On Sunday 3rd March, we held a special celebration service to mark two significant developments in the life of our church, and enjoyed the biggest cake I’ve ever seen!
First, in a move that testifies to the Lord’s faithfulness over the last ten years, we adopted a new name – Grace Church Windsor. Our previous name, Windsor Fellowship, was a great fit for where our church began, with a small group meeting in a home, praying and planning for there to be a gospel church in central Windsor. But now, wonderfully, under the Lord’s hand, that vision has come to fruition, and we have in effect outgrown our old name. Our hope is that with our new name we will become even more established and embedded in our town, and better able to communicate who we are as a church to those near and far.
Our second significant development is that we have joined the Anglican Mission in England (AMiE). For many years, we had been seeking to become part of the Church of England through a Bishop’s Mission Order (BMO), but sadly that was always made difficult for us and, due to recent developments, had become a less attractive prospect as we seek to be a healthy gospel church. Last year, conscious of our need to have proper accountability and support, including the oversight of a godly bishop, we made the decision to investigate alignment with AMiE and the wider Gafcon (global fellowship of confessing Anglicans) movement. We have been so encouraged by their hand of fellowship and clear vision for planting and growing healthy gospel churches across our nation. We are also excited for how this move will enable us to press on in gospel partnership with other local evangelical Anglican churches, including of course St Mary’s, and are committed to standing alongside you as you continue to contend courageously within the Church of England.
As well as giving thanks for these two developments, please join us in praying for the following things:
- For a midweek kids club starting in the summer term, and specifically that children from local schools would respond to invites from friends and come along.
- That a number of newcomers would quickly feel like they belong to our church family – we are so grateful to be able to welcome them!
- For sufficient funds so that James, our minister-in-training, can stay for another year and we can build towards a more permanent second ministry role – our church family have responded generously to a recent appeal, and we are very grateful for a grant from St Mary’s last summer, but we’re not quite there yet for 2024-25.