A hundred and ninety years of faith, family and community has been celebrated at St Stephen's Church, Lindley with the creation of a video. 
The church in Huddersfield marked this special anniversary initially with a physical gathering in September 2020, attended by the Bishop of Huddersfield, Jonathan Gibbs (pictured below).
Unfortunately, lockdown restrictions meant only a very limited number could attend. Therefore, members of the congregation decided to get creative and bring the whole community together digitally.
At the start St Stephen's aimed to collect 190 photographs of 190 members of their church, including young, old, past and present. Each was asked to hold up a word expressing what St Stephen's means to them. In the end a grand total of 250 images were received.
Kate Chamberlain, PCC members at St Stephen's, said, "It was a delight to chat and connect with people to arrange photographs. It was amazing how many different words people came up with, from Christianity to candlelight to cake, we embraced all aspects of church life."
Charlie Smith, who leads the Junior Church team and had the task of collating and producing the video, said, "It was quite a project, but a lovely way of uniting people who are otherwise having to stay apart. And it turns out by happy coincidence, that the accompanying music - Joy to the World - is thought to have been written in 1830, the year the church was built!"
St Stephen's are hoping that the video will spur people on to raise money for their urgent roof repairs.
Members of the congregation are now setting themselves their own sponsored 190 challenges - such as 190 cakes, pressups or 10k runs - so that the church building will be fit for worship for many years to come.
All donations are welcome and can be made their our JustGiving page: 190 CHALLENGE 2020/2021 - Faith Family and Community
The 190 years video can be also be viewed here on YouTube.