This morning for the first time I spoke at Oxford Community Church. It was also my first time ever speaking at a church in the Salt & Light network. The church meets in the most awesome warehouse conversion, an enormous building that has been beautifully adapted, and it serves as a base for the many churches that they work with in Oxfordshire, all of whom come together for celebrations at the King’s Centre, which is on an industrial estate.http://occ.org.uk/
It was a great morning and whereas I usually race off after a morning service to be back at Christ Church London for 4.00pm, on this occasion for the first time in many years, I accepted an offer of lunch. So I was delighted to go out to a local pub with Steve Jones, who leads the church, and his wife Bev, and their three beautiful daughters, Amber, Lois and Eleanor. Seeing as I am an expert at looking after small girls, I was in my element!
I then drove a short distance to St Anne’s College where I met with one of the UCCF staff workers, Alex Banfield-Hicks who is part of the newfrontiers church in Oxford, Emmanuel Church. And also with Ruth Bayliss who is currently the evangelism secretary of the Oxford University Inter-Collegiate Christian Union. It was great to hear about what God is doing in Oxford, a city which has three evangelical Anglican churches with at least 1,000 people in each. In December last year, 2,000 people attended Carol Services hosted by the Christian Union in the Sheldonian Theatre.