Pastoral Visitation in Leeds, United Kingdom

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Voiceover: Leeds, a city in West Yorkshire, England. It is here, on June 23, 2019, the Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church Of Christ) dedicated a house of worship to God in a worship service officiated by the Executive Minister, Brother Eduardo V. Manalo.

This building, built in 1881, was once owned by the Methodist Church, but because of the decline in membership, it was sold and eventually purchased by the Church Of Christ on April 28, 2015.

Stan Campbell (Contractor): Before, it was a derelict church: leaking roof, cracked on the structured walls. It just wanted a complete renovation.

Voiceover: The main sanctuary, with a seating capacity of 216, was completely refurbished, a new Johannus organ was installed, and the exterior was beautified.

Dan Bright (Local Resident): I think it’s absolutely fantastic. I mean, you can see the work that’s gone in from the outside. It’s great for the area. Obviously that the care that’s been taken with the church.

Christine Bewel (Local Resident): It’s really, really good. It’s really uplifting. There’s life coming back into this old building, and it really does look splendid.

Stephen Govier (Cheltenham, United Kingdom): There’s so many churches being purchased to be flats, pubs, and all sorts of things. To get one that we can purchase for the Church Of Christ and bring it back to what it should be used for, which is the true worship of God, that’s a blessing for everybody in the Church.

Peter Drozdz (Doncaster, United Kingdom): This is massive! It’s absolutely massive. We’ve been waiting three years for this chapel to be finished and dedicated. So it’s an absolutely wonderful day. We’ve been full of excitement in anticipation, in preparation, and to have our Executive Minister with us today has been an absolute joy.

Khris Arjun Salas (Leeds, United Kingdom): So much hard work has been put into it, so much dedication, so many prayers, and now to see it come to fruition, this is a really huge blessing. Not only from the Local Congregation of Leeds, but to all of us, really, in the district.

James Brassington (Manchester, United Kingdom): No matter what part of life you’re from, what race, what part of the country, there’s always going to be distractions, there’s always going to be things like persecutions, people trying to stop your faith. There’s so many temptations, and it’s right that having beautiful houses of worship like this – they give us that strength that we can come to these places when we have problems. We’re not going to have those distractions. We’re not going to take them. We’re going to come here, and we’re going to be strengthened in our faith.

Voiceover: Brother Eduardo V. Manalo taught from the Bible what God expects from His chosen servants.

Grace Lewis (Battersea, United Kingdom): To me, it’s the first thing that I think of everyday. It’s, “How can I honor my membership? How can I be a good and righteous member of the Church Of Christ?” And in today’s lesson, it really showed it to us.

Peter: There is nothing that will come in between ourselves and the worship service, absolutely nothing. I know the brethren have spoken about the sacrifices they have to make and the struggles they made, even sometimes to get here. But we do it. We continue. We maintain our faith through presenting ourselves here before God. We’ll continue to do that. Nothing will stand in our way. We are truly edified.

Dan: I hope this will be a church where people want to come, they want to worship. I’m sure the church will be active in the community.

Peter: Now our goal is to open ourselves very much to the community, and this community will grow. This will be the real focus. We’ll invite people in. We want people to know who we are. We’re proud to be members. We very much want the community to come into us, so that it can fill our place of worship, and feel that ours is the rightful way to give worship to our most glorious God.