Circuit Service Sunday 8th December 2024
The Church@ThePines
The first 30 years
Welcome to our service of thanksgiving and celebration.
We welcome people from our local community, Easthampstead Parish and the Berkshire Surrey Borders Circuit.
We are privileged today in having as our preacher Revd Canon Helen Cameron, President of the Methodist Conference.
The M4 Corridor Commission was set up by the Methodist Church to examine opportunities for evangelism and mission between the Western edge of London and Swindon. They identified Bracknell as a key growth area, with a number of new housing estates in the process of being built or planned. At the June Methodist Conference, the then SE Berks Methodist Circuit were granted a third Minister to join the Revd Robert McBain and Revd Richard Bielby from September 1993. The brief was that the new minister would establish a new worshipping community in South Bracknell.
Revd Richard Bielby’s time in Bracknell ended in August 1993 he was replaced by Revd Bob Whorton who took over the pastoral oversight of Bracknell Methodist in September 1993 At the same time the Revd David Bagwell arrived with initial pastoral care of Crowthorne Methodist but with the brief of setting up a new worshipping community somewhere in Bracknell.
David used his time to search the area for a suitable venue in which to set up a new church. He also challenged folk from all the churches in SE Berks Circuit to consider the way forward. He met with Rev Oliver Simon who was Rector at Easthampstead Parish church at the time to discuss an agreement that The Church@ the Pines become a Local Ecumenical Project between both the Anglican and Methodist churches. Oliver was very supportive of the idea and suggested that the Rev. Graham Theobald be the link from St. Michael’s
Early in 1994 David had discovered that The Pines school were willing to be a venue. During Lent 1994 a small group of us gathered at our home for prayer and to work through the fine details of how this could be accomplished. Thus, the Church@ThePines was born in prayer
Hanworth was already an established community of diverse families with all the various groups in place (playgroups, uniformed organisations, social club, local pub etc) so it was a challenge as to how we attracted folk to join a church.
David had been a maths teacher in a previous life before becoming an ordained minister and so he put his methodical brain to work. A method of canvassing the local population was devised using a printed questionnaire. It was agreed to distribute these to one in ten of the houses around Hanworth by personal visits. For all of us it was a daunting task, but it turned out to be well worthwhile. We met with no antagonism as we handed over the packs and we agreed with the householders that we would collect the completed packs two days later and if they did not wish to be disturbed for them just to leave the packs outside the door for us. God moves in mysterious ways to get his work done!!
Following our area canvass the responses were then collated and it was decided that there were two camps of opinion. Those wanting a Sunday morning service and those wanting a mid-week evening service.
It was decided to go for a Sunday morning service at 11am and a mid-week service on a Wednesday evening at 8pm. Services began on Sunday 11th December 1994 and Wednesday 14th December 1994. Congregations were small to begin with but encouraging. The Wednesday evening service rapidly became a service for curious Christians from other churches around the town and a decision was taken early on to cease this service and concentrate on Sunday worship.
In an effort to alert the local population of our commitment to continue Sunday morning worship we sang carols around the immediate area of The Pines school on Christmas Eve 1994. No tin shaking for donations just a card giving information of who we were and when we were meeting. The local folk were amazed that we were not collecting donations but were very generous in feeding us mince pies and hot drinks as it was a very cold and frosty evening.
Our two ministers at this time were Rev David Bagwell (Methodist) and Rev Graham Theobald (Anglican) and most Sunday’s they shared the service.
Graham did not spend too long with us as his time at the Parish came to an end. As is the practice in the Anglican church there was then a period of interregnum and so David soldiered on with the help of several Local Preachers from the Methodist Circuit and other local preachers from other denominations.
Graham’s replacement came in the form of Rev. Jay Colwill who joined the Parish and preached his first service at C@P on Easter Day 1998. This was to be a long association between David and Jay and a time of growth for the church. Jay and his wife Jo had two children Louis and Anna who attended Birch Hill school. Both parents did an incredible amount of playground evangelism which resulted in new families joining C@P.
Around the same time as Jay arrived in the Parish there was also a non-stipendiary priest who along with her family joined the congregation at C@P. Ruth and Pete Lillington. This gave C@P an added dimension to worship with these folk able to take services.
How blessed we were during these times and it is thanks to their selfless care and pastoral oversight that we became the church we are today.
David’s initial time with us was for 5 years but this was extended for a further 5 years and alongside Jay they continued a very successful ministry.
Jay’s time with us continued until Easter 2003. We then entered a period of Interregnum. He was not replaced until David’s time with us came to an end in the summer of 2003 and we were then joined by Rev. Heather Noel Smith (Methodist) at the end of August. We had to wait until mid-November before a new Anglican minister was appointed to the Parish! Andy Marshall joined the team in November and remained with us until August 2006
Peter Bestley became Andy’s replacement later that month.
Heather unfortunately had major health issues and was unable to take many services. She stayed in the Circuit until August 2008.
In September 2007 Nick Thompson joined the South East Berkshire Circuit as Superintendent Minister and took over pastoral care of C@P.
2012 Nick stepped down as Superintendent and Jackie Case joined the team as Superintendent. Nick continued as C@P pastoral oversight until he moved on in August 2015.
Catherine Bowstead joined the team in September 2015 and became responsible for pastoral care of C@P.
Jackie Case retired in 2019, and Catherine assumed the role of Superintendent Minister for the Berkshire Surrey borders circuit whilst still having pastoral oversight of C@P. Catherine’s time in the Circuit has been extended until 2025.
As we come to celebrate 30 years of worshipping God in our varied styles we are led by Revd Gareth Morley, Rector of the parish of Easthampstead and Revd Soba Sinnathamby, presbyter in the Berkshire Surrey Borders Circuit of the Methodist Church.
During these 30 years the profile of the congregation has changed dramatically. When we started a sizeable number of our members worked for the British Meteorological Office, which was based in Bracknell. A few years after our foundation, the office moved to Exeter and, as a result we lost about one third of our membership over a period of a few weeks as they all moved to their new homes. Many of these had played a leading role in the life of the Church and it took some while before all these positions were filled.
We are now a congregation mainly of young families and from a wide variety of backgrounds. We can boast of having more than 25 children and young people within our membership and a diversity of people from Sri Lanka, Uganda, Poland and Romania.
We enjoy a wide variety of worship styles, with one ‘all age worship’ service a month and two services that include Holy Communion.
You are unlikely to see much in the way of paper in our church as everything is projected. We have progressed from using an overhead projector to a PowerPoint presentation with embedded videos and music.
There is a boisterous and active Sunday School with the young people showing the church what they have been doing and often offering a prayer.
As we celebrate our 30th anniversary we are prayerfully examining how we best serve God in the future.