Churches to unite

Farnham United Reformed Church and Farnham Methodist Church are coming together to form a Local Ecumenical Partnership (LEP) to be known as The Spire Church, Farnham.

As a united congregation combining a Methodist and United Reformed Church, The Spire Church will serve Farnham and aims to be “a symbol of togetherness and co-operation”.

The LEP is to be inaugurated at a service to be held in the Farnham Methodist Church building in South Street on Sunday, September 2, at 10.30am.

The service will be attended by representatives of the wider Methodist and United Reformed churches as well as local dignitaries. The preacher will be Bishop Chris Herbert, who is well known to many in Farnham.

Following on from the inaugural service, it is planned that services will be held in the Farnham United Reformed Church building and the Farnham Methodist Church building on alternate Sundays.

The Farnham United Reformed Church building is due to be developed in the near future and while building work is in progress all services will be held in Farnham Methodist Church building.

Once the refurbished building is available, it will become the home of the Spire Church and the services will be held there.

Reverend Michael Hopkins and Reverend Conrad Hicks, who will be jointly the first ministers of the new church, said in a joint statement: “We are both very much looking forward to the future, from being some two of Farnham’s oldest churches to being Farnham’s newest church. We will be building on our existing work in the heart of the community of Farnham.”

They added the two churches have been close friends for a number of years. Their worship styles are very similar and they have often shared services together.