Christ Church Moreton Hall

Christ Church was founded by all the Christian denominations in Bury St. Edmunds in 1985. It is situated on the Moreton Hall estate - a modern housing estate situated the east of Bury St Edmunds with an increasing population of over 7000. Over the years we have developed into a Church where every Christian is able to worship and serve Christ regardless of denomination background. It is our aim to share the love of Christ with everyone, whatever their need, background or past. Christ Church is a Church of England Parish which is completely Ecumencical. This is a brief outline of our history and how we became a Church in which all Denominations and Traditions works and Worship together as one Fellowship.

October 1985

The first Service in the Community Centre.

October 1987

The appointment of the first Minister - Captain Pat Mottram.

September 1990

Creation of Conventional District and appointment of second Minister, Reverend Jonathan Ford.

January 1991

Raising of the Cross on the land allocated by the council for the new Church building.

October 1991

Launch of building Appeal.

December 1993

Christ Church Moreton Hall opened for the first service.

April 1994

Dedication of Christ Church Moreton Hall.

July 1994

Creation of New Parish.

February 1996

Signing of Declaration of Ecumenical Commitment

October 1996

Launch of Church Extension appeal.

July 1997

Nigel Corwin ordained Deacon, and appointed Curate of Christ Church

December 1997

New Church Hall opened

July 1998

Nigel Corwin ordained Priest

July 1999

Matt Boyes ordained Deacon and appointed Curate of Christ Church

July 2000

Matt Boyes ordained Priest

July 2002

Matt Boyes leaves Christ Church to take charge of his own Parish

September 2004

Student Youthworker Peter Ambler joins Christ Church at the start of his three year course

October 2004

Declaration of Ecumenical Commitment reviewed and signed.

January 2006

Restructuring of church leadership, resulting in creation of Worship, Evangelism, Admin, Ministry, Children & Youth, Finance and Building departments.

June 2007

David Grantham ordained Deacon and appointed Curate of Christ Church

April 2008

Jonathan Ford installed as an honorary Canon at St Edmundsbury Cathedral.

June 2008

David Grantham ordained Priest

Knowing Jesus brings a deep peace, as well as the joy of having His personal friendship. We would like you to find Him too. If you already know Him please feel free to join in with everything we do. This website seeks to give you a clear guide to all we do. If there is anything you need that we have not mentioned please contact us. The Minister, Jonathan Ford is always available to call if required. Christ Church seeks to serve the whole of the Moreton Hall Area.

At Christ Church, we use the free church presentation software OpenLP during our Sunday services. This is a great little piece of software which handles songs, bible verses, powerpoint presentations, images, video and now audio too.

We've been using it for nearly two years now, and find it very useful. We can put a service plan together in minutes, and easily make changes or add new songs and Bible verses, even during the service. Prior to this we used PowerPoint and although this allowed great flexibility in the layout and stunning slides could be produced, it was a time consuming exercise and it wasn't easy to add songs or Bible verses at the last minute.

openlp is very easy to use. During our weekend away last year we had to find a view volunteers to operate it at the last minute, and they were able to run it fine with just a few minutes training!

We were fortunate to get a preview of the new version 1.2 a few weeks early and the new audio backing track feature came in very useful during our Bible Holiday club. The team sing some very lively songs with the children, and in the past it's been a bit of a juggle switching between media player and the projection software. Now we just need to open up the lyrics and when the team are ready just click play without the need to switch programs or lean over to a CD player.

There was great joy at Christ church in July when we welcomed over 100 Mayors, Counsellors, Council Staff and friends from across Suffolk to Patsy Warby's Civic service as Mayor of St Edmundsbury. It was good to honour all those people who do so much to make Suffolk what it is today. They really are the back bone of our democracy at a time when so much respect has been lost by those who serve in Westminster. It was also good to gather in the Community centre afterward and we thank them for their hospitality.

The sadness comes from the wanton vandalism of our beautiful Church plum tree a few days later. It was given by a former Curate to say thank for his time here. Year by year is has produced an abundance of beautiful blossom and large plums which anyone can take and eat. This year it was going to produce a bumper crop. But now someone has shaken all the fruit of before it was ripe and ripped one the largest branches. This has left such a gash in the main trunk it will not survive the winter frosts.

Annual General Meeting 7:30pm 23rd February 2009

As you are aware, 2009 presents a number of challenges and opportunities for Christ Church, Moreton Hall. As we approach our Annual General Meeting on Monday 23rd February at 7.30 p.m. I think there are number of things you should be aware of and I hope you will join with me in rejoicing over.

1. Gift Day
Money is still coming in response to our Gift Day. Over £4,500 has been received with some new covenants and many people have increased their giving. On behalf of the Parochial Church Council I wish to express our deep heartfelt thanks for your support when times are so difficult. While we have yet to solve all our financial problems, we have taken giant steps forward towards it and we can say that we are blessed in God in this measure.

2. Three Year Plan
We all put a lot of hard work into our three year plan which obviously in the light of recent events needs to be revised. I would therefore ask for people who would like to be involved in a Steering Committee to please come forward, ideally before the Annual General Meeting. Enclosed are summaries of all the home group’s responses for you information. There is a need for us to plan carefully and use our resources wisely so not everything suggested can be done.

 For me this week the news has been dominated by two stories.

The first is the plight of 100s of thousands of Burmese people, dead and dying after the cyclone with millions of tons of aid, just a plane flight away, and yet their own government is reluctant accept  help, because they are afraid of western influences on their country. 

The second is about this country. Every year in Britain 3.6 million tons of food is thrown away un-eaten, 60% of it has not gone past its sell by date and is still unwrapped. We spend £10.2 billion on food we never eat. That means ever year each man woman and child spend nearly £170 each on food that will never get to the table let alone to the mouth.