Emmanuel URC/Methodist Church, Redditch, Worcestershire, England
N 52° 18.396 W 001° 56.495
30U E 572162 N 5795667
Emmanuel URC/Methodist Church, Redditch, Worcestershire, England.
Waymark Code: WMWA1T
Location: West Midlands, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/31/2017
Views: 1
Emmanuel is a joint partnership Church by the United Reformed and Methodist Churches.
From their website at (
visit link) :-
Short History of Trinity and then Emmanuel Church
Emmanuel Church is a URC/Methodist Ecumenical Partnership, originally formed in 1976 when Redditch New Town was being developed. The Congregational Church was demolished to make way for the Kingfisher Shopping Centre and as Bates Hill Methodist Church was old and in need of extensive repairs, the two congregations decided to form a united church known as Trinity Church. The combined congregations began worshipping at their shared premises known as the Ecumenical Centre in 1976.
Initially the church had two ministers, one URC and one Methodist, the Methodist also having pastoral responsibility for Alcester Street Methodist Church. In 1991 Trinity Church considered that to continue having two ministers emphasised the division of the two founding churches rather than the unity to which they aspired and it was decided therefore to have only one minister and a second person (Deacon or Lay Worker). Subsequently, close links in the life and work of Trinity and Alcester Street Church were developed which culminated in a formal local Ecumenical Partnership agreement in December 1999. Because of an aging and reduced membership together with increasing need for costly maintenance, the Alcester Street building was eventually closed and sold, as it did not prove possible for the premises to be developed for mission and work in the community. The two congregations then merged fully to become Emmanuel Church.