ABOUT US
THE CHURCH AT BLACKSHAW HEAD : A CHURCH FOR ALL.
HELLO AND WELCOME TO OUR WEBSITE. LET US TELL YOU A LITTLE ABOUT OURSELVES.
Although we are a Methodist
Church, as there is no other church in the village our membership comes
from a spectrum of backgrounds - Anglicans and Catholics as well as
Methodists and those with no particular denomination.
This diversity is reflected in our life together, which draws on a wide range of Christian traditions.
We believe in a church that is inclusive and family-centred, that embraces a variety of spiritualities, and that increasingly meets and shares together 'on-line' as well as in our lovely chapel.
We try not to be 'religious', but instead to concentrate on working out how to live the kind of life set out in the gospels, and to become the kind of loving and caring community to which Jesus calls us.
Our
Sunday services vary from week to week. . We
have communion around once a month, (iusually on the first Sunday) and every two months or so we have a
'cafe church', where we sit at tables and have coffee and buns as part
of worship which tends to include videos and conversation.
Once every three months we join with the other Methodist Chuches in the Upper Calder Valley 'cluster' for a joint service, which we take it in turn to host.
"THE CHURCH AT THE HEART OF THE COMMUNITY"
We aim to serve the local community in whatever ways we can, as both a spiritual and a practical resource.
The
chapel provides a useful suite of community rooms which we make
available for community events such as the village fete and local
history club exhibitions, and we hire out space for both regular clubs
and meetings and one-off events and private parties.
The chapel also hosts Blackshaw Parish Council's meetings and provides a performance space for Colden School.
In
the porch is our Christmas manger, which for a long time we have been using all year round as
the village's collection point for donations for our local food-banks,
although due to increasing demand we have now augmented this with two
collection bins outside the entrance. (At Christmas time we use either a supermarket delivery crate or an Amazon box as our symbolic 'crib'. instead of the manger')
We see our chapel as a spiritual base for celebrating and remembering all the
landmarks of personal and civic life, and one which provides further ministry to
the community through its beautiful graveyard.
You will find much more about us in this website, so please come in and explore what we are about.