Dan lives in Illinois, USA and we were delighted to be a part of his 4^th UK Tour when he was “in concert” at Portholme Church on 28 April 2023.  Dan is a Christian singer/songwriter who creates his own inspiring music about God’s presence in the world today.

Dan is a very accomplished guitar player and we shared a wonderful evening of music interspersed with Dan’s own stories giving the background to each of his songs.  Michaela provided accompaniment on the piano for a couple of his songs, “The Road of Faith (Shine On)” and “Follow the Light”.

Our appeal on the evening for our 2023 mission project raised a total £433.20 for The Friends of Nixon Memorial Hospital in Sierra Leone.  Thank you to everyone who gave so generously!

On Saturday 7 May 2022 we enjoyed an evening of modern hymns to celebrate the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee — plus the United Reformed Church’s 50th Anniversary and Portholme Church’s own 10th birthday. All the hymns had been written since Queen Elizabeth II ascended the throne in 1952.

A big “THANK YOU” goes to everyone who voted for their three favourite modern hymns which enabled us to compile a very worthy “Top Ten”

If you’d like to see where your personal favourites ended up in the full list of 63 nominations, please email us: info@portholmechurch.org.uk.

THANK YOU to the four members who opened their gardens on Saturday 14 August.

Although the weather could have been a bit better, it didn’t rain! Visitors included people from church and also some interested passers by. Everyone enjoyed looking round — as well as flowers and plants to see, there was also time for reflection with some prayers dotted about in one of the gardens and, of course, refreshments were served!

Thank you, too, to everyone who visited — over £450 was raised for our Roof Fund. If you would like to donate towards the cost of the work, please see our “Giving” page or email our Church Treasurer by clicking here.

As a result of the Covid pandemic and the restrictions imposed on regular worship by the government, our observance of the season of Lent this year has forced to be different.

During Lent, our Lenten Cross would normally be in the Sanctuary but this year it was placed in the foyer so that it could be seen by passers-by. The cross was “dressed” each week to show the symbols of Christ’s suffering & death. A printed explanation of each week’s new addition was placed so that it could be read through the window. The photograph below shows the Lenten Cross as appeared on Good Friday.

On Easter Day, after the symbols of Christ’s suffering and death had been removed, everyone was invited to share in transforming the cross into a symbol of resurrection by placing flowers on it.

Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!

We weren’t sure if our annual CTIS carol singing would take place this year but at the eleventh hour we got the go ahead and a small group of 5 singers as well as the family music group came together on Saturday morning to bring some festive cheer to the townsfolk

We were able to keep the queue of people outside Wilko entertained as well as the shoppers inside — the assistant said we sounded lovely — as well as other bystanders and lots of children who joined in the singing

There were so many people saying thank you to us and offering donations (we weren’t collecting) and the smiles we got made it all worthwhile

What a response to the 2020 Shoebox Appeal!

With the uncertainty as to whether the appeal could go ahead earlier in the year with the pandemic and after the national collection week was put back due to lockdown #2, we were finally able to be that “church collection centre” that we had put ourselves forward for and Portholme opened its doors for a week in December.

A willing band of volunteers turned up every morning to receive any shoeboxes from the general public which seemed to mean that the last 15 minutes were always the busiest with big donations being brought in on two of the days.

A particular highlight was two little sisters coming in with their shoeboxes on Saturday morning and jumping up and down with excitement when they got a certificate — their Mum was so proud of them.

We also had another Mum say “what a lovely church, I always forget that you’re here”

The final count is a whopping 203 shoeboxes which were packed into 20 large boxes and collected by the charity on 16 December.

To put this into perspective we collected about 40 boxes last year — massive thanks to everyone who helped out and also to all of you who either donated boxes or donated money to Operation Christmas Child

This was another brilliant production from the BadApple touring theatre company. The audience, which included quite a number of children, enjoyed this winter tale with an eco twist.

Anastasia Benham and Danny Mellor were remarkably talented actors who could also sing and dance. They each played three main characters and brought to life a number of woodland creatures. It was uncanny, the way that they could switch in an instant from one character to another, each being completely believable.

The story is set in The Great Wood where the animals are desperate for a long sleep. But, with the onset of global warming, it is just too warm. Everyone is going around in circles and sick of nuts before Christmas is even in sight. They seek out the mysterious Snow Dancer and have their own ideas for improving the environment and bringing back the seasons as they should be.

Photograph kindly provided by BadApple – see their website for details of current productions www.badappletheatre.co.uk

This was an evening full of fun, good songs and terrific acting. We’re looking forward to welcoming BadApple back with another production in 2020.