This year [2008] our building became 100 year old. Although Emmanuel hasn’t been in this building all that time it has actually been a functioning Christian Church all that time. Given that scores of other churches have closed, or have been converted for other uses, over the last 30yrs for this church to remain open for Christian worship and outreach, and indeed to be growing stronger every year is a testimony to the faithfulness of God and the endeavour of the people themselves.

To mark our centenary we’ve organised 4 separate events, three that have already taken place and one more to come:

Our first event took the form of a Lent Course way back in March when we followed a course called “Blowing Your Cover”. This is a course that deals specifically with ‘Evangelism’ and became for us a very thought provoking process as each lesson probed into our own personal concept of evangelism as well as the Fellowship’s attitude towards it.

Then in July we invited Pastor Andrew Jenkins from the Newport Gateway Apostolic Church to minister throughout the weekend. From Andrew we recieved so much encouragement through his ministry and we were challenged to maintain the witness into the future in a way that would reach today’s generation. Recordings of Andrew’s ministry are available on request.

Just recently in September we enjoyed our third event which took the form of a nostalgic look at the type of hymns and choruses that would have been used in the worship of the church throughout the century. We took one song from each decade and it was fascinating to notice all the different styles of music that have been employed. We sang classics like “Love Divine” and “Be Thou My Vision” - a number of chorus medleys from the 60’s and 70’s and finished off with our most modern favourite “Oh To See The Dawn”. Memories were vivid as we went through each decade and it proved to be a very emotional evening.

In December we have planned a “Big Band Praise Evening” where hymns, carols and choruses will get the jazz and swing treatment. Practice is already underway so watch this space for further details.