Invercargill Churches Unite
Invercargill Churches Combined Worship Service a Great Event
On Sunday 17th March, all of the Presbyterian Churches in Invercargill put a line through each of their own Sunday morning worship services and came together for a combined worship service. Almost 600 Presbyterians gathered together at the Ascot Park Hotel for a service led by various members of each church. The idea to hold a combined service came out of the Future Church conversations that are taking place amongst the Presbyterian churches in Invercargill. This is an exciting ongoing conversation where the churches are coming together to discuss, explore and dream about how they might potentially work and worship together differently as a Presbyterian presence in Invercargill. The combined service was a bit of an experiment in which each church laid down their buildings and their spaces to come together for worship in a neutral space. In one sense everyone had to give up something, so everyone was out of their comfort zone, yet everyone was working together.
Rev Geoff New from Dunedin preached. The worship team was made up of musicians from different churches. And various churches were represented in leading different parts of the service, from the prayers to the kid's talk and bible readings.
Feedback has been very positive. It was noted how powerful it was all coming together. It is only one small step in the Future Church conversation, but it turned out to be a positive move and one that shines a positive light on the Future Church conversation as it moves forward.