Churches Together In Merton Park covers five churches, namely Martin Way Methodist Church, Merton Park Baptist Church, St James (Anglican), St John Fisher (Catholic), and St Mary’s. It is affiliated to Churches Together In South London and is part of Churches Together In England. Our committee meets every 1-2 months and plans a number of events throughout the year.

The most important of these events are the series of Lent discussion groups which have just been running, which in some years have taken place on every night Monday to Friday thus involving 60-70 people, although the numbers were not that high this year

There is a united service in the Week of Prayer for Christian Unity in January; an activity in May - a joint meal some years, a procession of witness finishing at one of the churches in other years - we had a small barbecue on Cannon Hill Common once!; we also try and arrange an activity, usually a public talk, in the autumn. Last year it was the talk by Indarjit Singh.

But our activities have also developed into practical work. Although Lent discussion groups may not seem a very practical activity, in 1967 they initiated Christian Care, the church group which helps homeless families in Merton. This is very much the practical expression of Churches Together.

The work involves a lot of visiting, sorting out problems, and providing furniture - sometimes doing household moves - which one member of our congregation organised until recently. Other activities for homeless families are Christmas meals, a Christmas party (at the end of January), an outing to Littlehampton in June, providing holidays for certain families, and arranging camp holidays for some teenagers. Just recently we have been organising evening trips for teenagers, to the London Eye, Charrington Bowls, etc., so there is quite a bit of work amongst young people

We draw in help from many churches, not just those in the Merton Park Group although Christian Care started here. Nevertheless, we are always looking for more church people to be involved!

You asked what our objectives are. The answer is: carrying on the joint activities just described - but ultimately there should be more than that. However, it really does depend on the input that the member churches want to give, in the shape of representatives from PCC’s or the equivalent. It has been said that the committee is very old and not very active! but they for their part would welcome younger blood (which St Mary’s has recently contributed), and a more active input in other ways from the member churches. Sometimes months have gone by with repeated approaches to particular churches about running certain activities, with no response, positive or negative. Also, clergy/ministers have not been closely involved, and we hope that fraternals (meetings between the clergy/ministers) will be occurring again, to lend weight to what we try to do.

Members of Churches Together committee.

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