Suburban Soul came to end this evening with a closing
service and evening banquet at Christchurch New Malden. This week of mission,
teaching and social action celebrating God’s world and creation has been great
with young people from across Kingston & New Malden’s churches working as
project delegates and running a range of projects that have met and engaged
with a wide range of people.
In New Malden a family café ran at the Methodist Church (on
the High Street) and was full up each afternoon, offering free face painting,
crafts and refreshments. Here the delegates met and played with children from
across New Malden. Down the road in the United Reformed Church the delegates
first visited a couple of retirement homes, singing songs, having conversations
with the residents. Then on the Friday they had up to 100 of the people that
they met come along to a Tea Dance, where in a counter cultural image, the
young and old both ate and danced together.
In Kingston town centre activities radiated out from the
Kingston United Reformed Church where a jungle themed kids activity had been
put together. Alongside this teams of young people went out on the streets to
talk and ask questions people about what in their life they celebrated. The
final element of the Kingston Projects saw Oxygen workers building giant mobile
phones and ipod’s out of papier-mâché and then walking around Kingston town
centre with them, inviting people back to an “odd café” held on the grass of
All Saints Church where hot chocolate and conversation was available.
The weeks outreach activities drew together on the Saturday
with a Special Families Day at Christchurch. Here many of the kids and family
activities that had been run throughout the week repeated, but with a special
added extra as in the middle of the day, Rev Stephen Khurt, Vicar of
Christchurch led a short service, giving God thanks for what matters in life
and also demonstrating to people what matters most to God, ie us.
As I now look back on the week and all the great things that
have taken place I do so with a real feeling of encouragement. Not because of
who came, or the things that took place, but for the young people from the
churches who took part. It was great to see so many young people give up their
time, inhibitions and energy in celebrating the life God gave. These young
people are not just the church of tomorrow, they are the church of today. They
are engaged in lifestyles that many of us can learn from and be inspired by.
You can see photos from Suburban Soul by clicking on the images below
Day 4 (Saturday)
Day 3 (Friday)
Day 2 (Thursday)
Day 1 (Wednesday)
Tags: suburbanSoul" oxygen kingston church evangelism "social action
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