A PACKED service saw the inauguration of The Spire Church on Sunday, September 2, led by ministers Reverend Michael Hopkins and Revd Conrad Hicks.

The new church, a Local Ecumenical Partnership combining a Methodist and United Reformed Church, also welcomed Revd Dr Chris Blake, superintendent minister of the Hants-Surrey Border Methodist Circuit, Revd John Hellyer, chair of the South East Methodist District, Revd Ray Stanyon, development and support officer of the Wessex Synod of the United Reformed Church, and representing the Synod moderator, Alan Yates, immediate past moderator of the general assembly of the United Reformed Church.

The Mayor of Farnham, David Attfield, was also in attendance, as was the Rt Revd Dr Chris Herbert, former Bishop of St Albans and one-time vicar of St Thomas on-the Bourne who preached on Ephesians 4 during the inauguration.

He said: “Alleluia for you because you, like those first followers in Ephesus, can have no idea what the future might bring. You have taken a courageous step on God’s road…and the future is in his hands.”

During the service, the church’s constitution was formally adopted and signed, the church leaders elected and commissioned, the ministers affirmed, the congregation made a covenant with each other and with individually with God, and keys to the two buildings were exchanged.