Kingston URC

27/05/2026

Last Sunday in the church we were still celebrating Ken's birthday!

23/05/2026

Today we celebrated the 90th anniversary of Ken Bartlett! In spite of the hot weather, many people gathered in the beautiful and very spacious common area of the “Mulberry Court” where Ken resides since his wife Liz passed away 3 years ago.

On arrival guests were met by the enchanting music of a string quartet just to proceed to the place where all sorts of drinks were offered by a very professional barman. It was nice and relaxing to mix with people from the Kingston3A orchestra where Ken plays a violin and Liz used to play a flute. There were guests from the residential home and other organisations and, many members from our church., and of course, Ken’s children and relatives.
The little canapes were delicious and we had a beautiful and gigantic fruit birthday cake to have with tea/coffee, but the weather did not inspire a coffee drinker, as the majority stuck to the cold drinks, Pim’s, juices and bubblies.

Ken gave a big speech in which he thanked everyone who managed to come today, briefly highlighting the important details and talked about his life twists, and what he and Liz achieved during their life together. He talked about him being ordained as a minister and at the same time creating and working for the charity SHELTER and other housing associations. I am sure that many unfortunate people who faced the accommodation problems in Paddington, North Kensington, Chelsea and Kingston where Ken lived and live are grateful for his dedication and struggle to provide better accommodation for people on very low income.

I am taking this opportunity and on behalf of Kingston URC to congratulate Ken with this significant data and are looking forward to celebrating in such a style and panache his 95th and 100th !!!!

17/05/2026

Christian Aid Day!

17/05/2026

Yesterday we danced and collected money for the Cristian Aid!

16/05/2026

Last Thursday we had the pleasure to listen to the talented Michael Bevan. Michael is also an organist, violist, guitarist and singer. He performed in the past during our church recitals. This time he played music from Bach, Beethoven, Debussy, Prokofiev, explaining in advance what the composers tried to convey to their audience in this or that piece. He also played for us his own short piano composition.

We are very lucky to be surrounded by such gifted musicians as Michael.

11/05/2026

Christian Aid Week (CAW) 2026: Can you help?

Christian Aid Week 2026 will take place here from 8th – 17th May, uniting communities across the UK and Ireland to fight poverty and support vulnerable families worldwide. The Kingston Christian Aid group are planning a few activities, before and after CAW, please come and help, support and if you can donate, these are outlined below.
This year the Christian Aid will concentrate on helping the Dagoretti Informal Settlement in Nairobi, Kenya.

A Programme for the Christian Aid Week is:-

Christian Aid Kingston 2026 Quiz Friday 8th May 7pm – 10pm £10 per person. Cash Bar available
(This event already happened and raised more than £700 - not bad at all!)

Joint worship for CAW 2026
10th May, 6pm at All Saints Church, including a speaker from Christian Aid
(This event already took place)

Drop of only – envelopes: 10th – 17th May. We need volunteers to post envelopes, at a time to suit you, in your street/road/housing complex. Envelope returns will come back to you so you don’t need to wait at the door to ask for a donation or the envelope back. This takes less than an hour to deliver the envelopes.

Dancing and collecting in the centre of Kingston: 16thMay We will be ‘dancing for good’ in Clarence Street and for those not able, we will be looking for collectors to shake a can or hold a bucket and QR code to collect. If you want to suggest and do your own fundraising event, please speak to Ray Charlton ([email protected])

09/05/2026

The Christian Aid Week began! Last night in the KURC we held a Quiz Night to raise money for this cause. People came from other churches and joined us for this jolly occasion! As usual the people on the tables have chosen the names for their teams and the teams competed against each other. We had lovely food which was left from the earlier memorial service that afternoon for Marie Finch.

At the end we had a lottery and some people ended up with presents. I overhead that we have gathered more than £500 last night but for the more correct figure we will hear tomorrow during the service.

Keep going and raising money, folks!!!!

06/05/2026

This week in our church we celebrated The Korean Children's Day which is the public holiday in Korea. Those children who came, had the real fun with games, food and special presents for each child. Thank you for everyone who organised, participated and donated to this event! It is very important to remind Korean children who live here in UK about traditions and holidays of the country where their parents came from.

06/05/2026