The Salvation Army Chatham

Another busy week-end in the life of Chatham Corps including a Saturday evening concert to celebrate 125 years of christian music making by the Band

Chatham Citadel Band

Our week-end began with the concert and the Band was in good form featuring a variety of music to suit the occasion. The invited guests, David Childs (euphonium) and Mark Norwood (vocal) were superb and we thank bandmaster Carl Woodman for the hard work in arranging the evening. A fuller report on the concert appears in Feature and Articles
Mark, David and Carl

David Mark
Sunday morning brought challenges of a different kind. Our morning meeting had to be held in a different venue (Lordswood Junior School) due to the local council closing all the streets and car parks in the town centre to finalize the commissioning of a new road scheme. Being a town centre corps this affected us extensively. Nevertheless everyone made it to the school successfully. The meeting was led by the Band and embodied a time of re-commitment to service.

The congregation preparing for the meeting

Richard

Richard Craik, in his talk to the young people reminded us of Paul’s thoughts about all the parts of the body being important. He said ‘the individual parts of the band are absolutely necessary to the whole effect‘. So is every member of our corps vital to its mission. The Singing Company sang the song ‘On this Rock’ and the Band contributed ‘Gift for His Altar’ reminding us of the words ‘I have not much to give Thee Lord, but all I have is Thine’. Amongst the congregational songs used were Nos 48, 523 and 809 from The Salvation Army Song Book. A new Band Secretary (B/M Ray Maycock) and a new Deputy Bandmaster (Nigel Lockwood) were commissioned.

Ray Nigel

The meeting was led by Tim Scott and the sermon given by Greg Davis

Greg (left) and Tim

Members of the Horwood family and the Little family (Felixstowe) were present in the meeting celebrating the engagement of Lisa and Glen (announced on this website last week). The picture below shows the couple with their family members outside the school following the meeting.
Happy Families

In the evening we found our way through the new road system to our own hall (without too much difficulty it has to be said). Major Beverley led us on the subject of ‘Evangelism in Athens’ using scripture from Acts 17: 16-34. A number of personal testimonies were given and and the message underlined that evangelism is ‘about changing communities, not just individuals. We cannot be silent any longer’. Songs used included Nos 17 and 463 in The Salvation Army Song Book and Nos 1015 and 483 from Songs of Fellowship.

Major Beverley