PAST and present parishioners of a Penarth church have been invited to a 60th anniversary celebration weekend next month.

Elfed Avenue United Church is set to hold a reunion weekend that will feature an exhibition of archived materials from the church’s history, a reunion supper and a special anniversary celebratory service.

St David’s Presbyterian Church was formed in 1954 and joined forced with Christ Church, which was based in the centre of Penarth, in 1984, and from that day until now it has been known as Elfed Avenue United Church.

A church hall was subsequently built in 1985, with both buildings now used for a wide variety of local group meetings and children’s parties, as well as a busy church life and Sunday/midweek service

Minister Sue Fender has been in the role for the last four years after the previous Reverend David Fox went missing during a walking holiday in Slovenia in 2008.

She said that the church had always been community focused and they were hoping past and present members of the congregation would attend the reunion weekend.

“We want it to be very much not just about the current worshipping congregation, but everyone that has been part of its history,” she said.

“We want to celebrate the church’s 60th anniversary with as many people with connections to the church as possible.

“We want to make this a real lively celebration occasion.

“It’s always been a community focused church that reaches out to the people that live around it, whether they are old or young.”

She added that the church had always been designed to be a community building that was open to all.

“Right from the start it didn’t have pews, it had chairs instead, so it made it a multi-functional building,” she said.

The building caters for a variety of groups for both the young and old, with only one spare afternoon a week.

For the younger generation there are the likes of Cafe Church, Messy Church and Kids Club, while for the senior’s there are also monthly lunches, coffee mornings, a fortnightly ladies group and, more recently, a senior’s club run by the community outreach worker, Rachel Kjellstadli, attached to the church.

Mrs Fender has painstakingly researched into the history of the church, going through old copies of the Penarth Times stored on microfilm in Penarth Library, and has printed out copies of the local paper as part of an exhibition.

Articles include the formation of the church, the Sunday School becoming so popular they had to initially turn children away, and photos of the founding members of the church.

“It covers all the work that has been done here for the last 60 years right up until today.

“One of the things that amused me was that from the minutes of a meeting from 1979 there were complaints that the church organ was on its last legs, and in 2014 its still on its last legs and we are still complaining about it now!”

The exhibition will be held on Saturday, October 11, from 10am until 5pm at Elfed Avenue United Church, followed by a reunion supper at 6pm.

Please contact the church office on 02920 700611 to reserve your place for the supper.

Past and present friends are invited. A 60th anniversary celebratory service will be held at 10.30am on Sunday, October 12, at the church. Everyone is welcome to attend.