Trinity Church – Growing and Going
Forward
Letter written in 1984 to the congregation at Trinity Church, Liverpool Road, Page Moss, to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of the Church building.
Greetings to Trinity Methodist Church, from the Chairman of the District, Norwyn Denny
I send very warm and sincere greetings to Huyton Trinity Methodist Church on the occasion of their Golden Jubilee. I have very great respoect for your community and for its faithful witness over the years. I believe you have a very important role to play in the community and in the life of your neighbourhood and I wish you every blessing for this time that we are in as well as acknowledging with thanksgiving all that has gone before.
As the Jubilee in the Old Testament, the Year of the Lord’s favour, was about restoring things, bringing justice into relationships and beginning again, and that Jesus took up this message of Jubilee for His mission, I hope you will take it for yours. You have a declaration of Good News to make to the people around you which involves healing and restoring, ending oppression and releasing prisoners and preaching to the poor. I trust that in all that you do you will be able to take up this great missionary theme of Jesus himself and demonstrate it in the life of your community.
God’s blessing be with you all and peace be with you.
Norwyn Denny
Greetings also from the Circuit Superintendent, Brian Stocks.
Ever since I arrived in the Circuit, I have been aware that the Trinity folk have been a little bit special in their concern and character. The seemingly endless and mindless vandalism has not been allowed to destroy the commitment and generosity of the Church. In spite of, or rather because of, the difficulties, Trinity has believed that it has a job to do in the area by maintaining a firm Christian witness as best it can, and we trust that it will continue to do so for many years to come.
There is always the need for new people to replace those who have left the area and those who cannot do as much now as they used to be able to do. I hope that as you work and pray, you will be able to see these people coming forward offering themselves to the service of Christ and His Church.
After the infamous fire, I seem to recall that the preacher for the Sunday morning took the story Shadrach, Mashach and Abednego in the book of Daniel. It may raise a wry smile now, but the preacher got it right. The book of Daniel is concerned with the triumph of God over all evil; His Kingdom is more powerful than all other kingdoms based upon force and might.
The whole Circuit greets you and congratulates you on your Golden Jubilee and trust that the inspiration and commitment you demonstrate to us may continue to challenge us for many more years to come.
WE’LL PRAISE HIM FOR ALL THAT IS PAST
AND TRUST HIM FOR ALL THAT’S TO COME
Brian Stocks
Foreward by Reverend Malcolm Carter
Some months ago, quite by chance, I saw a copy of the history of a Methodist Church celebrating its centenary; I myself had previously spent five happy years there during a time of upheaval and transformation.
What had disappointed me was that the then present minister had taken it upon himself to write the whole story without consulting any former colleague in the work. He gleaned what he could from a few elderly members, drafted the story and had it published. It was only by accident that I came across the booklet.
Trinity’s history is a mere fifty years by comparison, but I felt it imperative to contact every previous minister for his impressions, so that all who read the story may have an authentic picture through the eyes of those who ministered here, as well as our own lay folk. I am most grateful to Mrs. Ella Mann for her labour of love in typing the manuscript and to Mrs. Pat Green for painstaking research in library records, both members of Court Hey Methodist Church.
Some of the ministers are quite elderly now. Several have died. From the rest we have had willing, enlightening and enthusiastic replies; their memories have been woven into the fabric of our story and hopefully they, and all our readers, will approve the finished work.
Malcolm Carter
May 1984
Prayer for Tomorrows Church
by Leslie Earnshaw
Jesus our Lord, the same yesterday, today and always, we who are set in a world of deep and rapid change hardly know what to think about tomorrow. We want to be inwardly sure that nothing can change You, so that whatever alters You are still the Lord of all.
Your Church, Jesus, is inevitably caught up in this sweep of change. Some of us are exhilerated by this and long to see the Church re-shaped and renewed for contemporary mission. We welcome new methods of communication, new ways of worship, new language of Christian expression. Others are persuaded that the old ways, used and honoured by You through long years are the best ways; and we find it difficult to accept changes in the Church, and to adjust ourselves to them.
Be patient with us Jesus, in our tensions and differences, and teach us patience with each other, honouring the sincerity of those whose ideas clash with our own, and recognising them as fellow disciples and co-workers.
Our one pressing prayer is that the Church shall be the Church, Your family on earth, a lively, loving, priesthood of the committed, eager to bring You to the people, and the people to You. Enable us to change those things which need to change, so that our world may see the relevance of Your truth, and to stand fast by the facts which are unalterable because they belong to Your eternity. So may the Church of tomorrow be the vehicle of Your Gospel, and the instrument of Your grace.
Amen