Buxton Methodist Church celebrates its 175th Anniversary

As the beady eyed may have noticed, the date stone on the front of the building on the Market Place reads 1849 – 175 years ago.

On 21st September, the dodransbicentennial anniversary date itself, in true Methodist tradition, the church had an afternoon tea party for 60 people. This brought together members of the wider church family, with an age range of about 90. Some of those present have family links with Buxton Methodist Church going back over more than 100 years. Children on each table were very involved with organising the games after tea. Pass the parcel with a fair-trade chocolate prize was particularly popular.

Unusually perhaps, the celebratory service on Sunday morning began with a look to the future. Carol Barnes asked us to think what worship might be like if we made greater use of technology. As there are fewer people coming into church ministry, is it possible that sermons might one day be written by church members with the help of AI? We decided to test Chat GPT’s hymn writing by suggesting five keywords that describe our church today. Within seconds we had a very singable anniversary hymn which even included reference to biscuits!

Robin Evison gave a really interesting talk about the history of the church. This was not the first Methodist Chapel in Buxton, however, but was built on land donated by the Duke of Devonshire to replace an earlier building erected somewhere near the corner of Dale Street and High Street in 1797. Who knew that under our organ can be found remnants of the old market cockpit, in the church basement?! He also talked about the Vision 2000 project which led to the total re-roofing of the church in the late 1980s. Sadly, leaking roofs continue to be a problem, particularly the older Victorian roofs and the flat ones over the halls that are used so widely by the Buxton community, every day of the week. The Minister, Rev Andrew Parker, reflected on Christ as the Cornerstone but reminded us that to continue Christ’s work in this place we must be open about the financial challenges the church faces and the need to raise more income and recruit more volunteers to keep it going. Finally, whilst rejoicing in the thriving community we have at Buxton Methodist Church, we were reminded that next Sunday, 29th September, will see a closing service at Harpur Hill Methodist Church.

For a full history of Buxton Methodist Church and more images, see https://buxtonmethodistchurch.org.uk/about/history/