Churches Together in Guisborough held prayers and an ecumenical celebration for Christian Unity Week 2010. The week started at the Salvation Army Citadel then moved through the week to St Nicholas Church with the Rev Graham Pacey, the Methodist Church with Rev Isabel Stuart, the United Reform Church with Rev Ken Harris, the Christian Fellowship at St Nicholas, culminating in a united Service at the new St Paulinus RC Church on The Avenue at Guisborough on Sunday 24th January.

Some 300 people of all Christian faiths in Guisborough came to St Paulinus RC Church, where Canon Michael Bayldon led the prayers, assisted by readers from the other churches in Guisborough. Canon Michael welcomed all to the service and quoted from Pope John Paul II’s visit to the UK, when he said ‘We are the Easter people and Alleluia is our song’. He said ‘Christianity has been around for such a long time now and it was time for all Churches to focus on a single statement that Jesus has risen from the dead’. To illustrate the reading from the Gospel of St Luke, the new technology of the church was used to display a famous painting by Caravaggio of the story on the road to and the supper at Emmaus. Prayers were also said for the people of Haiti and a collection at the end of the Service was taken to send to the aid agencies working in that country.

At the close of the Service, Major Mark Price of the Salvation Army handed over the position of Chair of Churches Together in Guisborough to Rev Isabel Stuart of the Methodist Church for the coming year.

The week also coincided with a visit from people from the German city of Troisdorf who are twinned with Guisborough. Two thousand and ten is the 20th anniversary of the founding of the Twinning Agreement and in April, 34 members of the Guisborough group will visit Troisdorf, led by Rev Ken Harris of the United Reform Church, staying with German families in the city. Frau Andrea Schluter spoke on behalf of the Troisdorf Twinning Representatives to address the congregation and said that in common with much of the world, change is happening in Germany where in Troisdorf, six parishes had become one.

After the Service, the purpose built facilities at the new church were used to provide refreshments, where visitors from all the churches and Troisdorf were able to mix informally.

Brian Gleeson