Christians Together Calderdale has just celebrated its fifth Love Calderdale event bringing a free Pentecost party and the Good News of Jesus Christ to the people of Halifax and beyond.
Cath Binns, one of its trustees, describes what Love Calderdale is all about:
"Five years ago, God began stirring a vision within a few hearts in Calderdale. This vision encompassed churches working in unity to serve and bless their local community, demonstrating God’s love in very practical, fun ways. Cath Binns, Linda Maslen and Dave Fawcett (co-founders of the Fresh Expression church “Saturday Gathering”) shared with each other the different parts of the vision given to them by God and subsequently established Love Calderdale.
At Pentecost, Love Calderdale is situated in the centre of Halifax, and provides activities such as donkey rides, face painting, fairground games, food and mocktails, bands, dancers, choirs, clothing & book giveaways, prayer ministry, healing ministry, arts&crafts, Busoasis, youth ministry and much more. Typically the festivities end with baptisms and a time of worship celebrating God’s extravagant love and faithfulness.
One of the core values of Love Calderdale is that everything is completely free to those who attend, with no agenda other than to show God’s boundless, unconditional love to all. This often surprises people and provokes interesting conversations and opportunities to describe God’s generosity to us all.
The Halifax based charity Christians Together Calderdale, of which Linda, Dave and Cath are trustees, hosts Love Calderdale. Part of their mission is to help facilitate an increasing unity across churches and Christian organisations within Calderdale. Love Calderdale sees many of these churches, from different denominations, working together to serve their town during this event – each running different parts of the festivities. Similarly, Calderdale Council are always extremely supportive and offer help to ensure the event is as productive and enjoyable as possible.
Since 2011, thousands of people have encountered the kindness of God through this event – one year an official count totalled 10,000 attendees.
From three small pieces of one vision, something very beautiful has grown, simply by the Christians of Calderdale stepping out of their comfort zones into the unknown, trusting in God’s unswerving faithfulness and power, putting any denominational differences aside and being fuelled by a tenacious determination to demonstrate the outrageous love of God to the world.
Christians Together Calderdale is both a charity and a registered company. Probably best known for the 'Food and Support Drop-In' and Saturday Gathering, the charity now has a number of ministries.
Find out more here: http://christianstogether.org.uk