other cheek'.
Comfort can be found through faith, passages in the Bible-could have been written yesterday or even today because they express an emotion or relay an event that we can relate to.
My faith has been strengthened by my experiences even if it was tucked away for many years; it was still in existence, and it is my faith and God that have made me what I am.
As a child I was taught to say my prayers each night. I went to Sunday school each Sunday afternoon at St. John's Church in Hove where I lived.
I didn't much care for Sunday school because I lacked concentration, I didn't really understand the purpose of what was going on. I disliked dressing up in Sunday best clothes because my grey flannel trousers pricked my legs, However, I did enjoy singing the hymns and also collecting religious stamps that I stuck into my Sunday school stamp book, If I missed a Sunday school, my stamp book showed a blank space, however, provided that I attended Sunday school on the following two Sundays that missing stamp was made up to me.
At the age of eight I went to boarding school. I remember at first feeling rather homesick and lonely, I'm sure I was not the only one who felt this way, but then boys don't really admit these things to one another.
I believe it was at this school that I realised that I need not be alone. At night I would say my prayers, asking for help. But this time my prayers came from my heart and were not simply the prayers I had learnt by heart. Now my prayers were real. I remember the hymn from Sunday school and how reassuring these words were;
"There's a Friend for little children above the bright blue sky.
A Friend who never changes,
Whose love will never die".
I soon discovered that my prayers were helping and I was no longer alone. I believe my life started to change from this time.
Although throughout my working days and when we were bringing up our family I did not attend church on a regular basis, but I have always prayed no matter where I might be; on the golf course, on the allotment, on the motorway; in the shower, while cooking a meal in the kitchen, wherever I happen to be. It's like having and 'open line' and talking to a friend.
There are so many times that my faith has made a difference. It has been the foundation and the purpose of my life.
Like any 'friendship', the relationship must work two ways and so my initial prayer is always to thank God for everything that I have and to thank Him for always being there.
We all know that there are two certainties in life, one is being born and the other that we shall die. None of us know when we shall be called, but I surely want to be able to give a good account of my life and mostly to please God at the end.
After many years of roving from one church to another or even not attending any church I have now discovered the Congregational Church in Shillington where I have found true friendship, truth, comfort and love.
I am so grateful to God for this.
FAITH
Where do I start, how do I express what I feel and what exactly does it mean to me?
To make sure that I understand academic meaning of the word I referred to the dictionary where it is said: religious belief-belief in God but also confidence, trust, reliance, dependence, assurance.
From the very first years of my life I was taught Jesus, his family and his life on earth. I was attending church classes once a week and church services twice a week. I spoke to God every morning and every evening, asking for his umbrella to be always above my head and telling him about my day.
Somewhere after my teenage years were gone I lost touch with the church but never stopped telling God about events in my life-thanking Him for all the goodness that came my way and asking for strength to handle disappointments in my life. Many moons were gone before I started feeling again a need to worship God in a church. I believe that God knew it and this is why my life took such an unexpected turn and brought me to the point in my life where I stand now-circumstances in which I feel happy and fulfilled.
The faith represents to me the feeling that all good and bad moments in my life were/are planned by God and by it I will be a better person. Also, that God's umbrella is always open and there is a small place under it for me to seek in moments of need in my life.
This is how I feel at this point in my life.