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REACHING OUT
St. AUGUSTINE'S CHURCH NEWSLETTER
Autumn 2007 NO 67
100 Not Out!
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On November 1st St. Augustine’s celebrates its 100th Birthday. This is for many of us a cause for giving thanks for the past and also, for some of us, a hopeful looking forward to the future. Replacing the old mission church built in 1880 and located in Denmark Street, the present St. Augustine’s opened its doors on November 1st, 1907. I so often meet people with fond memories of St. Augustine’s, do you remember ... that’s where we first met at a dance.. we’ve been married 60 years now.. I was christened there 90 years ago.. .1 was a brownie in the 50’s’, I went to the youth club in the 70’s.. Do you still have...?
Yes, from the very beginning St. Augustine’s has been very much part of the local community, whether running a soup kitchen for local army families during the Zulu Wars of the 1880’s, or providing a parent and toddler group for local families in 2007 the church has always tried to be at the heart of things and offer a welcome to all. Being here for everyone has never been an end in itself, rather it has always been seen as part of our proclamation of the Christian Gospel. However glorious our worship might be, and we have something of a reputation with our bells and smells and Father Keith’s fancy vestments, without that loving concern for our neighbours, it is nothing. A concern which, in the 21st century, is not so much about meeting material needs, but stems from a desire to bring others to experience the transforming power of God’s love in their lives, revealed to us in Jesus Christ. A concern that respects and accepts people for who they are, as he does, a concern, which in a place like North Town, always looks for social justice in a community that faces many social challenges. A concern that begins with prayer and the celebration of the sacraments but then spills out onto the streets where we live in the real world with our neighbours.
So it was that our forebears made the decision to build a new church at the bottom of Holly Road. The church as it came to be built was rather more modest than the original plans, but it was the best North Towners could afford without lengthy fund raising; all the money was raised by public subscription, and the King himself gave £52! Rightly described as a ‘Hampshire treasure’, its simplicity of style has a beauty all of its own. November 1st 1907, the day of the consecration of the new St. Augustine’s, All Saints Day ‘a day when great and lowly, known and unknown are commemorated.. a day to remember those who have passed out of mortal sight... holy memories,’ wrote the then Vicar of Aldershot. Yes holy the memories, all the good people of North Town who over the years have offered their prayers and worship and service and also have given their pennies and pounds to keep us going. Here’s to the next 100 years!
Your friend and priest,
Your friend and priest,
Father Keith
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