Our four churches' feast  

Four different churches whose congregations worship in the same Baptist building in Reading are exploring how they can become more integrated – a move inspired by the spring edition of Baptists Together magazine

Abbey Baptist Church, Kingdom Citizens Church, Peniel Church and Zion Church of God have all worshipped in the same building every Sunday over the past decade in different spaces, at different, sometimes overlapping, times and in different languages.

Abbey Baptist Church’s congregation includes English, Scottish, Welsh, Irish, Nepalese and Ukrainian. Kingdom Citizens Church began as a Ghanaian congregation but now includes members from other African countries mainly in West Africa.

Peniel Church is a Portuguese speaking congregation mainly from Brazil, Portugal and Angola. Zion Church of God is a Tamil speaking congregation of people from Sri Lanka and South India.

Inspired by reading the spring issue of Baptists Together about many churches where several cultures work together, ‘we began to explore how we could find ways of becoming more integrated with each other and learn more about each other’s worship and witness in Reading,’ explained Mary Brockington, church secretary at Abbey Baptist Church.

The initial result was a “Four Churches Feast” on a Saturday in late June, when more than sixty members and friends came together to share lunch, make new friends and tell each other something about their work, hopes and plans.

The gathering was appreciated by all, Mary said.

‘The generous provision of food from all our national cuisines certainly helped to oil the proceedings. The Lord was also generous to us with the weather so that it was possible to set up tables on our patio, beside the Holy Brook, as well as in the hall.

‘This was a wonderful time of fellowship in the Lord and at the end everyone agreed that we must do this again.’