Articles - From the Vicar

January 2001

On 20^th July 1901 the opening service of Roundhay New Church took place in what is now our Parochial Hall. The relevant entry in the register is remarkably terse: all we know is that the service began at 4.30pm, that the preacher was a certain Archdeacon Waugh and that the collection amounted to Ł9 - 14s. Almost 100 years later Roundhay New Church, or St. Edmund's Church as it was soon to become, continues to seek to serve the community in which it is set, albeit in a world that is utterly different from that of our early Edwardian founders.

Our centenary year will be marked by a number of significant events. On Sunday 7^th January we will enter into an ecumenical covenant with our brothers and sisters at St. Andrew's URC and Lidgett Park Methodist Church. This covenant will commit the three congregations to working ever more closely together as we seek to broaden and deepen the unity that we already have in Jesus Christ. On Saturday 23^rd June Carlo Curley, the renowned organ virtuoso, will give a centenary recital in church; and on Sunday 15^th July the Archbishop of York will preside and preach at our centenary Eucharist, a service which we hope will be preceded by a Summer Fair on Saturday 14^th July.

Our centenary gives us an opportunity to look back on the parish's first hundred years, to thank God for his many blessings and to celebrate the activities and achievements of many groups and individuals at St. Edmund's. But a centenary is also, and much more importantly, a time for looking resolutely forward. As a pilgrim people Christians must seek always to move prayerfully into an unknown future, trusting only in the God whom we know and proclaim in Jesus Christ and committed to the building up of God's Kingdom of justice, mercy and peace.