Statement regarding Kharis Church
To those of you who have expressed concern at the difficult decision for us to part company with Kharis, we offer the following clarification.
We certainly agree that Kharis has been a true blessing to the young people of Romford and it is especially impressive how much their mission has grown in such a relatively short time.
Please don’t think of it as a negative thing that having grown so much, Kharis are now called to move on. This is just the next phase of the spirit driven process that started when they became too big for the Costa Coffee Café with 20 people and we were proud to help by providing our Lower Worship Room that had space for twice that number.
They very soon became too large for even that space so we relocated them to our own worship space – The Sanctuary which has space for 150. The Kharis leadership initially thought that this was too formal a space for their style, but they settled in and continued to grow. However at 250 members they are now at least a hundred people more than we can safely fit into our building, plus the sheer numbers and volume of enthusiastic worship is proving to be a major distraction to other users of the building and our neighbours.
Many of our groups meet for quiet time while others such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the Women’s Refuge meet to ease life problems. Our neighbours in the surrounding flats and houses just want to enjoy a relaxing time at home and get their young children to bed, and we have received several complaints from them one stating that their children are scared by the Tuesday evening noise. These are difficult to ignore.
We feel that Kharis are now ready for that next step guided by the Holy Spirit to move into larger premises creating their own Church building where they can more readily attend to the needs of their membership without constantly worrying about their impact on us. Romford Town Centre is full of vacant shop units that would be perfect and entirely relevant as Kharis in Romford started in the town centre based on powerful street preaching that appeals to teenagers with time on their hands.
This is Kharis’ expertise and we wish them and all your families well.
Kind regards,
The Elders of Western Road Romford URC
We certainly agree that Kharis has been a true blessing to the young people of Romford and it is especially impressive how much their mission has grown in such a relatively short time.
Please don’t think of it as a negative thing that having grown so much, Kharis are now called to move on. This is just the next phase of the spirit driven process that started when they became too big for the Costa Coffee Café with 20 people and we were proud to help by providing our Lower Worship Room that had space for twice that number.
They very soon became too large for even that space so we relocated them to our own worship space – The Sanctuary which has space for 150. The Kharis leadership initially thought that this was too formal a space for their style, but they settled in and continued to grow. However at 250 members they are now at least a hundred people more than we can safely fit into our building, plus the sheer numbers and volume of enthusiastic worship is proving to be a major distraction to other users of the building and our neighbours.
Many of our groups meet for quiet time while others such as Alcoholics Anonymous and the Women’s Refuge meet to ease life problems. Our neighbours in the surrounding flats and houses just want to enjoy a relaxing time at home and get their young children to bed, and we have received several complaints from them one stating that their children are scared by the Tuesday evening noise. These are difficult to ignore.
We feel that Kharis are now ready for that next step guided by the Holy Spirit to move into larger premises creating their own Church building where they can more readily attend to the needs of their membership without constantly worrying about their impact on us. Romford Town Centre is full of vacant shop units that would be perfect and entirely relevant as Kharis in Romford started in the town centre based on powerful street preaching that appeals to teenagers with time on their hands.
This is Kharis’ expertise and we wish them and all your families well.
Kind regards,
The Elders of Western Road Romford URC