During the Week -

We have a Baby, Toddlers & Parents/Carers group that meets on Wednesdays 10am to 12noon in the Church Rooms

 Youth Club for the 11 age group meets in the Church Hall in Northway on  alternate Saturdays 7pm to 9pm.

 For further information contact Brian Stonhold  on 020 8458 5606.

  Junior Church Centenary 1908-2008

The Free Church on the suburb started with the children! Junior Church is two years older than the adult church so during 1908 Junior Church is celebrating its centenary. This marks a hundred years from the first Sunday School set up in the area.  

In October 1908 a Sunday School was set up to teach Christianity to the children of the newly growing Hampstead Garden Suburb. The children of the suburb met as one group in the workmen’s hut in Hampstead Way. By 1909 the numbers had grown to 91 children and the Sunday School moved to the newly built Institute. However in 1911 the Revd Bourchier of St Jude’s wrote that the parents of children from St Jude’s were asking for the “definite teaching of the tenets of their own church” and wished to inaugurate their own Sunday School so in 1911 the HGS Sunday School was split into two. However they still meet together for joint services twice a year. 

1911 saw the building of the Free Church and March 25^th was chosen to be children’s day- the day on which the children would play their part in laying the foundation of the church. Eighty-six bricks were laid by the children and you can still see them, bearing children’s initials in the church wall facing Central Square. In 1925 the Free Church Hall was opened in Northway to provide a home for the Sunday School and for youth work. From the beginning children and young people have had an important place in the Free Church as they still do today. 

  Sunday 9th March - Cradle Roll Reunion Service

On 9^th March 2008 the Junior Church Centenary banner with four logos designed by the young people welcomed people to the Free Church Hall for our Centenary Cradle Roll Reunion Service and Junior Church Open Day. The Hall in Northway was opened in 1925 specifically for the Sunday School and it was fitting that our first centenary event was held in the Hall. About one hundred and fifty people filled the seats in the large hall, stage and annex areas for this special service entitled ‘Journeys’.

The introit ‘Jubilate Everybody’ sung by the choir set a joyful mood for the service and this continued with our organist Ken Dougall at the piano, John Bird and Eddie Hayden on guitars as we sang hymns ‘ancient & modern’! The children did actions for the song ‘I am the Way, the Truth and the Life’. The minister asked all those who had been baptised in the Free Church to stand up and so we saw the full age range from over eighty year olds to babies. It was good to welcome Richard and Michael Mayles whose grandparents were founder members of the church. The photo shows the most recent baby baptised and two people baptised in the 1920s- Margaret Badcock and Peter Mason (now living in Essex). A big thank you to the Cradle Roll Secretary, Rosemary Birch who keeps in touch with so many people and Katharine Cheng who made a wonderful Junior Church Centenary Cake decorated with a very realistic model of a cradle.

There is a display of the hundred years of Junior Church in the Free Church.  

The Junior Church Centenary Festival Service at 11am on May 18^th will include the musical drama ‘A Grain of Mustard Seed’ about the life of Robert Raikes one of the founders of the Sunday School movement.  

Planned Events for 2008

18^th May 11am Junior Church Centenary Festival Service

5^th to 6^th July Weekend of Activities and Youth Club Members’ Reunion

12^th October 11am Service of Thanksgiving

14^th December 3pm Christmas Tree Gift Service in the Hall, Northway

We invite you all to help us to celebrate our centenary.