As summer draws to a close so another busy church year beckons. 2025 has already been a year of change and will continue to bring more changes as we move into September and the Autumn. This September we are beginning with an invitation to anyone who hasn’t been to church for a while, regardless of the reason, to think about coming back and reconnecting with us.
When you haven’t been somewhere for a while it can be hard to just turn up again and so to help break the ice, we are holding a walking treasure hunt on Friday the 5th of September. This will be an opportunity to come along to the church hall with a friend and enjoy a night’s fun as we try to find our way around Portstewart following the clues and hints given to us. Once we have all made our way back to the hall there will be opportunity to have something to eat as well as taking time to look over the various exhibitions highlighting everything that’s on offer in the church.
Of course, what we really are hoping is this will give each of us the confidence to come along to church on Sunday the 7th of September at 10:30 am. Our Sunday morning services are relaxed family services.
We do need help to make this all work. First and foremost, we can all be involved by praying. We should never underestimate the importance of prayer. James famously wrote in his letter ‘The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective’ (James 5:16) Of course our righteousness is found in Jesus and so all of us can powerfully and effectively pray, and I would encourage us in this. The second way we can all help is simply in inviting people to come along on the Friday and again to church on the Sunday. Friends, neighbours, colleagues and family – offer to come with them, to bring them.
There will also be the opportunity to help us knock on some doors inviting and encouraging folks who might not have a church connection to come along and become part of us. Please do be part of this because it is through personal contact and relationship that people are most likely to respond to the invitation.
If you are a leader in any of the organisations from Little Treasures to Established; Girls Brigade to Cameo; Bowling Club to Bible Study, we need you to plan to be at the church hall on Friday to highlight all you have on offer. This is our opportunity to encourage new people to become part of the life of the church, not just what happens on a Sunday morning.
It is important that we as congregation understand that we all have a part to play in the life and witness of our church and so I hope as many of us who can, will help in some way with this important outreach initiative.
In an effort to make our church services more welcoming and family friendly there will be some changes from September.
The biggest change is that the Girls’ Brigade our offering a pickup service for any child (not just GB girls) wanting to come to Treasure Hunters (Sunday school). If you would like to make use of this service, then either contact us through the church website (scan the QR code) or speak to any GB officer. Any child getting a lift will be looked after and will also have the opportunity to be part of the breakfast club, as well as being dropped off home again.
Things are changing within Treasure Hunters from September. Wendy Porter who has worked incredibly hard helping to launch Treasure Hunters is stepping down. Wendy will be devoting much of her time to supporting her husband David as he begins his term as president of the Institute of Civil Engineers. We want to say thank you to Wendy but also congratulations to David and we do commit to pray for David & Wendy as they travel the world in this incredibly prestigious role.
We are delighted that Heather Hamilton has agreed to take on the leadership of our work with children and young teenagers on a Sunday morning. This is also a good time to remind everyone that we would love to welcome our older children from year 7 to year 10 into their own programme – but to run this we need young people, so please do encourage anyone you might know to come along.
The final change you will notice in September is that we are reverting to a more traditional order of service. Over the last couple of years, we tried having our family worship at the end of the service in the hope that more children would come along if they were going straight into their own programme. This has had very limited success and so we are reverting to the more usual practice of having the children in for the start of worship. We will begin our service with family friendly worship. We will begin by telling the children something about the story they will be learning in Treasure Hunters and then when they leave the rest of us will delve a little deeper into worship, prayer and teaching.
Our Sunday morning theme in September will be Who Is Jesus. We will spend 6 Sundays learning how Jesus comes to us, understands us, can be known by us, changes us, stays with us and is coming back to us.
On Thursday nights at our Bible Study, we will be taking each of the Sunday morning themes and thinking them through in a little more detail. This is an excellent opportunity for anyone exploring the Christian faith or simply wanting to know more about the person of Jesus to come along and ask questions. Again, why not invite a friend to come with you.
At one of our recent morning services, we talked about the possibility of our church hosting a Radio Ulster Morning Worship service. The date for this has been provisionally set for Sunday 16th November. This will be a much earlier service starting at 9:00 am. As a congregation we agreed to this so I do hope you will put this date in your diary, it would be good to have a full congregation with enthusiastic singing as we worship God and highlight worship in Portstewart.
It’s always good to get a few dates into the diary early and so here is a list of upcoming significant dates in the church calendar.
Sunday 16th November Radio Ulster Service
Friday 5th September Treasure Hunt
Sunday 7th September back to church Sunday
Sunday 12th October Harvest (morning and evening)
Sunday 19th October GB enrolment
Friday 31st October Pre-Communion
Sunday 2nd November Communion (Morning and evening)
We’re looking forward to our Girls’ Brigade starting back in September and in keeping with the back to church theme it would be great to welcome not only more new girls, but maybe some of the girls who for whatever reason have stopped coming. Like church, GB is a family and we pray that all our girls benefit from being part of our family. You can register for GB with the QR code.
There have been some changes to our church buildings over the summer. I want to say thank you to all who helped to paint the minor hall and organise the new flooring. It is important that we keep our buildings fresh and in a good, welcoming condition. We will also be presenting plans to the congregation to make some changes to the church building. This will involve creating a free seating area accessible to wheelchair users in the wing. This work will involve repositioning the pulpit to its original position beside the minister’s room. This change needs to be made in order to ensure that anyone using the new accessible space has a clear line of sight to the front of the church. As part of these changes the congregation will be asked to approve a dedicated praise band area in the pews at the front of the organ pipes. The Kirk Session and Committee hope, if approved, these changes will make our building not just more accessible but practical and welcoming to all.
Since I last wrote to you our church family has endured yet more grief and loss.
Claire Tweed died on the 22nd of April 2025
Meta Houston died on the 4th of May 2025
Peter Bingham died on the 23rd of June 2025
Raymond Pollock died on the 24th of June 2025
John Auld died on the 30th of June 2025
Doreen Stinson died on the 6th of August 2025
We have also had much to celebrate Anna Nicholl and Carsten de Bourg were married on 7th June 2025 and Alistair and Samantha Nicholl have become full communicant members. We join with the Apostle Paul who wrote to the Romans saying: ‘Rejoice with those who rejoice; weep with those who weep’ (Romans 12:15) We are a church family which means we share the joys and pain of life together.
At the time of writing, I am also aware that a number of our young people are awaiting key exam results in school, technical college and university. We do pray that the Lord will direct each of their paths.
As always, I want to thank you for your continued support and prayers. While it has been good to be off on holiday, it is also good to be coming back into a new church year with all the excitement and potential that holds. I want to leave you with this command from scripture as the writer to the Hebrews encourages ‘not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching’ (Hebrews 10:25)
I very much look forward to seeing you on Sunday morning at 10:30 am as we fulfil the command of scripture to meet together and encourage one another as God’s people in worship of him.
Yours in Christ
Stuart